Fleeting, lasting, deep, light, amusing, thought-provoking... All that I encounter.
Sunday, October 22, 2023
Tiger = Maya
Sunday, September 10, 2023
Between the Rock and a Soft Place
During my Kanchipuram trip with my cousins, I heard the two ladies discussing a trip to Coimbatore and Pollachi. They talked about when the husbands would be free and how many days they could travel.
"Hey, why am I not part of this planning?" I asked, puzzled at this whole plan I was ignorant about.
"Of course, you are part of it. Nothing is finalized yet," they said.
Saturday, July 22, 2023
25/1000 - And Yet So Blissful
The temple town, the mokshapuri, in Tamil Nadu, Kanchipuram, is just a couple of hours away from Chennai. It is even connected to my maternal grandparents. My uncles and cousins often go there. But I have been there only a few times. And the only visits I remember in all these years are the stop at the main spots of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham (that was on work), Kamakshi Amman Temple, Ekambareshwara Temple, and Varadaraja Perumal Temple.
Friday, November 25, 2022
The Safari Food Chain
Food chain, you have studied all about it in class 6 or 7, I am sure. Seen a diagrammatic representation, I am sure. Probably drew a crappy version of it too.
Even in the corporate world, you would have heard of how the hierarchy works - like a food chain, each level eating the one below to grow bigger. Politics is no exception and probably closer to the jungle raj than anything else.
But, food chain in the safari!?
Sunday, January 31, 2021
Hampi - A Confluence of the Gross and the Subtle
Sunday, October 4, 2020
The Journey
"Mamma, can we go by train?" Rupa's elder one, Advika, asked. "We never travel by train," the 13-year-old pleaded.
"You will get bored," Rupa responded mechanically as she checked the flight cost and availability to Chennai from Delhi in December.
Rupa's younger son Vivek looked up from his book and said, "Mamma will get bored, she means."
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Some Old and New Memories
It was with great apprehension we planned a trip to Delhi and neighbouring cities. Having got used to the hot, hotter and hottest weather of Chennai, having not enough warm clothes even to face the colder temperature, we debated hotly on the need to make the trip. But two school reunions seemed compelling enough to take the risk.
Reunions
Had I continued to live in Delhi, studied in the same school till the end, would I have felt the same way as I did now, about meeting my friends from '86?
I don't know and this line of thought has to be abandoned as speculation that cannot be proved
conclusively. I did leave the first school I studied in half way, and I was immensely thrilled to be reconnecting with my old friends - and even those I had never met in school for they joined later, or our paths seldom crossed even when they were there.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Rain Train
Anyway, adventure had just begun.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Voices from the Past
How many times since I left Delhi I must have hoped to meet a friend, an acquaintance, a neighbour, a classmate who would say this to me. You can say that was the only one thing I longed for, but over the years, forgot.
Then suddenly, in 2001 or so, I was accosted by this question. The tall man in front of me looked like no one I knew, and yet something deeper connected and I knew he was a dear friend from school whom I last saw when we were 14. It was almost 15 years, and as expected of boys, he had shot up. But there is something about a person that never changes, does it?
Slowly a few more connections got renewed and the social media lived up to its promise.
But just how much, and how empty the pot still was, I realised when I was added to the whatsapp group of my batch. Initially started to connect the different groups from the different streams, it was suddenly merged. It could have stopped there and the group still would have been substantial. But even those who left in between were added, including me.
Yes, the messages flood the phone. Despite all resolutions, you end up getting caught to see who is saying what.
But the best part - they remember. In a group of 60 plus, not some one or two, but many remember and that is when the pot started feeling full. It meant being able to revive memories, of sharing snippets and laughing at nothing. It was like unraveling a thread and watching a knot come loose!
Whatever our age now (you figure it out), I feel like a teenager, nay, a child.
Sharing what a friend from another similar group sent:
Money cannot buy us our childhood. Only friends help to recreate those moments, from time to time, at no cost.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
On Romance - and Movies
So I couldn't help wondering why I found it so boring. After watching Piku and enjoying it thoroughly, my thoughts went back to OKK and why I was bored.
OKK was not badly taken, the actors were pleasing, the scenes shot very well. The story too was not bad. But it was BORING! My friend with whom I watched the movie too couldn't sit through it either. And yet, it is not that being married has made us so bitter that we can't enjoy a good romance!
My diagnosis is that there were no ups, no downs. The story set out on one path, stuck to it, but so closely that the scenery did not vary one bit. What little scope there was for drama fizzled off in the 'let's kiss and make up' silver bullet the couple carried with them. On the other hand, I enjoyed the portrayal of the older couple because there was a lot that was unstated, and a lot of what was stated was done with great humour. What little drama was there came from them. It was not melodrama. It was matured, dignified and the tension was created in our minds without having the characters rave and rant or open the dam.
I was reminded of Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya - another movie that bored me to death though it was raved of as a reflection of modern times. Another movie where the ups and downs fizzled off into nothingness, more so because it was repetitive. At one point I wanted to slap the hero and tell him to get himself a spine if it was available.
