On January 11th 2022, The Hindu newspaper had an article that said that the Corporation of Chennai would come to citizens’ homes to administer COVID booster vaccines to those over 60 with comorbidities. The next evening, I called the 2nd number listed in that article. The phone was picked up…
On Tuesday last week, my daughter and I decided to look at returning to India at the earliest. An intended six-week sojourn had extended to almost six months. It was a really tough decision to split up the family back again at this time of a pandemic – and frankly,…
As I read Indian clothing designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s comment at Harvard regarding women and the saree – http://bit.ly/2HbTQI7, and counter points to it – http://bit.ly/2CiaemH, some thoughts came up. Mr. Mukherjee said “I think, if you tell me that you do not know how to wear a saree, I would say shame…
I recently applied for a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card. A mere six days later, my PAN had been issued and was ready to go. Fast by any standards. Issued by the Indian government, the PAN’s main purpose is to identify each tax payer uniquely. The card is also accepted…
We often hear negative stories of local products and services and of abysmal customer service. However, there are many occasions when things go right. And when they are put right when they do go wrong. Booking train tickets in India is so easy now – just a few clicks on…
A garbled conundrum of traffic signals leading commuters to at least five streets, always packed with vehicles, many defying description – this is the major Valluvar Kottam intersection in my city of Madras. For the past few weeks, the traffic signals there have been completely non functional and there were…