parotechnics

Mid-day column from last Sunday

Mid-day column for the last two weeks... it comes to an end soon - and the sub-editor is showing this by giving the last one a title they used for an earlier column already! Perhaps I should ask for that job... My friend P called up annoyed one day, scolding me for using a word she did not understand (au courant and pulchritude). I felt this was a good way for her to learn new words - but maybe the sub also does not understand some words and feels fed up and decided - yeh tou generally against normalcy type of character hai, so when in doubt let's just title the column Out of the Box. Anyhoo... Last Sunday's on Not Having The Number And the one before on Stories I'd Rather Not Have (or Longing for the Ones I'd Like To) Meanwhile here in Berlin it is summer. People have put TV sets out on the pavement and were watching the match on the street with beer in hand. I was told that if Germany lost the match yesterday, against Englad, there would be big, grown men walking down...

I used to think writing a column is like a little craft exercise - each time I've written one, I set myself a different writing task and try to keep at it. I find I get good at one thing - but often it becomes a kind of vice, a tic if I'm not careful. Here are my last three Mid-day Columns On archiving and film preservation in India On the AOL "assassination attempt" And on Love, when it's not turned out as we wanted Now I realise it is more like being a different part of your personality - as today I went looking for a very old column I wrote for Mumbai Mirror in 2005. One could argue that that's life anyway, trying on a different part of your personality in different phases of your life...anyway the search for the column was prompted by the weather which has been promisingly cloudy but which refuses to rain.. HEAVY CLOUDS BUT NO EGGS After the exalted sweaty suffering, when it rained last weekend, what could be better than to pile into a rickshaw and head t...

My column today on burqua brouhahahas http://www.mid-day.com/opinion/2010/may/230510-paromita-vohra-burqha-ban-france-islamic-women.htm And last week on discussions about politics http://www.mid-day.com/opinion/2010/may/160510-opinion-political-thoughts-naxalites-democracy-paromita-vohra.htm They persist in giving the dullest titles to the pieces - I'd like to think of good ones myself but mostly I'm just frantically screeching to a deadline. And anyway I'm sure they'd change it instantly from my frivolous ones to these extremely NCERT type ones. It's a losing game - if you write about political ideas (because it's not about politics as such the column) then people immediately become solemn and stodgy - and here you are trying to mix it up some and hoping to re-invest the discussion with some energy in your modest way. Maybe I'm delusional and the title writer is right. In which case it's a good thing I only have another 7 columns to go before we're ...

The bad thing about writing a column - you're constantly stressed out about what you'll write about. The good thing - you don' t have to be stressed about updating your blog. You can just link to This week's column Last week's column It's a good thing they rename the columns as the last one (now called Out of the Box) was formerly called Sex Sex Sex. It's my impression that columnists do not have to be like, imaginative. :)

I've started writing a column in Sunday Mid-day. It's weekly. My flirtation with commitment you could say. It's a general opinion column so can be about anything. Here's the first one, appeared Sunday April 18 and it's sort of about Love and Justice

My grandparents were both in the movies - but very differently. While my grandfather was very famous and is still remembered as an important part of film history, my grandmother is not someone people know of, nor did she do anything that anyone felt must definitely be noted. To a certain extent not even her own family. She acted in some films until the early 40s and subsequently became a producer, making about 6 films, the last in the 60s. By the time I came on the scene, she was just my somewhat glamorous and unconventional grandmother who had a cupboard full of wonderful saris and a painted tin box full of internationally acquired handkerchiefs - but more on that cupboard some other time. She played cards each afternoon, and the glowing colours of her plastic counters: pomegranate juice red, emerald green, the yellow of dal barfi, numbers written on them like varq on barfi in fact, seemed to be part of her very kaleidoscopic presence. Other ladies would come to play cards too - p...