Kids
Saturday 26 December 2020
Winding down 2020
Friday 18 December 2020
Snow watching
I realized yesterday, that watching snowflakes drop out of the sky is one of the most mesmerizing sights. Millions upon millions of pure glistening white flakes, airily orbiting through the atmosphere, swooping and swirling rapidly, finally hitting the ground in pin-drop silence. What an experience!
Wednesday 16 December 2020
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening/COVID Parody poem
Thought of doing a parody poem based on Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Here is the original poem followed by the parody :)
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Thinking about COVID on New Year’s eve
Whose fault this is, we think we know
There are a lot of theories though;
Some say nature is striking back -
2019 sure seems a long time ago.
At first I found it very queer
To see people masked from ear to ear;
Finding toilet paper and sanitizer
At the grocery was cause for cheer.
Some people had a different take;
That the whole thing was a conspiracy, a fake
Some decided to take up hobbies,
Insta was full of sourdough and cake.
The scars of 2020 will go deep
Making a vaccine, was a mighty leap
The price we paid was very steep,
There are miles to go before we sleep.
There are miles to go before we sleep.
When you think of me (poem)
Cross-published on Medium.
When you think of me
How will you remember me, I wonder?
Furtive I crept in, to consume you.
Will you remember me as an interlude?
A pause, a reset, a time for repose?
Or will you only recollect
the hunger, the chaos, and the misery?
The injustices, the rebellions;
the battles we won and lost?
The children you held close,
the families that entwined and unraveled?
The people you grieved for?
The causes you held dear,
and those you couldn’t even see
through your tinted lenses.
Layer upon layer, you and I,
we build our shared history.
What sense will you make of me?
My turmoil might yet colour
the remainder of your days.
Wednesday 9 December 2020
Cacophony (poem)
Cross-published on Medium.
They tumble over themselves,
coming in through the door.
The silence births a manic cacophony.
What a scene! They arrive jostling,
and shoving, and vying for attention.
“One at a time, please!”, I cry
“Let us be organized, gentle and calm.
There is time and space for everyone.
I invite you, my dear friends,
and acquaintances of long-standing.
Welcome to my home, do come in.”
Doubt flashes past me, rudely and abruptly;
thrusting fear, anger, and envy ahead of her.
She is a hydra, funneling up up malice and hurt,
even as I frantically chop off her serpent heads.
“Stop! Stop! I cannot deal with this!
This disarray, this confusion!”
I plaster a smile on my face;
I am still learning how to entertain.
Let them come - doubt and fear and anger,
and envy and malice and hurt.
The pain you give me, I am grateful for.
The cold is nothing without the heat;
the sweet nothing without the bitter.
And finally, my now-mellow guests,
they shuffle past in an orderly fashion.
Like a good hostess, I spend time with everyone.
I enquire about their well-being.
Love, kindness, and empathy were at the back of the line-
no wonder I hadn’t spotted them.
We really need to spend more time together.
“I’ll call you.” I tell them earnestly.
“Let’s meet again soon.”
I take a deep breath,
and open my eyes.
Saturday 5 December 2020
Bombay Blues
On weekend mornings, the maidan reverberated with the cries of children. The soft thud of cleats banging against football, the sharp crack of a leather ball hitting bat or wicket, and the booming voices of a herd of elderly uncles on their daily constitutional. At 9 am, the sunshine would momentarily blind as I stepped out of the building, drawing perspiration almost immediately as the humidity of the coastal city coalesced around me. I ambled along the boundaries of Cooperage football ground, feasting my eyes on the wilting green grass and trees, slowly making my way to the sandwich-wallah at Nariman Point, the only breakfast option open on weekends within my budget. 4 slices of white bread (no organic or whole-wheat!), Amul butter slapped on one slice, and mixed fruit jam on the other, the whole deftly wrapped up in a neat paper packet, to go! A cup of tea from the chai-wallah a few meters away completed this humble breakfast.
It was 1999. The world was on the cusp of a new millennium and I was poised at the edge of a new career. Like thousands of other single women (and men), a paying guest in what had clearly been the servant’s quarters of a large apartment. My home was a narrow dwelling of approximately 12 ft by 6 ft, containing a fan, a couple of naked bulbs, a narrow bed, and best of all, an attached bathroom (which also had the only window!) For these luxuries, I shelled out the princely sum of Rs 6,500 every month, an amount which left a big hole in the budget after paying for the education loan payments and sundry other essential expenses. So much for the well-paid post-IIM job!
