Forgotten how to laugh

While alighting from the school-bus, my younger one exclaimed, “Jahapanah!”

“Jodha!”, I replied, taking his school-bag from him.

All three of us dissolved into laughter, and continued with the silly word-association game we had invented the previous day. It wasn’t particularly funny, but we had giggled so much while making up the rules, we couldn’t not laugh.

“Mamma, please”, hissed the older one suddenly. Someone else had got into the lift, and was giving us strange looks. To save him embarrassment, I struggled to control my laughter.

But isn’t it a pity that the world has forgotten how to laugh.

At home in the Universe

A light drizzle started during my run. Within minutes, the sky opened up, and I was caught in a heavy downpour. Umbrellas erupted, people took shelter under trees; the park emptied out. I had the track to myself. Raindrops hit my face, and washed the sweat away. My feet took on the rhythm of the falling rain, any fatigue long washed away. I was one with the elements- at home in the Universe.

People thought me crazy. Then one joined me, and another, and another. The park was full of bobbing umbrellas. Can life get any more beautiful than that?

The wonder is that they started

When it comes to trying something new, most of us can think of a dozen reasons not to. When things get difficult, we often choose to give up, instead of seeing it through to the finish. It doesn’t make us lesser people- there is only so much energy we have, and often there isn’t enough left over for non-essentials.

Which is why it is so inspirational to read about the people participating in the Paralympic Games. The wonder is not that many of them perform better than able bodied people like you and me; the wonder is that they started.

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London 2012 Paralympics

August 29 to September 9, 2012

Real courage

“But what’s so great about it”, my son asked when he heard me talking about a lady who single-handedly faced up to a mob, and got them to calm down before they had a chance to turn violent. “If she was a hero, she would have beaten up those people, wouldn’t she?”

Like so many others, she could have chosen to distance herself from the scene. Instead, she did what she knew was right. But how do you explain to a child that standing up for what you believe in sometimes takes far more courage than bashing up villans does.

The Man on the Moon

On Sunday, I took my kids to the terrace, made them hold up their tiny thumbs, shut one eye, and blot the crescent moon out. “But if the moon is so small, how did Neil Armstrong walk on the moon?”, they asked.

“Don’t things look smaller when they are far away? The moon is actually very big- it seems so small because it is so very far away.” When they had digested that, we spoke about the stars, and of how very big the Universe was.

“So big?” they asked in wonder. Yes, and we are a part of it.

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"Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year 
and yet far too little for the next 10."

Neil Armstrong

(August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012 )

Requiescat in pace

Less bigotry, please

Unlike countries in Europe and the Americas, India is almost homogeneous ethnically. An Indian can always identifying another; we all “look alike”. Which is why the people from the North-Eastern states stand-out- they look “Chinese”, not “Indian”, and are often asked to produce their passports. That the eight states are also physically isolated doesn’t help- we often forget they are a part of India.

But ignorance is one thing, discrimination is quite another. How can people originally from the North-East, but studying or working in other parts of their own country be asked to leave? Can’t there be less bigotry?

A part of his DNA

It is hard for me to write about Lance Armstrong, but I must.

Isn’t it amazing that even after thirteen years and hundreds of tests, nobody has been able to find any trace of that cocktail of drugs that Lance Armstrong took? Yet, the drugs must be there, because isn’t it impossible to win seven Tour de France titles on sheer hard work, guts and talent? And since everyone knows those drugs are there, if he is tested often enough some trace will eventually show up, wouldn’t it?

Unless, Lance Armstrong acquired his almost superhuman powers after being bitten by a rare spider. The drugs would be a part of his DNA then.