“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…
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…
This blog is a tribute to my maternal uncle, Vijayendra who passed away this day four years ago. He was Vijmaam (maam – uncle) to me and lived at 24 Shantinath Bhavan, the apartment where my mother and her siblings grew up. I spent many happy vacations there basking in the love and affection that was showered on me by…
As a young boy in elementary school, the end of the summer holidays heralded a familiar knot in my stomach. The anticipation of meeting my classmates after a long break was tempered by the twin nemeses of every schoolboy – homework, and exams. Fortunately, our son Nikhil does not seem to suffer from the same malady as me. It was…
It is the second day of school for Nikhil. After six months at home and online classes in the summer, Nikhil is perplexed to find himself still attending online classes. Each night, he has been asking hopefully (via his iPad) “School tomorrow?” only to be told, “Sorry, Nikhil, no school”. Even though Nikhil’s school has opened and his teachers and…
We all have our bedtime rituals whether we are aware of them or not. Some rituals are passed down to us and we don’t know their origin but once in a way, we are witness to a ritual take root in front of us. One such ritual is our son Nikhil’s new bedtime ritual. But before I get to that,…
Do you remember the time your child learned a new word and surprised you by using it in the right context? We had many such opportunities with our daughter when she was a toddler. However, after the first few times, we took it for granted and given the normal trajectory of development, what started as a trickle of words soon…
Indulge me for a couple of minutes and picture yourself waking up each day, understanding what everyone around you is saying and conversing with them, only for them to not understand a word you say. You are not inebriated and you are not in a strange land, you are in fact at home and you are conversing with your family…
Bhala tha kitna, apna bachpan Bhala tha kitna Bhala tha kitna, apna bachpan Bhala tha kitna How wonderful was our childhood How wonderful How wonderful was our childhood How wonderful Hemant Kumar’s sonorous voice was reproduced by the LP playing on my uncle’s radiogram. It was a midsummer’s night in Bombay in 1975 and I listened to the song along…