Since this is the second most emailed article on BBC's current page, I thought I should reflect on this monkey business a bit. This article reports on Delhi Metro's latest hire, a large black-faced langur called Shri. Bajarang Bali. Ok, I made that name up; blame the BBC's shoddy reporting for not mentioning this gentleman's good name.

So Big B gets paid $150 for his services, which consist mainly of glowering menancingly, and baring his fangs at his relatives and cousins, who happen to be notorious fare jumpers. As a spokesman for the Delhi Metro put it, recently one such cousin of Big B's boarded a train at Chandni Chowk station and travelled some 3.5 km to the Civil Lines station before alighting. Since he was hungry, he also glared at his human cousins for "kelas", "angoors", etc were not forthcoming. How dare they? Did they forget who saved Sita-ma?

Yes sir, we are like this only; cows on the streets, monkeys on the subways. By the way, Vikram Chandra's monkey in his novel "Red Earth and Pouring Rain" is a fantastic teller of tales.

in the land where "the pursuit of happiness", along with the life and liberty (I suppose because these two are minimum pre-requirements to pursue happiness?) were declared to be unalienable rights. Since I am still an "alien”, a legal one, I may not be able to make a full fledged claim to these "unalienable rights", as yet.

But if I change to human from alien, and theoretically speaking, manage to amass a modest fortune of say $10 million, and if this GOP engineered minimum wage bill passes, I will not have to pay the darn "guvnment" any of my money. But on the other hand, if I, theoretically, end up as a moderately ambitious waiter (who is also an aspiring writer) - it has known to happen; PhDs becoming waiters - in a moderately expensive restaurant, where people who are more successful in the pursuit of happiness would dine, any tips I may then receive, under this bill, would count towards the minimum wage.

O! Senator Frist, how many psychological incentives you provide to motivate lazy bones, like yours truely, to really, really pursue happiness, to hit that $10 million mark, and not turn to waitressing. Brilliant use of your Harvard Medical Degree, sir, if I may say so. Now let's turn to what is an essential book for both of us, sir, the Bible (even though you read it for divine guidance in order to effectively pronounce on sick people like Terri Schiavo for TV, while I read it, in the KJV version, for literary inspiration), and consider Matthew 19:24:

"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

Gosh darn it. Surely, Mr. Jesus was joking?! Ok, back to work. This is why I find reading newspapers to be a satirical and comic activity.

Raga Darbari is one of the most popular night ragas of Hindustani Classical Music. And every major musician has had a go at it. Of all these Darbari-s, I personally find Ustad Amir Khan's to be the tops, perhaps because I first heard Raga Darbari is his voice.

Amir Khan is classed with Bade Ghulam Ali Khan in the pantheon of great Hindustani musicians. His singing, unlike those wildly gesticulating ustads and pandits of various gharanas, caricatured on MTV India, is stately and grandoise. Also listen to Aaj More Ghar Aaye Na Balmaa in Raga Malkauns, another night raga.