Our Funarena!

We felt tired and hungry that evening after going through a veritable shopping spree in an upmarket area of the big city. Of course, we did not shop in the cool and expansive showrooms. We moved on, standing all the time, from vendor to vendor sprawled as usual along the pavement doing brisk business. Add to that our tedious journey by a city bus before that. Now, another bus journey where a seat was never guaranteed back home staring at us, we definitely would not have liked to undertake it, starving mad.   It was not in our planning to have tea and snacks as most of the restaurants where you could sit and eat in comfort were very expensive. However, in earnest consultation with my wife, we finally decided to respect the signals blipping constantly in the bellies.   We entered one airconditioned and posh restaurant and took a side table along the glass paneled wall, rewarding us with a nice view outside. The waiters were in uniform. One elderly waiter came up to us smiling. We

Rantu and Mantu have been tremendous friends for years, working together in a production house. They meet five days a week in office, chatting merrily, discussing politics or cinema or books apart from their respective work duties. Santu, the third friend in this rather closed-circuit gang often joins the discussions. All the three friends have been very creative in their respective fields of work. At least on one of the Saturdays or Sundays either Mantu or Santu or both inevitably visit Rantu’s residence for lunch and Rantu’s wife always manages with exemplary patience and presence of mind to not show her irritation or something like that and prepares dishes as per the preferences of Mantu and Santu together or separately that implies preparing separate dishes. Rantu takes it all in the spirit of friendship and thinks that his wife too likes the consistently cheerful weekly meetings.   However, Rantu is never known to be a fool or a taken-for-granted person. He has an analytical m

About two months into the total national lockdown in India my stock of various things including that of my favorite shaving gel had been dwindling fast, and at some stage I had no option but to apply the razor on my foamless facial surface that needed to be shaved. That these products were termed ‘non-essentials’ gave me some solace in terms of continuing my existence without any of these. In particular, the daily shaving act for which I reasoned “who on earth is likely to behold my unshaven face with chaotic strings of beard if I don’t shave daily, because when I go out my face is fully masked and if some guest of the most ‘essential’ kind does turn up we again get fully masked accost him/her!” however, I felt my wife would be nastily offended if I went on showing my ugly face for days following the continuous ‘stay-home’ phenomenon; and therefore, I began my search for any of the shaving creams or gels, not caring about my preferences.   During that period only the ‘essential’ shops/

The India Authors’ Conference and Awards-2021, a great initiative by the Navi Mumbai Chamber of Business and Industry (NMCBI) in collaboration with Great Human University, was held in Vashi, Navi Mumbai on 30 th November 2021, giving away the Awards to writers/authors/bloggers/poets in a range of categories. The full-day function was a dignified affair with the anchor Yesudas coming up with some humorous interludes at various stages to involve, entertain and enthuse the writers present there. The event was also available online for those who could not be physically present. All the Award winners and even the nominees were invited on stage to be felicitated—the winners getting an Oscar-like trophy and a certificate while the nominees were given a certificate of nomination along with a token gift—and to speak their minds. The Awards were presented by the Chairman of NMCBI, Dr. Dhirendra Gautam Mishra who has also been an author/researcher.  This writer was present on this significant oc

It had been a lucky trend for Raju’s family that their relations with the landlords had always been friendly and healthy. Since Raju’s father, the head of the family, had a transferable job they had to move from towns to towns every two or three years, and as usual, his father looked for a rented house ideally suited for his family and that the landlord was also to his liking. Most of his selections served their purpose—locations often in central places, close to the market and to the schools/colleges/libraries, and almost in all cases the landlord’s family and even their relatives had become very close to Raju’s family.   This story is set in the mid-seventies when Raju’s father got a repeat transfer to a small town where they still entertained fond memories of the previous stay in a most friendly neighborhood. This time though, they could not settle for the same rented house so loved by Raju and his siblings and had to fix a small house in the market area. A narrow gravel lane br

I remember taking my father, most probably in 1989, to his pension issuing bank branch thinking that he must have had some banking business to do. Arriving at the branch we entered the chamber of the bank manager whom my father knew well. After the customary ‘hi, Hellos’ there followed a casual chat, and then we left. I was curious as I saw none of the usual withdrawals or deposits or anything of the banking sort done there. So, I asked my father what was the purpose of the visit to which my father, with an ironic smile, said that he had to ‘show his face’ to the bank proving that he was still alive and kicking. Yes, every retiring or superannuating person from central or state governments or any other government organizations in India (I’m not aware of procedures followed in other countries) have to ‘show his/her fact’ to the issuing bank in the month of November every year mandatorily so that his/her pension is not interrupted. This is called Life Certificate to guarantee the continu

The instinct of greed is perhaps as ancient as the Homo sapiens. In fact, greed characterizes this species exclusively in terms of recognizing it as it is, because the animals act or react instinctively to hunger or lust or anything without having the power to decipher this as ‘greed’, and if it were possible we’d have seen numerous rivalries, bursts of envy, uprisings and power struggles in the animal world too. Greed is a simple five-letter word, even shorter in some regional languages; but it encompasses countless fields of activity, not just limited to the food varieties and culinary delights. Greed  for money has been historically significant, demonstrated in all ages down to specifically the modern civilization.   It influences human beings in their relationships both in families and workplaces leading to a sense of competitiveness and envy; it influences human being in the basic man-woman relationships leading to subtle or obtuse expressions of lust which actually emanates f

One more biopic on the life of the Indian revolutionary freedom fighter Shaheed Udham Singh, Sardar Udham , which differs refreshingly from the other biopics, perhaps three movies already made over the decades, in terms of narration and storytelling. The film is directed by Shoojit Sircar (or Sarkar), an Indian filmmaker very well known for several movies, particularly the lovely and critically acclaimed Vicky Donor (2012), Piku (2015) and Pink (2016).  The film was slated for theatrical release on the day of Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, 2020, but had to be postponed indefinitely due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, Amazon bought the distribution rights and premiered it on Prime Video on 16 th October, 2021. Over the last few days the movie has earned tremendous appreciation from the viewers, and of course mixed reviews. The fact of the audience lapping up the movie is a very healthy trend, because it is made without the present-day loud patriotism with dramatized high-sound

The calls started coming since more than year before my superannuation offering me part-time employment with a monthly salary. I was, naturally, elated getting job offers even before my retirement. The executives always told me I’d have to attend office only 3-4 days a week for only 4-5 hours a day in a managerial capacity, and my job would be to manage a team of young guys. It sounded good, but I told them that with my present employment I cannot have another job or income and so they’ll have to contact me after my retirement. As the month of superannuation neared the calls multiplied including calls from different other companies. I was a little surprised that most of the times the calls were from private life insurance companies—the Kotak Life Insurance (KLI) being the most consistent one. This fact put me a bit off, because I’d been having some kind of loathing all my life for life insurance companies from which you stand to benefit only after you die. However, that was not the cas