The Ghost on the Boundary Wall I can still remember my first encounter with the fear of supernatural.  I was about 8 years old and my younger brother Sonu was 7.  We lived in Meghalaya – a really beautiful part of India, and this was long before civilisation really came to that part of the [...]

I have been writing ever since I could pencil two alphabets together … even though no one in my immediate family cares about what I pen.  Being the thick skinned tolerant person I am, I forgave ignored them and carried on nonetheless.  Two of my stories have actually been published in Creative Writing and Translation [...]

MS. BECHARI ME: Ever since she was born, she knew that the world was unfair to her.  So she has lived her entire life expecting the worst, and has never been disappointed.  Any thing good that has happened to her has been suppressed, and she keeps grumbling and weeping about the bad world and her [...]

First the disclaimer: I swear upon my honor to the entire blogosphere that I am not a man hater.  I will write about the different kinds of women that have made an impression on me soon.      MR. TOWEL PAKDANA :  This type was immortalized by Rani Mukherjee in HUM TUM.  He goes through [...]

I have a history with ditches … the bad kind.  When I was a kid, one of our neighbours grew a whole lot of baingan in her kitchen garden, and then distributed to harvest to all the families unlucky enough to live near her house (rather generously I might add!)  It did not go down [...]

“A Grandchild is every grandparent’s worst dreams of revenge come true in hope…” Erma Bombeck What I really want to have is the Iphone …. but I digress. My long term plan is to have tons of grandchildren … but it is something I have no control over. I mean, I have got Kid#1 married [...]

I am hopelessly addicted to the wonderful blog Calcutta Chromosomes for my daily dose of Bollywood. I am like this only heh – I need tadka, I need mirch masala and I need Bollywood. He has written about seeti bajao dialogues both male and female. It inspired me to list some which are my favorites. [...]

It was a long weekend, from Friday to Sunday. We should have actually chilled out at home, got on each others nerves, fought, made-up, but being us, we opted to go meet far flung relatives from one end of Delhi to the other. It was holiday and the only time for family bonding etc. Can [...]

I was reading the Indian Oil advertisement today which exhorts us to use fuel judiciously. “Dur Ki Soch” they implore. So I decided to think – I have lots of time – kya karoon, am on forced internet fasting because of various reasons. Heavy rains have caused water-logging on the roads After seeing the condition [...]

He was exactly 361 days younger than me. He was the apple of my mother’s eye. He was the SON in our typically Punjabi family, the heir, the prince. He was the person on whom I practiced my skills of bossing over hapless males. When we were little kids, he was the one who would [...]