The CHOLAs Chorus – free & random thoughts!!!

Pause for a while in our fast-track lifestyle and think long and hard about what and who we actually are. Whether man or woman we are human. Therefore, frailty, our name is human. With all due respect, my sincere apology to you, Shakespeare, if I have startled and spun you in your grave. Frailty is embedded in human psyche. You and I and one and all are overwhelmed by the self-centred activities of the here and now. We chit-chat about this and that now and then, we expose our outside a lot to cover a tiny dot inside, and we are only deepening our hypocrisy. Isn’t it crazy? (more…)

Thirty-two nations are fighting over one ball vying for the FIFA World Cup Trophy in South Africa. The vuvuzelas are reportedly deafening. But have they drowned the criticism of the Jubulani? If the Jubulani could speak, it’d lambast FIFA and all the 32 nations kicking it mercilessly. We saw Italy win the World Cup in Germany. That was four years ago. I had more hair and less wrinkles. I do not know if I’ll watch the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014. Sure I’ll be older than I’m now. The bottom line is that we all grow, and grow older. I know we all know this – I make no issue of it. My point is that let’s not disillusion ourselves that growth stops at puberty! (more…)

An irreplaceable part of boyhood memory so intrinsic to my upbringing and growth is that of travel, and the trials and tribulations thereof. Coming from a farming stock in a far-flung village clearly meant extensive travel, and therefore the inevitable exposure to the accompaniments of a journey by motor road that was yet to acquire the creature comforts of a drive we enjoy today. Those episodes of journey by bus and later by train formed a cornucopia of human elements, of joy and exuberances, of success and failure, and of high emotions of suffering and pain: all in equal measure.

(more…)

The face of Helen of Troy unanchored and “launched a thousand ships”. That was the Trojan War. It was conventional. Today we have nuclear weaponry. Nuclear attack can be launched easily at a click of a button. So it’s corollary that it can be prevented as easily. What’s it that can prevent the deployment of tanks, the launch of missiles, and the drop of atom bombs altogether? It’s neither military might nor economic clout. I tell you, it’s the act – but mind you, not necessarily consummation. (more…)