A Bowl of Elusive

Back in 2013, my uncle used to rant about how, if BJP comes to power, democracy would be in danger. He would cite the Gujrat riots of 2002 as an example - he would say that Narendra Modi got away with mass murder by being in power and he would do the same once he was in power at the center. I was twenty-three years old then and didn't understand my uncle's panic. BJP had been in power earlier as well, during Sri Atal Vihari Bajpayee ji's term as Prime Minister - things weren't that bad. People were not happy with them and voted them out in 2004 - so democracy was still there. So I laughed it off thinking my uncle was being paranoid. I believed that my country was made of sterner stuff - a party with a communal agenda could not possibly change the fact that this country was a land where various religions lived in harmony. Boy, was I wrong! BJP came to power in 2014. Soon, the media started pushing their agenda like anything. People started openly expressing anti-NonHindu...

Up until last year, we had employed a cook, whose cooking left a lot to desire. So we ended up ordering a lot of food from restaurants as we were unhappy with the food she cooked. After a while, we compared the expenses and decided it would be better if we let the cook go and ate outside or toggled cooking ourselves and eating out. So we gave her a month's notice and then I started cooking for two. Now my approach to cooking is simple - I follow recipes, which means I like things the way they should be. For instance, if I am making noodles, my carrots would be cut into super-fine juliennes and that is a time-consuming process of cooking. My wife insists that she would be happy with a lot less and maybe she would be, but I just can't get myself to compromise on my process.  It usually takes me whole afternoons to cook these meals - it's a lot of work, but I love it when a meal turns out well. I don't make very fancy stuff, just usual Indian dishes but the way they are tr...

Of all the futile exercises I indulge in periodically, this one is my favorite: I try to map the points in time, where I could go back – with my current knowledge of how things eventually turned out, and do things differently, and see how my life is affected by it. Clearly, I don’t think my life turned out all that well. I know being content with one’s reality is aspirational, but it has never been something I flourished at. So every other day, I think about which pivotal point in time I could go back to and change something so that I would be in a different place in life. So far, I haven’t been able to find that one point that could set everything on the right course. Let me illustrate my point with a few examples. Back in seventh grade, I moved to a posh new school and when formulas and molecule balancing were being taught, I didn’t understand the concept – this ensured that I would never get a hang of chemistry and kept living in terror of the chemistry exams till twelfth grade, aft...

  हर कोई अपने love story को ultimate और epic समझता है Breakup का शायद यही side effect है। पर कौन बताए इस आशिक़ को, कौन समझाए ये बात, की काफी humdrum , run of the mill कहानी थी तुम्हारी। ना love at first sight था, ना कोई आसमानी connection , बस दो टूटे हुए शख्स मिले थे एक दूसरे का सहारा बनने को।   जितने मौसम साथ गुज़ारे, थे बड़े ही यादगार, वो milkshake वाली शामे, वो कहानियों से भरी दोपहरियाँ, वो रातों को छुप छुप कर landline से किए हुए calls , वो पहला kiss , वो पहला scented un - named love letter , और वो future वाले plans जो बना रहे थे हम दो बेवकूफ future से अनजान।   दोष किताबों का है साहब, Iliad और Odyssey पढ़ते पढ़ते, हम भी सोचने लगे की story epic है हमारी, हमने भी बचपन में गरीबी देखी है और दुख भी, Rags to riches हमारी कहानी को भी बोल सकते हो। इस गलतफहमी के साथ अपने life  को approach करते रहे, पर वो छूटा तो पहली बार एहसास हुआ की शायद इतना special भी कुछ था नहीं। ना ही हमारे प्यार में और ना हमारे ज़िंदगी में।   दोष फिल्मों...

What’s your purpose in life? That is such a loaded question, isn’t it? I am thirty-two years old, going to be thirty-three in a few months and I sure as hell don’t know my purpose. I remember a few years ago, when asked what I truly desired, I would say, “a tension-free life, where I didn’t have a stressful job, with tyrannical bosses and upcoming deadlines breathing down my neck all the time”, and yet, today when I have it, life is still stressful, albeit for different reasons. My wife, who is way smarter than I am, told me that your purpose should be different than your desire or your ambition. For her, it’s service – to children & humanity. Her purpose is a noble one and I wish I could say I had the same. That got me thinking – does your upbringing shape your purpose? My wife was raised in a devout Christian household, where the concept of church and community was instilled in her early on. But was that the sole reason for her having such an honor-worthy purpose in life? Probabl...

How many of you thought you'd become an astronaut when you grew up? How many of you thought you'd become a spy like James Bond? How many of you thought that because you did something better than others this one time in school, meant you were special? How many of you felt like you were born to do great things? I am sure, all of you. And how many of you are doing great things? Some of you? Many of you are earning well, have great families, and have something to live for, but is that the greatness you envisioned growing up? Probably not, right? All of us as children have this wonder for life, this excitement for the things to come. And as we grow up, most of us, lose this excitement. My uncle used to tell me that our creativity comes from this excitement - this wonder - the same excitement that gives children the ability to appreciate animated movies. This wonder, this penchant to believe in miracles, drives a lot of children. As they grow up, they are faced with one disillusionme...

"Why are you on T****r?" Mirza asked himself. The dating/hookup app had brought him nothing but pain and heartbreak in the past and he had sworn off it. Yet, reading one of those sarcastic answers on Quora to the question, "What was your experience with T****r in India?", Mirza felt this need to explore the app one last time. He was visiting a small town for a project and by installing the app, he was scratching an itch more than anything else. Like always, he didn't expect to match with anyone, especially since the nearest girl showing up on the app was from forty kilometers away, which meant from the neighboring more prosperous district. Yet, like millions of men before him, he swiped away till he ran out of profiles to swipe on. The app suggested that he should relax the parameters he had set for potential matches - Age: 28 to 37 & Range: Within 40 km. "Why not!" Mirza exclaimed to himself and dragged the bars to make the age range - 18 to 99 an...