Mundane Musings

When fights and tiffs with your loved one, come your way And nothing seems to be going your way, Pause, turn and look at your loved one's face. The face you fell in love with in the first place The face with its unique contours and planes The eyes that have conveyed secret messages When times were, oh so great, Fall in love all over again Forget the pain and the pettiness of the moment Fall in love all over again.

We are at the fag end of the year. The Christmas plum cake with its rich, fruity taste and texture has been savoured and toasts have been made for the New Year too, which of course still a few days off. There is something magical in this month. I love this month and after much deliberation I concluded that it was mostly because of the prevailing climate. After a harsh summer and chaotic rains, Chennai settles down to a cool, tender climate which begs the pulling out of moth eaten sweaters that smell of naphthalene balls (not always a bad thing), the crisp, beautiful silks and the thick woollen tops which are generally reserved for travels abroad or to cooler climes. The cool air is redolent with smell of cinnamon and chai and of hot crispy vadas and filter coffee (which of course is a staple the whole year too). In other words, it is the closest we come to sharing the white, snowy, cold Christmas setting that prevails over the parts of the world where it is celebrated. ...

A few minutes into Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (ADHM), and I wondered if this was a real portrayal of an urban Indian youth? Since I was seeing this movie on the heels of the very watchable web series Bang Baaja Baraat where the principal characters’ first date actually starts with a quickie, yes a quickie... in a bar (yes, this happens in insanely populated India where people can’t pee without being seen) and only then followed by any exchange of information, I had to quickly come to terms with what was unfolding before my eyes in ADHM. If you are wondering that this was surely a lift off from some Western movie, then like me you are probably of the other - older generation. This my friends is how the rich, urban youth of India are presumably dating these days. So here too, Alizeh and Ayan meet in a London bar where she is grooving rather prettily to techno music and minutes after she notices him, they get physical, or at least attempt to get physical. No worries that he is a co...

Can't let the day pass without mentioning that I have been part of a historic day on November 8th, when the PM and RBI, announced that Rs 500 and Rs. 1000 will be demonetised from midnight onwards. Can you wrap your head around that piece of information? The enormity of it? The outcome of such an action? Whew! I still am finding it hard to soak the implications in. Leave aside busting the black money trade within our country, and hacking the root of Pakistan funded terrorism; this initiative should cause a dent on some serious black money hoarders. Yes, there is now a lot of whining and crying going on at the inconvenience of it all and attempts to piggy back on the drive to get nasty, condescending, doubtful, and more importantly, being unapologetic-ally unaccommodating. What the general attitude of certain people now is that I shall spout words on nationalism and desh bhakti , but I shall not move my sorry ass nor my allow my altruistic self to embrace the change that ...

One could probably stumble over Al Maza restaurant on a chance browsing of Zomato for restaurants in Anna Nagar (E) to satisfy a weekend high calorie crave or while walking through or driving through the shady roads of the quiet colony where it resides and even then would find it difficult to complete their intention as the entry to the restaurant is very ambiguous. Not until recently, when the husband made a visit to pick up a large order, did he demystify it for me. The restaurant sits on the first floor of a building and the entrance is from the side through a flight of steps. Ok, go ahead and judge me, but wait till you find yourself there and cast about for those very stairs. Since Ana's entry into our lives, we have really not gone out to eat much and that meant missing out on a lot of good places to eat...I mean it, a lot of restaurants that would otherwise had been ticked off with serious diligence have gone unnoticed. And before you ask? We find it comfortable and ea...

Being a mother in India – The Diaper Conundrum. Being a mother in India these days presents one with a unique juxtaposition of choices. One, Western concepts and ideas which thanks to the proliferation of articles on the Internet one is able to peruse and follow and, other, Traditional ideas that have been handed down through many proud generations – not surprising, considering the rich culture and history of our country. The traditional ones are irrefutably followed or are made to be followed by diligent grandmothers, aunts and invested kin of the new mother in general. After bathing and nappy changing and generally taking care of four tots as an aunt, I have long since stopped questioning the logic behind some of my mother’s practices. Some have lasted the test of time and some have been downright impractical. This blog post is one way of recording the things that worked for me, as an Indian mother. I hope to recount them clearly and support the choices I have made with mea...

On every wedding anniversary of mine, when  I want to blog about it, I find myself coming up short of words to express how I feel. I cast about for phrases and adjectives to bring out best the way I feel and always, always my vocabulary deserts me. I envy people who write with such beautiful prose, poetry or even pure tongue-in-cheek humour what these moments or milestones mean to them. Even now when I think back to the five years I have spent with S and what it has made me be or what it means, I find myself choking back emotions and words. I guess I should be content in saying that he changed my life. He's made me  a better person. It is a profound feeling - to know that you have first of all changed for a person or a circumstance and that the change has been for the good and that the person has been worthy of it. And now he is the father to my little, impish daughter and I look at her and look at the genes that have passed on from him to her and I want to give him...