Kallola

Sunday Herald. Deccan Herald. April 24, 2011, Cover Story.   http://www.deccanherald.com/content/156070/till-death-do-us-part.html “What was your reason to get me married?”, I probed my mother as I started work on this article. While she took her moment to frame an acceptable answer, my all-knowing all-of-nine, bounded to my lap and held my face tightly in his palms. With his characteristic, infectious smile he declared, “To have ME! Simple, silly!” Kisses flew around the room. My son had, in one spontaneous moment, uttered the ultimate truth behind all creation. For a country like India, this is the perfect endorsement for family – one that has always worked. S o when this idyllic situation witnesses trends that are totally opposed to its ethos, the jolt is hard because while the ideology that is India prospers as a nation, something is going horribly wrong at the very core of its society. There was a time in all societies, all over the world, when things were quite s...

Deccan Herald. Sunday, March 22, 2009. Edited as : Turning over a neem leaf http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar222009/sundayherald20090320125295.asp In a reversal of roles, the hunter becomes the hunted and clambers up a leafy tree to escape the tiger. Night falls and the tree remains his sole refuge. Fearful and hungry, his restive fingers incessantly pluck leaves off the branches, dropping them below. By day break, the tiger is clearly out of range, so the hunter lowers himself to the ground and spots a heap that the leaves he had been dropping through the night, had made. He also spots that the tree that gave him shelter was a Bilwa tree and the heap of leaves had made a mound on a Shivalinga . Instead of foolishly defying the animal or running aimlessly in sight of it, he trusted his instinct and gained succor of a tree that shaded him from danger. His adversary at bay, he walked into freedom. Little did he realize, then, that his hunting days were over, and not just instinct,...

Deccan Herald. Sunday, March 15, 2009 (ref: Full circle ) http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar152009/artic20090314124029.asp A love-struck adolescent dished out 45 rupees for a single stalk of red rose. There were more in line for larger numbers and even gallant bouquets. Some others hovered ever so romantically about their belles while I simply watched with a smile in my heart. Inadvertently, though, I was also darting my eyes around protectively, just in case there was a vile party pooper, eagerly waiting for his hapless victims to make the first mistake. To my relief, even the black cat decided against crossing the road and walked tamely along the pavement. What I also saw was an undeniable fear relegated to an external cache, certainly not accessible for that day. In another part of the city, the Aero India show zipped ahead. The crowds on the ground thronged with a gusto overwhelming enough to match the daredevilry of fighter pilots manouvering their supersonic toys through ...

Deccan Herald. Sunday, December 14, 2008. The heavens reached out to us the other night. Jupiter and Venus shone bright-eyed side by side and the moon, in resplendent splendour, smiled joyously upon us. While a dear friend (among a host of others, I now gather) was fortunate to witness this celestial merriment, I, courtesy cloudy intent, had to make do with a journalist’s report in the next day’s newspaper. The picture alongside, of the unmistakable smiley against the dark sky, was breathtaking. Galactic businesses aside, we have always believed heavenly bodies to be personal scribes of our individual destinies on Earth. So whose destiny were the heavens condoning on the night of the second of December? And what need could be so great as to bring about a planetary repositioning that manifested a message such that all the addressee had to do was look up and receive? And if this hallowed recipient is techno-savvy, then this message would have been interpreted without any error, whatever ...