amalgam

China touches fifty. So does India. For China, it was their best Olympics. India too, never had it better. And for the first time, I can understand why people talk about China and India being competitors for world domination.

Niketa and Haresh Mehta were told by their gynaecologist that the fetus Niketa has been carrying for 25 weeks has complete heart blockage and malpositioned arteries that could require a pacemaker implantation soon after birth. The couple had to make a choice. Go on with the pregnancy and deliver the child. What follows is a life that will consist of the three people coming in and going out of hospitals. Mounting financial pressures and mean world to face. Which gets meaner if it smells a weakness in your life. There is no denying the fact that with a child like that you are faced with taunting relatives, a oblivious government and not so understanding society.

At five in the evening the parliament will witness the trust vote. It is difficult to guess, even after following the news rather religiously for a week, how our political 'leaders' or 'representatives' will vote. It would have been easier to predict if they stood for individual or party ideologies. But, thats ridiculous expectation from our esteemed topi walas. Right? To see our politicians in their elements is a rude reminder of whats all wrong with this country. Mendis is being touted as the main threat as the Indians take on Sri Lanka today in the inaugural test match of the series. History tells us that almost all spinners have been tamed by the indian batting line up that have not been as formidable as the present line up. I can foresee that ten years down the line when I will be watching the matches of today from the archives, and see Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag and Ganguly in the same team, I will be wondering how this team didn't win more matches than...

I was a tad nervous before meeting her for the first time. As I had feared, it didn’t go as well as I had planned. Just as the guard at the apartment had informed me, she knocked my door that afternoon. I hate bargaining. But I still do it because I hate more when I feel cheated. So once I mentioned what I expect from her, the bargaining ordeal began. She quoted four hundred. For a single man, who leaves in a one room flat, I thought that amount was astronomical. We had a few exchanges. It so happens that I either turn rude or I turn meek when any bargain process turns lengthy. To her dismay I turned rude. But to my satisfaction I sealed the deal for rupees two hundred and fifty.

It amazing how a healthy body takes a lot of things for granted. The golgappas from the road side vendor, along with the mouth watering ‘pani’ is taken for granted that they are germs free. Unfortunately, the one that I had during the weekend prior to Diwali wasn’t. The virus took a week to announce it’s presence in my body. Jayant and his wife Vandana had invited me for dinner on the occasion of Diwali. I was served mutton. To my surprise, I didn’t get excited at the salivating prospect of having a non-vegetarian meal. On the contrary I felt nauseated. My reaction should not reflect Vandana’s cooking abilities. In fact, after having lot of meals prepared by Vandana my verdict is that she a fantastic cook. That made me realize that there was nothing wrong with the meal itself but with me. I ate very little and preferred the vegetarian items on the menu. I got up the next day with constipation and fatigue. Alarmingly, my urine had a dark yellow color to it. I still wonder why I ignore...

“Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”

"All resources, like land, minerals, trees, are all needed by human beings. As it is limited, we compete for them. So those who have power can access them and decide who can and can’t use them. Those who feel they are not given the opportunity, they react and seek justice. They are being denied human rights, and this is how conflicts, and eventually, wars start. So I’m trying to tell the world that if you want to live peacefully, we must manage these limited resources. We must share them and not too many should feel they are being excluded. We need a governance that respects the rule of law and human rights and that of minorities, who don’t have the political power to defend themselves." Wangari Maathai, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2004, also the first African woman to do so, spoke these words during an Interview by Shekhar Gupta on the program 'Walk the Talk' on NDTV.