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The Flower of Autumn
The days turn shorter. There is a cool mist in the early mornings. An Indian autumn is in the air. A rather untidy, nondescript tree in a corner of the garden tentatively puts forth a cluster of blooms – white stars on jaunty orange stalks. The sheuli. Others may know it as the parijat, the…
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Flowers of war
It’s that time of the year again. The gulmohur(Delonix regia) blooms, and our sidewalk transforms into a crimson battlefield with the fallen flowers of war. Elsewhere in the world, real wars continue. Mercifully, we have left behind the days of close combat that drenched the battlefield with the blood of soldiers. Warfare is now fought…
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🗣️ 👆 🤝 😃🌹🎉 | Say it with Emojis
Never before in the history of the world have we tossed our hearts around so freely and indiscriminately. To family, friends, frenemies, school and college mates (whom we barely spoke to in college), even virtual strangers. Nor have we ever distributed roses, clinked champagne flutes, or bestowed smiles with such abandon. All in the full…
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A lost tail
We take much for granted till we lose it. Friends and loved ones, good health, the hair on our heads and….. our tails. Tails? Yes, the self-same caudal appendage that most animals besides apes and humans are endowed with. And so begins the tale of the lost tail. I can see you rolling your eyeballs…
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Household hints
I was always a sucker for household hints. A crumbling neem leaf in an old tome took me back to the summer afternoons of long ago when it all began. While the household snoozed, I tiptoed into the study and quietly extracted a battered blue cardboard file. Bulging with old magazine and newspaper clippings and…
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Shades of blue
Christmas season has ended and Blue Christmas has played many times over as part of the season’s playlist. Its not a particular favourite of mine. On the other hand, we all have our favourite shades of blue—for it is the world’s most popular colour and occurs in 71% of all national flags. We are inhabitants…
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Tracking every step
The first step is the hardest, they say. It takes a human infant a whole year to quit its quadruped days and attempt that first tottering step under the adoring gaze of its parents. There is no respite thereafter. Life becomes a series of steps and missteps, with a watchful, (and not always adoring) eye…
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The Prickly Cactus
My eyes fell on the prickly cactus on my balcony. Fleshy, bulbous, and very prickly, but so very undemanding. Was it my imagination, or was there a glistening drop of moisture trembling at the end of a spine – a teardrop perhaps? And then the cactus spoke. Long, long ago… “A desert is where I…
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Paired proverbs
For every pithy proverb in use, there is in another corner of the world (or sometimes in the very same corner) an equally pithy one which states just the opposite. Which puts one in a bit of spin. Which one of these paired proverbs is true? And which is not? Let’s try and decode the…
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Birds are Us
Early morning. Unhurried and peaceful. A time to sit out in the balcony with my cup of coffee, feel the freshness of the cool breeze and listen to the trill of bird song. As I watch them chatter, squabble, mate, and play, I am struck by their resemblance to humans. They are not just like…
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The sidewalk
I was reading the Mahabharata—unabridged, whole, explicit in every gory detail. The vivid images of the bloody battlefield were still fresh in my mind as I turned the corner. And stood aghast. There they were, by the hundreds and thousands, thickly carpeting the sidewalk. Unclaimed, mangled bodies lying dismembered, trodden, and trampled. The sidewalk of…