But, as they say, location is everything. Unlike my contemporaries, I did not have to wake up early to be squashed in a crowded train for an hour’s commute. Nariman point was an easy 15-minute walk in one direction. In the other direction, Colaba Causeway was a hop skip and jump; passing on the way the intriguingly-named Wodehouse Gymkhana named not for the famous author but for a past Governor of Bombay Presidency. Circumscribed by Marine Drive, Fort, Gateway of India, and Cuffe Parade, it was a paradise for anyone who enjoyed art and culture, shopping, and eating! To be mesmerized by the sophisticated bustle and pulsating energy of the metropolis was a given. The pseudo-intellectual pleasure of experiencing a high brow play or string quartet concert at the NCPA was rivaled by the gustatory delights of the bhelpuri on Churchgate B Road, and a big bowl of strawberries with cream (very English!) at Bachelors in Chowpatty.
In that first year of near-disillusionment with the corporate world, good friends at the office kept my days filled with fun and laughter. Shereen was my age, a Parsi girl and blue-blooded “Townie” who was horrified when I suggested that do some shopping in Bandra (she refused to venture north of Worli). As I entered the office every morning and headed towards my desk, we would make rapid eye contact. Seconds later, my desk phone would ring so that we could update each other on the happenings between last evening and this morning (which, in my case, would be nothing-much-to-report). At around 11 am, we would rendezvous in the ladies' restroom, to touch up our lipsticks and exchange office gossip, sometimes joined by one of the many secretaries. Come 1 pm, we would join other colleagues for a meal in one of the many eateries that dotted Nariman point, our loud and boisterous exchanges adding to the general lunchtime cacophony. No one was in a hurry to return to their desks, and invariably someone would suggest topping up with a big glass of fresh mosambi or watermelon juice, thereby extending the lunch hour by a few precious minutes. Every now and then, this camaraderie would spill over after-hours, and some of us would head to Marine Drive for some fresh air before having dinner together. One conscientious and chivalrous male friend would insist on safely walking Shereen and me to our respective homes, before starting on his long train ride home to Chembur.
Shereen’s family was part of the South Bombay social circuit. Her evenings and weekends were busy with cocktail parties, and lunches and dinners at various clubs. Ever so often, she would drag me to her Sunday family lunch at the Cricket Club of India, where her mother would imperiously ask the chef to make a vegetable dhansak especially for me.
What carefree times! Nowhere to rush to, no chores waiting to be done, no responsibility, and all the time in the world. On weekends, I would board a train to go to either Prabhadevi, Versova, or Napean Sea Road, where friends and family lived. For two days I would be a part of humdrum domesticity, going grocery shopping, assisting in the kitchen, or catching a movie, before returning to my solo life on Sunday evening.
In spite of a fairly eventful social life, there were many moments of loneliness and homesickness, and always, the sense of being in transition. I felt like Trishanku, suspended between the occasional forlornness and precious independence of my Bombay life and the uncertain future, approaching closer with every passing day; marriage and a different life in another city.
When it was time to leave, relief at moving out of this transitory state, was the overwhelming emotion. Bombay was (and Mumbai is) intensely alive with its unique brand of enterprise and pizzazz but in the end, it overpowered and intimidated me. It was the perfect city to take my first steps towards true independence, but I couldn’t picture myself living and working and raising a family there. Even as a raw 25-year-old, I recognized in my unarticulate way that what I yearned for was a slower gentler pace of life, preferably in a bucolic setting!
Bombay, in that year straddling the new millennium and the old, was a place of liminality. From the high-rises of Nariman Point to the chawls of Jogeshwari, it juxtaposed the mundane and the exotic, the rich and the poor, the old and the new, the hyperlocal and the global. As for me, I existed in that liminal space where two worlds collided — the person I was, and the person I was on the verge of becoming.
How many, like me, would have taken their first tremulous steps towards self-sufficiency here! How many would have been charmed and dazzled (as I was), or maybe later disenchanted and dejected? In this city of dreams, anything was possible.
