by Manju Gupta
For want of a better word we called it a selfie danda, the name my son-in -law gave it when he presented one to me two years ago. It is a 4 ft telescopic rod on which you can mount your mobile and take a selfie by clicking a conveniently located button. If 2014 was the year of the selfie with everyone from the Pope to POTUS to our own…
When did Holi become an excuse for hooliganism, drunken driving and eve teasing? It is difficult to pin point that exact moment when it became okay to spray unwilling and unsuspecting people with gulal, water colors, caustic dyes, paint, tar, rotten eggs , mud………all in the spirit of fun. The degradation has been gradual and many youngsters don’t even know the significance of this day Like most Indian festivals it…
“Hmm, so not even the children?” my maid asked, not caring to hide her disdain. “No, just us siblings, our parents will accompany us though.” I replied without a shred of guilt. I had been through this drill so many times, had been judged by so many people that I didn’t care anymore. After all it was just a holiday, a fifteen day break. It was a family vacation that…
The father of our nation recognised the power of violating laws and used it to fight foreign domination. That he could inspire an entire nation and lead it to freedom by resisting our rulers through non violent, peaceful protests continues to awe the world. Almost a century later, more than a billion of us, most of whom were born free, are trudging the same path not realising that the Britishers…
My brother in law has a second chance at life because of the generosity of complete strangers. A chronic diabetic, there had been a rapid decline in his kidney function necessitating dialysis awaiting a renal transplant. With no compatible donors in the family we were contemplating an ABO incompatible transplantation with my sister donating her kidney. That is when we got a call from PGIMER, Chandigarh, where we were on…
While clearing out my daughter’s cupboard drawers I came across some newspaper cuttings which took me back in time. It was the year Kalpana Chawla died. My daughter was in Class 11, in the school the astronaut had studied in. During her meteoric rise, KC never missed an opportunity to give back to her alma mater. As a goodwill gesture she had arranged for two students from the school to…
I was online when the news of the demonetisation trickled in. Too engrossed in the final moments of the Trump Hillary showdown, I wondered why the Prime Minister was talking about currency that had been phased out long ago. And then it slowly sinked in. He was referring to the money lying in my wallet. As he ominously declared that the notes would lose legal tender I thought of the…
Unfair Practices Dr Manju Gupta Thirty years ago when I saw it for the first time I was amazed and alarmed in equal measure. I could see the finer details, even the unsavoury ones, as I had a ring side seat to the proceedings. The annual Dussehra Mela is held on a stretch of road just outside our clinic. Back then I was unnerved by the wares laid out on…
I vividly remember the last time I saw her. She was fighting a losing battle with cancer and was confined to a wheelchair. It was the school’s annual day and I was attending as an alumna. At the end of the function everyone stood up for the national anthem. She was too weak to rise. But as we reached the second stanza she struggled to an erect stance and stood…
In the thirty years of my practice, their number has decreased and I used to think that there will come a time when none will be left. Fresh out of medical school, brimming with bookish knowledge, more idealistic than worldly wise, it bothered me no end. But slowly, I got used to it. Back then, it was common for my elderly patients to calculate their age from the riots of…