Discussion with a dear young friend veered towards the state of affection between wives and husbands in young families, say in case of the couples aged 40-45 years. His summary observation jolted me i.e., what he sees around among his school/college/profession-mates is that about 60% couples are just pulling together without any deeper communication or feelings, while 20% have gone ugly and bitter culminating into divorce, separation or separate living under one roof and only…
First of all, the makers of the movie may deserve some kudos to dare make a movie on the epic, every instance of which is trans-generationally etched in everyone’s mind thus eluding any element of suspense or sensation. But the kudos end here only. Unlike Mahabharata, the subliminal unfolding of Ramayana is devoid of any dramatic twists, court intrigues or intense philosophising. In the zeal to serve audience something novel, the movie is merely a…
One of the most hilarious, but deeply meaningful comments I hear from my children is – “Papa, we grew up with the impression that our parents had very limited means. Our parents may have adopted simplicity as a virtue, but for us, it has become a habit. Only recently, we got an idea of your salaries and good savings and even we have own good salaries, but we still cannot imagine ourselves splurging and spending…
As I can recollect, we used to manage with black and white TV in 1990, though most of our neighbours, some of them even less resourceful than us, had shifted to coloured TV. Since I joined ONGC after completing my engineering, I strove to surprise my parents by bringing in coloured TV along with other very trendy contraption in those days i.e. VCR. After 1-2 years wait and savings, I was able to purchase the…
It was my great privilege to counsel my children, at the altar of their marriage, about the virtues of simplicity and frugality. I scarcely know the future, but with subtle satisfaction, I recall their successful tryst with simplicity in the past. I happened to inherit simplicity and frugality from my parents, who stayed in a non-descript town called Nangal (i.e. Bhakra Nangal). I remember my father cycling to Subzi Mandi (wholesale vegetable market), located at…