Childhood: Flash and Spark
It’s St Valentine’s Day – the patron saint of love. Come to Latika Vihar today and stand and watch. There’s this child who will arrive alone (eager, dropped off by a fond, [...]
A More Perfect Union: Planning for a country (or ten anganwadis)
“And after the commanded journey, what? Nothing magnificent, nothing unknown. A gazing out from far away, alone. And it is not particular at all, Just old truth dawning: there is no next [...]
Get Me To The Church On Time: A Wedding Gift To Remember
You wouldn’t know it to look at me now, but I once lived a life of crime. In those days, I was arrested and sent to jail so many times I lost track. From local lock-ups to county work-farms [...]
Moy Moy’s Sunday Outing
When the children were small, the top treat was to be allowed to tag along with me on my errands. I liked to take them one at a time – partly to avoid the inevitable squabbles more than one [...]
A Multi-Tasking Courier-Walla
This evening Moy Moy and I set out for our usual walk – Moy all bundled up in blankets and ensconced in her stroller. At the corner, a courier-walla on a bicycle stopped me. “Madame, [...]
A Hair Cut For An Old Lady
It had been a long time since my last haircut. Busy with travel and Christmas and the two chicks returning to the nest – there had not been a moment to spare. I don’t trust the [...]
House Arrest
With my Dad’s return to the US and Masiji’s return to her own children in Delhi, our lives have become simpler to orchestrate – at one level. But, as my Mom used to say: you [...]
The Company We Keep
Remember that great scene in “As Good As It Gets” when Jack Nicholson is trying to give Helen Hunt a compliment? They are sitting in a restaurant where he has just humiliated her [...]
Dental Tourism, Novacaine and The Meaning of Life
One of the rituals of the kids’ homecomings is a visit to the dentist. Their insurance in the US is stingy where dental work is concerned and the co-pays are steep. They prefer to save it [...]
Impartial Calendar Praise
I am so lucky to have a friend like Peter Phun. We met online several years ago when, in despair about some photos from my niece’s wedding which I had inexplicably lost, I posted on a [...]
