Broken Bangles: Travel, Stories, Thoughts

(Image source: pixabay.com)   The man asked the woman, “Would you like to have one more coffee with me?”  They met in a cafe, he was immersed in a book, and she wanted a coffee dearly after losing her job.  “The manager was always hostile to me,” she thought.  Looks had crossed between them by chance and both had smiled for no reason, across the scent of coffee, filling the place. The smiles traced a flickering path for their eyes in the fragrant air. That was when she moved to his table.  “Which book are you reading?” she asked.  He showed her the cover. It was the autobiography of an actor. He was on the last few pages. “What did you learn from this book?” she asked. “There is nothing to learn. I just lived his life for a few hours. Books let you live other people's lives,” said the man. “The lives are numerous as books are. All these stories are about how we falter in life. Maybe these books would help you pick which way to falter,” laughed she. He knew ...

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons) Ancient Egypt had the undisputed and exclusive legacy of the entire Africa till it fell under the colossus of Empire, and became colonies. Not only did the power tilt, but a culture was almost erased. A ton of sand upon a magnificent bust in marble.  From it, emerged the nation states- Egypt, a weak shadow of its ancient counterpart, and Ethiopia and Sudan- like impoverished cousins from the lineage of mighty patriarchs.  Iran went through a similar fate. The formidable Persia, one of the largest Empires in human history, transformed into economically weak Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Greece, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and even Egypt. Persia had surpassed Egypt in empire-building by swallowing Egypt too. Yet, the colony era humbled them and rid them of many parts of a proud heritage. Stripped and paraded before an alien tribe. Looted and ground to earth beneath its crusading feet.    Persia, though non-existent, survives ...

Image: Zauther, deviantart.com The women around me whom I first met as girls. They were brave and full of positivity. They were so much into beauty and the future. I even envied them. My parents had strong ideologies and limited aspirations. These girls seemed to be free from such overpowering paradigms. All these women, except a few, excelled in education. They got jobs and married. Their education and jobs ranked high in the marriage choices they were offered. During the first few years, the star-eyed couples went on vacations, built houses and had kids filling their homes with laughter.  Then they settled down like coffee shreds in a pot. The clear coffee poured from the pot but they did not.  The light went drab in their eyes. Their shoulders sagged and their gait changed.  Somewhere on the road they took, they entered a contract to serve the dystopia, family.     I see them withering away. They became obese, eating all the leftovers from the meals...

Photo source: geograph.org.uk   When do you go for a walk? To welcome a new morning and inhale its charming minutiae, to clear your mind, or to stroll down avenues of calm and buzz with your friends, chatting lightly about you, them, and life? What is the one constant in all the above? The footpath.   Footpaths have a fascinating way of reminding us who we are. So many have come before us and walked the same paths. Their footfall created the physicality of those natural footpaths, the trails we walk. I know this is a stereotyped metaphor - walking the paths of our predecessors and ancients. This brief note anyway does not mean to have any such philosophical gravitas. This is just about the footpaths.   Yet, footpaths, especially the naturally evolved ones, always summon up thoughts of the very many people who would have walked the same path. A heavy pedestrian flow is mirrored in the wear and tear of these narrow lanes. Unlike tarred or concrete roads, they are mostly att...

photo source: flickr.com   Is the gap between one living generation and another increasing? I pondered this question as I entered another bright morning with a steaming tea cup on my study table. The occasion was curious. My parents were surprised that one of my niece's favourite pop singers won an Oscar. The cause of this surprise was simple. They never took their granddaughter’s music tastes seriously.  Ours is a South Indian family with a cultivated ear for Carnatic classical music. For us, all this new hype about Korean Pop and God knows what else was parvenu arrogance. Yet, our children constantly listen to this genre of music, full volume, all day.  My parents’ wide-eyed amazement kept me thinking. As each generation progresses into the next, is the generation gap widening?  Technology could be at the core, the abyss, of this gap. From mobile phones onwards, the older generation lost it. They use their mobile phones only to make calls, take photos, check What...

photo source: publicdomainpictures.net Daughter A young woman living with her parents was quite fond of dogs. She had seven. One night, they began barking in a thunderous clamour. The young woman looked out of the window to see what was happening. She heard her aged father opening the window to the courtyard and scolding the dogs for the noise. She could still hear the song her mother was listening to on her smartphone. It was a birthday gift that Mother got on her 70th birthday. "How long will I have the company of my ageing parents?", she wondered. God forbid, if they die soon, she would leave the house, she thought; then altogether regretting that thought, she tried to forget the sensation of loneliness that the thought evoked. The dogs were barking, all seven of them. The three puppies were mildly bored and lowered the pandemonium a little. She knew them distinctly from their barks. The older bitch, the leader of the pack, had a fierce bark that resonated across the court...

photo source: pixabay.com Is Mother Nature, Really a Mother? The term, Mother Nature, that we often use, is misleading and quite the opposite of what nature, really is.  True, Mother Nature nurtures us all. But quite so does the sun, and the planetary system too.  Without the exact intensity of sunlight- not less, not more- the sun casts on Earth, would we be able to survive? Without the precise gravity that the cosmic universe places us in, we would not have walked upright but have crawled.  Is Mother Nature as benign and benevolent as she is supposed to be? Here is a story, an incident, that will shine some light upon her hidden, ugly, face.  In 2005, renowned German filmmaker, Werner Herzog, produced the documentary film, ‘Grizzly Man’.  This film is about a man, a Grizzly Bear aficionado, Timothy Treadwell, who passionately followed the life of these bears for decades and documented them.  Herzog was asked to make a film on him as he was handed over the...