Category: Personal
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It’s all about love
Love you! I exclaimed brightly just as I hung up the phone after talking to my sister to wish her. I sensed a moment of hesitation, an eye roll and a smile as she replied Thank you and not love you back. Sometimes I do it on purpose. Like to my mom, I say Love…
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Life’s little lessons
Yesterday walking past my mailbox at work, I noticed an unmarked white envelope sticking out. This was a first. In about four years. Of course a smile plastered from ear to ear, I picked the envelope and tore it open. Inside was a beautiful note from K. I felt my heart lift with happiness. I…
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That place called Happy
Every once in a while I get to go to this place called Happy in my mind. It is an area unclouded by fears and disappointments. Only hope reigns and having expectations are OK. I know at the back of mind that this is a tenuous state of being and I drink it in for…
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Remembering Appa
Late yesterday evening as the closing credits rolled on screen after the movie ended, I was a sobbing blubbery mess. The lines were fuzzy between the body on the funeral pyre on TV and the one of Appa in my mind. That one image was enough to send me back three years in time to…
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A question of being ready
Sitting in our rather large dining room at our workplace after work yesterday, I found I was the first to arrive for a four hour CPR/AED certification class offered by the American Red Cross and sponsored by our workplace. Soon the rest of the group arrived. A grand total of 7 students and one instructor.…
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Hope and Grief – Twin emotions
A revised version of this essay appears in The Smudged Hyphen (2026). Not suitable if you are looking for something feel good. Folding a humongous pile of clothes my mind wanders in a thousand scattered directions. The muted volume of the TV murmurs in the background. I take pause and notice every detail around me.…
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Sepia toned. Warm.
Logging into work bright and early, I place my fingers at the feet of the tiny pillayar at my desk and touch it to my eyes. Like I do on days when I feel happy. Or sad. Or in need of reassurance. I turned and spied a new addition to my desk. A picture of…
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We are paper pregnant!
Yup. We are. Well!! Almost! About three months back, K and I made the decision to grow our family through adoption. It had been on our minds for a couple of years now but this June we decided to take the steps necessary to make it a reality. The first step in the process was…
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Layer by layer. It adds up.
Another year passed us by. Brushing over the blemishes. Masking the imperfections. Leaving behind the dull glow of burnished gold. That’s exactly how I think of the relationship K and I share. Ours is not the crash and burn chemistry. Nor is it a cloyingly sweet Yash Chopra movie. We have our share of differences but…
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Happiness is a choice
On the long drive back home yesterday as Amma and I were in the middle of a heated debate on life itself, I said something I was proud of. “Happiness is a choice.” The words have been echoing in my mind ever since. Irrespective of the context in which I used it, the idea is,…