Latte with Phoenix

SHIRT   BUTTON The other day, one of my brand new shirts was put up for washing after being worn just once. Imagine my surprise that after washing it transpired that one of the spare buttons had broken in half. Half of it was still hanging on. It was one of the two spare buttons which the manufacturer stitches on the lower edge of the shirt for your use if any of the regular front buttons break or gets damaged. It was fully intact when I had worn it. The shirt was fine in all other respects. I am in a big dilemma as to what to do. If any of the main front buttons had broken then simply sew on the spare one. But what to do if the very spare is broken ? There are several options available, and so many things can happen. Spare buttons provided with shirt 1. The shirt can be taken back to the store (I have the receipt) where they may admonish me “Only the spare button is broken, the shirt is intact, why are you making such a fuss ?” But it is a matter of principle as so

CITY ENTRANCE All of us must have visited scores of cities, and would have formed some opinions about them. But how do you form an opinion ? As soon as you step into the city or after staying there for few days ? Opinions are said to be formed mostly on first impressions, and so it would be logically true for cities too. Now a City can be entered only in two ways – from a Railway Station or by Road. Arriving by Air is NOT a third option, as airports are on the outskirts of the City – so you practically enter the City by Road. I would prefer to enter a City from its Railway Station instead of by road, and can give sufficient reasons to do so. Delhi Arriving in a City by train is a joy in itself. The wait in the train as it nears the City, the clatter of the tracks as the train slowly navigates the railway yard. The duration taken in the yard varying according to the size of the City, in some cities it may be half an hour or more, in some only a minute. Finally the

PACKAGING To the majority of us, the philosophy of packaging is a mystery. Or you can say that the packaging industry takes the customer for granted or a ride – choose anyone.                    If this sounds like an exaggeration, remember what happens when you try to unwrap a new shirt ! If removing all the plastic parts and cardboard was not enough, remembering to remove all the pins is a task in itself. If any is left out it is sure to pierce your shoulder when you wear the shirt, or if the unwrapping was done on your bed (as is normally done) it may well puncture you when you go to bed !          Another item we all come across is the small tomato ketchup sachets provided with your breakfast on trains etc. Bravado eggs you on and you take the courage to try to tear it open – first with your fingers and then with your teeth. Other passengers are looking on in gleeful anticipation on whether you succeed or not, maybe even taking bets among themselves. You do not

           Although Blitz and Current were courageous, gave investigative journalism with lots of hoopla; but light entertainment was in not heaped out. Tit-Bits This was a British weekly magazine available all over their colonies. The magazine was a joy to read having interesting bits of information from Books, Periodicals, and Newspapers of the World. The emphasis was on human interest stories concentrating on drama and sensation.                                          Although available few weeks after its dateline, no item in it was out of date and it made interesting reading.                                         It was available all over the country in magazine stores even in average sized towns at a very nominal price. We would sort out from the  available  stack  what was interesting, just like comics.                                         The magazine was founded in 1881, its circulation is said to reach 400,000 to 600,000 per week, peaki

         Among things forgotten are some Indian newspaper tabloids which were a craze in the period independence to the 80’s, but have gone into oblivion with the death of their owner editors.           Among them are … BLITZ – The "free, frank and fearless" and the most popular weekly in India at that time, published by Rustom Khurshedji Karanjia  or “Russy Karanjia” as he was popularly known.                                                       Blitz, a weekly tabloid was published on ordinary newsprint. Its focus on investigative journalism could be said to be courageous and a little titillating with the pin-up girls on the last page. It was fun reading the Blitz which regularly gave scoops and entertainment.                           Young and old alike, even in the remotest parts of India, used to queue up before newspaper stalls on Friday evening or Saturday (which depended on when it reached that place depending on its distance from Bombay) t

          A world famous item from the days gone-by are the MECCANO sets. It was truly a gem, giving hours and hours of bliss to youngsters.                courtsy - meccanoindex.co.uk They were beautifully made assemble yourself toy sets, with parts in steel plate, painted green and red. The screws were made of brass, wheels with rubber tyres etc, etc. You could make hundreds of mechanical things from the diagrams supplied or from your imagination. Since they had wheels, winches, pulleys, cranks etc., they worked like the real things, giving no end of enjoyment. We used to show our made items to all adults with pride, and discuss new ideas with friends at school. Later on just dismantle and make something new. No wastage !!                       The sets were numbered 0 (smallest having less parts) to 9 (having maximum variety of parts). There were in-between sets numbered with an A to upgrade to a higher level (example - number 2A added to 2 made your set equal to number

The dictionary gives the meaning of the word ‘realignment’ as - the act of changing to a previous or different position Realignment can be of various kinds – affecting us individually, our family, our society or the country. Why does realignment happen ? If you probe about it, the findings are astonishing. In most of the cases it is seen that it is induced by outside forces – who force it to happen to serve their own purpose and interests. A COUNTRY may align itself to any power block, ideology or claim to be neutral. But realignment of countries is a slow process and it takes several decades to happen; or come out of. The period of the Cold war was the most prominent, and the world has seen countries realign with this or that Power or Ideology. Usually it is the Leader who does the process, and it is not in the power of the population to decide such realignments ! This is a vast subject of Political Science and better left to its experts. YOUNG PERSONS specially

I remember so many things from my childhood which are no more seen. Some items are lost due to technology, which we should not repent. But there are several things which having no connection with technology, yet have gone into disuse.           I remember all us children playing with a bicycle tyre and enjoying it no end. It gave lots of exercise, allowed us to see the whole street and mohalla, made several friends, learnt how to dodge traffic etc., etc. Children also raced each other to see who reached a point first.           It was easily available in nearly every home and easy to play with it. Maybe in some remote places children may still be playing with this do-it-yourself toy. Boy playing with cycle tyre                     A class above was the boy who had a cycle rim ! It was the envy of the others. It was solid, shiny, made a nice metallic sound when rolling etc., etc. All the other children begged that boy to let us roll it for a few minutes; he obliging o