Since as back as I can remember Mr. D, our neighbor, I have seen him strolling with a newspaper at 7am in his verandah, after which he would go inside, and then emerge an hour later, fully dressed, lunch in one hand, and rush out of his home and keep running till he found himself inside his bus. A chartered bus. Then at 5:30 pm he could be seen walking back to his house, at a much more relaxed pace than in the morning, after which he would shortly appear for a game of badminton.

These days it is not very uncommon to hear phrases like Twitter will change the world, or that Facebook will guide the way businesses deal with their customers, or something on similar lines. While it is undeniable that Internet is changing the world as we know it, yet by itself Internet can’t do much.

Without the offline world, the online world simply cannot exist.

We’ve heard in many a media reports that Indian judges tend to live in their ivory towers, unchecked in their role while delivering judgments. Here’s one such outrageous example, where a judge actually ignored the constitution and demonstrated that grandest of stupidity is possible even in courts’ judgments. And yet we remained silent! There was a case of a Mr Haribaskar back in the 90’s when he was the Chief Secretary to Jayalaltiha’s cabinet in Tamil Nadu.

“The system is hopeless. It needs an overhaul.” This is an oft heard statement in many a heated discussions. The point, however, that ignored in most such discussions is: “What is this system?” If we look at a country, then the Constitution can be termed as the backbone of the system. It is a well known fact – and often reiterated – that the constitution is above all. I may be tagged as a constitutional extremist, but I have great faith in it. It is like the holy grail of the system in India, superior even to the Supreme Court.

Waiting for the bus at the bus stop, the other day, I met my next door neighbor. She was also waiting for the bus along with her four kids. Wait, her four kids! I thought she had only one kid. And all the kids curiously looked the same age and were of the same height. So, as I wished her good evening, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked her, “Which school do your kids go to?”
“They are not my kids. Only she is my daughter,” she said pointing to the small girl wearing a short skirt and a sleeveless top.

A generation or so ago, a majority of the people in our country lived a life far different from that of today. A life that you would call tough, astounding or impossible. They walked miles to fetch water from the river, used hot coal to iron dresses, washed clothes at a stone specially designed for the purpose and hung them out in the sun to dry. They bent double to sweep and mop the house. They wrote letters to connect with others. They did arithmetic in their mind, or on paper. They used fire to cook. They went out shopping. They fanned themselves in Summer and burned fire-wood in Winter.

To convey the true significance of the word is one of the critical motives behind this article. Starting from the smallest decisions that we take every day when we get out of the bed, or have breakfast, to the larger decisions of choosing a career, or getting married, to the even larger – and where our opinions might not even mean much – decision of India signing the agreement for nuclear cooperation, or the IPL saga of business of cricket, we contemplate a lot.

Humans have an innate, deep rooted, and a strong desire to be famous, or at least be well-known. Even the most private individuals want to be known, and appreciated, for what they are and what they do. The recent growth in the number of reality shows – however much we may claim to despise them – bears ample evidence to the fact that people like to be famous, even if the fame lasts only for fifteen minutes.

Come 1st April, and many minds begin to work extra hard to design devious schemes to fool their friends, colleagues, and even strangers. 1st April is that one day of the year where you can make fun of people, and get away with it without risking any grievous physical injury. At the same time, you need to be careful about believing what you hear or read on this day, because you never know when you might be taken for a ride.

The day I was commissioned in the Gorkha Regiment, I knew I have been put with the most dynamic yet simple soldiers of the mighty Indian Army. The physically undersized and naïve Gorkha with small, barely discernible eyes, can be the most ferocious and heroic warrior in the combat zone on one hand, while on the lighter side he can be the unanimously proclaimed dope amongst his counter parts in other regiments.