How to Do Nothing

This article shares its title with a New York Times bestseller by Jenny Odell. But I haven’t read it. A reviewer said that Ms Odell’s work is "ambitious". This article’s subject is the antithesis of ambitious.

I’ve been working. I’ve been busting my ass without a break for months now. I’ve kept my nose to the grindstone working on stuff that turns your brain into an overheated, dried-up, two-stroke engine. But even when I’m not working at the stuff that brings in the bread, I’ve been dosing myself with social media, snorting newsfeed to lull my brain, distract me from matters of bread-earning.

Leading the Lamb to the Slaughter

Free-market systems mimic nature. In that, the big fish will, naturally, eat the small fish. Because they can. If left to itself, the system will result in a power struggle of the economic kind, which also spills into the social domain. Those who gain power are, again naturally, inclined towards retaining it and growing it through unending acquisitions. Why would they reduce it voluntarily and risk extinction?

The Rich Get Richer Club

Dump: OK, pipe down guys. We're not making money doing idle chit chat. This meeting of the Rich Get Richer Club is now in session. So, guys, here are the points on today's agenda. The First is "What's stopping us from getting richer?" The second is "How can we get even richer?" And the third is "How to want more riches?" Let's begin with what's stopping us from getting richer. Eleven and Feku, guys, we had expressly agreed that the border conflict program has to be armed, not unarmed. How do you expect me and Benji to sell weapons? 

How Readers Bought Fiction Titles—And the Non-fiction Books They Should've Bought Instead

At the General Book Fair of 2014, and again in 2019, people overwhelmingly chose to buy fiction titles. But now that we have a mortal crisis, people are clamouring for non-fiction titles to help them understand, manage, and cope. But the non-fiction titles are naturally out of stock because

"I Can't Breathe"

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

Decades ago, when I was a schoolboy, something had happened that I was reminded of this week. I was at my study table, poring over my textbooks, engrossed, when I was mildly distracted by a tiny black ant.

I Miss Neighbourhoods

I miss neighbourhoods ... where you could just pop into a friend's house uninvited, to chit chat or eat or drink something, or just yell your friend's name from outside his house, waiting for him to come out so that you can go to play, or gossip about another friend or talk random shit,

The Social Distance

    “Stop tossing and turning, Radha. Your bangles are making hell of a racket!”

    “Sorry …”

    “Ever since the lockdown began, you’ve not been sleeping well. And neither are you letting me.”

Faith versus Religion: How to Tell Them Apart

• Faith will tell you that there is a god. Religion will tell you his name, address, contact details, food choices, fashion tastes, gender, and pet peeves.
• Faith tells you that your prayer will be answered. Religion tells you that your prayer will be answered only when you have performed a-b-c acts, donated x amount of food, clothes and money to the institution, and prologued and epilogued your prayers with these specific sounds.

Unfamiliar Entertainment

Before Netflix and Amazon Prime, before YouTube, before even cable TV, Indians' choice in television entertainment was limited. Severely limited. To two: Doordarshan and DD Metro. And before that, just one: DD.

Why People Are the Next Big Tech

Our age is swamped with technology. 

From robotics to smartphones; from e-rickshaws to international space stations; from CRSPR-Cas9 to Solid State Drives. Human ingenuity and science are being rapidly encapsulated in complex algorithms and packaged into dense devices and executive routines. Governments and corporations are ramping up R&D budgets to create or acquire the next big technology, like with AI, Data Science, and Machine Learning.

Narendra Modi, The Iconoclast

The Modi era may give rise to a new crop of citizens who are unafraid to question the sacred.

I went looking for a silver lining, and I think I might have found one.

iconoclast (noun): a person who criticizes popular beliefs or established customs and ideas. Origin: mid 17th cent. (originally referring to someone who destroyed images used in religious worship): via medieval Latin from ecclesiastical Greek eikonoklastēs, from eikōn ‘likeness’ + klan ‘to break’.

The Liberal Fringe: In Today's India and Family WhatsApp Groups

Oh, how the times have changed!

There was an age when moderate/liberal/progressive values were so highly regarded that people with such values were looked up to. Around me they were in larger numbers than people on the right of center. Right-wingers and conservatives were usually less educated, belonged to right-wing groups or were highly religious or highly feudal. A right-winger would either mask his inclinations or completely avoid the liberal 'elite'. Usually these two groups did not overlap, so there wasn't much friction. We can even say that people were happy in their own bubbles.

It's Time to Thank God—And Make Some Changes

I guess it's time I thanked God for sending me down as an upper caste Hindu male. Now, if only I could also pretend that I hate minorities and find gau mutra delicious—that'd set me up nicely for the next quarter century or so. I hope I'm able to coz I've heard terrible things about concentration camps.

A Strange Encounter: Bin Laden and the Value of Life

Many years ago, I had an interesting encounter. At my workplace, there was this grumpy young accountant who I rarely interacted with. He wasn't very social, but was professional while being uninviting. He was a north Indian upper-caste guy who religiously performed puja every morning and came to office with a teeka on his forehead.

Nature's Wrecking Ball: Cyclone Fani and Its Aftermath

It's a Monday evening in Delhi. The ugly, white-LED lights that show you the way while you drive back home don't soothe your discomfort at being stuck in traffic. But they're comforting in their predictability; they signal that you'll be back to the cool comfort of your air-conditioned home.

When Disaster Strikes: Cyclone Fani

One cannot imagine the enormity of a natural disaster if one hasn't been in it. So it is difficult for me, or anyone who wasn't there, to fully empathise with the millions of Odias who were battered by 200 kilometres-per-hour-plus winds of Cyclone Fani, which has been categorised as Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm.

2019: A Face Odyssey

The Demagogue-class Castecaster crash-landed on a strange planet in the Tch O-kid ‘ar  cluster of stars. I had lost my bearings and the crash had left me badly disoriented. I precariously stumbled out of the craft onto the alien terra firma. 

Invisible Currents in the Ocean of Democracy

As far as the eyes can see, there’s a thrashing ocean of blood-red tongues screaming at the top of their voices defending their candidate. It is the roaring forties of representative governance -- the general elections of the world’s largest democracy.

Teenager Makes Man Molest Her: News from 2084, Issue 7

★25 April 2084, Staff Reporter, Purushottampur★

In yet another shameful incident, a 15-year-old girl named Kusum Kumari compelled a middle-aged gentleman to molest her.

The incident took place four days ago but came to light only yesterday after the man's family protested outside Mardnagar police station alleging inaction. We cannot disclose the name of the man to protect his identity. The incident took place around noon on Friday when the man was passing by Kusum's house.

Kusum had laid a trap by being at her home with the door open. The victim was lured into the house by the open door. Seeing Kusum at her own home in broad daylight, the victim felt compelled to molest her. He raised an alarm when Kusum resisted him, and was rescued by some men standing outside. Kusum tried to escape from the bathroom window but was caught, beaten up, and handed over to the police.

An elderly lady from the neighborhood, on condition of anonymity, said, “Kusum is a known bad character. She frequently stays at home during the day. She had no business keeping her door open. This is how unsuspecting, innocent men are forced into molesting young girls.”

Kusum's parents are claiming that at the time of the incident, Kusum wasn't even at home. They're saying that the woman who made the victim molest her was actually their domestic help. The police have filed an FIR against Kusum and are currently questioning the maid. If convicted, Kusum faces life in jail without parole.

I Hate

Detestable, to say the least
The things that don't deserve
My respect or my love.
Say, for instance, the sun.

I hate the sun–
It shines bright for all
And doesn't dim itself for the 'others'
Who are not like me.