THE DIARY OF A HOUSEWIFE

इतनी नफ़रत, इतना द्वेष, क्यों और किस लिए? क्या चाहते हो, क्या मांगते हो, जो दे नहीं पाता भगवान और यह देश? हज़ारों शहीद हुए, हज़ारों की जाने गयीं, रह गए पीछे सिर्फ अश्रु, रह गयीं पीछे सुनी कलाई, हज़ारों अनाथ हुए, हज़ारों बेघर किये, रह गए पीछे सिर्फ अश्रु और बुझे दिए, क्यों लाना चाहते हो यह सैलाब, जिसमें रह जाते हैं पीछे सिर्फ सुने दिल और टूटे ख़्वाब! इतनी नफ़रत, इतना द्वेष, क्यों और किस लिए? क्या चाहते हो, क्या मांगते हो, जो दे नहीं पाता भगवान और यह देश? धर्म के रखवालों अब बस करो, क्यों करते हो इतना बैर, हम सब एक नहीं, पर हम सब इतने अलग भी नहीं, क्यों नहीं पहचानते, क्यों नहीं समझते, यह दुश्मनी, यह नफ़रत अपने दिल में जो समाये बैठे हो, तुम्हें और तुम्हारों को भी ध्वस्त कर जाएंगी, आंसू छलकते रहेंगे, ज़िंदगियाँ बर्बाद होती रहेंगी, कुछ न मिलेगा द्रोह से और विद्रोह से ! धर्म के रखवालों अब बस करो! इतनी नफ़रत, इतना द्वेष, क्यों और किस लिए? क्या चाहते हो, क्या मांगते हो, जो दे नहीं पाता भगवान और यह देश? देश के रखवालों तुम न रुको, बस चलत...

Ok, now this is something I just don't understand. Or maybe that's because I am soft in the head just like the foolish Pune Police force who has many-a-times tried but horribly failed to enforce the helmet rule. What is it with the Pune public refusing to don helmets when driving their 2-wheeled chariots, for their own safety? Are their heads as hard as their hearts, providing them protection from all kinds of injuries, physical and psychological? Or has God bestowed on them a boon, a few fools such as me are unaware of. Wearing helmets leads to spinal problems and hair loss they say. These brave hearts are also unable to drive properly because the helmets are heavy and do not let them hear anything. According to most, if people ride slowly on local roads, they negate the chances of accidents, and the need for helmet laws. The logic is indisputable. Hair loss, hearing loss, spinal issues can destroy a person, his family and his happy life. So, when experts say ...

      As somebody who has never known any life other than the life in the Defense Forces, The Indian Air Force, as a daughter first and then as a wife, the news of the Mirage 2000 crash where we lost two of our best pilots hit me hard as it has done many-a-times before. They were young test pilots, the finest of the fine, looking forward to a rewarding career and life. Snatched away too soon, it is only their families who can wholly understand and comprehend the loss of these young men doing for the country what most others are afraid to. Every time my husband doesn't call or text after he has supposed to have landed, listening to my thumping heart, I call him to check if he has touched down. As the wife of a fighter pilot, a test pilot and now a corporate pilot, I have trained myself not to worry about what could happen each time he soars off into the skies, his life in the hands of a machine, I have never really understood. ...

CELEBRATING 23 YEARS OF TOGETHERNESS!  Here we are... With lots of ups and downs and many things in between, Here we are... after years 20 and तीन. We met when I was just nineteen and you a dashing young pilot I had just seen. Life together a blessing and what a blast it has been, Like a never ending romance, melodrama, thriller and fantasy scene. We have endured many a wrongs, hits and losses on the chin, But afresh we have always let life again begin. Many an unforgettable seasons together we have been, Through it all our family stands tall today bearing an ever widening grin. BIRTHDAY WISHES FOR A DEAR FRIEND So many people you meet But not with all your heart will beat, Some become so dear That losing them is something you fear, Funny jokes and laughs out loud Always the rowdy me will be one of your crowd, Our friendship was built in the most remarkable way Hope it will grow stronger till our hair turn grey, As...

Having lost about 15 kgs recently many friends and acquaintances alike have begun complimenting and commenting on my shedding the extra kilos. Some even asked me to share my before and after pictures. Well, to that I have only one thing to say, which before and after pictures should I share? Please bear with me when I ask myself the above question and confuse the hell out of you. It’s not the choice of pictures that has me baffled but rather the selection of pictures of which of the three times I have been fortunate enough to lose weight that perplexes me. This one? 86 kgs 2003 BEFORE 53 Kgs 2005 AFTER This one? 80 Kgs 2009 BEFORE 58 Kgs 2011 AFTER Or then there is this one? 77 Kgs 2016 BEFORE 60 Kgs 2018 AFTER Aha, you might say, or even congratulate me on losing a grand total of 72 kilos over the span of some 20 years. But let me stop you there. Though many will say and I too am aware that losing weight thrice, is not ...

So, my son is getting bullied in school. And like many concerned parents my husband and I stressed about it endlessly. What affected us most was seeing him come home unhappy and anxious every day.  What was really happening in the class that all he talked about as soon as he stepped off the bus was how so and so was hitting him, so and so was pinching him in the bottom, so and so was taking away his stationery, breaking it, throwing it away, and so and so was teasing him. What broke my heart was the fact that he said he had no best friend, no one to talk to in class. Why Mama why, he asks me daily and why oh why I ask myself everyday seeing him struggle to fit in, to be a part of the popular group who refuse to include him in their shenanigans.  I don't do anything to provoke them he says when I question him if inadvertently he has done something to alienate this "popular" group of boys. I just want to play with them but they don't let me. Every...

At many times and moments in your life you feel like a complete and utter failure. You have made mistakes, you have hurt people, you have regrets, and sometimes you have done things you can never ever imagine you were foolish and dumb enough to do and then the most important of all, the one thing that is bound to make everyone feel like a failure - you have been unable to  follow and accomplish your dreams. Then of course you have the usual gripes, I have not become rich, I haven't really achieved anything great, I haven't really contributed to the betterment of society, I am not a celebrity, I am not an artist, dancer or painter, I am not a Nobel laureate and I haven't won an Oscar.  All romanticised dreams of many star struck youth, dreamt on many a star filled night, keeping some alive with hope while leaving some restless and filled with doubts.  And then life happens, all dreams forgotten in the hustle and bustle of everyday living. The stars f...