An Indecisive Indian

  There are many like me—folks with some half-plucked feathers in the cap—who periodically get invited to be both honoured and humiliated at the same time. This blog is my humble service to that fraternity of ' garlanded causalities: glitter outside, slap inside'  so that they can smell the insult like stale samosas behind the garland.  After all, even Shakespeare’s Angelo in Measure for Measure knew this chimera of honours and awards, saying , “...Most dangerous Is that temptation that doth goad us on To sin in loving virtue...” . This menace peaks around Engineers’ Day—our annual silly season when engineers like me are dragged out of mothballs and decorated like Diwali lanterns, only to discover the fuse is still attached. A caveat though, some organizations do honour you with dignity, by Central Cabinet Ministers, et alia , but let’s exclude those rare gems. What follows is the slapstick side of the saga with ‘To Do and Not To Do list’ . Chachā (uncle) Ghālib knew...

  This is truly the silly season for travellers. On the Lucknow–Barauni Express , passengers sweating in an AC coach found no relief from the vents—until officials discovered why. The ducts were stuffed with bottled spirits . Smugglers, or railway staff with a side hustle? No one knows. But one shudders, and chuckles at once, to imagine the scene had the bottles leaked: passengers, instead of complaining about “poor cooling,” would have been glowing with “inner heating” and blessed with a ‘ spiritual’ journey. Meanwhile in Srinagar airport , four SpiceJet staffers were floored—literally—by a Lieutenant Colonel when they dared ask him to pay for extra cabin baggage. Whatever the fine print, one takeaway shines bright: if one army officer can down four airline men in minutes, the nation’s security clearly rests in muscular hands. Not to be left behind in this baggage saga, Indian Railways (IR)   now plans to imitate airports with a luggage-weighing regime. Soon, rai...