Category: Humour

Pandora’s Vox What if the EVM could approximate voter behaviour? Your cheeky editorial about the speaking, pontificating, buttoned-up voting machine (‘I, EVM,’ IE December 12) gets it mostly right except that one, nagging doubt: If the EVM can be spoken on behalf of, can it not be thought-controlled too? The editorial claims that the EVM is, after all, the messenger of people’s will and not the will itself. Is it? What if, just what if, the EVM has grown a…

It is not about the Dolby stupid Multiplexes were never about choice. They are about business of film distribution. Your editorial position on the Maharashtra government’s decision to allow audiences to carry eatables inside movie theatres (‘Price of popcorn,’ IE, July 17) is singularly disagreeable. As a keen reader of your paper, if I offer a few points contradicting the editorial, I hope I will not overshoot my brief. The issue at hand is whether it was a worthy decision…

Photo: Unsplash/Merch Husey Mr Modi has confessed that his wax alter-egos understand him best, in his mother tongue of course, because he can talk at length without being asked fraudulent, Nehruvian questions Mr Modi has come straight from the Wuhan summit with the Chinese President, where he no doubt spoke in his mother tongue when he convinced the premiere to concentrate on dhokla rather than Doklam. Emboldened by his persuasive faculties, he came to Karnataka and straightway challenged the pitiable…

Jesus Christ by Abanindranath Tagore Since early modernity, popular representation of time is the one that drives capital and manufactures social life In the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible, prophet Daniel sees “The Ancient of Days” as saving the world, after which “his dominion shall be everlasting; it shall never be destroyed”. This is one of the more prominent pronouncements in Hebrew literature of the pursuit of “everlasting” glory undertaken in this world as against, say, the immortality…

Keep walking Late 20th century capitalism has made human identity unstable and unsustainable In the very second stanza of The Cyborg Manifesto (1985) — her game-changing thesis about feminism and identity politics — American feminist philosopher Donna Haraway claimed that the boundary between social reality and science fiction is an optical illusion. Late 20th century capitalism, she contended, had made human identity unstable and unsustainable and pushed humans — in life as in labour — into a war with machines.

Fools of the full moon. photo by author On 5 May, Eden was the place you would die to be at. I mean we generally pine to make it to the heaven in case we perish, but that day the rush was a bit too much, somewhat ‘hellish’, to put it mildly. No, really, we are not talking about jihad here in which ascending to heaven is taken at face value. We are against violence of all kinds, especially those…

Sachin Tendulkar of India takes a breather during the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2003. Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images and is under copyright. Sachin Tendulkar’s nomination for Rajya Sabha has created the desired effect for the Congress, at least across the cyberspace and the various media platforms. For the last week or so, nothing else has generated more debate across the public forums as this piece of news. The reaction, on the whole, has been hostile towards the proposition…

Tales of the arch tippler In a recent press release, spirit maker Diageo has announced the re-launch of the legendary VAT69. According to company sources, the iconic dark green, sherry-shaped bottle is a tribute to its creator William Sanderson. Is it? We all thought it was a tribute to Ajit and to Ranjeet, the arch filmy villain and his ‘rape-happy’ sidekick. Or may-be even to Pran, Prem Chopra and oh yes, even to the red-eyed, drooling, baritoned slosh of one…

The much-discussed Peepli (Live) has garnered attention to the logic of employing satire to a case (or a cause) that is hopelessly tragic. The film’s veracity, depicting one of the biggest agrarian crises to have precipitated in Independent India, is unquestionable. The makers have rightly targeted the assorted symbolisms of what we call the ‘establishment’ — the administration, the government, agencies of policymaking and the favourite butt which everybody kicks these days — the 24X7 television media. The critical value of the…

The search is on There is hardly a new thing that can be said about the Indo-US nuclear deal. But the deal has shown new sides to those public figures whom we thought we knew well. Here they are, looked at through the post-nuclear deal tamasha glass: Manmohan Singh: After years of playing dumb -(or, at least, mumble) charades with both the Congress President and the Indian people, ‘I’m-a- Man’ Manmohan has suddenly received a double shot of adrenaline, which ought to…