Rodevra Republic

A small family moment by Lake Burley Griffin — Anthony, Jodie, and Toto, the cavoodle who ended up carrying their rings. Love often slips into our lives quietly, without ceremony — not as a sweeping force, but as a small, steady warmth. It does not ask who we are, or how busy, or how prominent. It simply arrives when the heart has space for it. And one day, it found its way into the life of Australia’s Prime Minister, and into the world of a woman who never imagined she would share her days with a national leader. Before the public knew them as a couple, there were just two people who stumbled onto a moment of connection. At a business event in Melbourne, Anthony Albanese, 62 — relaxed for once — asked the room who supported his beloved South Sydney Rabbitohs. A single voice rose above the polite murmur: “Up the Rabbitohs!” That voice belonged to Jodie Haydon, 46 — self-made, confident, and grounded in a life she had built on her own. It was a fleeting moment, but it lingered. A messag...

" Die with Zero" is a new concept which encourages seniors to adopt a lifestyle which allows them to maximise their enjoyment of life - instead of the urge to earn more money than what they will be able to spend in their lifetime. Param Sandhu has only covered one aspect of Die with Zero. There are other variations of this which are far more practical.  One of them is decluterring or streamlining our affairs. At our age, it would be wise to declutter our lives, from all angles, not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally. The idea is similar to the Swedish concept of death cleaning or what they call as  döstädning. I have known people who have stopped buying new stuff, apart from essential replacements.  Rather they are slowly giving things away which others may find useful. I too follow this. A term often used in this discussion is Die Empty. It encourages people to share their best work, ideas, and potential with the world before they die, so that by the e...

How a perfect circle drew me toward the dignity of imperfection. Self-Portrait with Two Circles - Rembrandt (circa 1665) I wonder how many of you remember Date, our Art teacher in school? I have a distinct memory — perhaps the only one — where someone from our class asked him to draw a circle, and he drew it perfectly in a single motion. That moment is still etched in my mind, because I had never seen such effortless precision. I think he drew a perfect horizontal line as well, with the same casual mastery. It is interesting to note that way back in the 14th century, in a famous anecdote, the Italian master Giotto was summoned by the Pope to demonstrate his artistry, and he responded by drawing a perfect circle in a single stroke. A similar story involves Apelles, court painter to Alexander the Great, and the artist Protogenes, each competing through “perfect” freehand lines. Such feats became symbols of artistic genius in those times. Well, we neither had a Pope nor an Alexander t...

From Dharavi to Bimal Roy to Tagore — the dignity that endures beyond deprivation Last week, I read an article on the redevelopment of Dharavi — a project moving ahead with almost no public consultation. The fear is simple and real: a vibrant, hardworking community that has lived there since the late 1800s may soon be pushed aside to make room for what would be a playground of the rich. Of nearly one million residents, fewer than half qualify for new homes. The rest may be moved to Deonar, near dumping grounds, or to distant salt plains — breaking a community that has held itself together for generations. Some will get nothing at all. It struck me deeply, because just a few years ago I had walked through those lanes searching for clay artisans, spending days navigating through the maze. What met me was not despair, but fierce dignity.  Every inch of space was valued. Every corner put to work. A single room doubled as home, workshop, factory, and warehouse. There was a quiet ind...

During Diwali cleaning, as I was dusting books on my old wooden revolving rack, my eyes fell upon Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot  stories — a fat volume of almost a thousand pages. Between Sherlock Holmes and Poirot, I’ve always found the latter fascinating for the way he ‘reads’ people and draws conclusions that unravel a mystery. I took the book out, meaning to read it later, and just a few days back I happened to read one of his stories, The Veiled Lady  — a perfect example of how minutely he observes his subjects. In the story, a jewel thief poses as Lady Millicent, due to marry the Duke of Southshire. She is heavily veiled and dressed to appear every inch a lady of high birth, but Poirot notices something amiss in her appearance. It was her shoes, which didn’t quite match what was expected of a woman of refined means. That simple observation was enough for him to conclude she was an impostor. It set me thinking: how did footwear — of all things — become such a marke...

Last month, while I was in the Fort area waiting for someone, I stepped into the Kitab Mahal bookstore to pass the time. I never miss a chance to visit it. It stands close to where the old Strand Book Stall once operated under T. N. Shanbhag, a place I used to frequent almost every week until it closed down in 2018. Shanbhag was one of those rare booksellers who understood his readers so well that his recommendations often felt personal. While browsing through the shelves at Kitab Mahal, I noticed a poster announcing a book launch that evening  The Brahmastra Unleashed  by IPS (Retd.) D. Sivanandhan. It’s a first-person account of how the Mumbai Police used the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) to combat the underworld in the 1990s and 2000s. The discussion was to feature the author along with senior advocate Amit Desai and writer Radhakrishnan Pillai. During the conversation, Sivanandhan said something that stayed with me: “You have to live a life that is wor...

Natalie Sciver and Katherine Brunt Here are some pictures of women cricketer couples. Looking at their happy faces, I felt that there is much more than their smiles. These women have faced immense challenges — not just as female athletes in what has long been seen as a man’s sport, but also in standing up for their sexual orientation. Most of us tend to take it lightly, even joke about it, but few pause to see the inside story — how they have quietly chartered their own course with courage and dignity. That was the humble intent behind the piece: to do them some justice and save them from being misunderstood. Just wanted to make one point, that much as we tend to label majority women cricketers as lesbians and sometimes view them through a lens of idle curiosity, a closer look at some of the well-known couples shows something far more meaningful. These women have made clear their own choices and preferences, and have exercised their right to be happy. Their uninhibited happiness tells ...

For those who thought only humans exchanged notes on WhatsApp, here’s a scoop, birds have their own platform, BirdsFlap,  where tweets take on a whole new meaning. Like us, they have multiple groups with curious names, one of which is called Happy Petrels.   Recently, a chat from this group was mysteriously leaked, offering a rare glimpse into how our feathered friends view the strange species called Homo sapiens. Here’s the unedited conversation as it unfolded: Rathix Ramasix: I had been humaning  and spotted a large gathering of humans at a place they call Kumbh.  It seems to happen every few years, but this one, after twelve years, was especially huge. Humans from all corners of the world had descended there. They took a dip in the river Ganga. The scene was chaotic, with thousands jostling to dip into the water. Salix: Wow! Can you describe the species a bit? Bikramix Grewalix:   Yes, I too had been there. Let me help. They have varying heights, averaging ab...

I have often wondered how humans stand upright at all. They seem biomechanically improbable  — a tall, narrow frame perched on two small, compliant feet, standing on a pair of arches just about ten inches apart. The body’s centre of gravity lies roughly behind the navel, just in front of the second sacral vertebra, slightly above the hips. To stay upright, that centre must remain above the midpoint between the feet — a narrow “balance corridor.” If it shifts even a few centimetres forward or backward, they would topple. I once asked a wise old crow, since their community has observed humans since time immemorial. He said birds and quadrupeds are inherently more stable because their centre of gravity lies between multiple contact points. But humans - ah, they stand on two narrow feet, a body full of bends and joints, yet they balance effortlessly. At times they even dance, sprint, or stand on one leg to tie a shoe, and still don’t topple over. It’s almost miraculous. The crow, Felix...