Sinister Spinster

Recall Miss Marple, a fictional creation of Agatha Christie, without whom the English literature would have been poorer by some ten novels and few stories. This elegant armchair spinster detective has a charm of her own and endowed with the intricate knowledge of rural people and their psychology, which invariably proved helpful to the Scotland Yard in solving the cases in and around her area.

We have numerous female spies, both blonde and brunette, created by Ian Fleming and almost all ended up with providing much needed succor to the tired body of our beloved 007 at the end of the day!

In the exotic world of detectives and spies, our own Madhuri Gupta, a spinster, is a class by herself. Until the other day, no one suspected her to be an international spy. She has IFS tag, also works as a junior diplomatic official in the Ministry of External Affairs. Some complain that she is not in the same league as Mata Hari and Virginia Hall. Tarantula does not approve any such remarks, which are, obviously, made with superficial knowledge of the extent of her activities.

Admittedly, it is difficult to understand her motives behind sharing of information with our neighbor. May be she strongly felt that RTI Act should be extended to brothers beyond the unnatural boundaries made by partitioning the country and started acting on this impulse. As readers are aware, India takes few decades to decide on the punishment, if any, but certainly GoP might not take as many days in awarding Madhuri Gupta their hightest civilian honor Nishan-e-Pakistan.

Nature’s Gifts – Not for Us

Air is polluted by industries and poisoned by politician’s speeches; one has no option but to breathe, until his/her last breath. Era of buying fresh air has dawned. Go; buy a can of it, if you can.

Water is mixed with sewerage and industrial effluents. If you have a tenner or more, buy a litre and litter the earth with PET bottle. Remember, our Babus do not drink municipality-supplied drinking water.

Land is needed to build a hut to live? Shell out your life’s savings to buy in retail from land sharks or Dinakarans who grab it in hundreds of acres at a time, free of cost.

Mineral Resources are meant for few people to mine away, never mind legally or otherwise, and bribe politicians and Babus en-route to amassing thousands of crores.

Forest Wealth is for brigands, forest officials and politicians; we have no right to enjoy even the indirect benefits of forestry as they are indiscriminately cut down.

Bandwidth Spectrum is least understood of the natural resources and handful of people own it as they paid thousands of crores as auction price and bribes. Pay to use a negligible fraction of it.

Rains Feel like getting drenched and dancing in the first rains of monsoon? Beware, now it is highly acidic.

Vegetables and Fruits come with a pinch of pesticides and fertilizer residues. You have an option of GM/BT varieties together with not so well established consequences.

SOON TO COME

Sunlight, if used in lieu of erratic and expensive electricity may become taxable in one of the forthcoming budgets.

Moonlight or Scenic Beauty may be enjoyed in future by paying ‘enjoyment tax’.

ALREADY EXTINCT

Sounds of Chirping Birds are only available in recorded versions as most birds are on fast track of extinction.

“I count, therefore I count…”

“I count, therefore I count…” is a slogan on one of the posters for forthcoming ICM 2010.

While people around the world can count from one, Indians can boast of their ability to count from zero. After all, this concept of zero has its roots in India and perhaps it is the most pervasive of all.

“I count, therefore I count...”

Hyderabad has a reason to be proud of hosting the forthcoming event from August 19 to 27, 2010. It is the first ever opportunity India has to host this quadrennial event held from 1897, barring during the periods of World Wars I & II. India will be the third Asian country with this privilege after Kyoto (Japan) in 1990 and Beijing (China) in 2002.

ICM-2010 watchers have a lot to look forward. Who is going to get Fields Medal in 2010, who will get first ever Chern Prize, if Lilavati Prize contemplated by GOI takes off, who is this worthy woman mathematician and who are going to be the winners of other coveted prizes.

Perhaps, the most important question is whether the efforts to make Grisha (Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman) participate fructifies; which is, in an inexplicable way, related to whether he agrees to receive the first Clay Millennium Prize Problems award.

ICM would also feature a chess match between world champion Viswanathan Anand and 40 delegates; Tarantula wishes Vishy Anand 38(wins)-2(draws)-o(no losses) or even better against this group of august August delegates.

One disturbing aspect is that even a non-believer has no option but pray that event takes place smoothly with what all going on in the city of Hyderabad and the havoc caused by the variety of disruptionists.