The Ironman is the opposite of health
Where has the bicep curl gone? There was a time when every gym had the image of a man lifting a dumbbell and curling the bicep—a muscle that signified strength and health. You don’t see this as much today because it has been downgraded to a show muscle, though that is a bit harsh, as […]
Evaluate People by their Worst Qualities, not Best
PEOPLE REMEMBER actors, singers, writers, directors and sports stars through their best works, even when such works are very few. Some artists are celebrated for a single work; for instance the status of V.V.S. Laxman as a sports legend rests on a single Test inning. The glory of major public figures comes from their finest […]
All Marriages are Arranged Marriages
Materialists, a delightful film, especially for people who are not wounded, wants to say that beautiful women want to marry wealthy and tall men, and wealthy men want to marry beautiful young women. And people who are not so sought-after choose others like them. So the marriage of the undesired, too, is of two equals, […]
On Insulting Men For Not Reading Novels
NOW and then, there is a lecture given to men about how they must read, chiefly novels, and how that would make them better people, like women. A few days ago the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a column entitled, ‘Attention, Men: Books Are Sexy!’ This headline portended a genre of advice to […]
Don’t Bring Psychoanalysis Home
Home psychoanalysis is a modern disorder. More than ever, people are attributing reasons for a person’s behaviour to something not very obvious, like the distant past or sexual melancholy or the subconscious mind. Thus there are claims that a man does not prioritize his family because he had a bad father; or that a child […]
What Our Awe for Israel Says About Us
A few months ago, Hezbollah’s operatives in Lebanon experienced something surreal—their pagers exploded. The next day, their walkie-talkies did the same. Israel, at first, said nothing officially. But later, it admitted what everyone already suspected: that its intelligence agency Mossad had orchestrated it. Israel managed to plant small explosives inside Hezbollah’s pagers and walkie-talkies, possibly […]
The Godless are Growing, but they May not be Better People
A new Pew report shows that the number of people who have quit religion has risen. In such reports, people who say they have no religious affiliation are endearingly called ‘Nones.’ Between 2010 and 2020, Nones grew by 270 million, second only to those who identify as Muslim. There are 1.9 billion Nones in the […]
What If You Don’t Love India?
A national secret is normally guarded by the government. But there is a national secret that is held by India’s people—millions of them. And the secret is that they may not be patriotic. It has to be a closely guarded secret because today every Indian is expected to be a patriot. The other option is […]
Why the Flight Attendant Shouldn’t be a Genius
I GET a spam call from a girl who asks which bank has issued my credit card, and I say, “Sperm Bank.” She asks if it is a foreign bank. I say it’s Indian. She asks for the spelling of ‘Sperm’. Listening to her, I am delighted at the progress the nation has made. I […]
The Lie That Every Language Holds a Secret Feeling
USUALLY, when a person speaks a language poorly, it is a sign that they speak some other language very well. But many Indians who eat avocados cannot speak any language well. This includes English, their current dominant language that made them forget their own. I, too, have lost the ability to speak well, especially an […]