Maybe it’s having the twins, my grandsons from New York, back home again, that reminded me of a conversation I had with them a couple of monsoons ago: “What’s that?” asked one of them pointing to a huge shell on the ground.

“It’s a shell, with a snail inside it!” I explained. They both looked at it for a while, and slowly, we saw the snail’s head coming out and two beady eyes looking at us. Then the snail slowly started its journey across my garden.

“But if it’s not careful, a bird can grab it by the head!” they shouted fearfully, looking at the sparrows and crows around.

“Yes!” I said, “But if it’s going to be scared of those birds, it may never find food to eat and may ultimately die of fear inside its own shell!”

Get the digital edition of the September 2024 issue to read the full article.

The post Sticking Out Your Neck! appeared first on The Teenager Today.

No, this article isn’t about me, though like you even I could do with some cheerleaders cheering me on once in a way. As I watch the cheerleaders at the IPL matches I remember an article that appeared in one of our national dailies, and as I read on, tears came to my eyes. The author talked about the New York Marathon which is a forty-five kilometre race that ends at Central Park in Manhattan.

The author said that about one and a half million people lined the sides of the road, in freezing temperatures, to watch and to cheer. But they had not come to watch the professionals who run like lightning. They had come to cheer the ‘little guys, the nameless faces, the guys next door, the guys who do their nine to five jobs and train only on weekends, who have no corporate sponsors, the guys who run only to prove something to themselves.’

Get the digital edition of the August 2024 issue to read the full article.

The post Go Bob, Go! appeared first on The Teenager Today.

I had been invited to speak at a book launch. During the evening, I asked the new author when he planned to write another book.

“I plan to take three months off, and go to some place quiet, where I am alone, and write!” he said.

“Don’t take three months, take three years off,” said his wife, much to the amusement of all the others listening.

I pondered over the statement and realized that this was something many of us feel; that to do any creative activity, to do a new assignment, to take up a new area of study, we need to get away somewhere.

“Why don’t you put your interesting life story down?” a successful businessman is asked.

“When I retire…” he says, “now there’s no peace and quiet!”

And thus, we all look for that utopian peace and quiet, to find not just the right time to write, but the right time to do anything, and in all probability, that book or that peace and relaxation we look for will remain a dream, and end with a sigh of sadness by a wife or family members as one is lowered into his or her grave.

Subscribe to The Teenager Today print / digital editions to read the full article.

The post Finding the Right Time and Place appeared first on The Teenager Today.

It was at my cousin’s office years ago that I met the fast talker.

He was, according to my cousin, a star salesman. “Hear him Bob,” said my cousin, “He has the gift of the gab!” Which meant he could talk fast and easily as words came out of his mouth faster than a speeding race car.

But my cousin fired him in a month. “I don’t know what was wrong,” he said, “He had the gift of the gab, yet he failed to make a sale!”

I worked as a salesman during that time, for my dad, and as I studied sales, I could have told my cousin that being a great talker didn’t make you a great salesman, but being an intent listener did.

What happens with people who talk too much is that they listen too little.

The post The Fast Talker appeared first on The Teenager Today.

I remember seeing this ad for a motorbike with a handsome hunk riding it.

What a bike, what a machine, what a guy, what a helmet!

I looked at the ad. At the four-stroke state-of-the-art engineering marvel that responded to full throttle by breaking through performance barriers… whatever that meant.

I looked at the sheer excitement on the young man’s face as he looked at the road ahead, and as he felt the slim arms that held his waist…

Slim, dressed casually in a pair of jeans and T-shirt, her glasses were perched high on her head as she sat behind and looked with excitement at the road ahead…

Subscribe to The Teenager Today print / digital editions to read the full article.

The post Loose and Unprotected! appeared first on The Teenager Today.

It was two months ago in America, I opened the top drawer where I’m sure my daughter had said the mugs were kept, but a packet of coffee powder stared back at me, or was it chilli powder? But they don’t keep chilli powder on shelves in America, do they? Let it be, I told myself, not ready to solve the coffee and chilli powder problem right now. So, I opened the drawer below, and nearly had forks, spoons and all the rest of the cutlery fall on my toes! I quickly closed the drawer on those murderous weapons and looked into the shelves on top.

I remember my thoughts and what followed: Where’s my coffee mug?

