There’s a peculiar silence that follows a goodbye. It’s the kind that lingers in the air long after the honk of the cab has faded or the aircraft has vanished into the sky. A quiet emptiness that whispers w
Monday, 6th October, 2025
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Bob’s Banter
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Years ago, while still young, I owned a contracting firm. One morning, I got a call that one of my workers had fallen from the scaffolding. By the time I reached, he was gone. A life snuffed out before tea brea
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So, the Railways have announced—with the solemnity of a priest at a last rites service—that they’ll finally install automatic doors on Mumbai’s local trains.Not before the tragedy.Not to prevent it.But
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It was like watching a low-budget remake of a despot's courtroom drama—except it took place not in some banana republic, but in the corridors of a government hospital in Goa. Their Health Minister, who seems
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Two days ago, while having my morning coffee, listening to the birds and flipping through the newspaper with one hand I nearly spat the hot brew on the crossword puzzle. A full-page article—yes, not an ad for
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When we are called to part, it gives us inward pain… said the old hymn, which Jane hummed under her breath while standing at the gate, waving goodbye to a friend. She had come all the way from another city, b
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My mother didn’t raise me on just verses from the scriptures or moral science textbooks. She also raised me on stories of her two brothers—one a top ranking officer who flew fighter jets with the Indian Air
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So Bangladesh has begun a trial against Hasina for mass murder. My first reaction? “Wait, wasn’t she in power just a few months ago?” And then it hit me—this is the new game in town. Not politics, not d
Over forty-one years ago, I bought my first car.I was just in my twenties, armed with ambition, a growing business, and a desperate desire to own a four-wheeled beast I could call mine. And so, when the opportu
My granddaughter Emory, all of two, has discovered the wonder of water.Yes, that magical, glistening, splashy liquid that has the power to make a toddler giggle like no stand-up comedian ever could. But as any
Every time I hit a pothole; I feel I’ve just had a close encounter with a badly behaved asteroid. It jumps at my car without warning, crashes into my suspension system, and leaves me muttering words unfit for
There’s a sloshing sound in my shoes, and it isn’t spiritual joy. It’s water. Rainwater. Precious, holy, long-prayed-for, utterly annoying rainwater. And as I squish my way across the housing society wher-
It’s a strange word—surrender.One we don’t like to touch, let alone use. It feels like failure, doesn’t it? Like waving a white flag while the enemy smirks and moves in for the selfie. We’d much rathe
Yesterday, I attended a memorial meeting of a man who spoke softly but left deep impressions—Mr. Noronha. Ninety-five years old.The gathering was held in the garden where he once walked each morning, nodding-
Some years ago, I had the privilege—or perhaps the irony—of being accommodated in a guest house inside the Rashtrapati Bhavan compound. Yes, the President’s house. It was just one of those rare opportunit
The AC in my bedroom conked out in the middle of the night. Not sputtered. Not whimpered. It just gave up, like a resigned bureaucrat on a Friday afternoon. One moment I was wrapped in Himalayan bliss, the next
So, I read the news today, and lo and behold—our honourable Supreme Court had taken suo motu action. Yes, that Latin phrase we all pretend to understand and nod at solemnly as if we were wearing black coats a-
Two speeches. One I was invited to give. The other, I invited myself to speak at.Both occasions ended with a smattering of applause—polite, appreciative, and perhaps even a little relieved that I had finished
It’s a strange feeling, this thing called goodbye.Not the kind you say at airports—those are often filled with soggy handkerchiefs and promises to stay in touch, which evaporate faster than a politician’s-
This Saturday, I’ve been asked to speak to a gathering about my book DARE.Now, you’d think I’d strut in with a PowerPoint presentation, a rehearsed TED Talk tone, and the swagger of someone whose book has
