My Little Log Book

I was walking home from school Running along, skipping along Playing hide and seek In the deep jungle trails Loving their many secrets Chasing the dappled shadows The bag on my shoulders My meagre notes and books Forgotten in my wonder world A smile on my lips As I went hush hush after a squirrel ...Stepping on a twig Was the noise very loud? What did I hear? Was that more twigs breaking? Foolishly, still unconcerned As I spy the squirrel again, But not for long... They creep up Trample the mossy bed Chase away the sun's rays And give a howl of laughter So I know they are near With no place to go, No place to hide Have you seen hyenas Hunting sniffing playing with their prey I am the prey The bloody boots finally leave With my smile... hunger satiated Over my trodden bag, broken body That was not the end My halting story uttered Hunted, haunted, deserted My tale twisted, my virginity plundered Many times over I was a pariah, thrown...

I don't think any subject can aspire to be as aspiring or as all comprehensive as architecture. People think architects only learn to make plans. No. They are taught to have an eye for colour, rhythm, pattern, taught distinctive styles ranging from the medieval to modern, taught climatic conditions and what type of built environment suits each one, taught about materials, old and new, learn about construction and structural techniques ranging from stone, bricks, steel, concrete to present day  new age materials. History, sociology, botany, a bit of geology all form a part of what they need to know. Truly, botany? Right! They need to understand plants and know which types provides what kind of shade and goes with which type of environment! Plus obviously they learn drawing plans, elevations, sections to represent all that they know. Wait. They don't just sit at a computer and start drawing plans. They spend a couple of years practising drafting on a drawing board. Then th...

Of Many Colours I wore blue today. Royal Blue That is how I feel when I step out under the winter sky Bluebells on the hedges, blue bougainvilleas with their fluttering dry paper leaves Ice cold blue with blue bangles You had better keep your distance from me So they don’t offend you, my blue veins that stand out Getting up in the morning, taking my bath at dawn Washing those left over dishes And drying those cold clothes I wore blue today To feel the glitter in my blue eyes, for I am tired of feeling grey Is pink my colour? It gives the colour to my cheeks When my husband brings me a gift But more often when my in laws point out my mistakes I can hide under my pink lips, bangles and ribbons The blushes turn to anger soon Again that is pink and can be kept under wraps Like my pink dupatta which hid my embarrassment From the repulsive maulings Of a revered teacher or a co-passenger or a kin So I wear a brighter pink To hide behind...

(With due apologies to the real poets out there!) When hormones and BPs make a call Does friendship go for a stroll?  Kitty parties, kids and kitchen Maids, puppies, homework and men Tie it up with anniversaries and weddings Bdays, golf parties, work parties and promotions Parents, arthritis, doctors checkups Boss, deadlines, budget and the alumni curse Aunts uncles getting old As we struggle to make time for them Those childhood memories get slowly lost GTs, selfies, whatsapp, games though manage to rule the frame We still manage to survive the day With a smile, attitude and reserve at play Where Everyday is a new day and and Every pic has a new Wrinkle Those are not worry lines but smile lines  No anti wrinkle cream is erasing the experience No doc making us live forever When finally the mood swings stop and Life settles Remember we will be too old to play So let's enjoy the egos and squabbles And let those thyroid, ...

IPL at Vizag I have always loved my cricket, so it was a pleasant surprise when my husband asked me to accompany him to a cricket match at Vizag. I have been unaware of the IPL goings on for the past couple of years. I don't really remember the reason the interest just petered off. Was it when Chennai found itself at the centre of the betting scandal? I guess so. I mean when the Champion team's owner's relative was found out being immersed with unsavoury characters with proven involvement in betting scandals and the same owner owns Indian cricket and the captain of the team also captains the country...the relationship between all of Indian cricket and the betting industry and IPL becomes kind of incestuous. Anyways that's a separate story from my IPL watching yesterday! So, cut off as I was from the game I didn't know what to expect. But to my immense pleasure I found two heroes at the ground at Vizag! And one of them, my all time favorite in cricket, Rahul...

Aa Ka Ma Boi, Paana Gua Thoi, Paana Gua Toro, Masaka Dharama Moro This incantation reverberates on the banks of River Mahanadi on the day of Kartik Purnima as thousands of people descend to the banks to sail paper, straw and bamboo boats celebrating the history of Bali Jatra. The sailing of boats heralds Odisha biggest festival after Rath Yatra - the Bali Yatra at Cuttack. At the turn of the last millennium, Odisha, or Kalinga as it was known then, was a major sea faring nation and controlled many of the sea routes for trading in South East Asia. Its influence spread far and wide, from Sri Lanka to the Malay peninsula, Bali, Sumatra, Cambodia. One can still witness the many similarites of culture and architecture in Bali and Cambodia with Kalinga. One spectacular result of this confluence of cultures is the World-renowned Angkor Wat temple at Cambodia. A model of Angkor Wat in Cambodia As one gets off a bus and looks onto the grand Angkor Wat temple near Siam Rep in C...

Flurys Park Street Kolkata Some things in life never change. Like a Sunday morning on Park Street. There maybe an entirely different Government at the Centre. The country's political and social landscape may have changed beyond recognition in the past decade. I might be older(and wiser?) by a decade. More importantly there maybe an entirely different Government in Kolkata with the leftist flavor gone perhaps for ever...but Kolkata in many ways fortunately remains the same! CLosed Park Street shops A stroll on Park Street looking for a hair parlour and reviving old memories made me realise how much had gone by in the last 9 years but one could get no inkling of it here! The roads were a virtual empty stretch. In Kolkata's premium shopping and businss district it has been a source of constant amazement to me how it can sleep so utterly on Sunday mornings. No cabs, no lining up at exclusive shops, little pedestrian traffic, no jay walking or hustling to flag down a cab...