The Gut-feeling

Cooking is one day feeling like you are a magician and the other day, wishing you had Alladin's genie. I can't make out which days win. But on my genie days, it's mostly because of Rishi that I force myself to make something meaningful. He makes no bones about his displeasure when the food is bad but he's a boy of few words when it's upto his taste. But nowadays I get to know...if he wants to leave the table and sit with the plate on the sofa with the TV on, that means he's loving the food.

Rishi's birthday today. We called his friends home and cut the cake for the first time...In his early years he wasn't very sociable. Later on, it mostly happened that the birthday fell in Dasara holidays so there wasn't enough number to call and celebrate. Today he was happy, eagerly waiting for his huge list of friends in the building to arrive and they did, in their usual style. I like to see them together in such parties mostly because they break my stereotypical notion that urban kids are not having enough fun. They may not be climbing trees, roaming in wilderness and eating the now near-extinct fruits but they are happy too. Their boisterous laughs in the corridor wake us up from our afternoon naps but they also make me smile and feel better.

Worldly Thoughts

What should you feel when someone you disliked passes away? Not despised but disliked very much...

I'm not feeling much really. I didn't have many reasons to dislike him except for one unhappy brush and a Facebook friend request but I was already prejudiced against him anyway....It's just that he was our colleague till precisely three weeks ago and then he was asked to go and the whole of office was discussing it for a week and then in ten days the person is totally gone. Again the office is talking about him and people are unsure who to blame for his death.

My husband, who had more genuine reasons to be unhappy about him, is feeling guilty that he harbored unsavory thoughts sometimes. Whatever, the next thing he did was to call up his own elder brother who he has been angry with for some time.

The Young Voice

6 year-old's advice to her mother who cribs about going to office - "Be happy that they don't say you have to be in the office by 8:30! We don't have that luxury!". I heed it.

Feeling Lucky

I think we are fortunate to be living at a time where the rulers are very passionately patriotic. They expect their subjects to stand up for national anthem with pride in their hearts even while they are being beaten to death.

Trying to Mingle

There was a birthday party on our floor on Saturday. Ours is an apartment with lots of children so I'm glad to get rid of mine for a couple of hours anyday. But this time the mother came and insisted that we all come for dinner so after some consideration P and I went. It was awkward in the beginning because I was meeting most ladies on my floor itself after a long time but they readily accepted my excuse of the lift being very next to my house(nobody is missing me, I know). I'm in awe of people who can organise such parties and get dressed up as suited to the occasion and still not at all look hassled. I'm always suspicious that my Bohemian(better word for undisciplined)  lifestyle would leave them shocked and confine myself to the role of a listener and come back vaguely happy that I've fulfilled an obligation successfully. But yeah, I do like some of the ladies genuinely.

By the way, Rajani's daughter's birthday party was last month and I had to decline her invitation politely but firmly. Her parents were here and all our common friends were invited but I knew there was no way I could go, even alone. So I told her a mix of half-truth and half-lies and I don't know if she figured it. Sometimes one's got to choose wisely, right? Even a dog learns after being whipped for the same mistake twice. 

The GOAT World

Every time Federer or Nadal win a grand slam, there is a clamor to immediately to declare one of them the greatest, which is simply disappointing. They are such terrific players that all I want them to do is go on playing the way they are or were. Why this obsession to have a single greatest player in any sport? Why should we keep looking for crystal balls to see the most beautiful? Or the richest or the most powerful? Just enjoy the differences, no?

Accommodating

Why should I feel bad if a 26 year-old says he's a loner and doesn't have friends? He may be happy the way he is!

I think the Centre messed up trying to paint the Rohingya refugees as potential terrorists. That said, I believe we should not be taking any more refugees either, simply because we do not have the wherewithal to provide them with a decent life. If there are thousands of people already living in refugee camps for the last ten years, what does that say? And on top of that if there is a government which wants to generalize them as bad guys, Myanmar story may repeat here anytime.