Litmus Test

In Indian epic Mahabharata, Draupadi tears off her expensive saree to wrap Lord Krishna's bleeding finger...reading it, we all are convinced she loves him.

Over centuries lovers have used different techniques to prove authenticity of their feelings. This century is not an exception.........

Artist : Richard Cline Publication: The New Yorker 28 Mar 1994

successful corporations must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products

David Ogilvy, founder of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, in Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1963 : "As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon. How many juries will convict us when we are caught in these acts of beneficent citizenship?"

Naomi Klein in "No Logo": "The astronomical growth in the wealth and cultural influence of multi-national corporations over the last fifteen years can arguably be traced back to a single, seemingly innocuous idea developed by management theorists in the mid-1980s: that successful corporations must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products....global corporations have leaped on the brand-wagon with what can only be described as a religious fervor. Never again would the corporate world stoop to praying at the altar of the commodity market. From now on they would worship only graven media images. Or to quote Tom Peters, the brand man himself: "Brand! Brand!! Brand!!! That's the message . . . for the late '90s and beyond."


Artist : Edward Koren Publication: The New Yorker 13 June 1994

Aching Nerve Again

Swedish dramatist August Strindberg : "Shallow people demand variety – but I have been writing the same story throughout my life, every time trying to cut nearer the aching nerve".

Artist : Richard Cline Publication: The New Yorker 27 Jun 1994

the passage of time

Simone Weil
“All the tragedies which we can imagine return in the end to the one and only tragedy: the passage of time.”

Artist : Dean Victor Publication: The New Yorker 30 May 2005

Existing or Pre-existing?

Indians are increasingly being asked to save more for their health care by going in for health insurance. Their neighbourhood doctor no more treats them without myriad and expensive diagnostic tests. Health insurance we are told is the way to go.

Paul Krugman recently asked in his NYT column: "Is the health insurance business a racket?" He concludes: "It’s the ugly incentives provided by a system in which giving care is punished, while denying it is rewarded."

My limited personal experience has taught me that insurance companies invent ways to deny you benefit. Language is a powerful tool in their hand..........

Artist: Michael Crawford Publication: The New Yorker 23 May 1994

He's from Texas

George W. Bush has finally arrived with all his horns blazing!

Artist : Dana Fradon Publication: The New Yorker 7 March 1994

Let them eat cake

Marie Antoinette may or may not have said: "Let them eat cake". But we all know the sentiment behind such a statement.

For sure, ordinary folks have always suffered through history. Suffering on a scale, most of blog reading/writing people like us cannot imagine.

I am reading "The Last Mughal" by William Dalrymple. The debate whether 1857 events should be called first war of Indian independence or mutiny will go on but the overwhelming sense I get is the suffering of ordinary people of Delhi all through that.

Similarly M V Dhond's Marathi book "Marhati Lavani" describes the painful struggle of population of Pune while rule of Peshwa degenerated in late 18th/early 19th century.

Therefore, you wonder if D D Kosambi amongst all is closest to the truth when he says: “It seems to me that Gita philosophy, like so much else in India’s ‘spiritual’ heritage, is based in the final analysis upon the inability to satisfy more than the barest material needs of a large number”

There could be many Quixotian solutions to this. Use politically correct language. Stop calling poor, poor! Stop calling third class compartment, third class. That is what Indian Railway did when one day they just erased one line from III to make it II!

Artist : Bernard Schoenbaum Publication: The New Yorker 28 Mar 1994

मैं तुम्हारे बच्चे कि माँ बनने वाली हूँ

A lot of Hindi films has this dialogue- "I am going to be mother of your child."

And then all hell breaks loose! It always is 'information of startling nature' to the receipent of the news. As if stokes indeed got the babies.

Artist : Peter Arno Publication: The New Yorker 26 Dec 1936

Nasty but cute!

Every generation has its fads. (needless to say older generations don't like most of them. Socrates: “Children nowadays love luxury, have bad manners, contempt for authority, disrespect for elders”).

Most interesting of those fads is their language. You would be very lucky to understand it if you are not one of them. SMS makes it even worse -that 'weird' language is further transformed.

Artist : Barbara Shermund Publication: The New Yorker 20 Jun 1936

Think Win-Win

Those like me who have worked in corporate world know this oft-repeated phrase. It works!

Here is a classic win-win talk. Often one is confused on whose 'win'.
Artist : Arnie Levin Publication: The New Yorker 16 May 1994