I MUSE TO AMUSE
by Rajnish Wattas

WHENEVER I get the blues, my usual ‘pick-me-up’ (if that’s the word I want) is a P.G. Wodehouse rib-tickler. It helps me chuckle away the dark clouds and rediscover the rainbows. Thank you, Jeeves. There is a perception that humorous prose is not as significant as serious writing. Also, that stories which make one laugh cannot be as great as stories that make one cry. This is unfortunate and also untrue. Don’t we read fiction to be amused and to be transported elsewhere —"into a cleaner, brighter world than we live in"?

Yeh hai London, yeh hai London, meri jaan!
by Baljit Singh
"EXCUSE me, what’s all this fuss about?"Her smile was as warm as the colour of her hair. The 20-something redhead who accosted me with this question in the middle of Leicester Square, London’s prime entertainment district, had ‘Londoner’ written all over her freckled face. She was alluding to the heavy police bandobast and a milling crowd in front of one of the several movie theatres in the Square. When I expressed my ignorance, she flashed another smile, pointed toward my heavy-duty camera and bag, and gushed: "Oh, I thought you were paparazzi!"

Cheers for chocolate
by Roshni Johar
JUST imagine...if you are a Swiss, you will get a whiff of chocolate as you fix chocolate-scented stamp on your mail! They carry a picture of renowned Swiss chocolates too. A 53-cent 90 cm postage stamp was released celebrating the centenary of Chocosuisse, Switzerland’s chocolate industry.

The costliest cup of coffee in the world!
by K.R.N. Swamy
IT is said that the last words of Napoleon were for a cup of coffee. With such an illustrious example from history, and gourmet coffee shops increasing in all Indian metros, I set out to find out the cup of costliest coffee in the world. Vienna is famous for its coffee shops, but for me London was a better place to search, as one could converse in English with the shopkeepers/aficionados.

HOLLYWOOD HUES
A powerful human drama
by Ervell E. Menezes
WHAT is it like to be part of the drug trade , that ruthless caravan that moves along steam-rolling thousands in its wake? The players, whether they be Mexicans or Americans, are mere cogs in a wheel that can be eliminated at any moment. And what about the human drama and tragedy of the families that are part of the drug menace.

TRAVEL:  Keeping a date with amazing Amsterdam
by P.P.S.Gill