Tushar Mangl

Occupy Wall Street Occupy London Occupy Rome Occupy Zurich Occupy Tahrir And the World will be Red Red of the Soviets Red of the Tiananmen Red of the Indianism

One day, my friend, a doctor informed me about a dengue prevention camp that he was going to conduct. A part of me, wanted to visit, but I couldn't attend because of some reason. Mostly, I wanted to go to support my friend. Why would I need a dengue prevention medicines, I haughtily wondered at that time. But, in reality I was at a high dengue risk, unknown to anyone. My office was flooded with mosquitoes and a portion of it was flooded by water. Perhaps at the office or some other place, the mosquito attacked me. As a consequence, my platelets spiraled down, as my temperature shot up. It was a sick time. Down on bed all the time, with nothing to do. Add to it, my heart's misery. Having lost a friend to dengue, exactly a year ago, the time that passed was tough on me. Could I be joining him? Or I am the one, destined to suffer on Earth here? Questions often tormented my mind. I think of it now, and I realize that yes, I was ready to meet the creator. (Or whomsoever you meet, wh...

Everyday, as I head to my office, I have to cross a busy chowk in the area called Ishmeet Chowk. It has among many other commercial establishments an ATM of State Bank of India. But I have been in for a surprise, for past many days, on a hoarding by Youth Congress just above the ATM. Moreover, the hoarding is clearly endorsed by the bank ATM as shown in the photos below.   State Bank is one of the largest banks in the country. We have an act in the Parliament for its functioning. How, I wonder, do we allow such large public institutions, that have several lakhs of shareholders to adopt political sides? Is it really appropriate? While local authorities like the Municipal Council are always in news for giving publicity leeway to politicians, large public organizations to enter this line of sycophancy is rare.   Of course one may say that the bank had no knowledge of this. But then, if you look at the hoarding carefully, SBI ATM with the bank logo has been clearly incorporated in...

It happens with me often. I don't know about the reader, though. Some object or a song or a picture becomes an icon of of memories. For example, you here a particular song and it reminds you of your kid days. A picture can be a window of a whole long vacation that you had been part of. One such icon, that clicked upon me, the other day, during lunch was the smell of a paneer parantha. Yes, when I was a kid, mom used to pack paranthas for tiffin (She still does that, btw but now we refer to it as lunch not tiffin). One of my favorites, way back were paneer paranthas. I like them simple, with filling of just paneer (cottage cheese) and salt. I am not familiar with the technicalities, but food does differ in taste if you eat it fresh or you pack it for some hours and then eat it. I can never seem to forget the aroma of packed paneer paranthas. In my brain, it has been associated with a picture of Petals, the nursery school that I attended as a child. Speaking about old memories and ch...