To get on one’s high horse is to behave arrogantly and superciliously. The days of horses are over. A business manager will do well to remember that he cannot get on his high horse while dealing with his subordinates and assistants. The usually mild-mannered and soft-spoken Prime Minister (Dr Manmohan Singh) appears now, at least to some, as having got up on his high horse while dealing with those opposing the nuclear treaty with the US.

The idiom is listed in standard dictionaries as given here. But one will also encounter to be on a high horse.
The phrase has a literal origin. In medieval times higher nobles would ride a horse higher (by a hand or so) than the horses used by others. From this elevated position they could look down on others and behave in an appropriately arrogant way. 

In an editorial the Hindu writes: ‘What should be clear to any one who is not on a high horse, with blinkers on, is that given the deep political polarisation there is little chance of anyone or other prime Minister or government, making a go of this deal in the conceivable future’--The Hindu, Aug.20, 2007.

Here we have an interesting picture of a man who is on a high horse, with blinkers on. Blinkers are small patches usually fixed on a bridle in such a way that the horse cannot see sideways or backwards. While blinkers go with horses, here is a person who has blinkers on and he is on his high horse! Figuratively a man with blinkers on is prevented from understanding a situation properly.  On top of it he has mounted his high horse!  A combination guaranteed to prevent the man from seeing things as they are;  in this case, of realising that none but Dr Singh and his government can make a success of the nuclear deal. (To make a go of something is ‘to make a success of it by working on it as hard as possible’.)

Russian roulette
A bottle of Champaign, supposedly Hitler’s, was sold for 1400 pounds at an auction in Bavaria (as reported in The Hindu). It was bought by two Swedish presenters who, however, announced they were not going to drink it for fear that it may be poisoned.  ‘We certainly won’t play Russian roulette with it; we might sell it and give the cash to a Jewish charity.’

What’s a Russian roulette?
A dangerous game in which each person — there is usually a small group of them — spins the cylinder of a revolver containing just one bullet and then presses the revolver against his temple and pulls the trigger. Since there is only one chamber which is loaded, the chances are that the chamber which fires when the trigger is pulled is empty.  But then…!

The game is supposed to have originated in Czarist Russia. But the earliest record of this expression goes back to only 1935.

Roulette is French for a small wheel. It is also the name of a very popular game in casinos.  A wheel with numbered segments is rotated and then a ball dropped on the wheel. Players bet on the segment where the ball comes to a stop.

A warren
A network of interconnecting rabbit burrows is a warren. By extension the term is also used of a densely populated or labyrinthine building, or a place with an intricate system of lanes and houses. Some illustrative phrases:  packed thick as rabbits in a warren; a warren of narrow alleys (the wholesale textile market in Chickpet, Bangalore.)

Here is a beautiful description of such a place in the Himalayas. ‘Perched high above the Himalayan town of Leh, a warren of traditional mud brick houses squats by the ruins of the royal palace and a monastery, appearing to grow out of the mountainside’— The Hindu, Aug.41, 3007, p.20.

Premises
This word is always plural and refers to a house/building with its associated outhouses, etc. usually business premises.

The preposition with premises is on. The secretary fainted. Luckily there was a doctor on the premises. When the word is the subject of a sentence, agreement is with a plural verb. The company’s premises were in a dilapidated state. 

Premises is not a specific word denoting a particular type of building like a temple, museum, barracks, hospital, etc. It is used in connection with commercial establishments like hotels, restaurants, offices, etc.  It is not used in connection with private dwelling units, i.e. houses. My house is further down the road Not: My premises are further down the road.

A common mistake is to treat the word as singular. The Mutt premises has the Dandayudhapni swami temple—DH Aug. 23, 2007, Metro life.

The writer can be contacted on ksyadurajan@yahoo.com