Christmas that Almost Disappeared!

https://borderlessjournal.com/2026/01/14/christmas-that-almost-disappeared/

Charles Dickens was flying high by 1842. His books, Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, and periodicals were selling like hot cakes on both sides of the Atlantic. With so many fans over in America, he decided to pay them a visit. What he saw in the second-largest fan base upset him for two reasons. 

Firstly, there was the issue of royalty. Publishers in America were printing his work left, right and centre. He received none of the returns due to him. Secondly, he was upset with the level of racism and their cavalier attitude towards slavery, even amongst the northern states.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2026/01/14/christmas-that-almost-disappeared/

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All so Messi?

https://borderlessjournal.com/2026/01/14/all-so-messi/

Lionel Messi in Kolkata. From Public Domain

With the amount of information I am bombarded with daily, I often wonder, as one usually does, how all these changes will change society. Are we all going to be empowered, aware, and demanding what is due to us? Will our minds be so open that we can accept that there is more than one way to skin a cat? On the contrary, will we become more aware of the many ways we can be taken for a ride, and so paranoid that we cannot even breathe a breath of fresh air? What if it is contaminated with toxic effluents?

Three recent video clips steered my mind towards this end.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2026/01/14/all-so-messi/

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Your call is important to us?

“All our agents are extremely busy right now; you’ll be attended to shortly. Your call is important to us.” The robotic voice would go, trying to sound like how a hangman would place a hood over your head before pulling the lever.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/12/15/your-call-is-important-to-us/

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When Nectar Turns Poisonous!

https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/11/14/when-nectar-turns-poisonous/

motichoor laddoo

” No, you cannot refuse this!” my wife said. “This is prasad, the divine offering to the gods.”

I reluctantly looked at the glazed motichoor ladoo. The memories of my last blood test results started flooding my mind.

The learned GP looked disapprovingly at my results through his reading glasses, one eye fixed on the result and the other condescendingly on me. Did I hear geckos chapping away in the background, or is the doctor making disgruntled sounds about my glucose levels?

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Just Passing Through...

https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/10/14/just-passing-through/

During my early days of cycling, as I trained during the early hours before dawn, my greatest fear was not the darkness. Beyond fearing fear itself, the next thing that frightened me was the possibility of a head-to-head encounter with a pack of stray dogs that throng the country roads leading up to Genting Peres, the border between the districts of Hulu Langat in Selangor and Jelebu in Negeri Sembilan. ...

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Parenting Tips from a Quintessential Nerd

https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/09/15/parenting-tips-from-a-quintessential-nerd/

The question is, why are we here? What are we doing, and what is expected of us? Is the purpose of our existence merely to continue the propagation of the species? Is there a higher calling to elevate our souls? Can we correct our karmic order to a better footing? Unfortunately, if only we knew where we went wrong last time, we could fix our past mistakes. Sadly, we do not. Is our presence on Earth to raise our species a level higher, whether intellectually or technologically, than a generation before? Is there a greater plan in the pipeline, to consume more and more, heading towards entropy? The less wise among us will be sure of their existence, convinced that this is a testing ground for more magnificent things to come.

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Verify You Are Human!

'Verify You Are Human'

How often have we, as fully realised human beings, found ourselves in the ironic situation of proving our human status to a computer programme? We have ticked boxes to identify zebra crossings, traffic lights, and buses, only to be told we were wrong, as if we did not know what a bus was. It is as if our fingers were too stubby to press the right keys or too daft to understand. And now, we are deciphering distorted words, as only a human could read wavy or cursive writing.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/08/14/verify-you-are-human/

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What is great anyway?

It all started with a Facebook post which quoted Churchill and read, “If you are twenty and not a Communist, you don’t have a heart. But if you are forty and still a leftist, you do not have a brain.” That snowballed into a literary discourse on the word great and what constitutes greatness. The funny thing is that Churchill never said anything to that effect.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/07/14/what-is-great-anyway/

https://winstonchurchill.org/the-life-of-churchill/senior-statesman/

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Hope lies buried in eternity!

Most prayers we offer to a higher being invariably end with 'Peace on Earth' or 'Happiness for All'. Prayers like 'Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaha 'and 'Om Shanti'  assume that everyone can have things their way at one given time, creating a win-win situation. Such a situation can only exist in our imagination.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/06/16/hope-lies-buried-in-eternity/

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Will Dire Wolves Stalk Streets?

Life evolves. The new replaces the old, and fresh ideas overshadow previous ones. What was once an avant-garde style one day may appear unattractive the next. We sometimes feel embarrassed by the clothes we wear and the trends we embrace decades after models showcased them on the catwalk.

Trends come and go constantly. Species become extinct at a background rate of one species per million each year. Human activities, such as habitat destruction and chemical pollution, have accelerated this decline by hundreds or thousands of times.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/05/14/will-dire-wolves-stalk-streets/

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