A few days ago I met Nisha on the road. Nisha is Gia’s Mom, whose story I shared back in October. Gia has a little brother named Kartik, and I told his story a few weeks later. Gia was worried about Kartik because at the age of two and a [...]

You know her. She’s the one who serves the tea in your friend’s house, or in the office where you work or the office where you are visiting. She keeps her head down and seldom makes eye contact, though she might smile shyly if you [...]

I love resolutions – reflecting on them, making them, keeping them, discarding them: the circle of life! This year, mine include more hand-written letters, more time with my mother-in-law and her sister (both live with us) more long walks and [...]

On New Year’s Day, I went to visit one of our neighbours. Mrs Agrawal is a good woman: funny, down-to-earth, warm and generous. I brought her some “Mexican Wedding Cakes” – a special Christmas cookie which melts in your [...]

This is the time of year when many of my friends turn up in Goa, Kerala, Thailand and Singapore. It’s cold here in Dehradun and it seems right to get out if one can. I’m one of those who can’t. My house is too complicated [...]

Like every other good Christian growing up in the West, the story I heard about Mary and Joseph and the Inn at Bethlehem  went like this: there they were, a young, friendless couple, penniless, forced by circumstance to travel in the final [...]

The moment when Santa Claus arrives is the most anxiously awaited part of every Latika Vihar Christmas celebration. The children pretend to be cool and unconcerned: but every single one of them is poised, hoping to be the first to spot him: When [...]