night descends. the lamps are ready with oil and wick. my heart is in my mouth. it’s bhoot chaturdashi. the ghost fourteenth day, if i translate literally. and tonight, unless we put fourteen diyas or oil lamps, or even…
Historically Halloween or All Hallows Eve is the day dedicated to remembering the dead. I didn’t particularly feel like doing that, so I settled for trying to think of the scary movies I like. But, I don’t like horror…
Diwali is the only festival that is celebrated with some enthusiasm in our family. Tam-Bram me, my GSB hubby and my two daughters, who actually grew up without knowing or following any religious rituals, look forward to festivals only…
the flames lunged up, their ends tapering, blowing, dancing, impatient and in a rush to catch the khoi. the parched rice, light, plump and crisp white, had just started to slide off the winnowing fan. it floated down, a…
Finally succumbing to all the rave reviews by Poldark lovers, I watched Season 1 of the popular PBS show. The hero, Ross Poldark, played to perfection by Aiden Turner, is a Byronic fantasy come alive. Ross Poldark is complicated,…
About an hour ago, before Arnav reached the station: Sitting in the AC Chair car compartment of the train, Khushi was getting restless. It had been more than an hour since she last talked to Arnavji and she wasn’t…
singapore’s mrt trains are super efficient, despite occasional breakdowns. they’re clean, fast, no nonsense. they zip around smoothly underground, overground, ferrying commuters from early in the morning till late at night, every single day. i don’t usually rush to…
“you start building the sukka the day after yom kippur,” my husband said. we used to live in a house those days and there was a perfect spot by the koi pond, with wooden beams creating a sort of…
there are some things we never talk about. perhaps they threaten our sense of security, perhaps they challenge our limits of defining the world, perhaps they disturb us fundamentally, so we look away. right now in a television soap,…