Category: nostalgia
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Nostalgia: Trapped In A Bottle
I am chatting with Amma on the phone, my hands moving out of force of habit. I pull the heavy bottomed sauté pan, turn the gas stove on, tap the rim every few seconds to test how hot the pan is. Even as I do this on auto pilot, my brain is thinking of the…
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Twenty Five, Twenty One – Trip Down Nostalgia Lane
The show starts with vivid color and a certain sterility as a teenager waits to perform ballet during the COVID years. The mother, our protagonist waits in the car as restrictions prevent anyone from being in the audience. The girl walks off, throwing away her place in the competition and runs away from home to…
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Searching For Home
The yearning to go back to the place I once called home has been deepening, solidifying into something tangible in my body. When writers and poets talk about the pull of the land, I feel it these days, the weight, the tactile feeling of being attached to land, smells and, the memories they bring with…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Reminiscences
Jackfruit. The item remained on our shared grocery list for weeks. Each grocery trip, my finger would hover over it, tempted to strike it off knowing how rare it is to find it locally. Yet, it would stay, a reminder of how random cravings for things from my past can take hold and not let…
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The Dada Cup
It is not yet 6:00 am. I unload the dishwasher. I like the quiet this time of the day. I go about my work methodical, intentional. The last items to come out of the dishwasher are the coffee mugs. Even as I pull them out, I hear footsteps coming down the stairs and look up…
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Diwali: Past And Present
The email from HR arrived suddenly, unexpected in its subject line. “Diwali,” it said. The body was sparse, requesting any of us who had the time to stop by HR for a quick chat. New to the company (relatively) and therefore without deadlines hounding me, I took the stairs to the third floor and found…
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Oh, The Memories!
I stood by the kitchen island watching the refrigeration technician take our freezer apart. The door, the motor, the fan, the printed circuit board off the back of the fridge, they all lay on the floor. He worked quietly humming to himself. With his permission, I took the PCB in my hands and looked at…
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The Little Things That Say Home
It is not yet 6:00 AM. I have been up for about an hour, throwing open windows and tying back curtains. There is no breeze yet but the humidity inside the house lets up. Amma turns on the TV and sets the volume on high. I wince but carry on realizing that it is impossible…
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Happiness in a cup
I walk down the stairs my head throbbing from too little sleep. The smell of coffee wafts my way and I cheer up. Even as I warm the milk for my coffee, I notice Amma fixing Saathi’s lunch. I am tempted to envelop her in a hug. The moment passes and I sit at the…
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On a day like today
On a day like today, few years back, I scanned through my emails making notes, preparing to-do lists and scanning the web for information. We had just gotten word that we were soon to be parents of twins. Just like that in a few days we would go from a couple to a couple with…