Well, it’s not mine. Nothing is mine here; it’s not my home. My home is ten thousand miles away or somewhere near ten thousand, where my green coffee mug hangs neatly in its place, washed and wiped and wedged in its familiar setting with nobody else going to move it from there.

Subscribe to The Teenager Today print / digital editions to read the full article.

The post Leaving the Familiar appeared first on The Teenager Today.

A few days ago, I got a note from a reader, saying, “Bob, I long for the day when I won’t have any more problems!”

And I thought of Mr Pointed Ears!

Some ten years ago, a new dog, with long pointed ears, entered the colony I live in. Nobody wanted the new stray to stay on the premises, and so all the watchmen were kept very busy chasing it out of the gates, but somehow it managed to outwit them and enter again. I marvelled at its perseverance. 

Not only did it have to contend with the watchmen, the pump man and all the sweepers who ran after it with their brooms and sometimes empty dustbins, but it also had to deal with the three existing strays in the colony.

These three dogs, who were a gang, ran after this fellow and there wasn’t a day when there wasn’t a dog fight. But this fellow was big and strong, and soon I found that the lead black dog and this chap had become friends, and he was soon part of their gang.

Subscribe to The Teenager Today print / digital editions to read the full article.

The post Mr Pointed Ears! appeared first on The Teenager Today.

The cars were honking on the road that morning as I made my way to the park, drivers in trucks had their heads out yelling, and motorcyclists had worried expressions behind their visors as they looked ahead to see only a jam.

I walked on ahead and soon found the culprit; a little auto-rickshaw that had gotten stuck in the middle of the road. There were beads of perspiration on the driver’s face as he pulled the starter handle up, again and again and again; nothing happened.

“No petrol,” I thought to myself and then found myself getting furious, “Why doesn’t the ass move his rickshaw to the side!” I thought, so did all the others who honked and yelled and cursed.

He got up wearily, and the passenger in the rickshaw got out, a young man with a white shirt, tie and button-down collar, who was on his cell as he stood by the stalled vehicle and watched the driver try to push it uphill and to the side.

Subscribe to The Teenager Today print / digital editions to read the full article.

The post “Sir! Did you?” appeared first on The Teenager Today.

Like the fabled Dick Wittington who visited London expecting her streets to be paved with gold, I too, many decades ago, entered the city of Bombay, now Mumbai, expecting to set up a business from scratch and become a millionaire overnight. But those same streets, gold-less and cold, cruelly taunted me day in and day out as I walked them, selling my ideas and product from house to house, flat to flat, and quite often office to office.

Then, often depressed and disappointed with no sale done, I’d find a tiny lane in Nepean Sea Road or Juhu leading me to a beach, and there tiredly plonking my cheap briefcase onto the sands, I’d sit and watch the sea.

This was something I did time and again, seeking solace and comfort from the stillness that the bouncing waves offered.

For many years, I’ve read Psalm 23 and reflected on the second verse, “He leadeth me by the still waters,” and for many years I’ve imagined a placid lake or a gently flowing stream and the peace and calm that those still waters offer. But today, as I thought about those early days, sitting tired and worn on the beach, getting solace from the waves, I see another scene unfolding — disciples on a boat in a tempestuous sea. The waves are high, and the boat rocks like a handkerchief in a washing machine. I see them terrified.

Subscribe to The Teenager Today print / digital editions to read the full article.

The post Still Waters in an Angry Sea appeared first on The Teenager Today.

It’s been a hard day of trekking for me in Ephesus, Turkey, but what I’ve learnt I don’t think I could have picked up from any encyclopedia or Google search. Gary Player, for years, was a great competitor in national and international golf tournaments. People constantly said to him, “I’d give anything if I could hit a golf ball like you.”

Upon hearing that comment one day, the player responded impatiently: “No, you wouldn’t. You’d do anything to hit a golf ball like me, if it were easy! Do you know what you have to do to hit a golf ball like me? You’ve got to get up at 5:00 every morning, go out to the golf course, and hit a thousand golf balls! Your hands start bleeding, you walk to the clubhouse, wash the blood off your hands, sign a check to pay off your home loan, slap a bandage on, and go out and hit another thousand golf balls! That is what it takes to hit a golf ball like me!”

Subscribe to The Teenager Today print / digital editions to read the full article.

The post Nothing comes easy! appeared first on The Teenager Today.