I remember one memorable walk on Marine Drive at the peak of the monsoons. That Monday morning, I had boarded a train from Dadar to get to work, only to be blindsided by a heavy downpour as I exited Churchgate station. With no umbrella, I was soaked to the skin in seconds. Fortunately, a colleague spotted me and offered to share his cab. I shivered in wet clothes all the way to the office and spent 30 minutes in the restroom trying to dry myself. By the evening, the rain had stopped. All along Marine drive, a mass of humanity strolled along, enjoying the temporary respite from the rain and seemingly in no hurry to head back to the teeming suburbs. Lovers canoodled in their own private world, and small boys jumped along the black rocks in a dangerous fashion. Food and drink vendors steadfastly turned their back on the Arabian sea — they had no time to daydream when there was business to be done! My friend and I strolled along the promenade, not saying much. A brisk sea breeze buffetted my hastily-acquired umbrella, threatening to spin it out of my hands. We laughed, for no reason (as twenty-somethings are wont to do), and just for a moment, I felt touched by the very edge of happiness.
Saturday 7 November 2020
Y turns 12
Friday 6 November 2020
12 years a blogger
It's been exactly 12 years since I started blogging. 588 posts in 12 years and the math says I've been writing close to 4 posts a month. A post a week, not bad at all. I've never been this consistent in anything in life, be it exercise, or eating well, or any of my other hobbies :)
I started blogging for two reasons. One was to have a daily record of my life as a mom, and my kids' milestones. The other was that as a sleep-deprived mom of two, I knew writing fiction or poetry or anything remotely creative would be well nigh impossible, and blogging would be a way of being consistent about writing.
Along the way, many bonuses appeared. I made friends, other mommy bloggers who were in the same chaotic boat. The fellowship we all created together was an unexpected and beautiful gift. Even now, a few of us email each other on our kids' birthdays. A few became good friends in the offline world too. One mom even sent me science books for Ads all the way from the US to Bangalore.
The blog gave me opportunities to write for a larger audience, as a parenting columnist on a few websites. At some point, we were doing so many holidays that it morphed into a travel blog, and I decided to spin the travel tales into a separate blog. A reader at the point advised me not to "split my audience", a comment that amused me no end. What audience? In its heyday, I had 60 followers, and about 20 of those used to comment regularly on my posts (this included my parents!)
Why do I keep writing? Because we forget. The minutiae, the trivial pursuits, the humdrumness of our daily lives is special, whether or not it appears to be so in the moment. We remember the big milestones, the highs, and the lows but often neglect the banal moments. I remember when Ads got the best bowler award in a 2019 cricket championship but the day in 2010 that we bought a plastic bat in Pondy Bazaar and threw a rubber ball at him, was a special day that I wouldn't remember if I hadn't recorded it in these pages. I am happy when my younger friends and cousins tell me they scrolled through the tags to find a specific post that is relevant for their much younger kids. Or when a regular reader drops a personal note to say how much that post about my grandfather, jogged some very fond memories of her own grandparents.
My writing got better because of this blog, even if the progress has been minuscule and painfully slow. I write because it is therapeutic and used to give me a sense of accomplishment on days when I felt like life was at a standstill. Blogging gave me not just an outlet but a medium to distil and clarify my thoughts.
But ultimately, I write for my kids. I write so that one day they can look back at their childhood and use these posts as an intimate window into the past. I write so that we, as a family, don't forget all the incidents, activities, arguments, and conversations that made up the fabric of our life. And sometimes I write, not about Ads & Y, but about myself and my childhood and the incidents that shaped me. By doing so, I offer them a window into my personality and my values, in the hope that these will shape them and help them understand me better. So, another bonus feature of the blog is that it is often self-serving!
A few days ago, Y was reading my posts from 2009/10. She couldn't stop at one, and kept scrolling, exclaiming things like "That's so funny" and"I was so cute, Amma!"
Mission accomplished :)
Friday 30 October 2020
Biking trip to the Laurel Highlands
Drove to Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands to see the fall colors. After our successful debut long bike ride over the summer , I've been scouting for more scenic bike trails and we found the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail that winds over 150 miles through PA, WV, and MD. We did a small portion of that (22 miles/35 km) between the towns of Confluence and Ohiopyle. I wasn't sure that Y and I would make it, but we did! Not bad, huh? Of course, I couldn't sleep for 2 nights after that, my hamstrings and glutes were shrieking with pain!! But proud of this small accomplishment at my advanced age and it gives me the confidence to do more such trips with the whole family.
