Keith Broni, photo source: Today Translations.
I had been in regular correspondence with her for quite some time without any communication gap. Her English was flawless without any grammatical or punctuation errors, a virtue which I always admire. However, one day there was an unusual error — she ended the sentence with a colon and closed it with a parenthesis. As I could not locate the opening bracket, I concluded that she had deleted a part of the sentence by mistake. Continue reading
I am writing to you after a long gap. A sudden unanticipated inflow of work kept me occupied for the last two weeks. Such unexpected change in work schedule is part of scientific research. The work is not yet finished, but now I am getting used to the extra work. It also means that a lot of routine work has piled up — cleaning, organizing, refreshing social contacts, and yes, getting updated with what is going on in the world. So I sat down and browsed through the large pile of newspapers looking for anything interesting that I might have missed. Continue reading
Liron Lavi Turkenich and her script Aravrit. Photo source: typotalks.com.
Which is the biggest problem that you face when traveling to a different city? A problem that you mostly take for granted, but are confronted with as soon as you set your foot on that land? It is language. You don’t have to go that far as China or Russia to appreciate the enormity of this problem. In fact, even within our own country, we face this problem on a routine basis.
Strangely, we give more importance to food and wonder ‘what would we eat there?’ And we pack sattu, khakhara, Maggi, even hot plate for emergency survival purpose. On the other hand, not for a moment do we pay any attention to the language barrier that is eagerly waiting for us. We brush aside all concerns with a ‘Oh, don’t worry, we’d manage’. Continue reading
I consider myself fortunate to be born and brought up in the yoga capital of the world — Rishikesh, U.P., now in Uttarakhand — and having spent first 26 years of my life at that beautiful place. In fact, whatever you see in me, whether good or bad, belongs to Rishikesh. Of course, Ahmedabad and Kanpur did provide their valuable contribution in providing further knowledge and experiences, and also honed up my skills. For example, though I had been playing harmonica, performing yoga and making paintings ever since my childhood, it was only in Ahmedabad that I took formal lessons in harmonica, joined yoga classes (ironically!), learnt Bengali and Gujarati from my colleagues and started learning Russian. Living in Ahmedabad was the first time I had lived outside the Hindi culture. At Kanpur, I learnt German and French. However, it was only in Rishikesh that the initial impetus was provided and the spark to pursue lifelong learning was ignited. Continue reading
From email to social media to WhatsApp, technology-driven social communication has come a long way and that too in less than three decades. And it is further bound to grow and transform itself. Not only there is transformation in this mode of communication itself, but the basic characteristics of human relationship and communication has also changed. Continue reading
Every time I go to the book store, my eyes fall on one particular book. I don’t know what that book is about as I have never opened it. However, I like the title of that book, which probably summarizes its message — Don’t Say Yes, When You Want To Say No (by Herbert Fensterheim and Jean Baer). That is a very strong and direct message, and mostly that is the advice most of us require most of the time. In fact, I would say that most of the miseries in our lives are due to the inability to say ‘no‘, though that is the answer we would like to give. Continue reading
Vijay Arora as Meghanad in TV serial Ramayan. Photo source: YouTube.
Repeatedly portraying a particular type of character in several movies brings a new and complete identity for the actor, who may find it extremely difficult to break the image. One may argue that how could an audience be carried away and not be able to distinguish between real and reel life. Still, we known that it happens, and defies all logic. And it is apparent mainly in the portrayal of the negative character. Continue reading
When at home, I used to lie on the terrace at night and look at the stars, plenty of stars. Light breeze from all directions stroked my cheeks, played with my hair. Oh! What a wonderful feeling! . . . a sense of expanse, no barriers, no constraints. Continue reading
Friends,
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Thanks
Amit
Leva (left) saved his colleague Lui from the wrath of a customer by posing as the head chef. Photo source: YouTube.
Kukhnya (Kitchen) is a Russian comedy serial, which depicts the life of a group of people working in a Moscow restaurant. In one of the episodes, a customer got furious over a badly prepared dish and started scolding Lui, the chef who had prepared it. All the restaurant staff were scared and nervous. At that time the head chef was heavily drunk and sleeping in his room. Suddenly, one of the chefs Leva went into the head chef’s office, put on his coat with the badge, and came to that table. Continue reading
Pradyot 