November 27—Recommended Sunday Reading

Time to read Premchand

“Do not think about the government post; it is like a peer’s mazaar. Keep an eye on the offerings. Look for a job that yields an ‘additional income’. The monthly salary is like a full moon, which can be seen only once and then it only recedes. Whereas ‘the additional income’ is like a running stream, always there to quench your thirst. Salary is given by man, ‘additional income’ is God’s gift in His bountifulness.” In The Tribune.

Spend but spend carefully?

“I was spending without thinking, lured in by advertising and the promise that I could spend my way to happiness. I was stuck in a cycle of consumerism—earning money to buy stuff I didn’t really need, which wasn’t making me happy.” In The Guardian.

Humour in times of cash-crunch

“The elder son is in SBI, his wife is in ICICI, the second son in HDFC, his wife is in Canara Bank. Daughter, not married, is in Axis Bank, he replies. All well settled then? No, they are standing in the queue.” In The Telegraph.

Fidel and his women

Over the years, Fidel's name has been romantically linked—without any evidence—with at least one very senior living woman politician in India, who was exceptionally attractive when she was younger, and at least one journalist of Indian ancestry when she used to visit Cuba regularly. In fact, it used to be said that for a regime that did not like western journalists, this lady journalist got her visas without any hardship because everyone in Havana knew that Fidel enjoyed her visits to the island. In The Telegraph.

Bangalore’s festival of nuts

By evening the entire stretch of the road is lit up by string lights. Groundnut vendors also have little makeshift stoves. Some of them sell roasted nuts and others steam them. As you walk amidst little mounds of groundnuts, you’ll enjoy a different kind of Bangalore. In The News Minute.