Kusum Choppra

When we were kids we often heard the tale of “kutti mein mutti”, of the little boy who was reluctant to leave a game of marbles to go to pee, incase someone cheated on him. So he peed into the little hole, dug in the ground as ‘goal’, so the game would be disrupted and then could begin afresh after he relieved himself properly. One is tempted to believe this is the attitude of expats from their homelands in underdeveloped countries. First they fleece the home country for subsidized quality education which wins them seats in foreign universities, jobs et all. And then, once they have settled in, instead of trying to do something constructive for the homeland, they fish in troubled waters, funding separatist movements and airing various theories with little knowledge of ground realities beyond the eerie word pictures of concerned relatives. There is often little awareness of the larger picture of a massive Indian subcontinent with all its myriad peoples and their equally myriad probl...

Time was when Women's strength was in Multi tasking. That helped them to break the Glass ceilings. But beyond the Glass Ceiling, women have gotten so involved in managementese, in becoming part of the boys' clubs and networks, that they've forgotten their separate identity and strength; forgotten to remain in touch with their feminine roots, forgotten all about multi tasking which was their USP. Why must women emulate men who have failed and brought the world to this stage of ruin? why must corporate women be as sartorially male as they can get, subsuming their feminity? will that help enhance efficiency? Witness the women in banking. They occupy all the rarified top echeleons in the RBI, the ICICI, HDFC etc etc. And sitting in those rarified atmoshphere, hitherto manned entirely by males, they have forgotten their inherent feminity and chosen to emulate the maledom to preside over horrendous price rises in common needs to chase that elusive 'profit ratio'. Since ...

Medical specialists have taken over our bodies to carve out their personal fiefdoms: the gastroentrologists who know about nothing but the stomach, not even the spleen next door, the nephrologists, urologists, diabetic specialists, ophtalmologists, orthopaedics, the cardiac guys who know of nothing else but the heart etc etc. in days to come, we can anticipate a doctor who only knows about the mitral valve of the heart, or only the left nostril or the right thumb or only the medula oblangata and nothing else. No one knows of anything but their specialities but all of them to a man are totally dependent on the radiologists and the pathologists to make their diagnosis...otherwise it is no go. And woe betide the person who has a pain in a region of the body where is no bone or special organ for some medico to specialise in. May be, the patient may just find himself being packed off to a psychiatrist to examine his head for daring to experieince such an unspecialisable pain!!

Words spoken in anger Frozen in Time. Unspoken apologies Frozen in silence. Flying recriminations cast in iron Mute regrets await healing absolution Verbal spears Frozen in time and frozen Absolution. Memories past so tender Present realities so bitter

It is the most unlikely and distasteful of matches, IPL versus India; a contest between the primary essence of democracy, elections which have made India the envy of many democratic and autocratic countries, especially our neighbors, and a game spectacle. Should we begin to suspect that there is a suspicious ‘foreign hand’ in the vigorous efforts being made to field the IPL against the elections, using the security issue as an excuse? Regular, free and fair elections are what sets India apart in the world community today; that we are able to move ahead, carrying forward the entire disparate segments of our society is the biggest achievement of the Republic of India to date. But does that status or constitutional niceties matter to the likes of the Modis, the Ambanis and the Mallyas etc the stakeholders in the IPL? The security issue is an obvious concern and a very valid one. Recent happenings in Mumbai and Lahore are pointers. There is also the consideration that the authorities w...

The entire media is on the inflation-deflation band wagon, desperately trying to convince everyone that happy days are here again because we no longer have inflation to cope with. Who the hell is concerned about inflation or its cousins, deflation or desflation or whatever else the economists and their favored media may chose to call it? How is the public at large, the Aam Aadmi affected by this about turn in the fate of Inflation, long touted as their biggest Woe? Despite the fall in inflation, there is no respite in the prices of anything to do with everyday living, the prices of onions, tomatoes, roti, milk or fruits. This is the season for those who do, to stock up a year’s supply of wheat and spices. But are the prices reflecting the harvest or the supposed death of inflation? No restaurant or multiplex or even a vegetable lari has cut its rates. On the other hand, a startling 5.5% interest rate has been announced for the more expensive range of cars in the market. Are the peo...

Pope Benedict XVI sees “clouds of evil” over Africa, which he says have reduced the poor to slavery and deprived future generations of the resources needed to create a more solid and just society. Not a word of apology for the role played by the community he heads in creating that situation and those clouds. Is there any doubt that Africa has been ruined economically and socially by not only the colonists, the neo-colonists but also the missionaries, bringing their own brand of religion and polluting style of living to stamp out civilizations that had developed over millennia? Is it not an open question that had perhaps they been allowed to survive, they may have done as well as other countries across the globe which have achieved ‘developing’ tag rather than the ‘under developed ‘ one where natural resources are still being looted by developed countries which dump their goods on them.

Yeh Hindustani banne ke chakkar mein, who feminine wali compliment to rahe gayee. Main feminine hoon; achha lagta hai feminine hona; masculine nahi. Main un auraton mein hoon jo apni femininity ko ghehna aur shakti dono banana chaheti hain. Aaj kale ek craze ho gaya hai. Hamari kalaakar apne aap ko Actor Female kehlati hain. Kyo bhai? Actress hone mein kaisa sharm? Kya actor female kehne se unpe kam sexual harassment hogi? Hum kyon hamesha purusho ke jaise bante hain ya sochne ki koshish karte hain? Kapron mein, vichar mein? Purushon ne duniya and samaj ka kya bana diya hai in sadiyon mein? Kya hum ne bhi wahi karna hai, unke jaise soch ke? Main sochti hoon ki Samaj ki bhalyee shaayad usme hogi ki hum auraton ke jaisi feminine zyaada aur male kam hi soch leke aage bhade. Maine bahut chhoti umar mein hi kitab padne shuru kiya. Obviously chhoti hi umar mein hi purab ki soch vichar and sanskar se dil oog gaya. Kyon? Maine yeh dekha ki mardon ne, chahe purabi ya paschim ke, lekhakon ne aur...

pichele dino mujhe ek bariha compliment mila facebook pe ek saheli ne kahaa kusumji you look very feminine and so indian” ispe bahut khushi hui. indian hone pe mujhe garv hain. shuru se. jab Main college me thi, tab ek baar femina se best letter ke rs. 25 bhi mile the. us chhithi mein Maine likha tha ki mere chehera truly indian tha kyon ki log yeh nahi pehchaan paate the ki Main sindhi hoon. koi punjabi/ maharshtran/ bengali to koi mussalman bhi samjhata tha. ab Main aur bhi indian hoon, ek sindhan jis ne ek punjabi fauji se shaadi ki, hamara jamai sindhi-parsi hai, bahu jain aur hum sab gujarat mein rahete hain!! saara hindustan hua hamara na? Main pali bhari videsh men. is ka matlab? ek overseas indian mansikta (mentality) jo hindustan ko nashili ankhon se dekhti hain, bachpan ka alarrpan yaad karti hai and bharat ki kamiyaan zyaada nazar aati hain. isliye khush naseeb hoon ki 13 saal ki umar mein hi wapas lauti. march 1963 mein Bharat mein hamara swagat anokha hua. Hame P...