In 2001 Tata Finance, a company of the Tata group, was caught in a financial controversy. The financial journalist Sucheta Dalal reported that “the Tatas would meet all of TFL’s financial obligations to its lenders and depositors.”
She added: “Given the Tata’s blue-chip reputation, the assurance has helped avoid a run on the company.”
In the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, King Shantanu wants to marry Satyavati. Her father has doubts about the rights of her future sons. Shantanu’s son Devavrata answers him in front of the assembled chiefs: “Ye kings, I have already relinquished my right to the throne.”
The father still has doubts about Devavrata’s own children. So Devavrata adds: “O fisherman, from this day I adopt the vow of Brahmacharya,” lifelong celibacy. By this vow he became known as Bhishma.
In the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, the sun god Surya warns his son Karna that Indra will come in disguise and ask for his armor and earrings. “When the wielder of the thunder-bolt asks you for them, do you never give him your ear-rings!”
Karna refuses the advice. “Permit me now, O foremost of celestials, to observe my vow,” he answers, “so that unto him of the thunderbolt coming to beg of me, I may give away even my life!”
Every year Kerala celebrates Onam, the festival of King Mahabali’s return. In the story, Vishnu comes to Mahabali as Vamana, a young Brahmin, and asks for as much land as he can cover in three steps. Mahabali’s guru Shukracharya warns him, but “he decided to keep his promise.”
Vamana covers the earth and the heavens in two steps, and Mahabali offers his own head for the third. Vamana grants him a boon: “that he could return to his kingdom during the 10-day festival of Onam.”
Section 7 of the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 makes a Hindu wedding binding at an exact moment. “Where such rites and ceremonies include the Saptapadi (that is, the taking of seven steps by the bridegroom and the bride jointly before the sacred fire), the marriage becomes complete and binding when the seventh step is taken.”
Naan oru thadava sonna, nooru thadava sonna madhiri. If I say it once, it is as if I had said it a hundred times. Rajinikanth says it in the Tamil film Baasha (1995).
Under Section 55 of the Indian Contract Act of 1872, a missed date makes a contract voidable only if the parties intended time to be essential. Otherwise the other side can only claim compensation.
In Chand Rani v. Kamal Rani, decided in December 1992, the Supreme Court applied this to the sale of immovable property. In such sales “there is no presumption as to time being the essence of the contract.” Elsewhere the judgment puts it more strongly: “there is presumption against time being the essence of the contract.”
On May 22, 2010, Air India Express Flight 812 crashed while landing at Mangalore. The cockpit recorder had “co-pilot Captain HS Ahluwalia” “telling Captain Glusica thrice to go around,” the Deccan Herald reported.
The investigation noted: “Although company SOP empowered the first officer to assume control and discontinue the approach, he did not do so.”
Ho jayega. It will get done. HP India built an advertising campaign for small businesses around the phrase. The trade site BestMediaInfo called it “that typical Indian expression.” HP India’s chief marketing officer, Prashant Jain, described the campaign as “a celebration of the dependability of the Indian small business owner.”
In Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Yash Raichand, played by Amitabh Bachchan, disowns his adopted son Rahul, played by Shah Rukh Khan, for marrying Anjali, a young woman from Chandni Chowk. The father objects to the difference in class.
In the confrontation with Rahul, the father closes the matter: Keh diya na… bas keh diya! I have said it. That is all.