When I returned from my visit to India earlier this year, a colleague requested me to compile a slideshow of my trip and present it at work before a meeting. “Five minutes should be good”, he said. That was a challenge. I can usually speak on a single slide for five minutes, so compressing the many places I visited and…
“I would like to visit the temple at Karkala,” said my dad when I told him that I had booked my tickets home. He was turning ninety and I wouldn’t miss that milestone for anything. Karkala is where my dad grew up and spent seventeen years of his life. He wanted to visit the Sri Venkataramana temple there. My high school…
My first trip to Mumbai (then known as Bombay) was in 1972 to attend my aunt’s wedding and I still retain hazy memories of that trip. Since then, I have made several trips to Mumbai, but these have all been social visits, primarily to meet the family. In fact, I’ve seen very little of Mumbai from a tourist’s perspective and…
“It’s spelled ‘Rossie’ not ‘Rosie’,” said my brother. He was talking about my recent post in which I mentioned that as a young boy, when I was sick, I spent time reading books, and one of the stories that stuck in my mind was “Our Miss Rosie.” The story was about a white lady who takes a pair of African-American…
“Need Doctor Vomit,” said Nikhil. He was at the kitchen island, hunched over his iPad as he articulated the words using the icons on his app. He looked ill. In fact, he had looked under the weather the previous evening and we had let him sleep in having called his transport office earlier in the morning to let them know…
“RN by any chance? Read your Taco Bell article and took me back to early 90s Clemson. Were you HN and/or A’s roomie??” read the message in Facebook Messenger last week. I instantly recognized the sender and I was happily reacquainted with a friend whom I had last met in 1994. This was the second such instance of a friend…
“A perfect trailer house for Jupiter’s hideout!”, I thought to myself. I was walking on one of the trails in my town, pushing Nikhil’s adaptive wheelchair while Nikhil took in all the sights and pointed out things that caught his interest. We had come around a bend in the trail and the house trailer was jammed between a few truck…
Is it possible to lead a modern (or otherwise) existence without relating to the concept of time? Imagine waking up each day, not knowing or understanding what time it is, indeed what day, month, or the year. Perhaps a troglodyte could, but even he would have some inkling of the seasons when the juiciest berries abound or the seasons when…
Prakash made his presence felt. Whether it was in a classroom, on a cricket field, on a quiz stage, at a reunion with friends, or really just anywhere. He had that presence. A booming voice, sparkling wit, and an infectious laugh. My earliest memories of Prakash are from Sophia’s. He stood out with his mop of curly hair. He was…
My childhood was genuinely happy and for the most part carefree. I must admit though that a tyrant cast his shadow on my days throughout my school days. This tyrant was the “Bangalore Transport Service” or “BTS” as it was known then. Maybe “tyrant” is an exaggeration but I felt that my time was fettered and my life was ruled…