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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 hardy. And so very undemanding. Did I imagine it, 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…
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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…
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Every finger has its day
Why do we have five fingers? Not three or four, or six or eight? Evolution decided that this was the optimal number for the various tasks we need to perform. It made each one unique— giving each one a different shape and/or a different length. No two fingers are alike. Every finger has its use,…
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Blow hot blow cold
An Indian summer is here again. As temperatures soar and tempers rise; and the scramble for the AC remote begins, a deeply mystifying question raises its head again. Why are we humans not satisfied at one universal temperature? Why do some like it at a frosty 20 degrees celsius while others like it at a…
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Good morning!
A message doing the rounds of social media is that good morning messages will attract exorbitant taxes. It was circulated widely by many who hoped it was true. Many more were unbelievers, common sense dictating that it was too good to be true. Others rooted for it silently. Some supported it as a patriotic cause,…
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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…