First Day of Boarding School.

She was 10 when her parents decided to send her to boarding school. “You will love it here”, her dad said, “Kids your age, piano lessons and you can even go horse riding.” He tried to make it sound like a vacation, she thought but offered no response. “We promise we will bring you back home at the end of the term if you don’t like it there”, added her mother. Her mom was using her fake enthusiastic voice again, the one she used when she tried to get her to eat those hateful broccoli and spinach for dinner or make her accompany her parents to those boring adult parties.


Digital India: Embracing Technology Enabling People.

~* This post was declared a Runners Up in the Digital India Contest organised by Intel & Indiblogger. *~

My first reaction on reading about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s One Lakh Crore ambitious e-governance project ‘Digital India’ was an incredulous – Now that’s a lot of zeroes!

OK. OK. I am only kidding. But not about the incredulous part. Because last time I checked, which was yesterday, the internet connection in my old school did not work; every time I try to update my passbook the link is down in the bank and the countless emails I have been sending the Passport Offices to follow up on an extremely delayed passport are never answered.

Right as rain

She did not know how long she laid there but she did not want to move. Especially now that the sun was low in the horizon and the sky was a delicious tinge of marmalade. Probably she could just lay there forever. Would anyone notice that she wasn’t around anymore? It had been months since her last conversation with her mother or with anyone that was not related to work. It had been months since she was more than just a ghost of person.


A touch of whimsy.

 “I think I want to eat pongal”, I declared, “But not the sweet one, the one which tastes like khichidi and has dollops of ghee. That’s the one I want”.

“That’s called ven pongal, you silly girl”, he said amused, “So dinner is official ven pongal.”

“Hold it. You can’t trick me into making something I can’t even name. So unless you are planning to miraculously cook a perfect dish of ven pongal, dinner is pizza”, I said as I started to reach for my cell phone to call Papa John’s.