On A Loose End

It was broad daylight. Now on the pavement, I was calling out to my friend's son in the crowd. I couldn't see him anywhere. Neither could my son, who was standing next to me, throw any light on it. If losing your son or daughter is not enough, losing someone else's is a nightmare. With my son's hand in mine I started moving through the crowd calling out to the other boy. Then I saw him, through the moving crowd across the road about eighty meters from where I was. Two men were walking along with him one of them pulling, almost dragging him along. "Stay right here," I shouted at my son and ran towards the men with my friend's boy. By the time I reached the spot the two guys had gotten into the car and the car had started moving. I chased the car as hard as I could, weaving my way through the traffic. The car was much faster. It took a left up ahead. I knew the area and stepped into a by-lane with the intention of cutting off the car. I came out on the main ...

Every time there is an election in India, there is a lot of speculation and anxiety amidst the media and the of course the politicians about the voter turnout. This time there was more concern and expectations in view of the Mumbai attacks last year. However the first phase of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections kicked off yesterday with the same old story. Ultimately a voter turnout between 58 - 62% was recorded. At the very outset of democracy in India, 45% voters turned up in 1952 which increased to 48% in 1957 and then 55% in 1962. Thereafter the voter turnout has hovered between 55-65%. Indian electorate i.e. the eligible voters above the age of 18, is 714 million. So a 60% turnout actually means that 285 million people do not vote and surprisingly no one is concerned. The 40% people who do not participate in the electoral process are not lazy or incapable of walking to the nearest polling booth, but are people who have lost faith in the system. They are either not happy with the candida...

I was lying on my bed staring at nothing, wondering about the vagaries of the world. Very soon a movement in the emptiness in front of me shook me out of the reverie. It was a mosquito which had flown into my sacred airspace. Now it was still, hanging in mid air. No movement at all. Many thoughts crossed my mind. First I thought, maybe it was not a mosquito and that I had discovered a new species of spiders, which looked like mosquitoes. I strained my eyes to look for a tell tale piece of gossamer by which it was probably hanging. Couldn't see anything. Then I thought it was a mosquito with an identity crisis and then that maybe I was dreaming. Normally a stationary mosquito is an inviting prospect to clap your hands. But this one intrigued me and I waited for it to make a move as it probably contemplated which part of my anatomy to feast on. "Well, aren't you going to do something?" I heard. That was it I was surely dreaming, I thought, a mosquito with spidery habits...

Many a times in life one gets into a situation where he / she realizes that he / she is utterly helpless and there is nothing that can be done except wait, wait for something to happen or wait for something to stop happening, wait for a twist of fate, wait for a divine intervention, wait for a miracle. Where do you go when, in an open field it starts raining? How do you see, on a dark night, light at the end of the tunnel? How far can you swim in the middle of the ocean? How do you fight with both arms tied behind your back? Who do you think will stop when you are going down? Whose hand do you hold when everyone’s gone? How long do you hope after you have been pushed off a steep cliff? How do you pick yourself up, on you, the burden of entire world? How do you smile when your heart is full of sorrow? What do you do when the one you love, loves someone else? How long do you wait, indeed, Waiting for a Miracle?

Recently we, my family, in a never ending quest to make the idiot box less idiotic, decided to upgrade our TV. We had already reached the humongous size 29” in the conventional series and knew it was time to embrace newer technology. Over the years, as with all the other families, the TV size was growing and the room size getting smaller. LCD or Plasma TVs seemed to fit the requirement of the shrinking room size without being too intrusive in the already limited space. Just like the last time when I had to buy Potatoes for the house, I started research on the Internet and guess what, learning how to buy potatoes was much simpler than how to buy an LCD TV, though equally nerve racking. After spending a lot of time on the Internet one thing was clear that it was the cost which was going to decide which brand, and which size I was going to buy, even though I knew that, that would be the last thing I was going to let others on.. So I went on to one of those huge swanky looking Electronics ...