Life As I Know It

Its very rare that one comes across people who continue to influence you even in their absence. Mukta Ajji is one such person. She was my neighbour, friend, confidante and also an excellent balm in my times of crisis. The first time i met her was when she was 94 years young. We hit it off really well. She asked me if we study poetry at school, and I said," Yes, we've just started with Lady Clare." The next instant she was reciting the whole poem, with the gusto of a teenager. She had an excellent memory, she could recite Milton and Shakespeare verbatim. Her enthusiasm in literature was infectious, she got me hooked on to classics. When i came home from school i used to stop at her place, we'd read together and i'd tell her the latest from my class. We could talk for hours and it never really mattered that she was so old. At her age she used to walk without any aid, she wouldn't hunch, and she lived all alone. We decided that when it came to books i would lend...

I love animals and dogs rank first in my list of favourite animals. They have an affinity towards me which is reciprocated. I don't remember any time in my childhood that has gone by without me having made a canine friend. First there was Mary a stray who became our guard dog. All we did was feed her and pet her, she in turn guarded the house and accompanied my brother and me when ever we were out playing. She always used to lookout for us. She looked like a white lab crossed with a stray. An extremely well mannered dog. When she had her first litter, we were the only kids privileged to play with them when they were merely days old. Her pups bonded with us in no time. But since she was a stray we didn't have any say over her pups. People came and took the male pups. The remaining pups... well they met with tragic ends. I don't really want to get into details about that. But there were two puppies named Kappi ( because she looked and behaved like a monkey) and Thufan (...

XI and XII standard are probably the most defining years of ones life. You start taking responsibility for yourself. You take the reins in your hand and start planning your future. In my case, I was not sure about what I wanted. When people asked me what I wanted to do, I'd say law, journalism or veterinary sciences. But when my classmates were asked the same each one had one option. There were a few who even knew which college they wanted. There was this one guy who'd charted out his future, he knew what he wanted to study, he knew when he'd marry and when he'd have children, he had his whole life planned and ready for execution. So out of the 35 students in my class, I was living on the ideology of "life is a box of chocolates you never know which one you are going to get". Planning wasn't an option for me, I just decided that time will decide the road I'd take. When my friends were busy gearing up for IIT / JEE I was learning new expletives...

I read Kiran Desai's "Inheritance of Loss". All i wanted to do after reading the book was to flush it down the toilet. The woman seems to have a knack for describing toilets and has emphasised on the many ways of doing tatti! The book has no story. It's filled with characters, all of whom are pretentious. None of the characters in her book have a spine. Mind you this is a book that's supposed to take you through a cultural journey.What i despised most was the fact that she described all her characters as weak. She hasn't given justifications of their behaviour. She goes on to be descriptive in certain parts of the book, to maybe shock the readers into reading further. When i was nearing the end of the book i had lost all expectations( to say the least). When i actually was done reading the last page, all i could say was,"what a waste of time and energy gone in writing this SHIT!" I was forewarned about the book. Yet i HAD to read it to know how bad ...