The crunch of dry leaves underfoot. Red, orange and yellow splashed all over the horizon, on the mountain tops, and reflected in clear rivers. The nip in the air and the rush of wind as we biked alongside the Youghiogheny River (quite a mouthful, ain't it!). There's no season that is as beautiful and as enchanting as the fall.
Tuesday 20 October 2020
Cricketing accomplishments
The big news in this household is that Ads recently made it to the Virginia State cricket team (yes, there is one! One of the very few state teams in the US). I am beyond happy for a variety of reasons.
- He continues to follow his passion, in a new country and new environment and has been pursuing cricket in one form or another for about 6 years now. This is the same kid who thought sports are a waste of time.
- Playing at this level of competition gives him a definite leg-up in college applications (yes, I am a desi mom that way!)
- Being a highly academically-oriented person, he needs an activity that will take him away from studies and books, and cricket has been that activity for years.
- An introvert benefits hugely from team sports. It provides much-needed socialization, soft skills, builds resilience, and helps them learn with loss and defeat with equanimity.
- High school in this country is stressful and children, starting from middle-school onwards, need exceptional time and energy management skills. If his workload this year is heavy, next year (junior year) will be even toughter with more AP courses, SAT prep, and college apps. Cricket will focus his mind, give him fresh air, exercise, and relieve some of the stress, which is what I am hoping.
Thursday 8 October 2020
Il terrazzo
The balmy breeze of the Bay of Bengal would swoop in around 3 in the afternoon, bringing some welcome relief from the oppressive heat of the day. And in Madras, the heat is almost always oppressive. After 5 pm, the terrace was the best place to be. Being so close to the beach, the sea breeze was strong and wonderfully refreshing, drying the sweat that had accumulated in those pre-AC days. The beach was a short walk away, not over fine golden sand, but through short grasses and dry scrub, coconut trees looming over the landscape until finally you clambered over a dune and saw the sea in its solitary majesty.
We were rarely allowed to go to the beach without a chaperone. The elders deemed it too lonely and unsafe. Later when I did make it on my own, I wondered why. It was lonelier than Elliotts Beach but I liked it all the more for the sparse scattering of people and the wheatgrass and aloe vera juice vendor doing brisk business with elderly health-conscious walkers.
The terrace was my haven and I viewed it as my territory. Often I would escape there after school, clutching my school bag and claiming that I needed some quiet to study. But the cool breeze ruffled my hair, and I would wander off into teenage daydreams and fantasies. Sometimes these technicolor journeys would be interrupted by prosaic householder problems, like when my grandfather would come up to examine the water tank, a cavernous rectangular entity of great importance in family life. This tank was powered by a motor that sat at the back of the house near the jasmine bushes. The workings of this contraption were a source of great mystery to me. An air of tension permeated the air if the motor refused to start, or if the water tank refused to fill with appropriate speed. Then I would be dispatched post-haste to the terrace, to slide over the heavy concrete top of the water tank and peer inside, while downstairs grandfather tinkered with the motor and shouted instructions to me. Of course, many a time the motor worked with such efficiency that the water tank overflowed, precious water surging over the terrace and splashing down to the ground, causing much abuse to be heaped on the hapless person who had switched on the motor and neglected to switch it off in time.
That Kottivakkam terrace is associated with such vivid memories. Our neighbour’s daughter was a young woman of great poise and modernity. If I had known the word in 1990, I would have said she was “cool”. She studied in Meenakshi college, spoke impeccable English, and was known to be a fierce debater in the college circuit. Although several years older than me, she invited me to attend a party she was throwing for her birthday, on her terrace. My first grown-up party invitation! Many boys and girls, all older and infinitely more sophisticated than I was, the twinkling fairy lights, cold glasses of Campa Cola and Fanta. I never met any of those people again but never forgot her kindness in inviting a raw 15-year-old to a college party.
