Today, I shed a tear, For that child Who shivered, Cold in her shoes, Lanky in her clothes, Terrified in her errors. Today, I shed a tear, For the parents, Who, in their hurry, To protect their child From what the world could Do to her, forgot what they could. Today, I told myself, That […]
There is a scene in the 2005 film Capote where the attention-seeking Truman Capote is working a room full of adoring listeners and Harper Lee passes him by. There is a brief conversation that tells us everything about both writers. Capote and Lee were childhood friends and Lee supposedly helped him in the research of […]
”They said, for the sake of the country… But the country isn’t the earth beneath our feet, it is the people. Have any of you ever spared them a glance? Oppression for the sake of the country is oppression of the country. But you won’t understand. Travel as far on the road as you can […]
Sometime back, Aamir Khan was reviled because his wife was disturbed by what she read in the newspapers and for the sake of their son, wondered if they should settle in another country. Khan said loud and clear that it shocked and devastated him that his wife could feel that level of fear. In the […]
Dancer Amy Yakima and choreographer Travis Wall danced breathtakingly to a song called Wicked Game (performed by James Vincent McMorrow and written by Chris Isaak) in one unforgettable season of So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) and the highlight of the performance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ0QrJaPFcQ) was a gravity defying leap where Amy just flew into Travis’ arms while […]
I have been reading voraciously these days. My love for reading has begun irking the folks around me. They often remark, “Why do you want to read so much? Do something else. Reading is not everything.” But, I do not tell them that I think reading is the warmest, healthiest way to fill the abyss […]
A tired squeaky toy on the divan. One of its eyes is missing. A well-used enormous ball near the shoe rack. I step on it inadvertently, and it goes, “squeeeaaak.” I jump, and land on a brown, wet, stuffed toy. Its head is empty. Little cloud-like pieces of cotton lie around it, a graphic […]
For a few years after we were married, we exchanged presents on Valentine’s Day. Then we reached this cynical phase, when we didn’t believe in celebrating or observing a day, so we conveniently ignored it. I still wrote a couple of blogs about him, about us, with a dash of mushiness every year on February […]
Recently, I sat down with a cup of lemon tea and watched The Lunchbox and Piku in one long stretch. To reassure myself that the world was still made up of serendipitous conversations tucked in fleeting moments when strangers connect and make soul contact. Sometimes via little notes that talk of the smell of spent […]
I am taking up yet another commercial rife with regressive clichés about Indian women and their “place”. This one, a part of Mother Dairy’s “Ma Jaisi Koi Nahin” campaign almost made me barf harder than a glass of sour milk. Watch the ad here (and try not to cringe, I dare you). It begins with […]
“Katrina and her cousin went on a short trek nearby, and by the end there were 60 or 70 leeches on her. Poor thing, she is a city girl, didn’t know what to do! When she came back we removed all the leeches, then I had to sweep the blood off the floor with a […]
2015 was the year of letting go; it was the year of saying no. What I reckoned as my dream job began crushing my soul. I said no to it, and went back to my desk job. When I was stuck in a crevice created by a moral dilemma — should I let my furry-friend go on […]