This week, the Kerala floods’ fury worsened, the rupee crossed 70 to the dollar, and NASA sent out a solar probe. But you already knew that, didn’t you, you clever elf? What have you missed out on this week?

Ever since we discovered that our bodies were built for comfort rather than speed, us fat people have drawn out a mental list of places that we choose to avoid lest we inconvenience our flabby selves. Of late, this list is only growing longer.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee kept humour and poetry and all those softer emotions that keep our politics humane, alive – all the emotions that have so thoroughly vanished from our public life. His tenure is a reminder that political ideology notwithstanding, there is a world of difference between being a statesman and playing one.

The floods in Kerala, considered the worst in a century, have claimed over 324 lives and displaced over three lakh people. Once Kerala survives this, it’s evident that God’s own country will have to be rebuilt from scratch. And they'll need our help.

With Gulzar, the more you discover, the more you crave. Even when I didn’t know it, Gulzar was all around. That is how enmeshed his songs and lyrics are in our lives – and how our lives are reflected in them.

They say cocaine is the rich person’s drug. Every decision, every thought, can be justified after a couple of lines. Even though it’s no hallucinogen, it allows you to live in a mirage for a few hours. There’s us, the coke users, happy, rich, successful – and then there’s them, the regulars, poor, lazy, and unworthy.

I’m only 20 and as wanderlust-y as they come. But if there’s something I know, it’s that the third day of every vacation is the best. It forces you to rethink your priorities and do what you’d intended to do in the first place: See a city from a fresh perspective.

Parsi baugs are little ecosystems, the epitome of what it means to maintain a sense of community. To a non-Parsi, sauntering through these little oases in the middle of a hectic metropolis, can appear like the perfect encapsulation of the Parsi mantra of “majja ni life”.

We’ll remember Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the leader with a great capacity for reflection. Unlike so many men in positions of power today, Vajpayee admitted to mistakes, fallibility, and even the odd misplaced idea at times. Forget being a moderate – in the times that we occupy, he now feels like a pacifist.