Idhar Udhar Ki Baat

  “My respect for the wisdom embedded in our Panchatantra , Jataka Tales , and Indian folklore has grown manifold this year,” said the old man, settling into his bench among the other morning walkers. “Why this year in particular? That wisdom has always been there,” I asked. He smiled, “Because this year, across the ocean, someone’s come to power in Amrika—a man who reminds me of the crow in the Panchatantra who stuck peacock feathers to his butt and thought he could pass off as a peacock.” “Still not following. There are so many of them,” I said. “You know, that man who just can't keep quiet. Like the turtle in the Jataka tale—being airlifted by swans, told to stay silent, but couldn't resist blurting out mid-air that he had single-handedly brokered peace in four days on the Twitter —only to come crashing down.” “With so many conflicts going on, who exactly are you referring to?” I asked. He leaned in, “Let me give you another clue. Like the monkey in the Panchatan...

“Sir, although you have signed the certificate to euthanise him, I would like to confirm before administering the injection,” said the veterinarian. Papa, instead of answering the vet, looked at the family members, who all conveyed their approval by nodding their heads. All had tears in their eyes. With a heavy voice, Papa said, “Go ahead, doctor. Please make sure it is not painful for him. How much time will it take?” “With his condition, I don't think it will be more than five minutes before his breathing and heart stop completely.” As the vet poked the syringe into Rock ’s thigh, a scream went out of the elder son’s mouth. He started crying uncontrollably and said, “Papa, I always used to tease him with the threat of an injection. He was always scared of injections. But today, he is in such a state that he cannot even move to respond to the prick of the injection. In fact, I felt his pain now. I cannot see him dying.” “Be brave; you are a grown-up boy. Besides, we had decided t...

“ Bachao! Bachao!” came a shrill shout for help from the far end of the park. Some stray dogs were barking. Something was clearly going wrong. I sprinted. As I reached closer, I saw a tall man — mid-forties, dressed in a nice track suit, running away from a bunch of stray dogs. He tripped, stumbled, and crash-landed. The dogs weren’t biting, just circling him and barking from a distance. I made one fake stone-picking move and the dogs backed off. The man was still shaking and mumbling prayers. I made him drink water from the water bottle he was clutching. I said, “you could have hurled that bottle at those dogs.” He feebly answered, “I got scared.” I could see the dogs didn’t look ferocious. Mischievous at best. You see, dogs are smart. They sniff fear. If you panic, they chase. And then, I remembered my days of ‘dog trauma’. There was a street terrorist (dog) in my colony — Ladoo. It was anything but sweet. Every day I’d cross its gate like I was in a minefield. If the door was open,...

"We assess a criminal's reach or strength and then take action against him. Fauji blindly gets into a situation. In fact, you people have a habit of dealing with situations from a position of weakness ," said the DSP when I was coaxing him to book the over ground workers under Public Safety Act. "We have been helping you all through. We have been including your name in the sitreps for successful operations and you insult us by saying that we deal from a position of weaknes s," I said angrily.  "I am sorry to say it, so bluntly. I feel bad for your predicament because my three brothers are serving in the army and one of them is an officer." "That doesn't explain position of weakness ," I said firmly.  "Well, firstly you are including my name in the sitrep because you fear that I may spoil something. And look at the way you get treated by some civilians because you deal with them from a position of weakness," said the D...

“I don’t think they should have arrested all those Youtuber spies,” I remarked, seated on a park bench surrounded by fellow veterans. An older veteran turned to me sharply. “What nonsense are you talking about? You’ll be branded anti-national.” “I agree, sir,” I replied. “On the surface, my statement sounds foolish. But I believe we lost a strategic opportunity.” The group chuckled. “What opportunity?” they asked in unison. “Emotionally, yes, I’d prefer a death sentence for those who betray the nation. But what will actually happen? A year or two in jail. Maybe even less. We could have used them instead—to feed misinformation to our enemies before busting them. If these Youtubers had been privately confronted, they might have cooperated. Fame is everything to them. The enemy handlers would’ve continued trusting them, not replacing them with fresh spies. Now that they’ve been arrested, new ones will be recruited, and we’ll be starting from scratch. Who knows—we could’ve traced...