Category: Uncategorized

In life before Munnabhai MBBS, the acronym, besides being a medical degree, also stood for “Member of the Big Bottom Society”!  During our school days that is what we nicknamed guys with big posteriors. Why talk of bottoms?  The bottom line comes from Cardinal Ivan Dias of Mumbai’s recent appeal for a dress code in…

Our cardinals seem to have an epidemic of “Foot in Mouth Disease”! The latest victim of this epidemic is Cardinal Vithayathil of Ernakulam.  His exhortation to Catholics to produce more babies is absurd.  His allegation that it is a sin and injustice not to do so, has crossed all bounds of decency (Have Good Married…

There is a report that Pope Benedict, while recently baptising some children, had advocated that they be given Christian names. He frowned upon naming children after celebrities. This has me flummoxed. What exactly is a “Christian” name? Also, what is in a name? No doubt I will be reminded of the saying that a rose…

Does this title shock you?  It is meant to.  Is it audacious?  The word is described as being recklessly daring.  I am being daring; but reckless?  Wait till you finish reading this.  Our former President APJ Abdul Kalam advised young people to dream with their eyes open, so as to convert their dreams into reality. …

There was an old song that went “ Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell?” There was also the sexist remark that if you don’t want to keep a secret you should tell a woman. It was supposedly a faster means of communication than the telegram or telephone. With…

Reflections on the Sesquicentennial (1860 –2010) of St Patrick’s Church, Kanpur INTRODUCTION: It is with a deep sense of mystery and humility that I embark upon the mammoth exercise of trying to reconstruct the history of St Patrick’s Church, Kanpur, on the occasion of its Sesquicentennial (150th Jubilee) from 1860 – 2010. At the outset…

Poor Barkha, having often dragged others over the coals, she found herself in the dock, in a bizarre reversal of roles. Seasoned journalists like Dileep Padgaonkar, Manu Joseph and Swapan Dasgupta lampooned her over Radiagate. This was a reportedly “unedited” NDTV debate, which may have been Barkha’s own idea to exonerate and extricate herself from…

Has Aamir Khan’s “Three Idiots” been in vain? Because engineering students continue to commit suicide.  The latest in the series is Madhuri Sale, of IIT, Kanpur (IITK), my hometown. This is the eighth suicide here in the last five years.  The IITK authorities nonchalantly attribute it to excess internet and mobile usage by students! Are…

If you see this sign outside a hospital room you will know that the patient inside is critical, and visitors not allowed.  If you see it outside a hotel room it usually means that there is couple inside who do not relish an invasion of their privacy, their cuddle huddle! But I have been disturbed…

So the latest is Goddess Durga, riding a tiger and tippling Comfort Whiskey, made in America. (Fortunately TOI has conscientiously refrained from publishing the images, to avoid inflaming religious passions). Before that it was MF Hussain’s nude painting of Bharat Mata, and the Danish cartoons denigrating the Prophet Mohammed and Islam in general.      Though…