Sunday Memories: Sound

The frenzied beat of the dakis took me back to another time and another place. To my childhood in Bengal, where the beats would waft into my room and wake me up at the crack of dawn. I rarely complained because the beats reminded me that the Durga Pujas had come- the best time of the year to be in Bengal. Durga Puja! The smells, the sights, but more than anything else the beat of the dakis.

Many years later, in an alien city, I heard the same beats. They brought me back to a home I had almost forgotten.

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A drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.

To Ensure Financial Success

'Shree Om' is always the entry made on the first page before starting new books of account. It is also the notation made at the top of every new page.

Shree. Or Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity.
Om. Or Ganesh, the Lord of Auspicious Beginnings.

Invoking them before starting an enterprise is the best way to ensure its financial success. Requesting them to bless your books of account is something only a fool would neglect to do.

In Northern India, 'Lakshmi-Ganesh' are worshiped on Diwali. It is any wonder that the Hindu Financial Year starts the day after?

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A drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.

Memories are made of these

My first Diwali away from home. Most of my classmates had gone back home, the few of us left behind tried desperately to capture the atmosphere of the festival on campus. A massive rangoli made with coloured powder at the centre of the open-air plaza. A thousand earthen lamps lining three stories of balconies enclosing the plaza- each a flickering point of light dispelling the gloom. It seemed like Louis Kahn had designed the campus with us in mind.

It was Diwali as I have never known it. And the start of my love affair with rangolis and earthen lamps.

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A drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.


Happy Diwali, Everyone!!!

When I was old enough to know, I decided  I wanted to be a scientist. Not a scientist who cures people or makes the world a better place but a scientist who discovers esoteric stuff. Things never quite worked out that way. No regrets, but sometimes it is fun to think of how it may have been.

I spent yesterday in an integrated school that we help fund. There were smiling faces all around me, and I was glad I am doing exactly what I am doing.

We take different paths, but if we seek it, we all find happiness.

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A drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.

Weekly Spotlight- Margot Kinberg

Last Thursday, I was in Rural India, in place where mobile connectivity was sporadic and internet virtually non-existent. The place was much less than a hundred miles away, but the approach roads were so bad, the journey took over four hours each way. By the time I returned, I was too exhausted to even think of getting on the internet.
The next day, I found that the post I had scheduled for the previous day had far more new commentators than any post normally got. The mystery was solved soon enough Pk Hrezo had chosen to shine the spotlight on  me and my blog, and the new commentators were all followers of her's. Though I have been tardy in visiting the blogs of all the people who commented (I will get there by the end of this week, or month, or year, I promise), a few have already become 'friends'.

A lot of blogs feature a "Blog of the Week" regularly, but till I saw the response to that one post of Hrezo's, I never realised how powerful the concept could be. It is a great way to introduce your favourite blogs to your followers- who knows what could come of the interaction. And since I am a great believer in cross-pollination, I had to adopt it.

I first thought of it as a sporadic feature, but even without much thought I could think of at least three stellar blogs which do not have a quarter as many followers as they should have, so I am going to do it once a week for as long as I have worthy candidates to feature as the blog of the week.

So without further ado, I introduce the Blog of the Week : Confessions of a Mystery Novelist

Confessions of a Mystery Novelist, Margot Kinberg calls her blog. What you get everyday is a thesis on a different aspect of life as interpreted by mystery novelists.

A recent post, for instance, was about characters who come alive in a story even though they are actually dead. Six fantastic examples, where you would not have thought even one existed. If the wisdom she packs into every post, even when she is supposedly discussing something else, is not attraction enough, Margot unfailingly responds to every single comment.

Whether you love mystery novels or not, you have to visit Margot's blog.
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A drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.

There is coffee, and there is Coffee

"Everytime I go home, I bring back enough robusta to last me till my next trip", said a diplomat's wife.
"Have you tried the local filter coffee", asked another diplomat's wife.
"You mean you get coffee in India?", asked the first.
"Of course you do. It is not quite expresso, but it is quite good."
She looked doubtful, but the other one persisted. "You really should try it. You may like it."
"I'm not too adventurous", the first confessed.

I was amazed? Is there much point in living in a different country, if you carry your own world with you?
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A drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.


Image credit - Ambarish

Youth- the Future of India?

When a friend from America visited me, one of the first things she said was, "I can never get over how young India is. I have seen barely a handful of older people all week."

Her statement seemed strange because, of course, there are older people in India too. But the numbers prove her right- almost a third of the billion people in India are between 10 and 24 years old. And because it is primarily the youth who migrate to cities to escape rural poverty, almost half of urban India falls in that age range.

Imagine the latent productivity.
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A drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.



Once a month, I contribute to my organisation's blog- do check out my latest post on Youth in urban-India.