Bits And Pieces

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that most of our Indian on-stage speeches are just plain stuffy? Why doesn't anyone ever get to the point? Longer is definitely not the way to go, and yet, it seems to be the sole aim of the speaker to shush the audience to dreamland for at least half an hour. And don't even get me started on the Adjectives!!!! Why in the world does a mayor have to be "Worshipful"??!! We aren't in England for God's sake! And "Beloved"? "Radiant"? Sheesh. Such grandiloquence puts even the great bards to shame. The irony is, not even a single bit of any of this actually comes from the heart. Every word that is uttered is meant to butter up the "Dignitaries". Gone are the times when humility was considered to be a virtue and not a weakness. And while we are at it, let us not forget "Very". The ubiquitous "Very" has seeped through, into every speaker's "very" life blood. Isn...

My recent trip to Tirupati (to attend my friend's wedding) was fantastic! We had loads of fun. The wait for THE DARSHAN was an opportunity to get gossiping, and it didn't hurt that i got a wonderful eyeful of his highness Sri Venkatachalapathi. The laddu was definitely a welcome break after the mad rush and the ever famous "jaragandis" (guards yelling at you to move on). A small observation here - the smaller laddu given inside the temple seems to taste better than the larger ones we get outside. My friend's wedding went off quite well. The bride & groom looked gorgeous. We did what friends usually do at weddings and then headed back to our rooms and got started on this wonderful game of cards known as LITERATURE . "Thank you Srikanth chithappa for teaching it to me. You have no idea the amount of fun i've had with it." The heady combination of a slightly complex game and a few mercurial players ensured that the fun never went away. I think we m...