Life As I Know It

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy, caught in a landslide, no escape from reality… this pretty much sums up the life of the privileged during this pandemic. Those of us who are home, staying safe and social distancing and at the same time enjoying the benefits of life as we were even otherwise are yet complaining about wanting to go out   when there are families that would rather stay home but have no other option but be physically present at their work place. Can’t go to the movies? No problem, watch latest releases across streaming platforms on the tv. Worked too hard and want to blow of steam? Binge watch. Basically, the quarantine has guaranteed us one thing, that is to enjoy watching movies in the confines and comfort of our homes. Here we may hoot to our hearts content, pause when we need a loo break, rewind a scene we want to re-watch, fast forward if the story is boring but my favourite is to go back and watch bits that I liked. When Bohemian Rhapsody ha...

Love Yourself - Tear Nae pi ttam neumul nae majima chemul… not singing ? Not even humming? Human! have you been living under a rock? Alright, let me just tell you a small story: Once upon a time not so long ago in a land not so far away from India, say about 5 years back, 7 lads debuted under the BigHit banner with their first ever song. Little did they know that they would be sky rocketing to fame and zipping around the planet like a force that helps keep the world moving. Still nothing rings a bell? Okay they beat Justin Bieber at the BBMA’s last year by winning the Social Artist Award( Which FYI JB had previously won for 5 consecutive years!) . You surely would’ve heard of that? No? Well then let me tell you a little something about these fabulous boys: Kim Seokjin ( Jin) , Min Yoongi( Suga) , Kim Namjoon( RM) , Jung Hoseok( J-Hope) , Park Jimin( Mochi*) , Kim Taehyung( V) , Jeon Jungkook( Golden Maknae**). These boys have done an amazing job of singing songs that are relevant to e...

ILLUSTRATION BY RAUL ARIAS I am a huge fan of acapella. I started liking it after Glee came on T.V. I hadn’t quite realised how much I like music and how much I enjoy watching shows that tell a story with a song until I started writing this post and all my favourite musicals started popping in my head and I realised I am a hard-core Bollywood movie lover! Songs by the Glee cast isn’t really acapella but Will Schuster introduced acapella with the third episode of Glee, which featured the ‘Acafellas’. By the time I was immersed in my love for acapella, Pitch Perfect hit the screens. The movie might not really have been the greatest where the story line was concerned but we can’t deny that the movie finally made people stop and take Acapella seriously. I have prepared a really small list of some really cool acapella groove rs : Stand by me by Ben. E. King, performed by  Rockapella At Number 5 is Rockapella which had been around since 1986! How did I chance upon them? Though the group...

The world ushered the New Year on the 1 st of January. The Chinese, Japanese and Koreans ushered the year of the Rooster on the 28 th of January. On 29 th January, Roger Federer bagged his 18 th title. Two months into the year of the rooster and us Konkans are celebrating Gudi Padwa :) What’s my point you ask? Well, the new year is still a new year. The financial new year begins on the 1 st of April. 14 th of April the Tamilians will celebrate Puthandu and the Malayalis will celebrate Vishu. Basically each state in our country will keep celebrating the New year till it actually becomes an old year which is towards November after which zero thoughts are given to the year. This day, in 2009 I wrote a post on this very topic and I said I would count the number of times we celebrate the “New Year” and I conveniently forgot about it and returned to google today only to find that Wikipedia got there first . I guess that makes my work easy huh? 8 years back we were ...

I previously wrote about people whom I met after joining the profession. My clients have been my senior’s clients for a long time and hence when I was handed their cases they became my clients till such time as I was handling their cases. These were people I met after I joined work. They didn’t know me I didn’t know them. Hence it was interesting to get to know each one. Even though the process wasn’t always fun. This post is dedicated to my friends/classmates who are my clients. Back when everyone was prepping for IIT/JEE I was in my own corner making plans to become a lawyer. There was one incident (in 10 th or 11 th) when I  stood on my bench and told my classmates that one day they would need a  lawyer and that day they would think of me. Who would’ve thought that those words would ever come true? (I thunk eet ufkorse I thunk eet.) While my classmates went on to engineering college I went to Law college. I have a lot of rules where people are concerned. F...

I am so confused right now. I may be having an existential crisis. Part of me wants to open the door and run and continue running till I drop dead. The other part is telling me to take a second look around me, “My Life isn’t THAT bad.” I can still salvage my life. If I give it a hard look, I’ll know where to begin.                                                      Current Mood! Song for the asking: Help!

My niece has been reading my blog and was offended that I hadn’t mentioned her existence on my blog. She sent me a count of the number of times I have mentioned other family members. So yeah… I have a niece. Woohoo! (I don’t like mentioning my family too much because I invariably get into trouble. I mean what is the point of screaming free speech when your own family won’t allow it?) I became an auntie even before I hit my teens which is why I find it really difficult being an aunt when our age gap is so less. I find that my nephews and niece relate better to me because they have the freedom to discuss anything under the sun with me and they know I actually keep their secrets which makes me the fun aunt who is never called auntie and that in itself is a big win. My niece was on an internet lockdown which meant she had to adapt to means of entertaining herself the way I did way back in the dark ages when we didn’t know how far the internet would go and was just becoming the public’...

I spent most of my teenage years and early twenties being a very angry person. Most of it had to do with always letting academics take the driver’s seat with parents riding shotgun, my swimming days and dreams taking the back seat. Where was I? Riding on top of the car? No. I was chasing the car. In retrospect I realise, I had no options but to chase the car. I could have stood rooted to the spot, or just walked away. Alas, everything of importance to my life was in the car. So, I ran after it like a mad child trying to catch up with it. I couldn’t see anything around me just the bloody car that I was chasing after. I eventually caught up with it. The first thing I did was get academics out of the way so that I was in control of the car. I was steering it in the direction I wanted to go. When I looked in the rear-view mirror the dreams looked different. I don’t know when swimming got off the car. There was an empty seat at the back. All I want to do now is drive to the coast. Let my...

Being a lawyer is fun in most parts but on some occasions it can do to your mind what prisoners feel in solitary confinement. I enjoy the work that I do because when I started I had the option of choosing what cases I wanted to concentrate on. Once you get into litigation it is good to gain exposure in all branches – criminal, civil, personal laws, banking, corporate litigation you name it and just dip your finger tips and toes in it. When I started practice I made just one request to my senior – To not assign any family court cases to me. I can’t go near family court cases because I believed that I was jinxed when it came to those cases. He phoo-phooed me and the very first solo case that I drafted and filed in my life was a divorce case. Let me just say that the case never saw the inside of a court hall. The incident only made my resolve stronger to never ever handle a family case again. In college I had spent most of my 8 th and 9 th semester in family court helping in th...

Yes, I am referring to A. J. Cronin’s book in this post. I had just finished 7 th standard and during the summer vacations before I started 8 th standard was the year I was permitted to choose my own books at the library. This was the first book I picked. I don’t remember the story now. I remember it vaguely but this book had an impact on my heart. When I say impact, I mean it stirred up emotions in me that I didn’t even know existed. The feeling was so turbulent. Just remembering how the story pans out and how it unfolds churns rage, love and pure shock at the action of the characters in the book. It is a beautiful book. I read Shannon’s way, Citadel (The Book that inspired the Dev Ananad Starer - Tere mere sapne) and The Stars Look Down by him but nothing ever did to me what the Spanish Gardener did. That was the third book that made me cry. I am not going to tell you the story or introduce you to the characters because I’d be robbing you of the experience of reading the boo...