The Covid-19 pandemic is wreaking widespread disruption, social and economic. Much more than what the Great Depression and the Second World War together did. Unfolding as humankind's greatest challenge to date, the pandemic is rapidly altering the world, its politics and economics. In the process, turning upside down established relationships, accepted rules and prevalent norms.Though we cannot foretell with certainty what is in store, we can at least try to decode...

Is mothball a metaphor for a proposal abandoned or for a project shelved? When does history become a metaphor for geography? How does the metaphor hive provoke a publication to jettison by-lines for good? How does butterfly win its metaphor battle with the beetle?Can chameleon be a metaphor for a colourful person? When does textbook become a positive metaphor for an individual? What is that useful metaphor in t...

Is googly a metaphor for surprises of all sorts? Can hat tricks turn contrarian to transform into a metaphor for successive defeats? Where do you use umpire and referee as metaphors? Are they really two different metaphors? As you sprint towards the finish line, as the start line becomes a mere blur in the circuit of life, which metaphor should be your focus on?Why is your finish line only as good as y...

Birth, dream, fruits, mother, street,……………………well,……………………….Do not shrug your shoulders dismissively. Do not wave all these words away as plainly pedestrian. Many more Simple Simons such as these straddle across the English linguistic landscape as powerful and potent metaphors. Only that you should know when, where, and how to use them all as pictorial metaphors.Metaphoric Madness will precisely help you gain that rare expertise. Using simple words...

Can you describe temptingly low-hanging fruits as tantalising? Are all doomsayers Cassandras? Which is right, squaring the circle or circling the square? Why is the vegetative metaphor in a vegetative state today?When does the arithmetic metaphor become a good metaphor arithmetic? Is botany a metaphor for all hand-me-down knowledge? Can negative words become resonant? Why is Eureka moment fast turning ...

Corporate surgeries are tricky business. A simple error here and a minor lapse there could put your corporation miles away from its goals. The chronicle of corporate restructuring is replete with stories of heartening hits and mournful misses, and each one of them comes with a lesson for potential corporate rejiggers.Canons of Corporate Surgery takes you through 15 such sacrosanct lessons, all backed by live-wire cases from India Inc of the Nineties. But, ...

Managing mega projects is a Herculean task, a task riddled with real possibilities of cash-burns and heartburns. But, manage you must. Must, not just for your success, for your survival too. As markets go global, as national boundaries melt away, as competition gets murderous, global corporations, their CEOs and project managers need to ensure their projects satisfy the global norms of scale and size. As you get down to translate your mega project dreams, you are sure to run over countless...

The Crystal Labyrinth is a tale that delves deep into the unknown, where reality and illusion intertwine. The story begins with the discovery of an ancient, hidden labyrinth, made entirely of crystal, buried beneath the earth's surface. This labyrinth is not just a physical maze but a mystical one, where the walls reflect not only light but also the deepest fears and desires of those who dare to enter. The crystal walls are said to hold the memories of lost souls, and the labyrinth itself ...

This short story, naughtily titled as Winking in Wunderland, is a caustic satire that mocks at the duplicitous wink-and-nudge goings-on in the world of media and mass communication, banking and business. Understandably, Winking in Wunderland jabbingly alludes to the politics of winking and goes out audaciously to link winking to the business of media, particularly of print publications and television.As you read this short satire, you can feel the...

Wherever he goes, colours chase him and hound him. They dog him to no end. He is a committed chromophobe, a victim of a strange condition called chronic malachromia. His aversion to colours and the deep hatred he nurses for them is not a new phenomenon. He developed them right when he was a teenager. Later as a journalist, he finds himself victimised by colours, whichever publication he worked for. Disgusted, he quits active journalism in the quest of colour-free ...

For the 150 million-plus LGBTs in India, Jatin Johar proves to be a nightmare. Thanks to this new-found bugbear, LGBTs in India find themselves suddenly maligned. They all stand marked out as potential criminals in the eyes of an asinine law.Did Jatin Johar realise the gravity of the injustice he had perpetrated? Did he finally muster the moral courage to accept that he was responsible for making the apex court an antithesis of justice? Why did his justice wife tear into him for hi...

Pattur and Noolur are two mutually interdependent silk-weaving towns in South India. While Noolur made patturis for Pattur and fed Pattur's silk looms with value-added silk yarns of superior quality, Pattur lent its eponymous tradename patturi to Noolur's silk saris for greater visibility in global markets.This interdependence worked fine for both towns, until one Venkatraman, a first-generation English lecturer, appeared on the scene. Venkat was visibly enraged by Pattur'...