Redefining Horizons

  A few days back, I was driving home from the neighbouring city. Seeing the painstakingly laid and beautifully crafted white line continuously snaking along like an endless work of art on the road, I asked my wife, “Saw that line?” We were negotiating a blind curve on the road. Both sides of the road had white lines clearly showing the edges. The broad line with reflectors in the middle of the road was meant to separate the traffic, and drivers are expected to keep their vehicles within their side of the line. Roads in this part of the country have many curves and gradients. They are well-marked and take on a high density of traffic. Almost all trucks on Indian roads have their rears marked with “Blow Horn” along with other funny and sometimes philosophical quotes. Unlike in the West, where honking is considered uncivil, here, signage asking drivers to ‘blow horn’ can be found along the road, across the country.  Before my wife could answer, a car, without any warning, overto...

    Kumaranalloor is famous for its Temple. But not many people, barring locals, would know of the Government Upper Primary school in Kumaranalloor. I went there first time in 2018. I was there once again, invited to speak, on 02 Jun, 2025, as part of the “ praveshanolsavam. ” “ Praveshanam” in Malayalam means admission, and “ Ulsavam” means festival or celebration.    Praveshanolsavam   The function was organised to give the children, starting their education journey in government-run schools, a sense of festivity. It was done to initiate children into the schooling system and coincided with the commencement of the current academic year. The authorities could have used the event to take stock of the infrastructural adequacy of government-run schools. “ Sarkar karyam mura pole ”, is what Malayalees say. It only means that things that the government does will take their course when it does. The strategic aim of the event seemed to be optics and eyeballs. ...

  Look the other way , is an idiom unlike any other. It does not catch much attention but easily hurts . Looking the other way allows immoral or illegal acts but its benign version, which could mean many more things like, avoid, ignore, desert, abandon, let down etc, could be immensely painful to those looked away from. The literal meaning of looking the other way is straightforward as the words suggest; looking in the opposite direction. Our roads play host to both literal and literary versions of it.  Pedestrians across the world have the right of way. In many countries, pedestrians can cross the road, only at the zebra lines. If the light is not in their favour they wait or push the pedestrian button to allow them to cross. If pedestrians push the pedestrian button, they get the green to cross and the light goes red for motorists. People crossing like that wave at the motorists signalling gratitude. Pedestrians at home are more empowered. They cross roads and motorways at...

  We left our hotel in the morning and drove to the museum in Haroldswick. It was a long drive that included two ferry rides, one from Toft to Ulsta and one from Gutcher to Belmont to reach cold and windy Muness to see the remnants of a castle. There was hardly anyone around and when we came across someone, an occasional car, or a small group of cycling enthusiasts, we  waved at each other  earnestly. My wife and I were  with Dr Abe and Dr Elizabeth  vacationing  in the Shetland Islands, an archipelago in Scotland, the northernmost region of the UK. It was cold, windy, and wet. I love visiting museums and old buildings. Museums, for many, are like cemeteries, resting places for relics, reminders of tragedies and some made-up stories. Museums, to me, are roads to the past and windows to the future.  I call it, ‘ Mortui Vivos Docent .’ or 'The dead teach the living', a phrase I picked up from a book I read recently. In Latin, ‘mortui’ means ‘dead,’ ‘vivo...

  Ubiquitous Affliction “Sanu ki,”  a usage in Punjabi, is both a phrase and an idiom. “Sanu” translates to “us” and “ki” means “what.” Together, it merely means “to us, what” or in other words “why bother?” Simply put it means “I don't care.” That is where it stops being a phrase. Depending upon the context, “sanu ki?” assumes many a meaning. Commencing from being a plain expression indicating disassociation, it can mean anything like irrelevance, irreverence, scorn, and at times the sublime state of acceptance of the inevitable. One needs to spend time with people who speak Punjabi to capture the essence of the “sanu ki” served. It can mean anything depending on how, when, and where it has been said and to whom it has been delivered.  The difference in tone can change the associated meaning. The versatility of this phrase or idiom is what caught my attention. In Malayalam, my mother tongue, there are different versions of ‘sanu ki?” Starting from “ namukku enth...

       “ Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The Evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones  So let it be with Caesar. ”   These lines came to me just out of the blue and with it, the name of Mr JS Iyer, one of my teachers.  Act 3, Scene 2 of the Shakespearean play, Julius Caesar reverberates on stages the world over as the play itself or as part of elocution competitions in many schools and colleges. These lines did not mean anything to me beyond the next examination, those days. Strange, these lines had to come up while I was sitting in my study taking stock of life. I had just published my second book, "Dare Dream Different." With that, I checked off the 8 th of the 10 “things to do before I die,” a second time. I had drawn up that list in 1988. The paper on which the list was written could not stand its age and one day when I opened it to read, it just disint...

  The First Call It was a call from a former colleague and friend. He was organising an event to get former army officers and their spouses together, on an informal platform. He and a coursemate of mine reached out to all the veteran officers. Their efforts bore fruits. Many officers confirmed their attendance. I presumed he called up to discuss something about the meeting.  “Sir, I want you to give a talk on ‘ group dynamics’ at the meeting, he requested. I could not decline. Each attendee had a distinguished career behind him. Most of them had commanded and led troops in operations. They were masters at keeping teams together and eliciting performance from them in the most trying circumstances. Their spouses had seen it all from very close quarters. Talking to them about team dynamics, I knew, was like showing a candle to the sun.  I scoured the web for research papers on the subject. All the articles, I laid my hands on, were clinical in their approach. Those in the r...