Kallola

First posted in 2016. Does a fish catch cold? Can a Sun ray turn to gold? What if the sky turned green and stalks grew inside the bean? Where do all the colours go when the lights are out and candles blow? Who made the smile, ma? And why does it tickle so? How do you know my bruise will heal? Kiss it better, seal the deal. Why is a cuddle the best of all? When will the kitten call? Will the Sun always shine so bright so every misty morning turns out right? Tell me what is yet to come Let me in on the fun. My curious mind will always seek and keep me young and on a peak. My wings will always stand to fly down valleys lush, up endless sky. Because that's what you taught me, ma. To be, to live, to ever see. So my heart is warm and mind is free. Happy Childrens' Day :-)

Also published in The Better India With Diwali round the corner, asthamatics already wheezing at the mere thought of smoggy air, green warriors raising their heckles for a pollution-free festival and the Supreme Court of India also throwing in its weight for good measure, saying 'no' to fireworks is the best way forward. But if you simply cannot give it up, at least minimise the pollution this season creates. Here is a long-pending blog on how to enjoy the most famous and looked-forward to element of Diwali, in the greenest, safest and guilt-free manner possible.  Eco-friendly fireworks! Yes, they exist and are easily available too.  A grand, community fireworks display was  personally initiated five years ago in my residential community. E co-friendly fireworks were introduced and only non-toxic crackers were allowed for individual celebrations too. The response was great and has been followed by successive teams since then, every year.  Most important ...

A flood of relief from North Bangalore - Kodagu shall overcome.   PC: Annapoorna Kamath PC: Charmaine Kenita  PC: Uma Santhosh PC: DPS BN PC: MR Cariappa Over 2000 houses are lost, entire villages are wiped out, around 5000 acres of plantations stand destroyed and as many residents have been displaced in the rains, floods and landslides that have ravaged Kodagu over the past few days. While the hilly district reels under the aftermath of the worst natural disaster in the region since 1924, the situation has been expertly managed by volunteers on ground zero and around. They have made it their mission to provide maximum relief to the affected, and aid restoration efforts.  Though the government machinery has now kicked in, voluntary work remains indispensable. To support the heroes on ground, along with many others in the city and beyond, some citizen groups of North Bangalore have been an inseparable part of the ongoing re...

VS Naipaul departs, leaving a legacy that reflects, in its melange, wondrous worlds known and unknown, lived and untried, and explored and unmitigated by his readers. A writer who became a part of my journey through the pages he vicariously took me along in his early works of fiction, remains dear for those accounts. In those words of fiction, lay truths of lands and longings that gave his craft, credence. These hard truths, entwined with other assimilations of birth and descent, reflected worlds that fascinated and stoked the initiated and not, alike. I am in a quandry, though, with his commentaries. There is a lot of dark disdain and a disconnection typical to those who left before India became what it is today. A lot comes from obvious disappointments of lost lands and what was lost with them, and despair at what can be seen today - this seems true of the Trinidad and Tobago narrative as well. To have consistently moved away from his ethnic origins into more convenient id...

Also published  by  North BangalorePost  on June 29, 2018, in light of WHO declaring gaming a mental disorder . Two media reports on WHO including 'gaming disorder' in its International Roster of Disease , a school advisory and a massive hoarding for an online coaching course, got me thinking on my way back from school-drop.  My Son is high on the success of a social media campaign  and app which he believes has given him purpose in life. He is 16, runs his own not-for-profit website and does a lot of his homework on the laptop. But he is a kid at the same time and sneaks in the extra wandering in cyber space. He is far from addicted to any sort of gaming, but when on a digital high, he will not accept that his sudden bouts of unexplained irritability, fatigue or even a dull throb in his head could be related to prolonged screen-time . He will not consider, without a fight, that football on the field need not be followed up with team-trading o...

. Sari -telling be like... image source: www Wedding season is here and everyone is looking at the best sari buys. What is really heartening is the trend among younger and younger girls wanting to don the drape. They are spoilt for choice too, of course, as the sari ’s pedigree has gotten younger as well and more versatile to suit the eye that seeks it.  You want a Kanjeevaram but don’t want to carry its traditional weight in kilos? Ask for modern feather-light weaves and wish for a colour-block pallu too – the southern traditionalists won’t disappoint. Or, are you contemplating an ikkat with a touch of kantha on the pleats? The looms are already at work! Madhubani has long since found plush homes in tussar dreams as has jamdani  warmed to  gota-patti on edge. Strange though these story-boards may seem to the purist, it is the cocktail that walks the talk now. Your Parsi gara is impressive, sure, but is it a Tahiliani ? And that lace number yo...

  ~ It's the sari tude, girls! In my hunt for a fitting end to March, imagine my delight when today’s Google Doodle showed a sari-clad icon of mid-nineteenth century India! Well done Kashmira Sarode , for depicting an event of national honour from a time when women were not even allowed to be seen, let alone heard.  The first lady doctor of India, Anandibai Gopal Joshi , earned her degree in America, at a time when women everywhere in the world were discouraged from aspiring beyond domestic excellence. To then wrest not just an education, but a full-fledged medical degree and stand among accomplished men of the world, was nothing short of a miracle. To cap it, she did this while hailing from a conservative community where crossing the seas – for anyone, man or woman – was the greatest religious taboo.  Married at nine to a progressive man many years her senior, she learnt to read and write. The trauma of losing her 10-day old baby to scarce medical ca...

  Stand up for your sari ! Wedding bells are ringing for another pretty young cousin of mine and while we swooned and sighed over her beautifully coming-along trousseau, memories galloped to our numerous please-tie-my-sari  deliriums as we realised that even today, even after all these years of loving our lovely six yards and wearing them ever so often too, draping them well is quite another, rather arduous, tale.   image source: www The complications come in as numerously in  styles  as in technicalities. While the light and lush brocades of Benarasi looms prove too short for the taller Indian femmes born this side of the river, the modern extra-wide and heavy weaves of luxurious Kanjeevaram tend to add girth to the less leggy, at tuck-point. Add global warming to the equation and it's more than just ice you will need to combat the warmth of yarn and layer, be it an airy sheer or drier Chardonnay. But when it comes to fall, or the distance of...

image source: www Blue It’s been a while and 2018 begins with many contemplations on days gone by, moments lost and found, courses re-calibrated and a little Utopia that I know is hiding somewhere deep within spools of fleeting trepidation.  My wardrobe took me into such a contemplative space today when a forgotten bit of joy tumbled into my hands.  We can be such suckers for nostalgia, can’t we? And as a nostalgic Indian, I stepped right back in time on seeing my humble mulmul emboldened with aristocratic Indus histories of 5000 years ago. It’s hard not to reminisce less ancient hues of colonial Bengal , whose memories are as indelible as the dye that wrought them. It’s hard too, for an imperial heritage, not to reincarnate its stoic stance, despite divergences into denim diaries and other such, reminding us, while it reinvents itself, of our identities that stand their ground, proud in traditions that remain ever in vogue. The tireless sa...