Protected: The day we found out

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DAD | 1945 – 2020

Coronavirus will always remain someone else’s problem until it becomes your own. On May 28, 2020, my seventy-four year old father succumbed to this invisible killer. To be fair, my father has had his share of other health complications – Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, subdural hematoma, and aspiration pneumonia. Coronavirus simply finished what his other diseases could …

The ‘Get out of your bubble’ challenge

Photography: http://www.arunmuthu.com | http://www.instagram.com/arunmuthuphoto

The bubbles we don’t see

Nature is the toughest enemy you’ll ever fight. We live in extraordinary times. The entire planet seems to be engaged in a single conversation about an invisible bug called Coronavirus that has claimed more than seventy-thousand lives in a matter of weeks. And we haven’t even seen the worst yet. This virus that’s making the …

Birth, death and everything in-between

I was having a fulfilling day. I woke up at eight in the morning after a night till two. The previous evening started off as a quick dinner between two good friends from college. But then, the evening progressed through exchange of playlists, interesting conversations, and frequent episodes of nostalgia filled with laughter. The morning …

Three stories of economic relativity

PART 2 No one really settles in without a 55-inch LG OLED TV. After several weeks of research, I had narrowed my eyes on LG C9, an incredibly well-designed TV, offering 55 inches of electronic love. I admired the slimness of it just as much as I salivated over the deep blacks. Price tag for …

The day your toilet paper runs out

All is well in Madras. And then there was a problem. We almost ran out of toilet paper. No extra rolls in the bathroom cabinet. None saved for emergency. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Let me remind you, we are in India, a country where toilet paper is not used for various reasons I won’t bother getting …

Servants

In India, servants and masters form strands of an inter-dependent and complicated social fabric. One simply cannot exist without the other. In the west, while race is a constant topic of discussion, In India, caste is that topic of discussion. People casually evoke caste to identify people and effortlessly discriminate. Class, however is never discussed. …

How much to separate? How much to commune?

[Context: My wife and I are living in my parents’ home in Madras – a beautiful house that is close enough, yet far enough from all the hustle bustle of maddening Madras. The house has two floors. On the ground floor, we have my parents bedroom, living room and kitchen. On the first floor, we …

Cushion Cover Discount

Bargaining in India is a complex, yet charming human interaction, filled to the brim with histrionics. My wife and I arrived at Royal Furnishings, a small store on a busy street in Adyar, Madras. All we wanted were ten cushion covers stitched. The following drama ensued. “Stitching plus material, 4500 ungalukka ga, Saar,” meaning “4500 …