I was in the seventh grade. My class teacher was this stunningly gorgeous girl called Celine. We called her Miss Celine and loved her madly. She had her own voodoo. She made sunshine her personal accessory. When she swished into the class in the morning, tripping along briskly, she would be glittering with sun beams. […]
Freedom
Religion
I don’t believe in religion. There! I said it! I was in ninth grade. There was a moral science class going on. Our regular teacher was absent hence our vice- principal Sr M was conducting the class. It was a combined class with three sections squeezed together. Imagine eighty+ fifteen year old girls packed together […]
Who do you want to be?
Today is one of those whimsical days I refuse to do anything. Today I want to be a sponge, to soak up life. I want to sit on a fallen tree- trunk by the side of the road and watch life go rolling past in its numerous carriages- some gaudy, some plain. Today is a […]
A WOW Experience
One summer evening a long while ago, I saw a woman with her three-year-old daughter. The little girl was skipping along ecstatically. She was holding on to a string that was attached to a huge, red helium balloon. All of a sudden, a sharp gust of wind pulled the balloon from the little girl’s hand. […]
Dear Parent
I read something today that made me want to write to you. I’d like you to imagine a crowded public square, filled with people. They are busy, happy, engrossed in their own concerns. You stand among them, unnoticed. You’ve just realized that you have poured your future, every minute of everyday of the rest of […]
Stepping Back
You take out your best formals to wear at a party and find them too tight. Dismayed, you decide to re-start a regular workout regime. You retrieve (read excavate) your walking shoes from never- never- land and dust the entire Harappan civilization off them. The steely glint in your eyes could slice Mt Everest into […]
Freedom
Oppression is intrinsic to mankind; as compelling a force as rebellion. The desire to oppress and the impulse to rebel against it go together, like the two sides of a coin. Whatever its scale- family, community or nation- the core is the same. When an individual or a group wishes to gain advantage at […]
Icarus and I
Let me tell you the story of Icarus. Icarus is a character from the Greek mythology. He is the son of Daedalus. Who he was is not really relevant. What is relevant is that this Daedalus person and his son Icarus had been put in prison by King Minos. So. Daedalus and Icarus were imprisoned. […]