All is forgiven

They drive me up the wall, with their incessant demands. Every word of mine is questioned, every direction flouted. They want to go down and play when they should be doing their homework, and remember their school assignment when we are sitting down to dinner. When I am trying to work, they are bored and need to be entertained, but the moment their bedtime is called, they remember the abridged chess game they were to have finished that day.

But when they finally go to bed and allow sleep to claim them, they look so angelic that all is forgiven.

To expect people to change

In many relationships, there comes a time when who a person is seems no longer enough. You want them to become who you expect them to be, and if they don’t, you are disappointed.

But is that fair on the other person? Would you be willing to change, against your will, if they want you to? 

Would you not grudge them the right to dictate who you are?

Why can’t we just accept people as they are? Because they matter to us only because we liked them, and if we liked them once, why should they now have to change? 

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Photograph also posted in Snapshots

Zaari, gold thread

Time was when zaari-sarees formed an essential part of every bride’s trousseau. Brightly coloured silk sarees with patterns woven in gold thread. Not gold coloured thread; but thread made by drawing pure gold into wire so thin it was almost as pliable as silk.
Zaari-sarees were precious, because they were so rare. And then gold-coloured synthetic threads came into the picture. Though purists would have nothing to do with it, you could get rip-offs of zaari-sarees at a fraction of the cost. Anyone could afford ‘zaari’. 
Any wonder that the modern bride prefers Swarovski crystals embroidered into her bridal ensemble?! 
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There are words, and there are words. Some words can be easily translated, others need to be described.  In April, I’ll attempt to capture the Soul of 26 'Indian' words in a  drabble of exactly 100 words.

Yahaan, here

“Main yahan hoon/ I’m right here”, she told me when I called to check if she was keeping her appointment or not. Half an hour later, I was still waiting for her at the coffee-shop. When she finally turned up, forget apologising for being late, she actually made me feel guilty about arriving on time. 
She had a point. I should have known better than to presume that ‘yahan’ meant ‘here’, when it actually meant ‘somewhere within a radius of roughly an hour of travel time, not accounting for traffic jams, and other distractions’. Distance are not absolute, are they? 
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There are words, and there are words. Some words can be easily translated, others need to be described.  In April, I’ll attempt to capture the Soul of 26 'Indian' words in a  drabble of exactly 100 words.

Xulf, hair

A long plait snaking down her back, swaying seductively in time to her movement, the free end bouncing off her hips. She turns around, draws her hair over her face, and gives a wide-eyed stare from above her “xulf”. If Bollywood is to be believed, long, lustrous hair is the ultimate fantasy of the Indian male. 


When I was growing up, it was commonplace to see women with hair extending way past the hips. Indian women wear their hair much shorter now- it is rarely longer than waist length. But even in its shorter, straighter, more chemical avatar, "xulf" rules.
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There are words, and there are words. Some words can be easily translated, others need to be described.  In April, I’ll attempt to capture the Soul of 26 'Indian' words in a  drabble of exactly 100 words.

Watan, motherland

In the original Arabic, “watan” merely means ‘country’; to refer to ‘your country’, you used the word “watani”. But by the time the word entered the colloquial Indian lexicon, after being used in a song by a popular Bollywood playback singer, it acquired a whole new identity- it came to mean ‘motherland’. Strangely too, for a word that is essentially Islamic in origin, it acquired patriotic overtones of the kind Hindu fundamentalists love to exploit. 
“Watan” is now almost a call to action. Sadly, the only time people really think of it is when the national team wins in cricket.
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There are words, and there are words. Some words can be easily translated, others need to be described.  In April, I’ll attempt to capture the Soul of 26 'Indian' words in a  drabble of exactly 100 words.

Vasanth Ritu, the Season of Spring

Considering there is an entire festival devoted to commemorating the advent of "Vasanth Ritu". Considering there are over a dozen unique names for the Season. Considering "Vasanth Ritu" is much celebrated in music, dance and literature. Considering all that, it’s strange that for all practical purposes, India doesn’t have a "Vasanth Ritu".

The brief interlude between Winter and Summer is just that- an interlude. One day you notice it is getting too hot for sweaters, the next day, you are sweating in a sleeveless tee-shirt. That’s how short it is. And yet, we persist with the myth of "Vasanth Ritu". 
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There are words, and there are words. Some words can be easily translated, others need to be described.  In April, I’ll attempt to capture the Soul of 26 'Indian' words in a  drabble of exactly 100 words.