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.

It has been a few weeks since I wrote the first part of the above subject. India's had her elections and I have been comprehensively proved wrong on my prediction about the third front and M (not the current PM) playing a key role. I have read somewhere that only sages and fools indulge in prophecies and I know I can lay no claim to sanctity!! :-) Let us come to the subject at hand. Things are starting to look good now with the stock market smartly rallying by as much as 50% over last few weeks and the India's GDP numbers looking respectable at 6.7% for FY09 with positive projections for FY10. Stock markets are also rallying globally from Russia to Brazil. Note that in the same time crude prices have gone up quietly by almost 50% and by lesser extent, a few more commodities and metals. The world's going gaga over the new American president and his first 100 days in office and there is hope that the downturn has bottomed out even if recovery is not yet at hand. Global econ...

My poem for this Environment Day... June 5th 2009   Why do we care so much, for this  speck of dust in this vast expanse,  so many ice ages, upheavals so many,  before even man made his appearance!!  Why Man is blamed for all that goes  wrong: hot summers, a cold winter,  and sometimes the opposite but still  poor Man's the target of every baiter.  Oh! May be there is truth to all this  panic about a long sustainable earth,  But tell me this, did we not get here  by sustaining life and conquering death?  Maybe the nature that we altered was  not life nor the wildlife or vegetation  but what Man feared most - death, by  giving life a chance right from gestation.  So why give life a chance as the most  rabid environmentalists that proclaim.....  Let's stop docs that prolong life and  give nuclear scientists much acclaim! :-)  An aside remark to the above poem   Was fine till the w...

Her li'l girl in her arms, tears in this young mother's eyes, as she bids adieu to her man, on a sojourn of a thousand miles. She holds her baby even tighter, as if it's the only thing she's got, She'd be on her way too, with her man, but for this li'l tiny tot! A child is a blessing and no less a work of art, but at this moment, she was not sure of her burden, was it one or a thing to lament. Years go by, the pains of this event pass, but for flashes of reminiscence. Fades in the joy of watching the li'l one grow from child to pubescence. Another bout of sorrow and pain in store for her as its the li'l one's turn to bid adieu, to go to distant shores, leaving her with agony and heartburn. Ups and downs now the life for this lonely mother, with each passing day, comes news of joy and of struggle, of her little girl, from so far away. As the girl moves up in life, a tiny step each day, hope lights a mother's heart. The day of salvation arriv...