Posted on July 16, 2016 LITERARY ODDITIES Vengrai Parthasarathy Proper words in proper places’ was how Jonathan Swift defined style’ in literature. That is something not hard to find. There are countless illustrations if one only looks out for them in classics by master-writers. On the other hand, some hold the opinion that it should…
The tram rides of a different era Vengrai ParthasarathyLast 2011 11:11:28 PM IST Those were the days which only Chennaites in their seventies will remember. In the Thirties and Forties the rumblings of trams were heard in all the main arteries of Madras. Those were leisurely days when no one was in a hurry. People…
MY PROFESSOR–A GREAT GUY Prof.C.H.Alexandrowicz I am proud to call him my Guru. I am now in my Eighties, residing in San Diego. In 1954/55 I was in my Twenties, and had won a Stipendiary scholarship of his in the post=graduate International Law & Constitutional law course of the Madras University. The first words I…
1/28/08 ELECTIONS AHOY ! Vengrai Parthasarathy What are Elections for ? Are they just for harangues by politicians, false promises and impossible loyalties, raucous music on loudspeakers and posters and banners? Elections should be more than that. Is the Indian voter going to think for himself, evaluate the candidates and judge their merits and elect…
LOST AND FOUND Vengrai Parthasarathy The elderly, tufted gentleman next to me in the bus to Triplicane had his eyes closed and seemed to be either snoozing or in deep meditation. After a while, he opened his eyes turned and I was the first person to meet his eye. “Thank you”, he said. I was…
TRAIL OF A SNAKE Vengrai Parthasarathy Seven-year old Pappu came running excitedly and made a cryptic announcement to his father: “There is a snake in the garage”. Pappu was an imaginative boy. He had once seen an alien with horns getting out of a space ship outside their back yard. He had also seen a…
7/4/14 Hello, High-five and Hallelujah! Vengrai Parthasarathy Life is one long saga of meet, greet and eat. The greet part, to show fellow feeling, has undergone a good deal of dramatic changes. In India, we say Namaste or Namaskar and if you are from the south , you add an ‘am’ to it and make…
Cup that Cheers….(In a lighter vein) By Vengrai Parthasarathy Tea is not the only drink that cheers. The wafting aroma of coffee, as you loll in the bed in the wee hours of the morning, is a wake-up call. It sets the blood flowing and prepares even a grouch to face the world—cheerfully. ”Coffee is…
Harihi Aum! Sreer Asthu! ‘VAIṣṇAVA, JANATO’–by Narsing Mehta Translation by Vengrai (This song in Gujarathi language was composed by Narsingh Mehta, a 15th century poet. A favourite of Mahathma Gandhi, it was sung at all his prayer meetings) To be a True Vaishnava is to be a Friend of all Creatures and Belong to God.…
A LITERARY ODDITIES Proper words in proper places’ was how Jonathan Swift defined style’ in literature. That is something not hard to find. There are countless illustrations if one only looks out for them in classics by master-writers. On the other hand, some hold the opinion that it should suffice, if, depending on the effect…