Pinku-Enchanted Life

A friend asked me to post something on Women's Day which speaks about the harassments meted out to women on the roads, in public and not so public places. I promised to do so before the 8th Of March (Women's day) but like the equality of the sexes the post too was late in coming. Not because there wasn’t anything to write but because there was far too much of it. I wondered what and how shall I write about this oft written about topic that would make it stand out in the clutter of all the articles all of you must have read on the subject especially over the past week. (Writer's vanity you see, one would rather be remembered than forgotten). Bra burning feminists wrote, men posing as friends of women wrote, men who really are wrote, victims wrote or atleast someone wrote for them, so did those who had won victories major or minor. Politicians wrote, academicians wrote. What then was left for me to say? Cite yet another story of watching a woman being whistled at or her dupat...

The more things change the more they remain the same so say those who have seen it all. Oh! But what thrill the planning for it, the anticipation of it and the final confrontation with it, gives. The regular tends to be so boring. Change brings on a rush of adrenaline, heart pumping faster, cheeks glowing, and concentration levels high. I could swear it’s the best exercise to stay in shape both mentally and physically, just go in for a change. Change what you ask? Change anything. Change the way your sitting room looks. Change your haircut. Change the route you take back from work or to it. What the heck! Change the job. Exchange your pink lipstick for a cherry red one or vice versa. Followed football on the tele all your life? Go out and play it with the neighborhood kids today. And if its pouring so much the better. Do whatever, but do something. Change something around you. Maybe buy bright yellow sunflowers instead of the regulation red roses for your beloved. The world thrives o...

Did you read about the mermaid in that tale of yore and wonder what it would feel like to play and live in the waves in a big castle below the ocean? I did. I always had a fascination for water, lots of it. Free flowing, moving, without bounds and with unknown depths, holding so many secrets within its bosom. Having never learnt how to swim never dampened my spirits and the first glimpse of a big water body always brought on but one reaction to throw myself in it and let the water hold me up. Growing up in an industrial town bereft of even a swimming pool let along huge stretches of water these desires bubbled away beneath the surface much like underground streams. Alive but invisible. That is all in the past at age 29 I have finally experienced water. Water in its most mighty, life giving, limitless form…the sea. Not knowing how to react to it, I walked out to the beach to confront this huge moving entity. Stretching to the horizon and beyond. It was all that I had dreamt off and more...

It’s that time of the year again. Pull a curtain over the past prepare for the future discard the old adapt to the new. Some do it like a duty, like putting out the garbage with no thoughts involved. Some do it meticulously like threading a needle a thought, an idea at a time all in the right sequence. Some party away the night Get up midday with a hangover so bad the new year just seems like a blight Some spend the wee hours ensconced in the arms of loved ones reliving the past, envisioning the future. Some are in the company of the TV wondering whether the phone would ring and someone would remember to wish them too. Which of these were you?

The cycle was again creaking too loudly, Sawant Singh cursed under his breath and got off it. It wouldn’t do to disturb Shikha, his daughter in law’s siesta otherwise his supper of two rotis and a little dal would again be the casualty. Already this week he had gone without food twice, once for forgetting to buy salt at the local market and then again for having fallen off to sleep after an unusually hard day. So he picked up the bicycle and moved with it slowly to the far wall of the garage. For the umpteenth time he cursed his deceased wife for his ill fortune. Had she not hurried to meet the other Lord and deemed it fit to stay on and serve her earthly master he would not have to face such indignity in this old age. To him it was almost an insult that Lajjo who had never retired for the night without pressing his tired limbs should decide to call it a day while he was still alive and in need of a million small ministrations. He wasn’t as cowed down always, there was a time when not ...

A basket full of cakes, doughnuts, chocolates, cheese, olives, bread, juice, rum and coke. A car tank filled with fuel. A heart set on adventure. A mind taking rest from being practical. The perfect ingredients to have a terrific time. That’s how the last trip to the hills started. When you start on a trip you need a destination don’t you? The easiest way to decide on one is to get a list of probable destinations and do a random selection. Your lucky number, your pet’s date of birth or the number of helpings of ice cream you had last night are equally good numbers to choose from. I though went with a more sedate method, I opened the book found the first place that was listed and firmly believing the first page of a book is the best place to begin headed towards Lansdowne. A maniacal 7 hour drive from Delhi through Meerut, Bijnor and a host of small and big towns with nary a break found us in Kotdwar. The last town before the drive into the Pauri Garhwal hills began. Dusk had fallen and...

Remember watching fascinated, neck craning, breath caught in throat as your eyes followed the hero of your dreams soaring wingless high above you? You wanted to follow his footsteps, assuredly letting go of one swing as another moved towards you in a synchronized motion that never failed. The calm with which he sailed into space and reached out with complete confidence made him seem like Superman. You were told; ‘you are too young to follow, you must wait till you are older’ and you went away holding mommy’s hand promising yourself that you would come back as soon as you were old enough. The wait was oh! so long and you wondered many a time if the circus and the Trapeze man would still be there waiting for you or will they have gone away. Your heart wrenched at the thought and you couldn’t wait to grow up soon enough. Then one day you finally did. You were ready to soar into the sky. And you looked for the circus tent within which was the magical land of your dreams. But alas! now the ...