Voices from author

Slogan-showgan

April 23, 2026, 8:32 AM IST

‘Nari’ once again becomes ‘nara’ Forget ‘delimitation’ (a word as unwieldy as a bloated LS). Could we please unanimously agree to a limitation on male netas banging on about who’s doing more for women, and…

April 23, 2026, 8:32 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

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Maachh-ing ahead

April 16, 2026, 9:10 AM IST

An election troubled in fishy waters Fish is the latest bait in the West Bengal elections. Mamata-di spiced up the electoral roll-jhol , by warning that Bhindi Jowar Party would ban fish, along with all…

April 16, 2026, 9:10 AM IST

Erratica , Edit Page, India , TOI

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Rolls of the dice

April 9, 2026, 8:26 AM IST

Elections in single-engine states have a longer train of mishaps. West Bengal CM has raised the ‘bogie’ of derailment. Her CEC, Chief Election Complaint, is the Speciously Illogical Revision of rolls. Railing against it, she…

April 9, 2026, 8:26 AM IST

Erratica , Edit Page, India , TOI

Starry, starry blight

April 2, 2026, 7:58 AM IST

Maharashtra’s Ashok Kharat is the latest in the long, inglorious line of godless ‘godmen’. Having caused so much shok , he has fittingly come to grief himself. ‘Rigged’ out as an astrologer too, he claimed…

April 2, 2026, 7:58 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

‘Dhurandhdrone’?

March 26, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Wodehouse to warzone…and a sexy JV    It used to bee a lazy insect;  then came PG Wodehouse’s Drones Club members, as gainfully unemployed but with sharper tailoring. After lying dormant for decades the term has…

March 26, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

Bowing to LP-ji

March 20, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Why we’ll never be short of gas O what’s the matter, Shanta mine So pale and vainly loitering? The veg has withered in your fridge, And no cookers hiss. I see your worried, wrinkled brow,…

March 20, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

Iran, Persia and me

March 12, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

‘Epic Fury’ could learn from real epic  How do I and my fellow Parsis react to the present insanity involving our original motherland, nucleus of  two far-flung Zoroastrian empires, Cyrus the Great’s Achaemenid and the…

March 12, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

Kerala’s ‘m’ dash

March 3, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

But name change game costs no small change So Kerala joins the League of Proudly Renamed Places. Such change is far from just nominal, merely naam ke vastey. There’s a grander impetus. The long and…

March 3, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

Available: ova the counter

February 26, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

An egg-supply hub hatches an inhuman scam Maharashtra’s Thane-Badlapur belt bred militant trade unionism in the 1970s. That ghost was laid, and replaced by laying hens. Badlapur’s eggs became a brand. Now it’s been branded…

February 26, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

Jockeying for the Horse

February 19, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

We too can get ‘Fired’ up for the new Chinese year  The Year of the Fire Horse began on Tuesday. Whatever our geopolitical/economic wishlist, only the blinkered believe that China happily trots along with our…

February 19, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

No Juhi yet for Rameo

February 12, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Young love still gets a shove Now ‘Love means ever having to say Sorry, I’m underage.’ The cutesy ‘Romeo-Juliet’ clause remains as ill-starred as Shakespeare’s storied lovers. In that play, the kindly nanny was facilitator;…

February 12, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

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Sleeper coaching

February 5, 2026, 10:08 AM IST

Want a goodnight’s… ? Dream on Travel is no longer a simple holiday; ‘niche’ has become the new normal. The latest is a getaway for those who can’t get any sleep. It’s a variation on…

February 5, 2026, 10:08 AM IST

Erratica , Edit Page, India , TOI

SIR, what’s in a name?

January 29, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Basu by any other would be as verBose SIR is questioning folks from single-engine states with singularly ‘illogical consistency’. Take West Bengal. Having already summoned a Bharat Ratna Nobelman, a cricketer who scalped 462 wickets…

January 29, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

Builders, Bill-ders

January 22, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

‘Development’ and ‘redevelopment’: two much The old familiar city is disappearing before our eyes. Blame the two swag words, so-called ‘development’ and ‘redevelopment’. In the first, sarkari agencies are rewriting Mortimer Wheeler’s Still Digging. In…

January 22, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

Join the arty-party

January 15, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Lessons for the philistine neta Opening the Art of India exhibition in New Delhi last Friday, lawyer-MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi confessed that the more he examined his credentials for this task, ‘the more unqualified and…

January 15, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

Ring In The New

January 8, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

 What To Retain, Request And Revert To In 2026 Algo-rhythm; Art for Art’s sake; Activism; Ageing gracefully;  Animal spirits, not Animalized men; Alia Bhatt. Bhai-Bhai; Buy-Bye; Bangladesh not Bungledesh; Bali furniture; Bhangra rap; Bruschetta. Clean…

January 8, 2026, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

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Wring out the old

December 31, 2025, 8:28 AM IST

Bads and fads of 2025 to be dumped in 2026 A : AQI (poor); Akhlaq-ing; AI autocracy; ‘Anti-national’. B: Bigotry; Bulldozer justice; Ban-wagon; ‘Bro’. C: Cyber crime; Christmassacre; Cold brew; Coords. D: Development (destructive); Delayed flights; Digital arrests; Deep…

December 31, 2025, 8:28 AM IST

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Meri/Teri Chrissmas

December 25, 2025, 8:50 AM IST

The usual festive festering O come all ye carols, freshened and updated, O come ye. O come ye, To Er-rat-ica Come along and sing them. Out of tune or harmonise O sing them or hum…

December 25, 2025, 8:50 AM IST

Erratica , Edit Page, India , TOI

Grammar RIPped 

December 18, 2025, 5:00 AM IST

Parts of speech are dumbfounded  A visitor tells a boy who answers the door that he’s come to meet his mother, and gets the sullen reply, ‘She was in, she is  out!’ The aghast man…

December 18, 2025, 5:00 AM IST

Erratica , India , TOI

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Don’t cage rage

December 11, 2025, 9:26 AM IST

It’s your password to social media power ‘Rage bait’ is the OED’s Word of the Year. If you were born after Y2K, you need no explanation, but for social media illiterates it’s spelt out as…

December 11, 2025, 9:26 AM IST

Erratica , Edit Page, World , TOI