Subah se shaam taq bojh dhota hua ; Apni hi laash ka khud mazaar aadmi
Originally posted on 31 Oct 2011 : Over the years I have seen a lot of people spend their precious lives in quest of earning money, so that they could build sprawling mansions and drive in luxury cars. Of the many who got into this rat race, a few succeeded. But at the end of the day, they found that …
LIGHTNING AT THE NDA
Originally posted on 6 July 2010 : Our nephew, Maj Aman Brar who is doing his Staff College in Paris, has sent in a special request. He wants to see that NDA picture of lightning which we took fifty years ago. Well, here it is. I have scanned it and edited it. If you have a picture manager (which I …
MORE DEADLY THAN SUICIDE BOMBERS
The attached link has come to me from several sources. It is a five minute interview with a Jehadi suicide bomber who is determined to carry out his mission. The interview is in Urdu, but the clip has English sub-titles. The extent to which he has been brain-washed borders on hypnotism.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD-Nny3EP98 (You must be above 18 to view this …
IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY
When I was a child I disliked old persons. They repeated what they had said before a hundred times, and expected us to listen to them with rapt attention. Those days we had gramophones, and if the disc got worn out the ‘needle’ used to get stuck in a groove, and played the same line over and over until some …
Electricity in the Golden Temple : “Guru Bhakta or Bijli Bhakta?”
Originally posted on 16 Oct 2010 : On the birth anniversary of Shri Guru Ramdas ji, who founded the city of Amritsar and designed the Golden Temple, there was a befitting function in Amritsar last week. A few pictures of the temple as it looks at night are attached. As I sat through the telecast, my mind’s eye went back …
BEHIND EVERY SCAM, THERE IS AN UNPUNISHED BUREAUCRAT
Originally posted on 22 Nov 2011 : Scams have become as common as bank robberies a few decades ago. We are beginning to get used to them. The only difference is in the magnitude of the money involved. The latest figure is so mind boggling that most of us are not even able to comprehend the kind of impact it …
FROM STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHS TO CINEMATOGRAPHY
Originally posted on 6 July 2010 : At a birthday party last week, I saw a six year old girl taking pictures. The results were immediately available and what I saw left me impressed. The photographs were as good as any which I have seen. My mind’s eye went back to the time when I was at the Academy, and …
A BATTLE WITH AN INVISIBLE ENEMY
This piece is NOT about insurgents or terrorists. It concerns a threat which all of us face wherever we live. It is a curse of the modern civilization in which we sleep indoors all through the year. My research began a few weeks ago, when I was plagued by a severe attack of allergies. Each night, a rash appeared on …
‘Fastocracy’ ; ‘fastocrat’ and ‘fastic’
Originally posted in Aug 2011 : The ‘Anna phenomenon’ compels us to coin a few words and add them to the lexicon. The word ‘fast’ has to be joined with ‘-cracy’ ; ‘-crat’ and ‘-ic’ to create ‘fastocracy’ ; ‘fastocrat’ and ‘fastic’ to get the equivalents of ‘democracy’; ‘democrat’ ; and ‘democratic’ A one-liner crafted by Winston Churchill seventy …
Youth fades away ; but friendships are life-long...
Originally posted on 10 Oct 2010 : Last week when Ms Talat Zamir rang up to say that she would be visiting Chandigarh, we invited her to stay with us. We were neighbors in 1969-71 in secunderabad and have shared some very happy moments, but it is quite some time since we met her. To revive old memories, we thumbed …