Sitting there on that terrace, suspended in space between the indoors and outdoors, I felt suspended in time as well. I brooded on my yesterdays, contemplated the present, and dwelt on my tomorrows. From that vantage point, I could see future horizons, hazy and indistinct, always filled with equal parts hope and trepidation. I wrote poetry on that terrace, my innermost thoughts curling and looping over white pages; years later, I flipped through those pages, now slightly yellow, and felt a rush of tenderness for that young child who carried a cauldron of jumbled emotions.
My mind veers towards other memories of other terraces, other yards. The baking Barsaati in Delhi’s Green Park, which I only know because of photographs. Yards in Meerut, Lucknow and Patna and the only memories are of drowsy winter afternoons, luxuriating in the sunshine and snacking on red winter carrots, white radishes, and green guavas. I suppose we never sat there in the summers! Coming into the house after a couple of hours outside was disorienting, eyes having to adjust to the darkness after the bright sunlight outside and shivering inside the cold house. A rare birthday party (my 10th) on the terrace of our house in Padmanabha Nagar, Adayar. Playing musical chairs and some child giving me a pencil sharpener in the shape of a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Bar. What a treasured possession that was, for many years!
I suppose these yesteryear echoes lie behind my love of outdoor spaces. I like nothing more than to install myself with laptop and a cup of tea in the garden or patio and while away the hours. Sometimes I work, sometimes I meditate, sometimes I ruminate.
Today I sit in a red wooden patio in suburban Virginia. Once I sprawled on a concrete floor; here there are comfortable chairs, a table, even an umbrella to shade from the sun. There are no coconut trees, but only alien oaks and beeches. Certainly no sea close by. No dull-looking pigeons and crows, but bright red cardinals and flashy blue jays. But the balmy breeze is the same. It swoops in and ruffles the trees and shakes the leaves to the ground. I close my eyes and I am transported back in time and place.
It took many years to travel from the Kottivakkam terrace to another continent, and that lonely teenager bears no ready resemblance to the woman I have become. Yet we all contain multitudes- our past present and future selves jostle for life and expression. The girl on that terrace worked hard to give me hope happiness and life; to her, I am forever grateful.
Thursday 1 October 2020
Eulogy - 25 years later
Pinnavasal Sundaresan Kailasam (what long majestic names people used to have in the old days!) or PSK as he was usually known, was my favourite grandparent. Short and compact physically, he was a towering personality. Thatha was a typical Arien - warm-hearted, generous, energetic, witty, humorous, affectionate, with a fiery temper that subsided as soon as it had flared up. He also had a gorgeous smile, and to date, remains one of the most attractive people I have ever encountered. (What is it about some people that makes them very attractive in spite of not being classically handsome? A topic for another day!).
A cost accountant, he started his career in the Ministry of Finance and later worked his way up to the top of the ladder in many companies, his work taking him to New Delhi, Dehradun, Kochi, Chennai, and Dubai before family issues forced him into early retirement.
The logical numbers machine was complemented beautifully by the creative gene. Thatha had a masterly command over both English and Tamil and wrote more than fifty short stories and novels, many appearing in well-known Tamil magazines. My father says that given a few more years of good health and if not for the distractions of career and family, he could have become one of the best Tamil writers of his time. I like to think of his writing and creativity gene traveling through me to my children, and often think about how proud he would have been of his great-grandchildren.
We were good friends, united by a shared love of books and reading and writing. I stayed with my grandparents for a couple of years in high school and he was the de-facto presence at parent-teacher meetings, stylishly driving his imported-from-Dubai Italian Fiat. In the early 1990s, a foreign car on the streets of Chennai was a wonder indeed, and many are the days when I would imperiously shoo off excited schoolmates pressing their grimy faces against the windows when the car was parked outside my school. One embarrassing incident during the time involved a group of us teenagers getting into trouble with our school Principal and Thatha arriving in state to discuss matters with the higher authorities, and bail me out of trouble.
He was an insomniac. Reading late into the night, he would insist I keep him company as I studied or did my homework. As I finished up and started gathering up my books, he would plaintively ask - “Done so soon? Why don’t you stay for some more time?”
“Thatha, I have to wake up for school tomorrow!”, I would wail!
