A glass of steaming milky syrupy tea is best served cut. One by two or two by three, it embodies the spirit of sharing and camaraderie (and more significantly a resource crunch). Come, have a sip.
Desi jugaad or Indian ingenuity is legendary. Be it churning lassi in washing machines or using condoms to provide a smooth finish to tarred roads, necessity is the mother of amazing inventions in our nation. Even governments here run on jugaad.
Yesterday, in Vaishali, the boom town of Ghaziabad, came across a rickshaw that looked a little different, with headlights, indicators and all. On further investigation, discovered an engine beneath the seat.
The driver/owner of the rickshaw (I cannot recollect his name) says that his motorcycle rickshaw contraption is one-of-its-kind in the area.
He charges a premium of Rs 5 over the usual rickshaw fare in exchange for speed. Fitted with a moped engine, the motorcycle rickshaw (or should we call it a moped rickshaw?) gives 40 kilometres to the litre. He assures that his vehicle wouldn't topple if it encounters a bump at 40 kmph (the top speed according to him).
Asked about braking, "Power brakes," he replies with pride.
His only worry is that the transport department says that he cannot ply his vehicle without a license plate, something he expects to get soon.
With the narrow cycle rickshaw tyres, travelling at high speeds doesn't seem to be a good idea. Moreover the absense of proper suspension wouldn't make the journey very comfortable in the bylanes of Ghaziabad.
It is quite common to find carts (thelas) fitted with scooter engines on Indian roads, but it was the first time that I saw a petrol-powered cycle rickshaw. Do let me know if such example exist elsewhere.
By the way, what happened to the much hyped solar-powered rickshaws that were supposed to be launched in Delhi?
One day, in the comparatively innocent times that we grew up in, a friend announced, "I had oral sex." I and another friend present were stupefied. We were still in school. "Come, again," (no pun intended) we said. He repeated the four shattering words again, with extra emphasis.
Curious, we prodded for details and it turned out that our 'sexually gratified' pal had just talked a bit about sex with a girl on the phone. Being more enlightened, courtesy the agony column in The Teenager and quite a few magazines that we weren't exactly supposed to read then, we let our naive friend know of the dictionary meaning of oral sex.
But the times they have changed. When school kids nowadays talk of love, it isn't always platonic, as in our times (Damn, I already feel old).
Even newspapers do not shy away from advertising for fellatio services, as I discovered today. The massage parlour and escort services ads have been around for many years. Objections were raised, but such ads still fill in many column centimetres of the classifieds pages.
Since I'm on the look out for a new house, was scanning Times Classifieds, that comes along with the Sunday Times of India for properties. Under the 'Massage Parlours' head I discovered at least two ads quite brazenly peddling oral sex services. Only they interchanged a couple of letters (blowjob becomes blwojob), taking a cue from the spammers.
BANGKOK-STYLE-YOU-WORLD.CLASS Blwojob Ser Like Beautiful Charming Good Looking girl fully trained service staff CALL ASSH # 99********
REFRESHING.YOU-WORLD.CLASS Blwojob Ser By Beautiful Charming Good looking girl fully trained service staff Call KASHISH. 98********
Is it just me, or is there a striking similarity between the wordings of matrimonial ads and the ones above?
What's next? Fcuk!
(This could have been around for longer, just that I happened to notice it today)
This is one dhandha that doesn't go manda. Though I support legalising prostitution and quite agreed with the Supreme Court's observations on legalising the trade, but it isn't as easy a solution. Make a law and expect the world to fall in order.
There is nothing new about the news of news being paid for. I first became aware of this practice as a mass communication student in the early 2000s. To me, then, it seemed that it was not just news but the soul that is being bartered. The feeling still holds true.
Today there was an nice piece in The Sunday Express titled "News, Sponsored." The contents of the article wouldn't be surprising for people who are in the business of the media, we have learnt to take it in our stride. A necessary evil for some.
Friends in the Hindi news channels term such content ad ki khabar (ads as news) and they usually get preference over other genuine news content. Obviously so, because there's money in it.
Such initiatives by the media organisations could be beneficial in these cash-strapped times, but the long term implications may be adverse. News is associated with credibility and when the credibility starts to wash off, so does the bottom line.
Or is it so? There are newspapers that don't give much of a damn to credibility and still sit atop the readership figures. There are news channels that have ceased to be news channels but draw the highest TRPs. We all thought that it was just a passing fad and Indians will tire of such content and see the light. But the light doesn't seem to be coming anytime soon.
Even though being in the media (not the mainstream media, but a wing that'll be the mainstream soon), I have started to rely more on the opinions of individuals who are unassociated with the media: the bloggers, the twitterers, the forums. I think I can still trust them. For me, professionally, it isn't a good signal.
Desi jugaad or Indian ingenuity is legendary. Be it churning lassi in washing machines or using condoms to provide a smooth finish to tarred roads, necessity is the mother of amazing inventions in our nation. Even 
