On the back of my old visiting card

I've often wondered what to do with stacks of my old visiting cards. Sometimes, I use them as bookmarks and on other occasions as note-cards. The other day, on the back of a card, I scribbled this with sketch pens and used my fingers to smudge the ink. Then I drew some fine lines. A girl looked back at me from the card.

Why do people yell at dogs?

I always wonder why people yell commands at dogs, all the time. As if shouting will make a dog obey when even adult humans who know the language sometimes don't. A few months ago, I visited a friend in the US who was keeping his neighbour's dog while they were on a holiday. He kept yelling and the big male labrador toyed with him by pulling at his leash while they were out for a walk. The louder my friend shouted the harder the dog tugged. My friend almost tumbled. He asked me to watch the dog for a few minutes while he entered the shop. I wondered if the dog would tug at the leash. He looked at me. I whispered, "Sit." The dog sat. Ten minutes later my friend emerged. I handed him the leash. And the dog took my friend for a run.

What is Done is Done aka Macbeth

Last night, we watched Rajat Kapoor's play What Is Done Is Done based on Shakespeare's Macbeth. Kapoor's spin on the great tragedy was to interperse the acts with clowns and humour (more grey than dark) where once a clown told the audience, "You've forgotten the murder in the last scene." The acting and lighting were great but I am not sure of the comic interludes. They made me laugh on their own but took me away from understanding Macbeth's (Macky B) dilemma, predicament, fear, paranoia and mania. I remembered the darkness in Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool (the Bollywood version of Macbeth) and how I had felt the fear felt by the protagonist. I missed that experience in this theatre.

8 Nov 2017: A year after the commencement of Demonetisation

Many of us, over the coming years, will dismiss the 2016 demonetisation as a bad dream. For those 100-odd families who lost their near and dear ones as their savings were wiped out, bank staff who buckled under stress and guilt, people who succumbed to the trials of standing in long ATM queues for their own money, or those could not get admitted to hospitals because they did not have cash on their person, this will be the wound they have to live with forever. Will the upholders of the policy that promised to remove 'black money' from society ever be able to remove the blood that stained it?

#Demonetization #BloodAndBlackMoney