Ugly Indian, part two

Pot-bellied policemen in Delhi have been warned: get back in shape either by dancing bhangra or going to the gym, or face penalties. And in my town a lot of shopkeepers are telling me that they can't give out the wafer thin plastic 'carry bags' (what a silly name!) any more, now that the municipal authorities have seriously cracked down on this particular form of customer addiction...

At least some people in this country are bothering about some of the worst aspects of our culture. I'll keep my eyes on the news, because another aspect of the same culture is that most of our many enthusiasms are notoriously short-lived! Remember the 'anti-corruption' circus?

Fancy tag

One expression that has come into widespread use over the last decade or a little more is ‘life partner’. The Oxford online dictionary, I found, defines it as ‘a person with whom one is in a long-term monogamous relationship’.

Funny, isn’t it, that the older term spouse has been quite forgotten? Also, as far as India is concerned, I cannot get rid of the suspicion that the term is a direct translation of the expression jeevan saathi, for the popularization of which all credit must go to cable TV and the matchmaking industry.

Funnier still is the fact that the term has caught on precisely in an age when no one can be sure any more whether a marriage will last out a single full year. Old-fashioned as I am, I should have thought no one who has not celebrated his or her silver jubilee, at least, with the same spouse can earn the right to call that spouse a ‘life-’ partner!

Ugly Indian

As I wrote in the blogpost titled Atithi devo bhavo exactly a year ago, I was thrilled to bits to see Aamir Khan in a public awareness campaign on TV, exhorting fellow Indians to mind their public manners a little. I wonder how much it has affected our behaviour: haven't seen much signs of improvement myself. Today, an old boy called Sunup Varghese Kurien sent me a link to this website. I am very glad indeed to see that some people feel the way I do, and are doing things to change things for the better, even if it is ever so little. I have immediately asked Sunup to let me know if and how I can help. Meanwhile, some of my readers can write in, if only to tell me that they too feel like us, and very strongly, and would like to pitch in whichever way they can.

Purpose of life?

Do go through this little essay, and let me know – did you find it gross, or sad, or funny, or just stupid? I couldn't make up my mind.

Just right

I often read and remark on T-shirt legends. One moronic (or uber-wise: take your pick) tag read 'I was born intelligent; education ruined me'.

But I was pleased to see that somebody has got it just right on a pupil's T-shirt this time round: 'I was born intelligent, but twitter ruined me'.