Random House Publications

                The story is about an old man with wispy hair. He's not handsome, hasn't got a handsome son . He is not a billionaire ,hasn't got fancy sports cars. He is not a distinguished elder and his significant other cannot wait to be rid of him. Everyone thinks he's insane and not without reason. He is going by himself on a road trip but he can't drive.So he trudges on by foot on a highway under the hot sun , from one state in the USA to another. In short there are zero things intriguing about him. I am watching the movie Nebraska where Woody, the old guy I've tried to describe has decided that nothing is going to stop him from collecting his fraudulent sweepstakes prize ,worth a  million dollars. His primary goal is to buy a truck with his prize money.The movie is in black and white but there are some colorful scenes when Woody's wife comes on screen. She is a complete riot. But even she can't get this movie going.   ...

People in my country have the compulsive need to complicate certain things. I am making this general comment based on the names(appellations if you will) given to two of our finest institutions. While our friendly neighbors called their cricket governing body "Pakistan Cricket Board" and the Australians simply called theirs "Cricket Australia"  we Indians would have nothing less  flamboyant than the "Board Of Control Of Cricket in India aka THE BCCI".(It is disrespectful to leave out the "THE"). More evidence to support the above seemingly uninformed declaration ,is provided for  by none other than the "Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation"(IRCTC) , who are responsible , among other things , for providing a hassle free environment to reserve your seat one of Indian Railways' 10000 trains (Wikipedia can attest that) . IRCTC has a website which has been unintentionally equipped (or so i suppose)with artificial intelligen...

Driving a vehicle comes naturally to some people.These select few can drive them all .Be it a a bicycle, unicycle , motor cycle , car , lorry , or tanker. Legend has it that they are the direct descendants of the Lord Suzukeshwara Maruthi , the Multi-Religional god of speed. They even go so far as to claim "when you've driven one , you can drive them all".  This talent is hereditary,  perhaps . But one can't be too sure ,  as these "genes" that are purportedly responsible for all matters hereditary ,  choose to show up or not show up in a given generation ,  based on patterns that are not easily predictable. According to studies by chaps who are curious about such rummy things ,  color blindness , a relatively mild genetic disorder can skip a generation . But it seems they didn't find time (read didn't give a rat's backside) to find out whether or not driving skills or the lack of it , can be passed on through genes. Going by my experience with ...

Animal lovers are often asked to state categorically if they are dog people or cat people. I personally find this choice quite a difficult one to make. The answer to that question , is also supposed to reveal certain hidden character traits. Dog people crave for loyalty, cat people are proud etc.  This sort of psycho-analysis , i will leave to the more intellectually equipped. Truth is , if you know them both well , you cant really pick one. These are some of my my memorable experiences with animals. 1.Having had yet another unproductively long day at work (i am a "software type"), trying to figure out just why my code refused to run even though i had all but whipped it , I was lying on my bed pondering vaguely  about things as random as, trying to acquire a helicopter to avoid traffic like Top Gear's Richard Hammond , whether 25 can be considered a reasonable retirement age, and how car manufacturers, as a rule , always pick the most annoying music to be playe...

Most five year olds from two decades ago were easily entertained or distracted.But some of them require a very oddly specific thing to be entertained for hours. I belonged in this category. When i was in class 1 (or 1st grade) at school , i was insanely enthusiastic about going to school every single day.This was the first time  i would get to carry my own lunch to school and eat it there! Mundane as this sounds, until a month or so ago, in kindergarten , I could come back home after only half a day of school,which included an hour specially dedicated to sitting in a sand pit with a pail and a ladle. And my older brother wouldn't miss a chance to show off to me , that he was tougher owing to the fact that he could come  back from school later than i could and ate his lunch from a tiffin box .So for the first few days of class 1 , I made sure to brandish my lunch bag about , so everyone could see that i was a cool kid who carried her own lunch and everything. And so this w...