Someday, today will be nostalgia

In a freewheeling conversation with a colleague not too long ago, she regaled me with a storytelling class she attended. Instead of subjecting herself to the vagaries of life – which undoubtedly offered many reasons to put off taking the class, even making the idea sound almost sacrilegious, she gently assuaged the voice that was seeking to thwart her plans. In other words, she gave ‘backup’ the finger. What is backup? Backup is security, money in the bank, ancestral property, more money in the bank, paid vacation, a paid sabbatical, retirement, to name a few. Backup entails waiting for life to make time for that elusive storytelling class. Backup is critical and not be undervalued. But the problem with it is it’s never enough. Here’s what is needed in significant amounts – humility.To accept that your current job will precipitate early onset Alzheimer’s, that your marriage is a farce (if you’re headed for divorce, it would do you good to divide your backup by half ), ...

T he Karnataka assembly was recently witness to some torrid scenes. In a normal turn of events, a torrid scene would play out like this – a trivial argument triggers off a mini-riot and our elected representatives, on whose shoulders rest responsibilities of a different magnitude, resort to pouring out all of their life’s frustrations on each other. At the end of it, instead of a law being passed that could spell some progress, what is left behind is broken furniture, injured egos and slight bruises, not to forget taxpayers money that has just vanished into thin air. In a state grappling with issues pertaining to governance, infrastructure, power and water, to name a few, it seems everything can wait. Everything except carnal desires. Here are some twitter reactions from the world over on the scandal:  @HughHefner: I’m running for office in Karnataka. Bangalored and Rogered kinda rhyme, don’t they? @Tihar_Raja: They’ve again rejected my bail application. No ...