Deep Ties

  My Book World I still remember the first time in my life I could not put a book down. It was my Enid Blyton phase, and the book was ‘The Secret of Moon Castle’. Eerie dim lit rooms, clanking suits of armour, paintings flying off the wall and eyes moving within portraits… all designed to leave me awake, my heart in my mouth all night.  The next morning would find me racoon-eyed, yet desperately needing to go and scare my friends with the story that had left me so.                                                                                               World of Blyton   Of course, I was no stranger to tales that sent a chill up my little spine. Before I began to decipher words on my own, my maternal grandfather, a litterateur in his own...

  Inspire Uplift Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Shakespeare certainly knew how to use words to their fullest. The above lines have Macbeth quoting these lines to emphasise on the way time passes, our ultimate destination being ‘dusty death’. Which is why I feel that 2026 should be a slower year for me, career wise, when I do not carry on creeping from “tomorrow to tomorrow to tomorrow”. 2025 was a year when I tried to balance my life as an educationist and a writer together, both aspects significant to me. I intend to tweak 2026 a trifle. As Virginia Woolf said, “If you are losing your leisure, look out! It may be you are losing your soul.” The promises of 2026 whisper their melodies into my ear.                                       ...

  LittleYellowStar Another wonderful year whizzes past and in the month of December, one is left wondering how fast time flew. One also looks back with gratitude at all the helping hands held out, words of appreciation and positive criticism, and umpteen opportunities created by generous souls to aid one’s writing. Personally, I did find many mentors, most of them younger than me (I was born in the last century, you know!) who filled my heart with gratitude and joy. So, a loud round of applause to my very own supporting cast over the eventful year of 2025: 1.      The intrepid team of Blogchatter who comes up with stupendous challenges across the year… even though I have pulled my hair out, trying to fit in deadlines before they whoosh by, I have been able to complete all the challenges I have taken up, sometimes by the skin of my teeth. Thank you, the core team of Blogchatter for being absolute rockstars! 2.      Dipankar Mukherjee a...

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                                                                                                                    Etsy I thought cataracts only happened to people after a certain age. Till I realised that I was, indeed, at that very age. Around six years back I recall walking into an optician’s shop at Chennai and doing an eye test. I began to read the usual list of alphabets that petered from huge to ant-sized, and I nearly fell off my chair when the optician declared, “Madam, you have a cataract in your left eye.” He seemed unusually jubilant about it.                                         ...

  Unsplash What is life, if not a mystery, a puzzle, a ‘paheli’? The first question came before I was born, in fact. Would I be Deepti or Aditya? That was an easy one! The next conundrum made an appearance when I finished school. What stream would I take? It was not as if I had a whole trunk full of choices, and I certainly did not want to pick the two that were on everyone’s lips. Engineering or Medicine!                                                                                                       Career Guide When I opted for the Arts stream (they call it Humanities these days!), my Physics professor who also helped me in Math, almost had a stroke. The poor gentleman had poured his heart and soul into getting me to ...