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A jar of face cream
All I wanted was a jar of face cream. I went down to the local pharmacy downstairs for what I thought would be a five-minute chore. The store had changed hands and had had a makeover. Rows on rows of glass shelves, filled with an endless supply of bottles and jars. Shampoos and conditioners. Body…
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A mouthful of bitter melon
Among my many mouth-watering childhood memories of food lurks one bitter foe. A mouthful of bitter melon, to be precise. Aka the bitter gourd or karela or its cousin-the uchche. It turned up regularly on our lunch platter, being considered a superfood, though the term itself had not been invented then! It all came back…
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Gecko on the Wall
Eeks! There’s a gecko on the wall! If that is you shrieking, we are united in our fear of house lizards. A gecko on the wall twenty feet away is one gecko too many for me! So why write about them, you might ask? Alas, inspiration comes in many forms, and not always in the…
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A lost handkerchief
Its spring cleaning time! I quite enjoy the process, for it is a time of joyous discoveries and emotional reunions! Long-lost sock-twins hug each other tightly; while runaway buttons return to the family fold. That’s when I discovered it – a crumpled square of fabric, tucked right at the back of a drawer! It was…
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The Disappearing Donkey
This is a tale of the disappearing donkey – those overworked and undervalued creatures that are disappearing from our own backyards. Some may sneer at my choice of subject, still others may see this diminution as a progressive step! But do not be hasty, dear reader. For the dons who study donkeys have detected a…
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A full head of hair
The long journey of evolution from ape to man was marked by conspicuous shedding of body hair. Why then did we retain a full head of hair? Was it just chance/ a mere roll of dice/ an evolutionary trade-off which endowed us with our crowning glory? Not so. It so happens that Africa, where we…
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My Two Maids
Its ten minutes past seven, and I’ve glanced at the kitchen clock for the twentieth time. The doorbell chimes. The relief is unimaginable. For the doorbell announces the arrival of the first of my two maids. The maid in the kitchen Manisha is the senior of my two maids, and the kitchen is her…
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What was the name again?
Like many of my previous encounters, this one too happens during my morning ramble. Meet Ramgoat dashalong. What was the name again, I hear you ask. The little plant with its sunny bloom goes by this rather mysterious and unaccountable name; besides its given scientific name of Turnera ulmifolia. Nicknames can be singularly apt and…
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My new glasses
Its that time of the year again. The time to restore my steadily diminishing vision to its once-youthful acuity. Its time for my annual eye check-up and, as night follows day, time to order my new glasses. The computerised eye check-up throws up a new set of numbers every year; and though I linger, hesitate,…
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Acing the Adjective
I am on a mission towards acing the adjective. It all started thus. While not exactly slow, I am not quite first off the mark in the social media race. Therefore by the time I get a look in at the newest photographs on my social media groups, the slots for ‘amazing’, ‘awesome’, and ‘gorgeous’…