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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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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 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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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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A Dressmaker in the Making
I’m trying hard to be self-reliant. Being my own cook, baker, dishwasher, gardener, and now a dressmaker-in-the-making! All this atma-nirbharta is partly in response to our dear leader’s call, but mostly because tyrannical tailors have left me with little choice. Years have I spent, and miles have I wandered to find a tailor who would…
