Deep Ties

  The time has come to bid farewell to the #BlogchatterA2ZChallenge2025. Twenty-five exciting days have gone by, with many of us bloggers trying to beat time by sticking to the alphabet in all kinds of zany ways. It was a period of intense activity for all, I am sure, trying to juggle work, play, recreation and a writing schedule which could not be ignored.                                                                                                TheWriteAtHome Blog The wonderful Blogchatter team had asked us all to create a list of topics well in advance so that we would not be left scratching our heads at the last moment. However, some folks rarely take good advice. So, there I was on April 1 st , having travelled all the way from Cochin ...

  Paeans have been written over the centuries on the relationship between different generations and the dreaded generation gap that creates such havoc. Poets have waxed eloquent over the concept, referring to the chasm between April and December,  and that never the twain shall meet. In my opinion, the biggest advantage we had growing up was to have our maternal grandparents with us at home. When my dad passed away, they were like a buffer, shielding us all as much as possible from all further hurt. Joint families were the norm in India. Children grew up as naturally as the leaves on a tree as cousins bonded, enjoying the love and nurturing of many sets of parents. There was no spoiling or pampering. Everyone ate the same kind of food with absolutely no fuss. Finicky eaters learnt to eat faster as they did not want to be left out of the fun later. Little falls and bruises were ignored. There was no question of special treats because there were too many mouths to feed. ...

  Life has turned 'xtremely competitive.                                                                                                        Medium I recall my own school days when studies were not a bugbear, and tuitions were only for those who needed a helping hand. After school, a whole gang of us would gulp down our coffee/ tea/ juice and be off like a flash to the playground where we would flex our almost non-existent muscles and 'xpend all our energy tearing about like little streaks of lightning. Hide-n-seek, Dodgeball, Stapo, Catch... the choices were myriad, but by 6.30 pm, mothers' voices would be heard in the twilight, calling out names, their eyes trying to pierce through the dim shadows to identify their ...

  Words have always had the power to enchant me ever since I was very young. The thrill of putting the right word in the right place started when I began playing the popular word game 'Scrabble'. I spent two years with my paternal grandparents in Shoranur, Kerala, when my Army father was posted in an obscure station where there were no good schools. Every afternoon I would come back from school, and there she would be, my darling grandma, waiting to play Scrabble with me. I have always wanted to be a writer, and after I wrote my first poem at the age of ten, I never looked back. I would scribble on every bit of paper I could lay hands on and hide them away in little niches not even allowing the room to be swept. Years later, my mother, herself a talented writer, put all these scraps together and brought out a collection of my poems titled 'Deeparadhana'. All through school and college, I continued to write, trying to hone my vocabulary. The deliciousness of juicy ...

  "Your body needs Vitamin D. Take these tablets once a week, and then once a month," said the doctor. In a country like India, where the sun shines bright and clear, more than three-quarters of the population are deficient in Vitamin D. Mind- boggling, isn't it? Of course, I had a quarter of a course of the tablets, and then forgot my next dose, which put an end to the treatment.                                                                                                      IndiaMART Feeling rundown? Exhausted? Have multivitamin tablets, says the general rule. That is something that G and I take regularly. When we got to Johannesburg, our first jaunt was to Clicks where we picked up a bottle of Centrum  Active. ...

  “What goes up when the rain comes down?”  “An umbrella, of course!” I don’t think Zo and Sam have heard that one for it is such an old, hackneyed riddle, as old as me. The umbrellas are out, and the woollens that have been kept in hibernation have been shaken out of their slumber. Two rainy days have chased the sun away here in Johannesburg, and I have not been able to take my hands off my hot cup of green tea.                                                                                                   Freepik G, my better half, has been listening to various weather forecasters, all of whom have spoken of the cold front that is expected to last for a couple of days. “After that, the sun will be out and it will get warmer,” he rem...

                                                                                                              Freepik The Kashmir Valley has been stained red, yet again! It is heartbreaking to see the visuals coming on the television after the dastardly attack by terrorists in the scenic locale of  Baisaran,  Pahalgam, in Kashmir,  a place often referred to as mini- Switzerland . Using AK 47 rifles, they opened fire on a group of tourists who were enjoying themselves, most of whom had taken a well-deserved break away from their busy lives. The terrorists walked out of the woods and segregated the men from the women, asked them their religion and demanded that the men recite Islamic prayers. Those who...