Sreeram Srinivasan

We the people of India deserve a column, in my view, and hence this. While we are so diverse from North to South, East to West, the ethos we share across this 1 billion+ strong expanse are more or less the same and the bungle as well...... So if we can laugh at ourselves a lot more, I feel we will become a great country yet again but only faster. So I decided to compile some of our most interesting (stupid?) practices. It never surprises me how we are all so uncannily similar across these 3.2 million sq kilometers of spread. Here goes.... So you know you are in India if 1. housewives put toothpaste in their husband's and children's toothbrushes in the morning only to reduce paste consumption by the wonderfully unique and patentable "squeeze and pull" technqiue!! 2. you have at least one red+white hand-woven towel in your house 3. you always meld the last little "paper thin" piece of old bath-soap to the new one you just unwrapped 4. you always block the en...

We, the people of India or Indians or desis, are a proud lot and there are certainly enough reasons to be (and enough not to be as well). Historically, our country has been the purveyor of knowledge, of discoveries, and even some very clever inventions and innovations to this World. However, I daresay, we as a country have never been known for our punctuality or for our ability to meet time targets in anything we do. We seem to be always late..... We somehow simply and mysteriously "hasten slowly" as a nation... Let us analyse this.... Are we constantly late because we are not industrious enough? Do we dither? Do we procrastinate? Do we make haste and end up tripping over ourselves? Or do we simply don't care for time? My sense is none of above (but some of you may make a case for "a li'l of all the above!"). I feel as a country we are so brilliant a people that we start to build, at least in our minds, a "Rolls Royce" even for the simplest of ta...

Poetry as poignant as it can be, Roses as red as it can be, Evening as charming as it can be, Company as enjoyable as it can be. Love as fragrant as it can be, Choices as difficult as it can be, Passion as wild as it can be, Night as restless as it can be. Feelings as indignant as it can be, Action as frenetic as it can be, Guilt as murky as it can be, Denial as torturous as it can be, Thoughts as clear as it can be. Courage as bold as it can be, Resolve as firm as it can be, Righteousness as pure as it can be.

Love ain't chemical, love ain't physical, Love ain't something so quizzical. Love is something so beautiful, a feeling so pure, so soft a zeal, Love can truly truly be platonic, with just a need for touch n feel. Love is something so plentiful, yet so much lingering lightness, A peck on the cheek, nothing but a fulsome act of closeness. Love is something so peaceful, the heart yearns for proximity, but just a loving hug exceeds all that comes from carnal satiety. Love is something so thoughtful, No wrong moves that could hurt feelings delicate, let femininity set the pace, give her that comfort.