Our Funarena!

He is of light medium build with specks of beard littering his round face and a balding head. He has a soft but monotonously lingering way of talking and is often not able or rather willing to concentrate on his work for more than say ten minutes; however, he, in his late fifties, doesn't offend his clients easily and manages to sail through on most occasions. Gunesh is a DTP operator with specialization in the vernacular languages which makes him stay in good demand. He works from his home that is dominated by his proactive better half. And this particular fact of his life does cause quite a bit of inconvenience to his clients. We have some information about a lady who's been suffering because of Gunesh's homely habits that include running off on a daily basis on various errands and desires of his wife even as clients who'd struggled hard to get the appoinments sit on in his homely chamber.  By some quirk of fate the said lady who stays in a far-off city from Gunesh

The FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) World Cup-2022, the quadrennial international football tournament, is set to begin from Sunday, 20 November till Sunday, 18 December in Qatar. The much-awaited event, coincidentally the 22nd version on 2022, has several other features: the first time ever it's being held in the Arab world or in the Middle East; the first time it's being organized during the northern autumn season (winter in India) instead of the usual summer months of May, June and July, and this decision was taken considering the intense heat conditions in Qatar during the summer; the FIFA World Cup event returns to Asia after 20 years and only the second time it's being hosted entirely in Asia; and it is the last tournament to be held with 32 teams, the decision finalized in 2017 to expand it to 48 teams from FIFA-2026 to be hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico. The inaugural match will be between host Qatar and Equador at 9.30 PM IST on 20 November

After being crowned with the ODI World Champions title in 2019 England today has completed the global white-ball supremacy by defeating Pakistan by 5 wickets in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Final in Melbourne. Pakistan has almost done an India just managing to post a meagre target of 138 and consuming 15 overs to score 100 runs after being put into bat by England like in the semi-final against India; but the target came to be even less than India's 169 thanks to Hardik Pandya. However, their famous pace bowlers gave England a hard time and but for the resurgent Shaheen Afridi's injury who was unable to fully bowl the last two overs of his quota the match could've gone down the wire at the death.  Like India, Pakistan openers failed once again to build the momentum and other Pak batsmen stumbled along, scoring a pitiful 18 runs in the last four death overs. But again, unlike India, they attacked England batsmen from the first over putting up two slips and not at all askin

For anything bad that happens to us we tend, almost reflexively, to blame others for that. However, for all the good things that also happen to us we gratefully take the full credits, unable or mostly unwilling to appreciate the possible role of others in that. For example, when I slip on a wet spot of the tiled floor I reflexively thank God and my protecting angels for preventing a fall that could've been serious, if I am of the appreciating type. But someone of the blaming type would instantly burst into a furious verbal spree, blaming the carelessness of someone spilling water on the floor and going even to the extent of alleging a conspiracy to kill him or her.  Some people are always in the search for a blameworthy person to pass on the blame for his/her concerned failures or mishaps. This is despite knowing for sure that the supposed failures or mishaps were creations of his/her own, entirely.  It's really unfortunate that most people spend whole of their lives blaming ot

Many years back I wrote a piece titled 'Populated Movies' that was later included in my first book ' Laugh and Let Laugh ' in 2017. In that piece I argued that since India is an overpopulated country with high unemployment rates the creative art forms do adjust to that reality by trying to generate maximum employment opportunities in their projects. For example the goons in a mainstream Hindi movie: whereas just one bullet through the head by one villain is enough to kill the hero or the protagonist, the chief antagonist or the main villain sends an army of goons armed with an assortment of weapons for the job. I argued that this is done with a view to generate more employment. But I was mistaken, and so I just want to admit this here.  My argument got almost fatally shot after I watched all the three movies of the 'John Wick Franchise' (2014 onward). I failed to keep count, but hundreds of hapless goons got killed in each of the movies at the hands of the '

