You are an autonomous being. To be authentic to your autonomy or not, is your choice. If all the influences of the outside world were taken away- the opinions of your family, the compulsions of your peers, the restrictions and permissions of society- what would be left would be the core YOU. Your inner core […]
Life
Everyday Equanimity
My cell phone rings. “Hello!” I answer. “Helllllooo! Shruti hai kya (Is Shruti there)?” “Jee nahi. Ye Shruti ka number nahi hai. Aapka galat number lag gaya hai. (No. This is not Shruti’s number. You’ve got the wrong number.)” I disconnect the call. A modern definition of equanimity: cool. This refers to one whose mind […]
Sunday Brunch #9
Festivals are not dates on the calendar; they happen when your family comes home. When they are far from you, you may remain in touch with them through the many communication channels technology brings us. Nothing, however, can replace the depth of live presence. Their presence fills spaces in you that you never acknowledge even […]
Step Out With A-Z
Come April, bloggers of all shapes, sizes and genres go bananas. They voluntarily- and sans remunerative compensation- enroll themselves to a grueling annual blogging ritual. All through the month of April they commit to writing a post a day on all days except Sundays. The remaining twenty six days are devoted to the twenty six […]
Existential Crisis
I came across Suresh Chandrasekaran’s blog just over a year ago. The first post I read was a saga of self- deprecation- his signature style. If I remember correctly, he took his readers into his kitchen and shared the delight he experienced when reigning supreme in that hallowed place traditionally dominated by women. His post […]
Sunday Brunch #8
Hola people! Here we are again, what? I felt very uneasy last week when I couldn’t post the Sunday Brunch. It was as if I hadn’t lived that week at all (Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit). Then I thought, let that be so. This year, therefore, my year will have only 51 weeks. That’s not […]
In Order To Live
“Don’t you hate her, the underhand, deceitful back- stabber!” “Don’t talk of her that way! No, I don’t hate her. Why should I?” “Do I have to tell you why?! !!” “Why are you so livid with her?” “I just don’t understand you! How can you take it so lightly?!” “I can take it lightly […]
Song Of Luminescence
I am a little uptight. The lady I want to introduce to you today is so precious that I am afraid to choose the words which will form the strokes of my brush as I define her, lest they fall short. Yet, I know they will fall short. What words can contain this woman? Sridevi […]
Everyday Destinations
A fellow blogger shared an article yesterday. This is an excerpt: When I was a child consuming all sorts of classic cultural fare — books, movies, and the like — the moment that scared me the most was not when Alice shrunk in Wonderland or when the Wicked Witch captured Dorothy. It was not when […]
Becoming A Monk
I read some stuff yesterday. The kind of things that chivvy you along on The Path… of becoming a monk. There is no connection between the things I read, coming as they do, from diverse sources. Yet, in my mind they have connected. The sum of these connections is a cheerless, vaguely annoying conclusion. It […]