One of the ways I attempt to alleviate tension in my life is to identify the stressors and eliminate/reduce them consciously. While I do drive, and am confident about driving, parking can be a downright headache in Chennai. I decided a long while ago that if I am traveling to…
Part 1 is here. A few years later came the next assignment – to Makeni – in Sierra Leone. My first exposure to school, my mother would braid my hair, pack me curd rice in an Aladdin flask that went into a pretty metal case. When I came back, it…
After my recent return from abroad, my right foot started acting up. It does so a couple of times a year – after-effects of a really bad Chikungunya attack in 2006. Usually, this is alleviated with two days of Naproxen. This time though, it lingered. When I mentioned to my…
As I read Indian clothing designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s comment at Harvard regarding women and the saree – http://bit.ly/2HbTQI7, and counter points to it – http://bit.ly/2CiaemH, some thoughts came up. Mr. Mukherjee said “I think, if you tell me that you do not know how to wear a saree, I would say shame…
I recently applied for a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card. A mere six days later, my PAN had been issued and was ready to go. Fast by any standards. Issued by the Indian government, the PAN’s main purpose is to identify each tax payer uniquely. The card is also accepted…
In my erstwhile home for a short sojourn, I enjoyed getting together with old friends. Recently, one mentioned to another how the previous time they had met was the last time I had visited. It set me thinking. The temporariness of a short visit often helps to make and concentrate…
Recently, I spent good, quality time with friends of old whom I have been in touch with constantly, though we have not physically met in a while, geographically separated as we are. As usually happens on such occasions, we reminisced – how we were then, barely into adulthood, and how…
I was recently on a panel titled ‘Raise your Game’ that addressed the current batch of 12th Std students of PSBB KK Nagar and Nungambakkam schools on the importance, and the process, of preparing for the 12th Std board exams. My co-panelists were Captain Raghavan, currently in charge of Business…
I was first addressed as mami by an elderly waiter at a restaurant in Mahabalipuram, two days after my marriage. I remember looking behind and around myself then, to find who the addressee was! Until I realised it was I. 🙂 I was tickled pink at my new promotion! It made my…
“The waning days of our lives are given over to treatments that addle our brains and sap our bodies for a sliver’s chance of benefit” – Atul Gawande. How true. It is sad that most are not able to accept that leaving things as they are, sometimes, is the best…