Arugudi

"मोहब्बत, चीज़ बड़ी ज़ालिम है, आज मेरी है, तो कल किसी और की सपने तो सारे काले ही है, न कोई रंग, न चमक उसकी गोर करो भाईलोग, आज यह सच मैं कहता हूं ये दुनियां ही सारी कमीनी है, न सपने है, न मोहब्बत उसकी।।" A huge applause with joyous shouts of "wah wah" followed these lines at the 'Sardar da dhaba', on the Chandigarh road, a little further away from Zirakpur towards Delhi. The audience comprised of tired truck drivers, sleepy cleaners, the over enthusiastic dhaba staff and simple nomadic travellers like Abi who were all waiting for their steaming hot parathas with extra makkan and their choice of the delicious punjabi gravy, 'thadka maarke'.  This newly formed local 'Mirza Ghalib' was a man in his late thirties, who clearly had had one too many of his desi daaru which was clearly visible from the number of empty glass bottles abondoned at the edge of his charpai. He resembled a hippy, with his baggy green pants carelessly tucked into his bulky b...

It was that time of the day when the cattle lazed back to their sheds after a good day of grazing. Smoke spiraled off the chimneys as the preparations for the evening feast was in full flow. The once tar roads filled with huge potholes had totally been transformed into newly built concrete ones, a novel remedy for low maintenance in rural areas. The hard working toddy tappers were busy at their work on top of the trees just like the rubber tappers emptying their tapping cups at the bottom. We were attending a reception in the coastal region of Karnataka which was evident with the sweat dripping off our faces. The stage was all set for an eventful evening of tradition, rituals, folklore and stories that Dakshina Kannada district is known for. Fully aware that I wasn't the first one to board the bus heading towards a wedding, this friend of mine had invited me to his wedding in a rather unique way. He had tactfully made a video covering the splendid view of his village with the gushi...

"Fredrick Douglas in his autobiography, ' Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, An American Slave''  says, "Knowledge is valuable because it is the key to freedom..." Centuries later, under very different circumstances, I would like to emphasise that one of the most reliable and key contributors to knowledge is experience ..." said the speaker in his long and eloquent speech. I was invited to the annual day of a prominent company in Bengaluru. It was a well organised function with beautifully decorated halls  studded with eminent personalities and top shelf wine to raise a toast. Almost picture perfect! It was that time of the day when the sun kissed the horizon for the second time and the tired faces showed the efforts being put in by the listeners to keep their eyes from shutting. "The more you explore, the more you learn. Never stop yourself from taking the next step as you are always meant to be more. Experience is the bridge between classr...

He tried to look down. Wasn't easy to fathom the height at which we were desperately trying to open the second bottle of whiskey from a stock of four safely stashed in a black backpack. "It's at least a 900 feet drop, in case you are planning to jump. I guarantee two things if you try. One, I will not even consider searching for your body. Two, in case your lady luck holds up and someone finds your body, I'm pretty sure that it won't be in an identifiable state. So, conclusion, Yes! It's a good suicide spot" I declared, trying to poke fun at him. The response was a mixture of broken dialogues from a dozen Bollywood movies and it was confirmed beyond doubt that, 'Bandhe ko definitely chad gayi hai'. Ricky was a kind of guy who never focussed outside his high materialistic needs in life until he had one too many of his Glenlivet. The buffer zone of his alcoholic limit would be the description of his huge farm where he reared horses and trained his ro...

Over the many years that I have lived in Bengaluru, one of the most welcoming aspect of my stay has been the variety in the food culture this city possess. Considering its cosmopolitan nature, the culinary world of Bengaluru boasts of the availability of an array of cuisines, spread over hundreds of destinations all around the city. From the humble South Indian idli vadas and masala dosas to the more exotic Italian risottos and pastas, the restuarants here, have it all.  Humans have always had a romantic relationship with food. While at one end it acts as fuel to keep the body up and running at the required pace, its the taste, the happiness associated with the dining experience and a sense of satisfaction accompanying it, that places it on top of any man's most desirable list. My love for food has been well documented in my family's diaries, for the lengths and pains it's journey has put me through. From the famous Old Delhi's 'Mohobbat ka Sharbat' to the hard-...

He stared at me for a whole minute without uttering a single word. His body was firm, fist clenched, lips tight as if they were sewed up together. I could hear his teeth grind. The atmosphere was tense. I stood in front of him, a blank slate. His silence bothered me. For a second, I felt like I saw his soul slowing turning hollow through his sunken eyes. His face, bereft of any emotion, his eyes looking dead straight at me without even bothering to blink. After a whole minute, he slowly opened his mouth to utter four words, words that felt like they were shot with a high intensity propeller straight at my conscience. "But, he's my son..." the man said. The arrival of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic has been a great learning curve in the lives of millions of individuals around the globe. While we saw the rise in the number of infected cases on a day to day basis, the number of deaths due to the deadly attack on the respiratory system of humans was alarming. While on the one ...

"You buffalo, what do those action mean?" asked my lecturer, a long haired middle aged man with a small paunch slowly peeking out of his blue kurtha, comfortably seated on a wire mesh office chair. It was my first British Literature class and I was struggling to explain the term 'bullock' in front of a packed class. The time was 10.17AM and the poem, Sumer is icumen in. As soon as those words left his larynx, the game was on. "Fear is like fire; it can be helpful if you know how to use it. If not, you will get burned". The words of my childhood idol, Mike Tyson. I had a rather protected childhood, a stark contrast to Tyson's. He plunged into boxing because he saw his idol, Muhammed Ali, getting beaten up by Joe Frazier in, what was potentially the last time the legend ever fought a professional bout. I started to fight because my dad told me that it's wrong if you don't right a wrong. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee"; Muhammad...