January 1, 2021
Happy New Year 2021
2020 thy name is disaster
Lucky you became past
We wish you no future
As our hopes are vast
2021 thy name is miracle
Tricky though the present
As the positives from Oracle
Seemed to be God’s assent
Happy New Year 2021
August 9, 2020
Marriage & Love
In general, man and woman need each other’s company. Marriage is one of the best ways for such companionship. Choices may be by traditional arrangement or tradition-breaking love. Both ways, one may have to face problems, sometimes serious enough to even breaking the marriage. The difference – problems could be one, and just one, less in the case of traditional marriage.
Young enthusiasts – please note!
March 25, 2020
The Spirit of Spit
Flat Forum would like to share this ‘pun’ny article quite relevant in the Indian context:
Spit it out
Coronavirus or no coronavirus, there’s one habit many Indians refuse to give up
Jug SuraiyaTwo Indian men, Thooka and Thooki, engaged in animated conversation about a new rule being enforced in Kerala and Maharashtra, and which could soon apply in other states as well.
Thooka: I tell you, because of this wretched coronavirus this country is becoming like a dictatorship.
Thooka: I didn’t. And as other states come up with similar rules, the cost of spit and spitting is going to go higher and higher. And all because some say that spitting spreads diseases.
Thooki: Nonsense. Everyone knows that far from being a disease carrier, spit is a healing agent. When as kids we fell down and scraped our knees and elbows didn’t our moms tell us to put spit on them so they wouldn’t get infected?
Thooka: They did indeed. And for all anyone knows, spit could be the secret cure for coronavirus everyone’s looking for. So instead of fining us spitters for spitting, the sarkar should rewardus for performing a public service. Besides which, isn’t the right to spit a constitutional right? What was it that one of our great freedom fighters said? Spitting is my birthright, and I shall have it.
Thooki: Actually, I think what he said was ‘S waraj is my birthright, and I shall have it.’ Thooka: Swaraj, spitting, same thing. If we don’t have the freedom to spit as and when we like in our own country what was the point of winning Independence from the Brits?
Thooki: Well said. So to assert our Independence from foreign rule shall we do one thook-shook?
Thooka: But mightn’t we get fined?
Thooki: Don’t worry. I’ve already deposited an advance fine of Rs 10,000 with the authorities. So together now …
Thooki and Thooka (together): Acck, thooo….!
secondopinion@timesgroup.com blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi
Carona Virus and the Generation Gap
Here is a very relevant and beautiful article on the title subject, which should be read by present and older generations:
Fighting with my father
Because he wants to go out and buy chicken with Covid-19 in the air
Arnab Ray I had a fight with my father over the phone. Now this by itself is not unique, my father disapproves of much of what i do, but in this case what made it special was that it was me disapproving of something he was planning to do. Which was to go out and buy chicken with Covid-19 in the air.Now it’s not that i don’t understand my father. Or his generation. This is a group of people who have internalised a different notion of risk acceptance. The world they lived in forced them to tolerate a high level of risk, you had to ride a speeding bus by balancing on the edge of the last stair, holding sweatily onto a rod with your nose nestling in some stranger’s armpit, it was either this or not going to work. They let us play cricket on the streets with cars rolling by, they didn’t call to find out where we were every few minutes, because we had no mobile phones, and landlines didn’t work much anyway.
Public outreach is not going to change this mental model of risk. Any janata curfew will ultimately be broken, because people of a certain age, paradoxically the one that is most at risk, aren’t going to take it seriously. Add to it WhatsApp conspiracy theories which thrive on confirmation bias and so-and-so said this-and-that, and what we have is a ticking time bomb whose clock is now just a tick before blastoff.
The only way out is conversation. Talk to your elders. Give them the “or Gabbar Singh will take you away” conversation they once gave you. Use every emotional atyachaar trick you know works on them, accept you are over-reacting (don’t get into that futile science argument) but still insist they stay home. Because ultimately what will make them stay at home safe won’t be headlines or the PM or mathematical models from WHO. It will be you.
January 1, 2020
HAPPY 2020!
We Love India
It Means We Love All Indian People
It Means We Love the Leaders Elected By Indian People
We Know That Love Is Synonymous With Respect & Respect Is Reflected More Through Language
We Hope That Our Leaders – Irrespective Of Their Caste, Creed And Party – Really Love India
Hence the Greetings