Ideas & Reflections

I went for a haircut the other day. Nothing ambitious, just the usual trim. Twenty minutes later, the barber held up the mirror, rotated my chair and asked in a warm, almost therapeutic voice, “Head massage, Sir?” I hesitated. He looked at me in the mirror and added, “You have been travelling a lot, Sir. Head is looking stressed.” I was not aware that a…

"Why do people say one, two, three before doing something?" I asked the Professor. He looked at me suspiciously. "What sort of something?" "Almost anything. Taking a photograph, lifting a heavy table, jumping into a swimming pool, starting a race." "Perhaps because going directly from thinking to doing is too abrupt." I had expected a joke. Instead, he had handed me the whole subject. We…

We often treat a song as though it were a finished object. We hear the studio recording, grow familiar with every pause, guitar phrase, a sitar masterpiece  and inflection of the singer’s voice, and gradually come to believe: this is the song. But is it? A studio recording is only one version. It has been arranged, rehearsed, engineered, mixed and finally frozen. It may be…

Something unusual is happening in Maharashtra. Restaurant kitchens are discovering corners they did not know existed. Cooking oil is no longer being treated as a perpetual asset. Expiry dates, once regarded as decorative information supplied by manufacturers, are suddenly being read with the seriousness normally reserved for property agreements. And somewhere in Mumbai, a cockroach has begun exploring interstate transfer opportunities. The Cockroach Janata Party…

There is something deeply ingrained in us about wanting to be first: first in class, first choice, first prize, first promotion. Gold has a shine that silver somehow does not, and even language favours the front position: the “leading” person, the “principal” artist, the “number one” institution. Yet much of life is lived in second place, and being second is not always the same as…

I have always been fascinated by superstitions, particularly by their ability to survive reason. A black cat crosses the road just as we are leaving for an important meeting and even the most rational among us notices. We say a project is going wonderfully well and instinctively look for something wooden to touch. We do not really believe these things matter. We are merely being…

How waste auditors may one day know your family better than your bank. There was a time when understanding a family required patience. You had to visit their home, meet the children, notice the books on the shelves, listen to the conversations over dinner and perhaps speak discreetly to the neighbours. This was inefficient. Today, all you may need is their garbage bin. My Professor…

God was getting worried. Not about wars, floods, climate change, artificial intelligence, or political speeches. He had seen humans manufacture confusion out of clarity for a long time. What worried Him now was more personal. His name was being used too frequently: on banners, billboards, television shows, healing camps, retreats, YouTube thumbnails, WhatsApp forwards, luxury ashrams, spiritual franchises,  tax-exempt trusts, and limited-edition shawls. God had…

The other morning, I had an unusual visitor. He did not arrive in a chauffeur-driven car, though he could certainly afford one. He did not come with accountants, auditors, investment advisers, or bankers. There was no ringing of bells, no shower of gold coins. He simply appeared in my study, seated comfortably, examining the pile of unpaid bills, pending proposals, half-written manuscripts, and unopened envelopes…

“Frankly speaking,” my Professor friend said, lighting his cigar, “is one of the least trustworthy openings in the English language.” We were sitting in his drawing room. A cup of black coffee rested beside him. “Why do you say that?” I asked. “Because when people begin with ‘frankly speaking’, they are usually about to do one of three things: say something they should have said…