I am worried about modern times if this is what today's youth is all about. If relationships are taken so lightly that confusion and lack of clarity except that you want to be in a relationship is all that determines who you will go with. I hope the modern youth has more maturity than that. If the anti-thesis to the arranged marriage is a trial and error method... Well, I reserve my opinion. It maybe politically incorrect.
Maybe this blog post already is.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
One Earth: No Tree Frogs, Please!
Saturday, February 14, 2015
With No Cares
The tsunami of 2004 had claimed a part of the beach. I could see the ramparts of the fort peeping over the water every time a wave receded.
There was a wall closer to the fort building and the waves hit the wall, jumped up vertically, spraying water droplets on the beach.
My eyes fell on two very young children standing safely on the beach side behind the wall, in just their underwear, urging the waves to rise higher and higher. The waves too gamely obliged. Sometimes, the waves felt tired and were more muted, just jumping enough to peep at the children. The boy, who stood in the front, would then wave his hands as if swinging a sword, and challenging the waves to get at him. Fresh and rejuvenated waves would respond with mirth and joy, making the children scream excitedly.
I watched them for a long time wistfully. This is childhood. No cares, no responsibilities, just their imagination and a friendly 'nature'.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
What's in a day?
"Is new year on Dec 13?" he asked again, making me laugh.
Oh yes, he figured it out in a few seconds but I was amazed at how completely disconnected he was from the date. Was it because he was on vacation and doesn't need the dates?
Really, what do we need dates for? I hardly feel a day older than I did a few years ago (not from the day I was born. Of course, I have grown since but not like every year, every minute!). Unless there is a deadline or a flight to catch, the date and time all are relatively insignificant (okay, okay, there are the birthdays and anniversaries to remember). And then, deadlines are artificial pressures we create to add excitement to some of our lives and drag others down - life will not end if an upgraded version of a particular technology is not released on a particular day. And emergencies do not announce their date of arrival.
So let's just enjoy this day as any other - the sunshine, the cold, the rain, the day the night... Let's just enjoy every day.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Leisure and Literature
I had FUN and I learnt Literature. What I hadn't learnt in three years of doing BA Lit, I did in a day. To play this card game...
A break from work I could ill afford, but I decided to make the most of it. A train journey is meant for enjoying, even if it means bearing with sudden, startling, rheumatic breaks by the train. And then, what's a journey without entertaining co-passengers? I was most gratified to see our neighbours' ears glued to our conversations and smiling despite themselves. In the onward journey, the man, fearing he will miss his station early next morning, scooted to the top berth at his bedtime seeing the ladies in full form. Gossiping, teasing, laughing - we need large cousin groups, man...
In the return journey my education began. The old hands agreed to initiate two novices into the game - one a young boy fresh in his teens, and the other, yours truly - who had seen teens many summers back. But it is never too late to learn, is it? Breaking for soup and dinner was hard but we got back with rigour and managed 5 sets.
Now I am wondering how to get this group back to have more such rounds... And that too in train... Train, cards, cousins - a combination nonpareil.
PS: The wedding we attended was fun too... Let me catch up with my work now...
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Go Slow
Packed days, packed evenings... No stress, a variety of activities, but no time to sit back and watch the day go by either. A recliner, a cup of tea, a book and some oily snacks (no stress there, PLEASE)... And what would I like to give up for those? The list lets nothing go - they are all passion. Nothing is 'work as in work'. "Epicurean personality," someone explained.
Can skating on thin ice be bad? You can fall, break your bones, but the thrill and excitement... Don't they make up for it? And if you land on your feet, do you go back and skate again or say, enough?
And yet, that recliner (the illusionary one) beckons. Not a vacation. Just a day of reclining, a half hour, a 10 minutes, just do it, please... No, don't reach out for the book... Just lean back. Maybe close your eyes. NO! DON'T SLEEP!
Sigh! This seems like more work! Let me go back to my straight backed chair.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
First Love
She held his hand as he floundered through his first steps.
She showed him the world, standing by him like a rock.
She let go when he was ready.
Even she didn't know how much he loved her.
When she returned after a four-day trip, he asked, "Can we join our pillows?"
"I am so tired," she murmured and lay flat on her back. "But you weren't here for four days!" he said and she agreed reluctantly. He tried hard to make her turn. Then she gave in, and the two embraced. "I missed you," he said.
"I did too," she replied sleepily. "I felt bad about the times I fought with you," she added softly. Then she was asleep.
When I entered the room a few minutes later, my six year old son exclaimed, "Amma, that was the longest hug we shared. It ended just now." His elder sister was again on her back, breathing evenly as she was fast asleep.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
In the Clouds
But on ground you have to land
Dream as only you can
Feet on earth firmly you plant
Reality on the ground
To anchor us through ups and downs
Floating is a pleasure but brief
Time will steal it away, the thief
Like day and night they come and go
Sorrow and joy, two sides of a coin
Head in air, feet on land
To live in joy, and remain strong.