HomeAuthor Rajeev Hora

The Last Laugh Adam and Eve are I guess passé. A parallel story however exists about God trying to make a perfect living being. After having exhausted all permutations and combinations towards creating such a creature, he finally hit upon the right formula. And that is how God conceived the idea of a ‘human being’, the perfect...

Of Bananas and Hunger Pangs In today’s polarized world, we are split in dozens of affinities and kinships. However, I have always thought that the simplest distinction lies between two elementary categories. They are: Those who have to worry where their next meal is going to come from and the other lot who have no...

Factory Reset  “That will be your last drink Arvind” stated Jaya as a matter of fact, as she finished laying out the dinner on the table. Arvind detested this daily reminder, the tone being a fine mix of a reprimand, an increased level of ‘given-up’ and an element of concern. The story was not new...

 She Only Can! The ‘end time’ or the ‘dooms day’ scenario is a future described in most of the religions that world events will reach a climax one day. A great number of defence officers, both serving and retired however have already reached that conclusion with the Supreme Court ruling in favour of girls joining...

‘A Decision to Divert’ I woke up early in the morning as is my wont and opened my laptop to soak in my daily dose of Google news before the rest of the family woke up. ‘I am sorry, I am tired’ NEET aspirant dies by suicide in Madurai.  Screamed the morning headlines: Jyothi is...

‘The Perfect Match’  “There was this guy who went to the marriage bureau to find a girl as a life partner. The bureau was housed in a ten-storey building. As he entered the foyer on the ground floor, there was a notice on a prominent door, “If you want a beautiful wife, please climb to...

Memento Mori Although I am not at all politically inclined, like most of us, I would like to believe that I understand politics a fair bit However, the happenings a few days back outside the precincts of the Delhi airport left me a bit baffled and fairly entertained. The occurrence was actually quite mundane and...

A (S)troll in the Park Although I am not a great church goer, I have a confession to make. In my four decades of uniformed service, there was not a single class, lecture or conference in which I did not sleep for some time or at least catch a wink…and all that without feeling guilty...

Fuzed Bulb: No way! Came across this WhatsApp forward a few days ago, which I am sure many of us might have also come across:  A Senior Executive retired and shifted from his palatial official quarters to the Housing Society, where he owned a flat. He considered himself big and never talked to anyone. Even...

A Glass Half Full Every Independence day like today, my inbox gets flooded with dozens of congratulatory messages. These messages are more often than not, ‘forwards’ emerging  from the efforts of some digital artist and propagated across social media by the press of a single button at the bottom of a WhatsApp broadcast list. So,...

CELEBRATION BY AFFILIATION  “Stellar performance by the Indian Men’s Hockey team at #TokyoOlympics to beat Great Britain by 3-1 & entering Olympic top 4 after 41 years. Happy to note that all 3 goals were scored by Punjab players Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh & Hardik Singh. Congratulations…go for Gold!,” tweeted the Punjab CM. The tweet...

Enough is Enough The other day my good friend Suresh asked me a simple question, “ How much money is enough?” He himself being a very wise man knew the answer perfectly well that money is probably never enough. He just wanted to read my thoughts on the subject, that’s all. I guess, the question...

A False Smile “Bro, I have had enough!” Ramesh declared emphatically to his buddy Ronnie, “It is just impossible for us to stay together.” Ronnie put down his drink at the bar table and looked up quizzically at Ramesh, aka Ramsy for all his friends. “Ronnie, to be honest, actually it is the other way...

The Family Doctor “Look, look, he is waking up, it is a wonder!,” someone yelled as Sohan Lal tended to his first official patient lying comatose in bed. Dr Sohan Lal to be technically correct, had just come back home after graduating from a medical college in Lahore. An urgent distress call had him rushing...

Poles Apart One evening at the bar and the next day gone! What a terrible introduction to squadron life it was for my buddy Saks and me. We both had landed up as freshly-minted pilot officers in a fighter squadron in early 1985. Filled with excitement at having our dreams finally realized, we had hesitatingly...

A Drop in the Ocean I do not personally consider myself a reformist or activist of any sort. However, I have always attached a very strong sense of immorality and unfairness to the patriarchal practice of Dowry in our country. So, as a part of what I jokingly call my ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’, I used...

The Ultimate Adhesive “Actually I liked the three bedroom one better, how I wish I had gone for it”. I couldn’t but help overhear the lady with her husband in tow, complaining patronizingly to the Real Estate dealer after moving into a 4-bhk house worth approximately 4 Crore Rupees. To which, the dealer, fully cognizant...

‘Win or Lose’ I don’t like momentary pauses from the other end when I am in conversation with my better half. Invariably they tell me that something is not quite right. And so it was when I asked her this time after getting into the car, “Honey, quite enjoyed the show, eh?”. The dreaded pause...

The Ride of His Life “Sir, can I ask you a question?”, Jassi asked very hesitatingly as we were rolling down Runway 02 after landing. “Yeah, you sure can Jassi” I replied. “Sir, with the kind of performance I have just shown you, do you think I can go solo?” he queried rather sheepishly with...

Father-Sons: Along the Way Father: We need to have a chat son. Son: Sure Papa. Father: Your mom and I have just come back from the Parent-Teachers meeting. Son: Hmm. Father: Your teacher is pretty happy with your grades, but she has one observation. Son: Hmm Father: I believe you spend a lot of time...

0H DEAR: A QUEST FOR JEST (Dedicated to the dearest of my friends. I know for sure where all your energy comes from) Oh Dear, It all started with a confirmed rumour from an untrustworthy source. It has been unreliably learnt that Whattsapp has engaged a leading Data Analytics company to determine the co- relation...

When a Jat Saved the Day…..and 400 Crores! There are known to be Punjabi Jats, Sikh Jats, Haryanvi Jats, Muslim Jats and many more. However in the armed forces, when you refer to someone as a Jat, it is neither a racist inuendo nor does it always relate to a geographical place where he hails...

Silver Coins……..a true story. Newspapers in the last few days have been awash with Mehul Choksi’s potboiler exploits which appear to give the James Bond franchise a run for their money. Not that earlier episodes of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi were any less exciting but Season 3 of ‘India’s Most Wanted Fugitives’ takes it...

Freedom of Thought While we often espouse freedom of speech, expression and religion, we seldom talk about the overarching ‘freedom of thought’ from which all our choices and other freedoms flow. I often joke that we are a family of four with six different views. In the same vein, we are a 1.3 billion nation with...

The Battle Within A lot is happening out there. Quite an understatement I agree. The world is going through unexpected and tumultuous changes, the likes of which have probably never been witnessed before. At the same time, a daily unceasing battle rages within all of us. The die-hard optimist in me believes that the good...

Love Yourself We very often talk about loving our dear ones and making them happy. In fact, for some of us, this endeavour becomes a full-time activity and a lifetime chore. However, somewhere down the line, while we become engrossed in looking and caring after others, we tend to overlook the fact that we need...

An Open Letter to Major General Vasu Vardhan, ex Comdt, Base Hospital New Delhi Dear General Vardhan, Your recent posting to RR Hospital claimed by the corridors of power as a ‘de-stress’ measure, must have come as a rude shock not only to you but also the troops you commanded so uprightly and the patients...

‘Anger marks the limit of a man’ (Delivered at the Bombay Gymkhana Sep 2020) Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I must admit that I am relatively new to Mumbai, I have spent exactly one year in this amazing city and what a pleasure for me to be amongst such wonderful people today. Before I proceed...