The shades in between

Knowing there’s a problem and not knowing the solution, or not knowing the problem altogether? Suspecting every man’s intentions, or taking a leap of faith each time? Arguing about every little misunderstanding, or letting all of them fly by? Taking a chance that ends up in a failure, or not taking the chance altogether? One can never really say.

This is a story loosely based on the life of a young girl who works in the house across my street. Pitter-patter, the sound of the water dripping onto the vessels wakes her up at 4 a.m. It is yet another day, and she needs to wash the vessels before the sound of the water wakes the owner’s wife. She had forgotten to do them the previous night. The sight of children playing on the street till late in the night had her mesmerized enough to forget her daily routine. Maybe one day she would get to play. Perhaps on the street with children her age. Or in the comfort of her own home with dolls like her master’s daughter. She used to watch the girl longingly as she braided the doll’s curly locks. The doll wore a new dress each day – shades of red Monday through Wednesday and black and blue the remaining days. She remembered looking down at her worn-out shirt and skirt, one of the only 2 pairs of clothes she owned. Her mother had given her the new dress, telling her that it was on the occasio...

I was cleaning out my book shelf the other day, which I am rather proud of, because papers and old coffee cups don’t co-exist anymore. I presume that’s why man invented the concept of a kitchen – to keep the coffee off old math papers. I’m glad that 19 years of life experience has left me with much wisdom :) So as I embarked on my mission to clean (i.e. use my dustbuster as a microphone to sing out ‘summer breezin’ as loudly as I could), I found my ‘memories’ box which seemed to be overflowing with a number of things. A letter from an old friend from 7 years ago about how Michael Owen was the cutest footballer ever, my old slam book with endless accounts of how people have never heard me open my mouth (no, I am NOT making that up!), my old epaulet from school (I remember how proud we were to be seniors), bangles from Rainforest from a year back which I am sure I’ll never wear but will never forget, among many. I also found a copy of ‘that fat hat’ which has to be the cutest book ever,...

I had written this a long time back, when I witnessed something happen to someone I really care for – let’s call her Sara. I always thought that if I ever started a blog, I would put it up. So here goes. My little sister rummages through her clothes desperate to find the right outfit for her first day of college. She tries on various shades of nail polish and wonders which shade will give her the good, but not goody-goody, slightly-sophisticated-moderately-intelligent look. Glasses or lenses? Which makes her look more interesting? I watch her amused and realize that I went through the same cycle around two years ago. Was it going to be my yellow with green salwar that I spent a fortune on? Or the more docile black one I picked up at Hyderabad? Or did that have too many flowers? I wonder why it made a difference really… the outfit I wore on the first day of college. I knew I picked the green one after drawing out a huge pro-con list. It seemed so important that day, making the right imp...

A week after the Mumbai terror strikes, the shock hasn’t reduced in its intensity. There is nothing that hasn’t been said already about the attacks. Every one of us was in some way directly or indirectly affected by what happened during those 60 hours. We sat glued to our television screens, switching from one news channel to the next, wondering if any of them had an update. What’s different this time around is that the people of our country have really had it. There’re protests held in every part of the country with the same banner – ‘enough is enough’. This isn’t another political game, serious action needs to be taken. Why was the prior warning neglected? Why was it that when the people expected L.K.Advani and Dr.Manmohan Singh to come together to visit the victims, they couldn’t? Though it seems trivial, to most it meant that the leaders of our country were putting aside their political differences to work for the country’s best interest. And yet, they couldn’t get themselves to co...

I’m here! After months of debating, contemplating, in other words sheer laziness, I finally got myself to put my best foot forward. And that would be the left one. You know how when you are bang in the middle of exams, you make up imaginary lists of everything else you would rather be doing than learning how to design a database for some make believe petroleum company? Well, now that I have so much time on my hands, watching Tom and Jerry re-runs and flicking marbles into the air doesn’t seem as enticing as it did a week ago! I have taken up redecorating my house though. Partly because my mom very subtly indicated that she would have me shipped away if I continued to make a mess and partly because there are only so many times that you can bang into something each time you enter your room before thinking, hey maybe the stack of ironed clothes from 2 weeks back doesn't really belong right next to the door. Nor do the roller skates I pulled out for my 8 year old cousin to play with we...