Smitu Kothari
Smitu was one of the first Indians I met after falling in love with Ravi. He and his then wife Poornima were living in the US in a sort of exile (it was during the Emergency in India and they had left the country rather than face almost certain arrest and imprisonment) and they spent […]
Flowers: free and for all
As the winter winds to a close and the summer begins, with those dry, dusty breezes already making the afternoons just a little bit sleepy, I want to pause to say thank you for the flowers. Our little garden is a source of so much pleasure – I love to wander across the lawn in […]
Lauren Stichter and Her Bag Full of Tricks
Lauren is our newest volunteer. She’s an art teacher from Philadelphia where she works in a school for deaf kids, some of whom have other learning difficulties as well. She’s fluent in sign language, which automatically makes her a fascinating character to us, AND she’s an artist in her own right. (You can check out […]
The Lonely Crowd
A few days ago, I read this tiny news item in the Times of India: “Cafe Manager Kills Self“ A 23 year old man allegedly committed suicide on Tuesday morning by hanging himself from the ceiling fan in his home in Malviya Nagar. The victim, Harsh Saini, was working as a manager in a Cafe […]
Like Water For Traffic Story
The Mean Streets of Dehradun . . . it takes nerves of steel, an iron resolve and a certain measure of masochism to venture out on them – whether as a pedestrian (really dangerous), a bicyclist (even worse), or a driver (in which guise you engage in delusional thinking by believing you are in control). […]
Apgar Scores or A Baby’s Best Friend
I first learned about the Apgar Score when I studied to become a midwife. (That was over 25 years ago and for my class project, I got pregnant with Anand and delivered him halfway through the course.) APGAR stands for: Activity Pulse Grimace Appearance Respiration and is, in my humble opinion, a clumsy acronym for […]
Domestic Comforts Part 2
Every few years, the furniture in our house seems to cry out for renewal. This year, the windows did too. I started out just planning to replace the living room curtains (I had always disliked them). But one thing led to another and we ended up reupholstering the living room sofa and one chair as […]
Domestic Comforts
We have lived in our own house for nearly three years now, but I still walk around it sometimes in a daze of delight, unable to believe that this beautiful place really belongs to us. I love everything about it, from the garden to the verandah to the living room to the desk in our […]
Whimsy
Dad is such a funny man, such a delight to have in our home. This morning, I served the first watermelon of the season. It was bright red and very sweet and we both loved it. I always swallow the seeds, but I noticed that Dad was carefully removing each one before taking a bite. […]
Water Wars
On Friday I attended a two-day conference at Muskaan, a wonderful organization in Delhi for adults with mental handicap. As I was a speaker, I was put up in the building itself. I arrived late at night and went straight to bed. When I got up the next morning, I was surprised to discover that […]