When he was diagnosed with cancer, I was in the final year of college. I well remember those harrowing times when I would be commandeered to babysit my twin toddler cousins while the adults were busy with caregiving responsibilities. In the final days of his life, and in a matter of weeks, this once -active and always slender 65 year old had frighteningly shrunk into a bundle of bones. On one such afternoon, I was watching over the kids who were playing in the sick-room. I realized that Thatha was awake. Too weak to raise himself, he watched the twins for a few minutes. To my horror, a tear slowly trickled down his cheek. In that instant, I realized what he was thinking. He would never see these grandchildren grow up. Our eyes met. We remained mute, but in that unspoken moment, inarticulate angry thoughts bubbled up inside me. I was shattered by the unreasonableness, the pointlessness of life, in a way that has not happened since. That was the only day I cried for him.
He passed away a few days later and I remember my mother asking me, a little petulantly - “Did you not cry for Thatha?” But I remained dry-eyed. How could I understand then, as I understand now, that sometimes grief can be deeply felt and experienced even without tears being shed?
He bequeathed to me his love of the written word, and he introduced me to my favourite writer of all time, who used to be his favourite writer. Even today I cannot pick up a Nevil Shute book and not think of the person who first told me about No Highway and Trustee from the Toolroom, or who helped me pick The Far Pavilions, a book I devoured cover to cover while in my teens. We were regular correspondents when we lived in different cities (and countries) and one of the highlights of my childhood was receiving his letters, sheet after sheet covered in his frankly appalling handwriting. For a time, I even saved all the letters in a file named “Letters from a grandfather to his granddaughter” imitating Pandit Nehru’s book “Letters from a father to his daughter”.
Nostalgia is like an elastic band. It stretches to accommodate loneliness, angst, heartbreak, and even happiness. Sometimes it settles on one, light as a feather, almost invisible and undetectable; at other times, settling like unyielding stone in the crevices of one’s heart. As I relent into a nostalgic haze, I realize that grandparents give us a rare and beautiful gift. They show us their most delightful side, their wisdom, their patience, and their bountiful unconditional love. A side that their children, sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law, may not see that often (or at all)!
Thatha was cheated out of a long and who knows, productive life. But, over the years, I know I am mourning not for him but selfishly, for myself, and for what I was cheated out of. We were great friends, but we would have surely grown to be better ones.
He was a wonderful mimic and would have me in splits while imitating random people or putting on an atrocious British accent. My daughter and he would have got along like a house on fire. In her, I see that same wacky sense of humour, an irreverence that makes for opportunely witty and sarcastic comments.
He would have been thrilled to read my writing, and I would have been excited to read his books and stories and discuss them with him. And I can just see him beaming with pride when my daughter’s story gets published in a magazine!
Isn't it fortunate that time is so forgiving? After people pass on, it ensures we remember them at their very best, healthiest, and happiest; after all, why remember anyone any other way?
Friday 4 September 2020
End of summer
This long summer is winding down. We are getting prepped for school. We have had virtual open houses, meeting with homeroom teacher for Y, picking up laptops and other materials, etc. In between, Ads turned 15, and to celebrate, we went on a short vacation to southwestern Virginia, on the Tennessee/North Carolina border. We stayed in a gorgeous Airbnb, went on a long bike ride (17 miles!), and hiked in a beautiful state park with some amazing views. A much-needed break after being cooped up in the house for months.
I had my birthday a few days ago and we didn't do much, cake-cutting and chilled at home. I was thinking of birthdays when I was in school and college. Greeting cards, some arriving by post. The birthday "dress". Going to school and getting handmade cards from friends, and in some cases, small gifts (so treasured!). Having to "treat" those same friends on the way home, with ice-cream or pastries. The simplicity of it all, and the thrill! I had a party for my birthday just twice, for my 1st birthday and for my 10th birthday. After those celebrations, I cut a cake for the first time at our campus hostel in Bangalore in 1997.
Many more people wish me for my birthdays nowadays, thanks to social media. While I appreciate the FB posts and the Whatsapp messages, nothing makes me happier than an old friend taking the time to pick up the phone and call. And my really close friends do. Not all of them, every year; but most of the time, they call and we have a long chat about everything under the sun. We don't send greeting cards to each other anymore. But their voices and their laughter make up for it several times over.
Friday 31 July 2020
Toadstool
Saturday 4 July 2020
Nothing (poem)
You were nothing really.