Breakfast at the dining table. Two ladies are talking in a rapt engagement. They've finished breakfast and the teas, but perhaps the interesting subject of their conversation keeps them engaged still. The younger lady belongs to the host family while the elder lady happens to be a surprise guest. At this moment the younger lady is describing something animatedly. The elder lady listens resting her hands on the table and bending forward to the other lady. Suddenly, a tiny droplet of the younger lady's saliva shoots out and unfortunately, lands directly on the listening lady's right forearm. She, still in the act of listening, looks mournfully at the droplet, but is too courteous lest it draws the other lady's attention and make the whole innocuous happening unnecessarily embarassing. It is not at all known though if the talking lady notices it or misses it, she as innocent as the other lady.  There has to be a bit of squirming inside the affected lady's mind, obvious

My first thought was to write on the spoilsport rains, a bit discriminatory too, that are adversely impacting teams like South Africa, England, New Zealand etc of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Australia. But then got pulled back: what's the use? who are going to read it? Therefore just abandoned the idea and decided to have some fun--if not with you then definitely  with ourselves only. Don't worry! I am not going to bore you again with age-old lament of not having readers; instead I'll point out a positive thing about this site and will be very brief.  Well, in the last few weeks I've been noticing a surge of interest in the ancient posts of this blog and a healthy unabashed contempt for our newer pieces. Of course, if this surge is caused by genuine readers or bots or casual surfers or whatever is not at all known. In light of my consistently persistent experience I can tell you that the number of genuine readers for our site is less than or equal to ten

More than ninety thousand spectators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) watched spellbound as Virat Kohli scripted his most incredible innings ever to propel India to an incredible victory over archrivals Pakistan in their opening Group-2 match of the Super-12 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup today. India-Pakistan matches are always exciting, nail-biting and full of ups and downs. However, in my lifetime experience of watching Indo-Pak cricket today’s match is perhaps the most incredible one, considering the unbelievable climax. When most of Indian fans, including this writer prominently, were almost giving up on Virat Kohli, he has chosen today’s match to prove what champion matter he’s made of. He has made the impossible possible, snatching the most improbable victory from the jaws of sure defeat. No doubt, he has thus bettered the memories of Sachin Tendulkar against Australia in Sharjah. Well, Virat’s innings of 82 in 53 balls with 6 fours and 4 sixes is not without preceden

It is a historical fact that cricketers from the Eastern and the North Eastern regions of the country rarely make it as big as Sourav Ganguly and get to represent Team India at the international level. We’re yet to have a cricketer from the states of North East India who’s made it to Team India. Therefore, when some player achieves this feat people of that particular state or region get ecstatic and their euphoria normally gets translated into a range of sentiments and emotions—positive most of the times, but can be darker at moments of adversity that, according to their perceptions, seem to affect their loved cricketer. I remember quite a few instances while I had been to Kolkata and happened to listen to the radio commentary of India’s test or one-day matches out on the streets. Invariably a person would come up to me and ask what the score was. I would reply India was batting and the score was this or that. On almost a reflex emotion the person would want to know, “Is Ganguly still

Maharashtra Postal Circle has today organized ‘Business Meet-2022’ in Mumbai with a view to announce the Circle’s new initiatives to its bulk customers in providing logistic solutions for the speedy delivery of parcels and cargo services. This Meet is a part of the National Postal Week-2022 being celebrated from 9 th to 13 th October with various daily activities wherein October 12 has been marked as the ‘Mails and Parcel Day’. The highlight of this Business Meet has been the presentation of the new initiatives in the presence of India Post’s major stakeholders from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai as regards the parcels and cargo services.   Amitabh Singh, Postmaster General (Mails & Business Development), made the presentation regarding the new initiatives taken up by the Department of Posts and apprised the Customers of the planned Logistic Post and Express Cargo Service revamp.   During the interactive session that followed discussions were held for ensuring better and speedy d

