The Blah Blahs and the Yada Yadas

Writing can be quite unpredictable. When I start to write something, for example, I’m not always sure of how it might turn out to be. Sometimes, I’ll start on an idea that I believe might be a serious no-nonsense critique of  mismanaged traffic system in Bangalore city, and halfway through the article, I’ll find out [...]

Over the past few years, my parents have been urging me to rake up some cash every month, gather it into a pile, and burn it. Rather a weird request, but they were quite gung-ho about it. They even offered to put up the money if I came short. It wasn’t part of some bizzare [...]

This sort of thing shouldn’t happen to me. Not at this age. When you have moved on across the path of maturity, there are some baggages that you essentially leave behind; dump a bag or two on the maturity road and hope nobody comes and pinches you for littering. Some of the leading experts à la mom ‘n [...]

The quest to waste some waist seems to be a popular one. I have come across a whole bunch of people who say they are prepared to give an arm and a leg if only they could lose some weight. I must confess that logically, I can find no flaw in the reasoning. There is [...]

The Hammy persona is on a steady growth pattern. Now I wish I was talking about my career… or my knowledge… or my prowess at the guitar… or at least my hair. Unfortunately, the steady growth pattern I’m talking about is for the Hammy waistline.
This phenomenon has been in action for years now. And it’s [...]

Many things have perplexed me throughout life. The Riemann Hypothesis, Marylin Manson and George W Bush, just to quote three examples. (Ok, so I didn’t really wonder about the Riemann Hypothesis, but I have watched two TV episodes around it). But nothing really throws me off as much as fashion… a constantly redefined set of [...]

I’ve HAD it! It’s a goddamn antediluvian conspiracy. And I’m not talking about the conspiracy to get me to use ‘antediluvian’ in the wrong context. I’m talking about something bigger. Bigger, meaner and revolving around a common target… meeee.
Granted, I spend most of my time in Bangalore feverishly avoiding work by pretending to look busy. [...]

It was Easter again and I had obtained my hard earned day off to go home in the loving shelter of the parental home down south in Cochin. I was all set for the feasting, sharing, feasting and feasting that was part of the annual ritual. And I had a particularly good feeling about this [...]

Yesterday was a bad day. Little demons with big pointy sticks poked the insides of my skull; Tiny clones of Himesh Reshammiya sat next to my eardrums and shrieked at the top of his irksome nasal voice; my old economics professor popped up like an inebriated jack-in-the-box every time I blinked, just to ask me [...]

I have my hair alright. I suppose I could delude myself that it’s always gonna be there, but only under the influence of REALLY powerful hallucinogens like LSD, mescaline, or Keith Richards. The truth, however, is in plain sight. I’m losing hair like ballot papers from Florida.
Historically, hair loss has been a bad omen. Napoleon [...]