Twenty-four years later
We met after twenty-four years. In a restaurant. A well-lighted one where they are discrete and interactive without making you feel you’re being stalked. She looked around and saw the paintings on the walls. ‘Nice paintings,’ she murmured. ‘Yes ma’am,’ said the waiter emerging out of nowhere, ‘the entire décor is inspired by the Southern...
We-can-we-will
My stubble, it’s mine How can I hate that smelly stubble? The unshaven bard sang his song merrily and people clapped. He stroked his trademark prickly stubble and after finishing his song, said, ‘Three cheers for the all-male how-can-I club.’ The next performance was by the all-women why-must-I club and they believed in only protest...
This happened at three in the morning
Sproing! Sproing!! His mind was sluggish at three in the morning and his eyes sleepy-laden. He slowly opened them and saw his navel peeping out of his unbuttoned night-suit shirt. ‘I’m lying down,’ he thought, ‘how can I see my own navel?’ He thought he was still dreaming and pulling himself out of his bed...
Smearing a bit of your heart on crumbling walls
Specky and I were walking from Ajmeri Gate towards Chawri in Old Delhi when the man walking just ahead seemed to lose his balance, crashed on to a rickshaw and crumbled on the street lifeless. The rickshaw stopped. I spent three valuable seconds deciding what to do with the camera in my hands… and then...
Please turn… I want to kick your backside
Yes, this is how it always happens when you talk about changing or wanting to change someone or something or some place or some attitude or some moment. You invariably have to say: Please turn… I want to kick your backside! Delhi is a stubborn city as the people here are either netas or babus...
My Rule Book
When Arnold Schwarzenegger says that the ‘Government’s first duty and highest obligation is public safety,’ one just nods his head. But despite such strong words and emotions travelling through the centuries, we still find ourselves a trifle insecure and unsafe… despite all the progress in all fronts… despite the umbrella of technology… despite pepper sprays...
I’m alone… and yet I’m not
Some words are unforgettable. I remember having watched a martial arts movie when I was in the Indian Military Academy where the main protagonist says: ‘We’re all basically alone. We have to fight our battles alone and by ourselves. Therefore, prepare well.’ I neither remember the name of the movie nor what happened after nor...
Humming with Hummus
What do we have with pakoras? Ketchup. What do we have with chowmein? Ketchup. What do we have with other snacks? Ketchup. Ah! I’m sorry, it should’ve been tomato ketchup. Our stores sell tons and tons of ketchup… and every household has enough stock of it. We do have pudina-ki-chutney and a few other chutneys...
The two rats and the tweet girl
I wonder if I should call this post a story of two loafers… or just one brave girl who just did what she thought was correct. Well, I think the newspapers are too full of both these categories. We have loafers, scammers, thieves, burglars, law-breakers, eve-teasers, rapists, and thousands of their type hopping and popping...
Tuna Pasta Salad with Boondi
That day started with a lengthy discussion on pasta shapes and poor tuna simply got named and ended up getting mashed! Specky said, ‘You must really try preparing a pasta dish. These are easy and I’ll know you’re eating something during the days I’ll be gone for my conference.’ I nodded my head and moodily...
Of toast I boast!
‘I am the one who always cooks, And you just play with words in nooks!’ She went on to say that I must feed Her a tasty dish and do a culinary deed. I looked and smiled and then said I’ll give you ‘French Toast’ brown and red! And thus started my journey into the...
Encounter in the coffee house
She said ‘go’ And he mistook it to be a ‘no’. … and so this was why he kept on sitting right opposite her in that nearly empty coffee house in Connaught Place that evening. She now seemed confused and probably thought it to be arrogance and took it to be a willful attempt to...