The ‘Echoes of Earth’ festival is righteously taglined ‘India’s greenest music festival’, because while the festival allows you to enjoy the musical presentations of renowned artistes from across the globe it primarily aims at making you a responsible human being of Planet Earth always caring for Mother Nature. The Year 2022 marks the grand return of the Festival with its fifth version to its home turf after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. This year’s theme is centered around the ‘Circle of Life’ and the platform is set to showcase the spirit of five of India's most notable ecosystems through music, art, and stirring tales of how conservation and restoration have impacted people in the most healthy ways which are, in fact, the most urgent need of the hour in view of the looming climate change and global warming.   The festival is set to unfold at the Embassy Riding School, Bangalore, nestled amidst a sprawling green space of 180 acres. With inventive stages created from re

It’s always opined by knowledgeable folks that when a car is kept sitting in the garage for months its maintenance suffers—ranging from battery disorders to even rusting in the body—not to speak of the atrocities heaped upon the inactive object by the rats. This means that all humans of various professions and even lifeless objects need to do what they’re meant to do, on a regular basis. Else, maintenance issues emerge leading to breakdowns of various types and escalation in the expenses. Cricketers are much more prone to such inactivity disorders, because it follows naturally that the more they play the fitter they get. Thanks to the experiments-cum-rest syndrome adopted religiously by the cricket management of India these basic principles have not been followed. As one of the results, the crux of the Indian bowling attack, Jasprit Bumrah who had been on indefinite rest, is out of the ICC Cricket T20 World Cup-2022. Now, the entire Team India management is in a daze, unable to take th

Kolkata is fully back to its old-normal ways after two long painful years as West Bengal's biggest festival Durga Puja heats up. Pandal hopping is in full flow with thousands on a spree of ' Thakur Dekha' (how many Goddess idols have you seen?) almost since the start of Navaratri. Although Durga Puja rituals start only from Mahashasthi which starts today, technically for all here Goddess Durga descends on earth on Mahalaya, the last day of Pitru Paksha, that is the eve for the beginning of the bright lunar phase or Shukla Paksha . There are crowds thronging the major pandals, particularly from afternoon to late night every day, with their mobiles clicking non-stop, falling upon each other for a better view, the rush for the selfies in all available spaces, thronging all the eating joints to their fullest capacity and all the smiles. Celebration is the motif and soul of the festival. Married or unmarried couples of all ages who could be going through lots of strain and stre

It is a fact of life that we keep on getting celestial or divine messages from the invisible world—particularly during times when catastrophes/tragedies happening in or about to befall our family or locality or country and we might as well call these as intuition or premonition or telepathy or presentiment or the like. Most of the times we fail to decipher these in time; sometimes we understand but fail to act upon it and some other time we comprehend enough to prepare well for it. From at least three months prior to my father’s demise I had been having a very disturbing time—wanting desperately to go to him, be by his side; dreaming about him and at times having a hallucination of seeing him around. However, living quite far away from home, I failed to act upon it due to various external factors including a persistent financial strain. As was inevitable, he passed away one early morning and I could reach home only on the sixth day travelling for three days on an ordinary train as book

The tall, smart yet well-behaved and handsome young man did the job beautifully and had taken so much care of me during the process that I got gloated with gratitude and wanted to reward him in my humble way—meaning I wanted to tip him twenty bucks—even though I normally did not do such things in such places. I remembered I had a tenner in my shirt pocket and hoped I could get another one from the change I would get from the final payment.   I thanked him profusely, got up and proceeded to the counter as the young man took his position behind it. “How much?” I asked because it had been after a long time and in the fluid post-pandemic times prices shoot up anytime anywhere. He smiled and said, “The usual sir! Hundred and fifty rupees.”   I gave him a two-hundred note and hoped he’d give the required change. Unfortunately, he returned only a fifty-rupee note, sweetly and simply. ‘In the most typically tipping places the smart operators know how and in what denominations to give b