Last time I heard from Kyra, she was shopping in a sweltering Chennai. Haggling over a pair of glitter earrings. “How much is he asking for anyway? Ten bucks?” “Ha, that’s the point. He is asking for fifteen!” I sighed. Kyra and her sun-philia. It had given me many queer afternoons in the sun. Shopkeepers … Continue reading »
How hard can it be to speak clean? Abuse is the new endearment. “Oh dear ***, I so *** missed you.” “Ditto, my dear ***.” Doesn’t it get taxing? I mean, perennially looking for new things to fill those asterisks up? I met a host of school kids last evening. Sleeves rolled up, socks rolled … Continue reading »
*Girly (?) Post Alert “Would it pain too much?” “No, dear. Just a bit.” “You aren’t saying that just to appease me, are you?” Her mother had warned us about people who smooth-talked only to swindle you later. “Try me.” She hesitantly nodded an okay and walked behind a huge curtain. Her already pink cheeks … Continue reading »
There is a little girl I know who cannot stand pigtails. She likes to have her long hair in flowing cascades and adorns it with blue hairclips for the blue denims, green ones for the green shorts. “It is high time you learnt some colour coordination too, Mummy.” She goes about telling that to her … Continue reading »
“It must be yucky getting all that chocolate on your skin.” my little cousin made a wry face. “Like I can’t even stand those birthday cake scenes!” Me neither. Cakes are so delightfully made, so prettily layered in colours like pink and brown that it should be an official sin wasting them thus. Now … Continue reading »
Stranded on the road the other day dripping to the last strand of hair, the buses that whooshed by me tripping could, barely care. T’was all I could do to hail a cab or two, but none came. And the dear hair smelled, pooh! of pain. A time there was when the towel teeming with … Continue reading »
You won’t come across too many youngsters in Delhi who don’t do the gym. Only dadi ammas, plain Janes, boring geeks and pimply-luminous-shirt types do not. Oops, did you just count yourself? I am sure you are among the privileged few who are either blessed with taut, fat-free genes or the ones striving for a … Continue reading »
Delhi is tough. The so-stiff-you-can’t-unpeel-her kind of tough. And I presume it is her personal, silent strategy that makes congenital rebels out of so many of her people. Kids, for instance. I stare open-mouthed as my masis and chachis (aunts – in convenient English) battle with their juveniles. Sometimes, it’s about school. Or about classmates … Continue reading »
The sabijiwala who does the rounds in our society every morning has become very demanding. Prices are shooting up he says. Schools are more expensive, even the water he uses to sprinkle on his cabbages and ladyfingers doesn’t come free. His point being – I will charge a wee bit more on everything. Gone are … Continue reading »
I have a little cousin who often claims her friends’ at school have pocket-money-paying mommies. She isn’t given any to avoid typhoid-causing-lollies-from-the-street and that is major cause for grievance. “If you were *Shikha’s mom, you’d have listened to what I say!” she declared all teary-eyed over breakfast one day. Masi complains the child throws tantrums. … Continue reading »
