Love, Life & Happiness

The Summer of 2014 is here.   I always had a fondness for winters and winters in Delhi, I have always found mystically beautiful and enchanting. But, those days of pink romance are gone and just as every fantastic dream ends with the stern realities of the day looking at us, the summers are here. Summer stares at us with same intent sternness and a captivating charm of an unpretentious and somewhat religious honest. Mornings are quick to happen and swift in the way they sway from the remnant coldness of the night to the bright warmth of the impending day. The Sun stands throwing fire over a loving earth with all its brutish innocence. It is easy to miss the run unless one is in the habit of getting out of the bed early enough. Runners in the park are rare and those that are there, run with the water bottles, wear cap on the head and a look of solemn, secret repentance on their face- as if they were sinners going through their internal penitentiary out of which they believed t

I have long cherished and celiberated my politically neutral position as a proclaimed mugwump. However, the way political world around me moved with a speed so unusual in Indian world of homeopathic revolutions, only way to maintain sanity in a rare fast-changing scenario which moved from Congress to AAP to BJP was to get on the bus whisking past. So I did and vote this time, not hiding behind missing entry of voting list or the NOTA, which is nothing but a self-satisfying absurdity, since with or without NOTA, the one with highest votes in rest of it will win the seat anyways. The world around me was seething with anger, and I perhaps, augmented that fury with mine, even more feral then that of the world around. A lot many Pundits term this election as a referendum on corruption. That reading isn't entirely correct. Many things happened in last few years. We Indians, to a great degree have, over the centuries reconciled ourselves with the idea of divine rule, however

Me and Nonu The weather in Delhi is changing. The beautiful winters is fading away and summer is spreading its furious fangs over unsuspecting Earth, blooming with colorful flora, creating a magical beauty.   Nonu- my about-to-be-six year old is the first to bear the brunt of this indecisive change of weather. Last Thursday, she broke into tears on account of headache and unbeknownst to her- fever. I spoke to her. She broke down and I helplessly rushed back home to be with her. She has immense capacity of bearing such ill-health. I do not know if that is due to some great patience or innocent inability to understand her own discomfort and pain. I guess, this she got from me. I can still vividly remember bearing in silence the crushing pain in my chest twelve years back which had all the potential of leaving me dead. I can also remember that I could still walk straight into the hospital and get myself admitted, in the throes of severe pain before slipping into an undecided u

I stepped into the dreaded zone of diabetes, close to one year back. That placed a seal of educated declaration on what I always believed in - that is, I am a basically, a sweet person. It was heavy and dreadful with research on the internet and scary taglines screaming - silent killer.   The struggle began with some medicine and then some gym. Eventually, as with everything else the dread faded away and so did the exercise. Lack of time, irregular work hours, travel, moodiness- I was having a quiver full of arrows in terms of excuses. Eventually, slowly and slowly I drifted in to danger zone. Then almost on a whim, I went out and bought out an expensive pair of shoes. I began running. No gyms, no machines, out in the wild. It was a different world. The initial pain slowly became fun. It was my way of testing myself and surprising myself. The great thing about running is that it suited my temperament. It is a solitary exercise. You do not need a trainer to make a run, to te

Courtesy Mark Twain, we know that forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the feet which crushes it. Which is a lesson good learnt and easily executable. What is more complex, more difficult is the task of seeking apology.  It takes a great soul to forgive, but it takes a greater soul to seek apology. Even more complex is the task of seeking apology when none is necessary, even when logical. We do not seek apology to assuage the feelings of hurt party but very often to assuage our own ruffled soul, which stares at us with those innocent, unbelieving eyes. We surprise ourselves with our greatness many times. But as a contrary corollary, we also shock ourselves with shallowness of thought which we never thought we were capable of. We laugh empty laughs, discover flimsy reasons, and stay up for nights saddened of the evil we have perchance discovered in our own souls. Our sleeps are troubled and souls are fractured. Only merciful solution which can make us reach some