The True Meaning Of Speed

How can anyone write anything 15,000 pages long? A novel, a text book, a legal document, whatever. And how can anyone be expected to read something 15,000 pages long. In India anything is possible. Or maybe it's today's world?

The IPL commissioner, Lalit Modi's lawyer submitted six cartons of documents to the BCCI Chief Administrative Officer containing altogether 9000 pages while Modi himself has sent a repy to the BCCI which, according to his tweet runs into 15,000 pages. Did he do that because he expected it to take another twenty years for the matter to be processed by which time it would be buried and done with? No, actually Shashank Manohar, president of the BCCI is a lawyer and it is said he will need only a few hours to go through Modi's reply. I guess to all the other meanings and dimensions of speed you can add this one. The ability to fly through mountains of written matter (let's not speak about its quality) in less time than it takes to eat your breakfast, drive to work, have a cup of coffee and work through the files till lunchtime.

And I always thought speed had to do either with jet planes or with amphetamines.

April Is The Cruellest Month

"April is the cruellest month" ... I can imagine the line from T.S. Eliot going through my sister-in-law Peg's head, even if not in the same spirit as the poem was meant. April is not quite the right time for people from cooler regions to visit Bombay - not this year anyway. So the poor thing suffered her way through the two weeks which she and my brother Vishnu spent with us, with some relief in between (I hope!) in the form of a cool breeze from the sea now and then and of course ... mangoes. The king as I keep referring to our very own "Alphonso".

But April this year does indeed seem to be crueller than most years. Hot, sticky, perfect weather to sleep away the summer. Will May be worse? What about the water shortage? How will the government deal with the problem? No doubt by building new flyovers, extending the sea link, putting up a few more statues (some in the sea, perhaps?) and changing the names of several public parks, roads and other facilities.