Hari was at the station to pick me up. Wait there were three others. Brief, quick introductions – Bipin, Vish and Manish. Bipin and Hari, my new roommates, walked home in the rain, while I settled myself at the rear of Manish’s 2 door sedan with my luggage. A...
We were introduced by a mutual friend in the bus on my way to school. I was probably in 8th grade and the boy introduced to me shook hands with a firm handshake. He was alert, fit and the corners of his mouth appeared as if they would break...
“There are a few things to remember in this country”, said my cousin. We were walking along the banks of the Mississippi. I had risen in the morning, the effects of jet lag if any, didn’t show on me. We had an omelet for brunch. The onion, that I sliced,...
“This walk will focus on the humble dwellings of Amritsar but it will showcase its heritage and culture,” said our guide, Gurinder Singh Johal. We were standing in front of the imposing Town Hall, a Colonial building designed to project the might of the British Empire. “Look at me, I’m strong,...
What would you do if you were an all-powerful ruler and your favorite dancer was upset that she lost one of her silver slippers while fording a canal? You would build a bridge of course! The ruler was the Lion of Punjab – Ranjit Singh, the dancer was called Moran...
“You have no idea how easy you have it, back in my time…”. Chances are that if you are a parent, you have uttered these words before. I have and I don’t know about you, but when I start a sentence with anything remotely like this, my teenaged...
“CAUTION: STUDENT DRIVER…and screaming parent” said the bumper sticker on the car in front of me as I drove to work. I chuckled to myself. Very apt, given that my daughter passed her road test over the weekend and is a proud young lady. She has passed a rite...
As a young boy, I would have to accompany my mother to relatives’ or friends’ houses. Usually, I would go willingly but sometimes a bribe such as a roll of Poppins would help sway my mind. It’s not that I did not want to accompany her, its just that...
In an earlier blog on Brer Rabbit, I had referred to the fact that I read Enid Blyton’s Brer Rabbit books as a young boy. One of the stories featured Brer Rabbit eating sausages. Two things about that puzzled me: I knew that rabbits were herbivores and I wondered why...
Once in a while, a movie comes along that captures the collective imagination of the masses. It runs to packed houses, dominates conversations and leaves a lasting impression on its viewers. There have been many such movies over the years and the Star Wars series is an example. In my memory...