That wasn't a typo.

But it was calculated to stop you in your tracks.

Music, that is. There's some serious saxophone underlining the Hindi melodies of the 60s and 70s.

Interludes to transport you straight back in time to the haunting tunes that never fade.

How did an instrument invented by a Belgian music maker in 1840 drill deep into the Indian psyche?

And his name was Sax. Adolphe Sax. Wasn't pulling a fast one.

Back to where we were.

Go to a number from the movie Guide - Gaata Rahe Mera Dil

About 1 minute and 10 secs into the song, you'll hear the sax take off.

Now listen to it and tell me that you weren't affected by it.

It's like the soul of the song.

Some staccato congos hammer out a pulsating heart in an accompaniment.

The sax goes into a joyful meandering glide through the tune, creating an atmosphere that has held people in its thrall for decades.

You hear that bit and the song with all its associated memories will come rushing back.

SD Burman and RD Burman were the magicians.

But the sleight of hand was performed by the sax.

Are marriages power play?

For all the romantics here, it's sad news. Apart from post-wedding blues.

The podcast episode on marriages from NPR paints a very different picture from   movie plots and romance novels.

Marriage began ages ago as a social contract, a way to ensure and maintain the peace between families and kingdoms.

There was no love involved, not the way it is in the regular Hindi potboilers

Possibly why Indian marriages are still largely 'arranged'. And parents say that they are seeking 'alliances' for their sons or daughters.

Some words are more revealing than they intend to be.

For Indian families, finding matches with the right community, gene pool, prospects for the future and social standing is an enduring problem. 

Looks may be important to the people involved but there are far bigger considerations at play.

For all those who argue that you need to love the person you marry, listen to the podcast episode.

You may not agree with the conclusions and the points made, but it will certainly expand your views beyond common clichés 

There's also a lot more on why marriages today are a lot harder than they used to be.

And that's not the punch line.

The bulls, the bears and the bees

Until recently, the stock market was only about bulls and bears.

The bulls make money by sending stock prices soaring.

The bears by making them plunge.

It's a dance where both are in lockstep and the market can swing either way. But those involved know when the market is getting scorching hot and cooler minds prevail

Money is lost and made but the stock market wall is never breached.

It requires huge investments to influence prices. Only the biggest players can enter the ring.

Those who watched Scam 1992 will get the dynamics.

Small retail investors are like bees. They buy 10, 100 or even a thousand shares which amount to raindrops in an ocean. 

Minnows in a sea of sharks.

But recently, there has been an uprising of sorts.

A company called Gamestop was being driven down by hedge funds in the US. Millions were in play

And a swarm of buyers on Reddit, the maverick social media site, bet against the hedge funds.

They acted in co-ordination, thousands of them to drive the price from $80 to $230

Making the hedge funds sweat blood.

Bears and bulls now have to factor the effect of unpredictable bees into the game.

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