“Mere verbiage,–it is not worth a carrot!
Why Socrates or Plato–where’s the odds?–
Once taught a jay to supplicate the Gods,
And made a Polly-theist of a Parrot!”
— Thomas Hood (1799 – 1845)

All the renouned  nouns of yesterdays (leave alone yesteryears) are being assaulted by hordes of verb evangelists, and are flattened to deliver verbs – this you know, is the current ing thing.

This sudden flash of remarkable insight occurred to me a few days back; and, therefore, of course I was suitably incited to write this rant. Sorry.

You know, lately I am getting more  confused than ever. Having been part of a muddle management layer (um, I mean, the top layer) of a company that was a normal software disservices outfit, till recently – which was suddenly MNCpated and became part of glowball brand, I get to talk to all kinds of HR honchos who strut about like virile peacocks (IMO, in any merger and/or acquisition scenarios, it is the HR group which tends to get benefited a lot, any idea why?). Read the rest of this entry »

“How to begin to educate a child? First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone. That is the whole beginning.“

– D. H. Lawrence (in Times Educational Supplement, circa 1918 in an essay titled ‘Education of the People’)

I used to think that the hovering, overbearing parents that are the bane (to put it mildly, I would actually say pests) of  only some children and that this kind of degenerate concept is perhaps only applicable to the Occident and not to us in India. How naïve I was! Just because my parents weren’t helicopters, how dare can I think that all other children are / were blessed the same way! Read the rest of this entry »