My Experiments with Time

  2020, what a fancy number! A fancy-number-fanatic would have paid a handsome sum to obtain such a number for his vehicle. But lo, this very same number has been subjected to so many memes for its notoriety. 'What went wrong for you in 2020'? Most of us would have a unanimous answer. Let's tweak it a bit; I like to count my blessings: 'What went right for you in 2020?' In the first month of 2020, I visited Kolkata with family and friends to attend the wedding of my bestie. Kolkata had been on my travel list for a long time, being the only metro I haven't visited. The visit to the City of Joy had indeed been a blessing in disguise, which we all cherish till date for multiple reasons. That's the last time I boarded a flight, attended a wedding, stayed at a hotel and had food at a restaurant! Not to forget the Big fat Bengali wedding, the hospitality extended by the family, the Sangeeth, the midnight Muhurath, delicious food and all the fun. Having food a

(Read Corona-onam) The God's own country and Malayalis all over the world are gearing up to welcome Mahabali Thambran (King Mahabali) on Thiruonam day. Mahabali or Maveli is one of the prominent kings in Indian history who enjoys the continued patronage of his subjects and their progeny to date. In line with the Onam images pouring on social media, I'm hoping he will come equipped with mask and sanitizer this time around, similar to his arrival on boat during the Kerala floods. Just like Lord Ganesha, Mahabali is considered an epitome of agility. 'The Cool king', you give him any avatar and he is game, one reason why kids adore him. The Mallu kids love to listen to the story of Mahabali, and mine is no exception. It has become a ritual every year to narrate to Aditi the story and the relevance of Onam celebrations. So here it goes. King Mahabali was a benevolent king, who treated all his subjects equally and people lived very happily during his reign. The Devas who gre

It was 8 am, I hurriedly opened the Ola App. There  was a pop-up "Welcome back, please login to proceed". I sighed for the first time. This was just a sample of the many things that would require a restart that day; when you are literally dragging yourself out of home after almost half a year. 'All is well' I tell my 'Dil Bechara'.  I boarded the cab, there was a glass sheet partitioning the front seats from the back seats. I was going to miss talking to these drivers, who sometimes share amazing stuff about the city and what's happening around. I paid using Olamoney for the first time. My mind was still pondering over how we would have survived, if Corona had attacked during the pre-ecommerce and pre-smart phone era. Life in 2020 AC (After Corona) without  the likes of Amazon, Swiggy, Paytm, Ola was unimaginable. Just then the old security guard waved at me, his gleeful smile and the broken tooth were concealed behind the mask. I settled with waving bac

"She is as happy-as-a-lark", I told my friend who enquired about how my daughter was coping with the lockdown woes. "What do you mean by lark, Mamma?" "Lark is a bird, baby". "Oh I didn't see that in my Birds book. How does it look? What colour is it? Is it big like vulture or small like sparrow? And why is it happy, like me!" Now that was like a surprise Biology test. I had no clue what a lark looked like; lucky me I remembered it was a bird. "Let me finish this call and I'll show you how the lark looks and answer all your questions." I bought some time to update myself, thanking Google God for the umpteenth time. Imagine if Google did not exist, where would I find answers to all these questions, and my daughter would easily think I was so dumb. We found basic details about the lark, and took a look at the pictures too. A drawing of lark was added to her daily sketch book. I told her that the lark, like her

It's Week 4 of Work from home (WFH). I'm now senior to most of my friends who are about a week old at WFH. I also had the advantage of preparing myself (only partially though!) for this contingency, as it was self- imposed unlike most others. In March, I started on my venture after quitting a full time job, with the primary objective of doing something worthwhile without having to go to office every day. It started off well, with a proper plan of working 10 to 3, with umpteen unconditional breaks. But the thought that the credit to bank account will happen, only if I really do something brought me back to my seat. I had set up a table and chair in the least distracting room, which had the luxury of a fan, a window-side seat and chargers. I read blogs written by several startup founders who claimed they started in a garage or store room. I took breaks to attend to chores and when my daughter came home from school, and she bestowed kisses upon me for my presence. It was

Exactly a year ago, I had one item added to my Bucket list. Today I'm proud to tick it off my list. My earlier blog "The Run" was about a dream, and this one "The Walk" is about that dream coming true. For the past few months I had been silently cherishing and nourishing my dream of taking part in the Chennai Marathon. The seeds had been sown last year, and friends were nurturing through words of motivation. But my excuses of getting home late and fear of hurting the already damaged knee took over the desire to run.  A week ago I got an offer to run in the place of a friend who had injured her leg. I accepted the offer, but was not quiet sure I would make it. I was no athlete, nor did I have any desire to run. But I wanted to experience being part of such a major event, the second largest Marathon in the country that witnessed well over 10000 people running or walking.  On D day, I was wide awake waiting for the alarm. I kissed my little champion, who had gone