Just a fuzzy dot on an ultrasound screen;
unexpected and unwelcome
It was too early.
I was too young.
I did not want your responsibility.
You were nothing really.
A mere fragment.
Sure you existed, a collection of atoms;
but only as a wisp, a nonentity.
Unreal but substantial
in my fevered imagination.
You were nothing really.
Yet I painted your face with my lips.
My nose, his eyes,
my smile, his laughs.
I walked carefully and fearfully.
I did not jostle you even in my dreams.
You were nothing really.
Some blood and fluid, that’s all.
Merely a distant longing.
An imperceptible wish, yet you seemed
fully formed, mentally fashioned
into solid physicality.
You were nothing really.
You grew, but you didn’t-
that’s what they said.
It happens, they said, more often than you know.
It’s not your fault.
Its nothing that you did.
You were nothing really.
Zero, chimera, delusion.
Then why did my heart break?
How funny that it should cry
over something that was
nothing, absolutely nothing, really.
Tuesday 30 June 2020
The Covid Life - Part 2
Reflections on a college campus (and some musings on life)
Bangalore, 30th March 1997, 1.30 pm. My father and I took an auto from Majestic circle and crossed the portal of IIM Bangalore for my IIMA interview. I didn’t even know where or what Bannerghatta Road was, much less that a leafy paradise existed there. Entering through those gates, all the anxiety about the upcoming interview fled as I gaped at the imposing stone structures, the skylights, the slatted slate-grey roofs that let in fresh sunshine even in cool Bangalore weather. We walked through green corridors and pergolas, lawns and gardens inside the building so that it seemed that we were in the verdant outdoors even when we were inside. Many years later, I watched an interview with its celebrated architect and learnt that he had been inspired by the 16th century complex of Fatehpur Sikri.
We walked up a stairway to reach my interview room, where my nervousness returned with renewed fury as I watched men and women dressed in formals sitting outside the various classrooms, their expressions mirroring my own.
Getting into the IIMs had been a theoretical exercise thus far, the good showing at the CAT only serving to boost morale and ego, and I had not thought much about whether I actually wanted to study at this hallowed institution. Gazing out at the emerald green juxtaposed against the muted grey stonework, trying hard to drown out the muted conversations around me, I realized that more than anything, I wanted to spend 2 years in this building and these serene environs. I wanted to walk these hallways, recline on this grass under the trees, drown in books in that stately glass-fronted library.
The IIMA interview was a disaster. Perhaps, subliminally I did not want to get into IIMA, now that I had seen IIMB?! Whatever, I walked out rather less disappointed than I should have been and determined to crack my next interview. The rest, as they say, is history.
By the time 1999 rolled around, the dramatic campus that I had drooled over, became the customary background. No longer did I marvel at it. Life became an unending mosaic of classes, grades, assignments and caffeine. When friends from the outside world visited, they would gape as I once did, at the beauty around us and I would preen as though it was my intellect that had conceptualised these buildings, my minds’ eye that had conceived that perfect amalgam of space and light.
In the years since then, I’ve seen the dreaming spires of Oxford, punted on the Cam, strolled through the halls of Harvard and many other august institutions. None captured my imagination as powerfully as my alma mater did, that summer day in 1997 (perhaps because I was no longer a romantic 21-year-old with stars in her eyes)!
Often I wonder, at the random events, these rolls of dice, upon which our lives turn. If I had not been mesmerised by the beauty of that campus, if I had not messed up my IIMA interview, if I had chosen to accept one of my other IIM admits, if my parents had not wanted me to stay close to my hometown Chennai……how differently this life could have played out. Instead, I met my husband, made some wonderful friends, spent 2 very happy years working toward an MBA degree I had no interest in! My destiny led me there, to that time and place, that shaped everything that came afterwards. Sometimes, when life feels baffling and mysterious, when I wonder what I am doing and where I am going, I hold on to that thought, simultaneously dispiriting and hopeful, that there is a grand design into which I fit. I can stop trying to interpret and comprehend individual events. They don’t mean anything, but the great tide that sweeps me onward knows where it going and where it will come to rest.
And sometimes, just sometimes, good things come out of being shallow and judging something by its exterior beauty!