Random Musings

I am back at the window again today with my coffee and I see the group has come to start their day's work. Last week, I had seen them for the first time. What drew me to the window was their noisy arrival in a rickety old vehicle in our quiet neighborhood.  There was a general buzz around the colony as they quickly offloaded the small truck carrying an array of iron poles and other assorted construction material.  Even before I've finished my coffee, the ladies in the group have effortlessly donned shirts over their sarees, giving the much used fashion term Fusion a new meaning. For all the noise on the TV news "shows" about women's empowerment these women have been walking and working alongside the men and are the backbone of most construction sites I have seen. The two young children accompanying them have now developed a routine in the neighborhood without much fuss. The older one has taken charge of the girl who's just a toddler. The mother, I presume, giv...

A year ends and a year begins.  And that is how 'Time cooks all beings in its cauldron' (Mahabharata).  2020 is not a year that any one of us is likely to forget in a hurry...or even, forget at all for that matter.  For most of us, time and age blur and blend many years into vague memories.  We sometimes remember years gone-by only because of special events, milestone celebrations or heartbreaking losses. For the most part, the days just seamlessly flow into weeks, months and years and that is how it was till now.  But the year 2020 made us all pause in our tracks, re-evaluate, re-centre, re-learn and re-focus. In all that was happening, the year also held a mirror and revealed a bit about ourselves. What we saw was not always what we wanted to but we did learn a thing or two about ourselves which otherwise would have gone unobserved and unexamined in the flurry of activities that dominates our lives.  We began 2020 with a lot of plans and as the year unfol...

Christmas time has that magical ring to it, which even the most cynical or practical of us, have to succumb to.  Especially with kids around, Christmas has that added zest and fervor.  A season of Santa letters and Santa gifts, the spell seems to be cast everywhere. I remember how a few years back, my daughter, just a toddler those days would whisper into my ear, what she would like from Santa that year.  We would sit down with colored pencils, paper and assorted stationery and try and get the letter to Santa right.  The letter always had to start with a “Hi, how are you?... and what did you do the last one year?”  It also included the highlights of what she did the whole of last year (which usually didn’t get past the one week or so…), how good she has been, and how she wanted a doll, just like that one she saw in a shop nearby or a pencil-box like the one her friend had… The innocence of those words, the mischievous note in her tone when she would pester me to...

 I hear his voice again today, after what seems like an eternity. He has an unmistakable, distinct voice. The kind that is hard to miss and impossible to forget. I find myself smiling and I feel lighter in the heart and head. His voice seems to herald a new beginning,  a fresh start.   I remember hearing his voice more than a year back when  we moved to this community,  calling out from the street and announcing his arrival.  It was a typically, hot and humid Indian summer day with an almost cruel Sun bearing down on the black tar roads. In the midst of such a blistering day, his call cut across in a lilting tone reaching an almost musical crescendo. When I first heard it,  I thought it was a child's voice. There was something very childlike and enthusiastic in the voice that carried across the community. When I waved my hand from the third floor to indicate for him to come up, I realized he was a much older gentleman. When he rang the doorbell an...