Bits And Pieces

As she danced in a joyous, carefree, manner to the Sufi song that was playing on the local radio station, Tulasi thought that, right then, she was as happy as anyone could possibly be. Mid-twirl, she caught her mother Janani's eye, and they both burst out laughing. Tulasi looked rather ridiculous that afternoon, dancing in the middle of their cramped, sweaty kitchen, with her nightie folded at the knees like a lungi, and tendrils of freshly washed hair escaping from underneath her towel turban. Janani shoved Tulasi out of her kitchen. There was far too much work to be done for her to get caught up in another of her daughter's silly moods. Tulasi danced right back in and tried to entice her, "Come on, ma! You know you want to twirl with me. It's our favourite song!" Janani mockingly replied, "True, but who is going to cook tiffin? You?"  Tulasi shrugged and said, "Try asking your son, you might have better luck. Say, where is he? I hav...

Here's another one I found while removing the dust off my blog. I wrote it two years back. I was newly married, and packing my bags to move from New York to the Netherlands, where I would join my beloved. While excited about the prospect of a new adventure, it also felt like I was leaving a part of myself behind. Poitu Varen, New York Tamil is both a language and a people. In Tamil, there is no word for goodbye. Instead, we say poitu varen - I'll be back. I always wondered about that. I am one of a few thousand Tamils living in New York. I love this city the same way that any other might love the place where they first came into themselves as a young adult. I started out alone, not really knowing anyone here. I worked on my first real job. I made new friends and acquaintances - wonderful people, some, the likes of whom I'd never met before. I traveled the city's subway arteries and ate my way through the different neighborhoods. I soaked myself in the art, m...

Verbal diarrhea from eight years back - an attempt to deal with built up frustration. I found this sitting in my drafts, and thought, "Eh, why not!" Spring Cleaning The unexpected happiness The perplexing downs Is it really a wonderful world? Did Armstrong truly believe that? Does he now? Things are always changing You like it or you don't Sometimes you don't even know Time turners don't exist If one did, I'd turn back to all the times my mind was blank It is seldom blank now Sleep seems to help, but never permanently Just when you think it's over It's back again, peeking over your shoulder You feel too small; your throat constricted Not a clue what's going on inside your head Wishing you could have it all figured out The dream couldn't have been farther Worse yet is when you don't dream A million directions Yet moving in circles You wish you could fly off on a tangent and soar deep into the...