Redefining Horizons

  The Exchange “Kupa Manduka”! (Frog in the well).  The trailing text was loud and emphatic! Though the reference was to self-admitted limitations and the usage purportedly for himself, it left a sour taste. Was it just self-depreciatory idiom or a snub and beyond? A different opinion, a divergent view, expressed politely on a benign subject like ‘charity’ eliciting an uncharitable response, though self-accusatory, from someone [1] with excellent command on the language, was surprising. Condemnation of a divergent view and its proponent? Inability or unwillingness to accommodate discussion? A novel method of typecasting the opponent as illiterate, unaware and blind to the ways of the new world and therefore unfit to continue discussion? Such retorts are weapons of intimidation or call to shut up, often deployed to silence opponents in political discourses. But, in a benign discussion its is certainly out of place even if it was used self-depreciatingly. Regardless,...

  An Unlikely Waiting Room It was not like any other day! I was just one amongst others seated, keenly watching the digital screen indicating the progress of operations in the theatre [1] . It was not a waiting room by any standards but a landing on the second-floor doubling up as space for sitting and for people to board or alight from the lift. Rows of metal chairs were the only comfort there. Each one was occupied. If at all anyone got up, there was someone ready to take it. Hardly anyone got up. The chairs were inseparably welded together, three of them to a set. Each of us sitting on them, though together in anxiety, were on our own, individually struggling to fend off our own demons! I too sat, with nothing but worry on my mind. All those sitting there also had someone dear, either being operated upon, in one of the eight OTs or waiting for their chance to be wheeled in. There were a few, whose loved ones had been shifted to the post-operative room. Obviously, they se...

Ant and The Grasshopper The story of the ant and the grasshopper must have been narrated countless times in our childhood. The ant survived the famine and the famished grasshopper perished! Most of us, forced to by our kids or grandchildren would have re-narrated the story with all the sound and action to make it captivating. The last line is often about the moral of the story! They say all these childhood stories convey some profound message, which we conveniently forget as we grow up.  Let us recall the story in another setting!! The 'covidian' setting! Did it evolve naturally or was it synthesised for weaponisation? Even as debates rage, accusations denials and counters fly, covid continues to wreak havoc across the world. The second wave was deadlier than the first and everyone is now talking of a third.  Will there be a third wave? Will it be deadlier? Then what do we do? What Numbers Say A distinct rise, a fall and the relative calm thereafter is referred to as a p...