In 1985 the 52nd Amendment added the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India. Under it, a member of a legislature is disqualified if he “votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to any direction issued by the political party” to which he belongs, without its prior permission.
The vote does not cost the member his seat if the party condones it within fifteen days.
In Premchand’s story Bade Bhai Sahab, Elder Brother, the narrator’s brother is five years older. He stays in the same class year after year. The younger brother gets good marks in his exams. The elder brother keeps lecturing him all the same.
Samajh kitabein padhne se nahin aati, duniya dekhne se aati hai. Understanding does not come from reading books. It comes from seeing the world.
The story is chapter 8 of Sparsh, the NCERT Hindi textbook for Class 10.
In “The Wit that Won Hearts,” a chapter of Poorvi, the NCERT English textbook for Class 8, King Krishnadevaraya takes offense when his queen yawns during his poetry. Tenali Rama brings special paddy seeds to court and turns the talk to the person who will plant them, and to yawning. The king yawns himself. Tenali Rama says: “Your Majesty, is there anyone in this world who does not yawn? It is as natural as breathing.”
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.
Tad viddhi pranipatena pariprashnena sevaya. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna how to learn from a teacher. In the translation by Swami Mukundananda: “Learn the Truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him with reverence and render service unto him.” This is verse 4.34.
On May 22, 2010, Air India Express Flight 812 crashed while landing at Mangalore. The Court of Inquiry found that the captain continued an unstable approach “despite three calls from the First Officer (H S Ahluwalia) to ‘go around’.” The first call was a question: “Go around?” The last was: “Go around captain…We don’t have runway left.”
The first officer did not take over the controls. The report noted “ambiguity in various instructions empowering the ‘copilot’ to initiate a ‘go around’.”
Chhota munh badi baat : a small mouth, big words. The Rekhta dictionary gives its Hindi meanings as speaking above one’s ability, claiming more than one has been encouraged to, and badon ke samne dhrishtata dikhana, showing impudence in front of elders.
Gustakhi maaf : “pardon (my) rudeness, excuse me,” in Rekhta’s definition. Rekhta notes that the related phrase gustakhi muaf ho is used as an aside when someone says something impolite or unwelcome.
In the Yuddha Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Vibhishana advises his brother Ravana, in the presence of the ministers, to return Sita to Rama. Ravana is enraged and dismisses him. The text says that Ravana “sent away Vibhishana, who had spoken honestly.”
Vibhishana goes over to Rama. He explains: “Reviled by him and humiliated as a slave, I, leaving my sons and my wife, have come to take refuge with Rama.”
At a board meeting on October 24, 2016, Tata Sons removed Cyrus Mistry as its chairman. His email to the board, written on October 25, reached the media the next day. In it he criticized decisions linked to Ratan Tata, including the Nano car, and said he was “shocked beyond words.”
Tata Sons replied on October 27. It called the email “unsubstantiated claims and malicious allegations” and objected that it had been released “in an unseemly and undignified manner.”