In Limbo 2

A book on Paul Klee and his paintings was one of the most thoughtful gifts I received on my birthday from my son Dhani. The gift came accompanied by a comment which catapulted me into the realm of unfounded egotistical bliss, "something of his work reminds me of you", he said as I pulled the book out off the gift-wrap. "Really?" disbelief and exhilaration ran simultaneously in my veins. Of course, I had admired Paul Klee for several reasons, but mainly it was the spontaneity and  joy permeating his paintings which had appealed to me the most. Needless to say I felt terribly flattered. Yet, honestly speaking, the similarity between Paul Klee and I began and ended with both Klee and I willingly disregarding our own passions to homeschool the child we had brought forth into this world. Yes, believe it or not, while Klee's wife enjoyed a full-fledged musical career, the painter decided to be a stay-at-home dad to bring up their son Felix. He donned on the role of a ...

"Did you hear about what happened in the U.S?" "Are you talking about the mysterious drones appearing in the American airspace?" "No, about the guy who shot the CEO of UnitedHealth..." "Of yeah...Crazy...But, we all know how corrupt many of these insurance companies are. Remember John Grisham's The Rainmaker?" "But, to kill someone innocent to make a statement? I don't agree with that." "Of course, you won't. You are a Gandhian. But, may be, sometimes such  drastic measures are necessary  to shake up the system..."  "I agree. Quite a good-looking fella he is. Only 26. Looks like someone Da Vinci would have sketched. Hmmm...what's his name?" "Luigi Mangione. Did you read how his instagram following surged from 945 to 64000 and above? Meta had to shut down his account." "Wow". "I don't think one needs to resort to violence. I don't condone any kind of violence." ...

A strange mélange of melancholy and inexplicable joy of being part of some majestic grandeur washes over me. In gratitude, a smile emerges and makes its way through the thin veil of tears: crystalline rainbows jingle and clinker.  "If you love me, you would just drift into my view", I say to myself and to the invisible Spirit while hanging the laundry on the clothesline. And lo, as soon as I had hung the last article, it came, a Brahminy kite. Cruising in from the northeast, it pulled a few tight circles almost above my head, leaped vertically in an upward thrust and rose and rose, straight as an arrow and then took a shallow dive towards the earth, only to conquer much greater heights, propelling me  to grow my own wings and take that ultimate leap into the luminous domains: Lo, a raptor cruising  the hallowed heights:  circling, aligning zigzagging, dropping to rise again...dancing to the scintillating drops of light over the rain- -drenched leaves. for whom does i...

  Live simply so others may simply live". Do you know how many droplets are there in a cumulus cloud? 10 billion per cubic meter! This mind-boggling information is emitted to the neurons by a book called 'The Cloudspotter's Guide'. It hits me like a thunderbolt. I wish Anna Sébastien the 26-year-old Chartered Accountant who committed suicide last month because of work-related stress had known this trivia. May be it would have made her feel less alone in terms of 'feeling the pressure'. Yet, if it were up to the so-called 'visionaries' like  Narayan Murthy, CEO of Infosys, our youth would be reeling under a 70-hour work week and dropping like flies...the way 30-year-old Rajesh Shinde did at his work desk.  'Stress,' the medical reports claimed. All in the name of enhancing productivity, GDP, and in the process all manner of pollutants. How dare we consider ourselves the absolute masterpiece of Creation, the pinnacle of evolution?  We, who have de...

  As a country, we embark on a new mission, a common cause to unite us all and reclaim our lost ancient splendour. Its aim: to ensure we produce the first trillionaire of the world. Wouldn’t it only be fair that the land that introduced the concept of `zero’, should be the one to flaunt so many of them at once? Certainly, it is not a `Mission Impossible’ either. For, as per a recent report published by Dubai-based Informa Connect Academy, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk is all set to become the first trillionaire of the world by 2027, our very own Gautam Adani stands the chance to follow suit by the year 2028. This is great news, and yet we can make it even more impactful by helping Mr Adani breast the tape in this `wealth' race to become the first trillionaire. Imagine the kind of tsunami it would create in the world, the headlines that would dominate the international media, the prestige we would glean from the global community! So, as the citizens of Bharat that is India, it...

Seasons come and go. The fruit fills itself and drops from the tree. Across the jewelled streams snaking down the windowpane, a leaf trembles, wavers, swirls through the cool air. Heavy wheels of a push cart crunch upon the graveled road, and a dog barks. 'The Waves' by Virginia Woolf washes over me. The changing inner vistas of its many protagonists veiled behind blocks of monologues advance through the pages like the sea itself. Even though repetitive like the murmur of its waves, rising and crashing, each character carries with it its own hidden world, where no one is fully permitted, not even the reader. Can one, by feeding Virginia Woolf to AI, churn out similar literature, inimitable in its style and content? This is what the mind pauses to ponder. Would AI be able to produce a sequel to The Waves? Or mimic other masterpieces or emulate the singular urges of other great writers and artists which spurred them to create what they did? Lost and confused, like a pendulum I sw...