It is Durga Pujo time, and despite social distancing norms and mask adoption rules, it is impossible to curb the enthusiasm of Kolkata residents. Pandal hopping and shopping is their raison d’etre. For me, a non-native in this City of Joy, Dussehra – like any other festival – is less about rituals and more aboutContinue reading “My Sweet Discontents in Festive Times”
Category Archives: Essay
The Company We Keep
Kumar was a well-recognized worker in his organisation – diligent, honest, and well-organized. He was transferred to a new location where he moved into a rented dwelling with Satish, a fellow worker. Satish, though hard-working, was always complaining about people and situations. A few months into co-residency, Kumar became irritable and distrustful. Still performing atContinue reading “The Company We Keep”
Why me?
In the past few months, as Corona pandemic engulfed our worlds, some of us may be left asking this very question. Looking at them and their lives and based on our relationship with them (and this ‘them’ can be ‘us’), we can respond in different ways, and we may also find ourselves struggling to keepContinue reading “Why me?”
What is talking to you today?
Oink..oink…oink…thud…thud…wooooo…so went my washing machine’s drier as it halted with a loadful of wonderfully smelling, clean and dry laundry. It was last year. I reckoned it was WM’s (washing machine) way of telling me that it is past its prime, and needs to be retired. I went to a shop that week looking for aContinue reading “What is talking to you today?”
You Cannot Tell from the Show
The pandemic refuses to die. The excruciatingly slow growth of coriander I planted weeks ago, parallels the fear and loath with which people are dragging themselves, out of the safety of their homes, to work. My spinach, similarly, seems to be in perpetual quarantine. “See how they are refusing to grow… I am confused betweenContinue reading “You Cannot Tell from the Show”
To Do or Not To Do
“Our job will be in danger, now”, a colleague quipped jokingly, as I shared about my joining a training program that sought to impart skills in a function which is not my core role, but will come in handy for strategic oversight. After a day of training and work-in-office, I pondered – I have noContinue reading “To Do or Not To Do”
Of Creatures and Emotions
As I reached out to squash a tiny-teeny ant that had clung and stung my foot on a rainy day, thoughts ranging from the right-to-life to the right-over-life created a watershed and left me high and dry. What right do I have over an ant, to decide when it has lived its full life andContinue reading “Of Creatures and Emotions”
The Gift of Competitive Release
I must have read about it during my college years, but it took an article on cancer cells by Dilip D’Souza for me to stumble (again) upon the concept of Competitive Release. Competitive release is said to occur when one of two species competing for the same resource, disappears. This allows the remaining competitor toContinue reading “The Gift of Competitive Release”
What is this time
In my over four and a half decades of existence on this beautiful and blessed planet, never have I experienced as much uncertainty around as during the COVID-19 era. Lock or unlock, mask or unmask, travel or not, shop or not, meet or not, greet or not, eat or not, share or not, have allContinue reading “What is this time”
Shubhachintan 