The Drama Queen

  Vacation plans are on hold. New movies are on hold. Eating out is on hold. Cold treats are on hold. Breathing is on hold. Life is on hold. You got it right.... exams have taken over the lives of the thousands of unsuspecting mothers all over the country. Board Exams or IIT Entrances or Masters or Middle School or Kindergarten.... you do not mess with the sanctity of the situation. Neatly made study time tables are being made and remade. The fridge door space is converted into a holy shrine with these scribbles. Weeks have been reduced to days. It will move on to number of hours left, when exams arrive. The house is sprinkled with books of all shapes and sizes. Study notes are flying around. Mums are trying their best not to lose their patience picking up after the children. The occasional stepping on the stationery is the last straw, generally! ‘Why don’t they study in their own rooms’ should be the new ‘Nation wants to know...’ agenda. They have to sit in the living ro...

At the outset, I do not have ANY political lineage or interests or aspirations. I am neither pro nor anti Saffronite. I have no Hands in any cookie jar, either. Just trying to use my common sense here.... Do we really need elections at the Centre next year? It took Congress 10 short years to bring down our country to its lowest ever level. I guess, we need to be fair enough to the one crusader to turn it all around. While we pass jokes and memes on Whatsapp and Facebook and Twitter on his tagline, ‘Achche Din’.... nobody complained when we were being showed the most ‘Bure Din’??? We were content with sub-standard governance under the previous Government. And when someone is genuinely showing us a ray of hope, we are getting blinded by our over-the-top expectations. ‘Sone Ki Chidiya’ is definitely a thing of the past now. First, we blamed the British. They left us alone, long back, people. It has been our choices, and our choices alone, that has brought us to where we are toda...

I have never been a plant-lover, so to speak. Inspite of being a pure vegetarian, I never got to the extent of understanding the whole green brigade. I was always content to buy the happy looking, neatly packaged vegetables and fruits from the air-conditioned supermarket. And how delighted I would be to eat Watermelons and Mangoes throughout the year. Or the Avocados and Nectarines. No complaints, there. Quite recently, I had the privilege of having some garden space in our new home. And I was introduced to a whole new world. I don’t even know if I have the green thumb or not, but I was always repulsive towards earthworms and their friends for the fear of they nibbling away all my fingers. Being a vegetarian, I have a natural tendency to avoid anything moving or crawling or flying or swimming.  Our gardener came to our rescue here. With his expertise and help, I managed to have a tiny kitchen garden of our own. We worked as a team. We were overwhelmed with nature’s treasu...

What do women want? Million dollar question. You would say... romance, flowers, expensive gifts, bling, exotic vacations. Whom are we kidding? The only thing that women want is that they should be able to happily eat anything and everything they want to, without ever putting on weight! Only if they could get rid of the tiny creatures called ‘Calories’ who sneak into our closets every night and sew our clothes tight. Well, clearly, fantasizing about a calorie-free, guilt-free, carbs-free diet is not enough to achieve this dream. We need to move. A lot. And not just any moving. That long walk to some fitness class is the toughest move of all. After having tried my hands at almost everything from Gym to Aerobics to Zumba to Aqua Aerobics, I felt most connected with Yoga. It’s ancient roots in our culture and it’s modern depiction via the numerous online videos made it very appealing to me. Your friends have been going to that Yoga Class. It is right there in your neighbourhood club ...

Come March 8th and all the women of the world are, apparently, made to feel special. I don’t recollect having a Men’s Day?! Why are we, then, chirping and dancing around and making plans for a Women’s Day? Are we in the minority here?  To set the record straight, WE are half the population and WE raise the other half. I refuse to celebrate the Women’s Day. Because I refuse to be treated as a special case. Haven’t we been believing in and demanding for gender equality? Why then this discrimination against men, if you ask me! Poor souls... they don’t have a Men’s Day to feel special. The commercial world is abuzz with discounts for women this day and this week and probably the whole month. Loads of marketing gimmicks are inviting us for lunches and parlour indulgences and spa sessions and wardrobe makeover, and what not, all at special rates.  The work place is brimming with excitement for celebrating this day, with games and parties and gifts. The corporate world ...

Holi.... the Festival Of Colours. Probably the only festival where we specifically hunt for old clothes, bad enough to be discarded, to wear! And probably the one with the most fun and colour and life. This was our first Holi after our marriage. We were in the US. Coming from a city like Nagpur, where Holi is infamously played in a not-so-decent manner, the complete lack of it suddenly made me realise how much I was missing ‘Mera Desh, Meri Mitti, Meri Hawaa’. It was a weekday, on top of that. So, hubby went to his office, as usual. I was literally devastated. To top it all, I had been getting Holi updates from family, back in India. It was making me feel worse. He came home very late from work. The ‘Desi Girl’ in me was dying to play dirty. As soon as he kept his laptop bag away, (can’t mess with that, Holi or not), I put turmeric powder all over his head. It was not at all effective. I poured water on him. And then realised that we can’t mess the carpet. We are in the US, n...

The whole nation is in a state of shock. Sunday came with not-so-good-a-morning. The news of the sudden demise of the female superstar of Bollywood. The first instinct of most of us was: this is definitely a hoax. And we started searching the Internet frantically for some respite. I turned to the most trusted site, the Wikipedia, which read... Sridevi Kapoor WAS an Indian actress...! It felt like someone close to me had departed. This is the power of the film and entertainment industry. The film stars and their lives influence us in many ways, big and small. They are in the eyes of public 24X7. Their on and off screen presence is under continuous scrutiny.  But, nothing prepares us for this. Sridevi’s huge fanbase, around the world,  is mourning. My heart goes out to her two daughters, most of all. The most crucial time in life, when one needs a mother the most. What hopes and dreams! All left hanging. I got more emotional when I saw the Filmfare Awards that was being ai...