THE DIARY OF A HOUSEWIFE

24 Days to go... Dear Pati, Inteha ho gayee intezaar ki, Akele holiday cut ti nahin, Missing poha paratha mocktail and we, Your savouring endless cups of tea, And the countless angry stares from me, Inteha ho gayee intezar ki. O How we lazed in front of the TV, And you grabbed the remote from me, Your afternoon dal-chaawal with oodles of ghee, And aaloo ki subzi for company, Intezaar ho gayee intezar ki. As the sun sets behind the tree, And the night sky turns burgundy, Faraway towards the moon I see, And drift away to the land of fantasy. Inteha ho gayee intezar ki. Intezaar ho gayee intezar ki. 23 days to go... Dear Pati, The Sunday  silence is so loud, It resonates in my soul. The dark and cloudy overcast sky, Above is taking its toll. The deafening hollow thunder, Pierces deep inside. The tiny droplets on my face, My feelings they cannot hide. The gently blowing chilling breeze, Send shivers down my spine. And as my hair blow ac...

A very close friend who is the perfect life partner ( I say that because they are perfect for each other, a beautiful team who have established a great family, a flourishing business, all together) to her hubby dearest has recently become a writer. All because her team mate, her spouse is away from her for a month. And even though she has a lot on her hands, five factories, two beautiful daughters, an ailing father-in-law, she finds time to pen down her thoughts, her feelings every day. Although they are extremely personal they are words every wife whose husband is away from her on work or other commitments can identify with. I therefore begged her to share these creations with the world ... Thank you Bhumika Singh.  Vivek I am sure is loving your daily creations but let the world have a peep into your most wondrously penned down thoughts.    And I begin scratching out the days in the calendar...Day 30 Dear hubby, The silence isn't so bad, Till I look at my h...

My brother said “iskool” and my mother said, no baby, its “school”, no he said, mama, you don’t know, my teacher says its “iskool”, you are wrong because my teacher can never be wrong.  And that’s the role teachers play in a student’s life from the moment a child leaves his parent’s hand to then hold the hand of his teacher beginning a new phase of life in society. It is with the teacher that we first embark on the journey of life, a journey wherein our teachers shape our values, principles, our thoughts, moulding us, gazing with us at the life they want us to lead, dreaming for us, teaching us how to dream and above all stimulating us to live a life better and bigger than we could have ever imagined.  The days spent in school with our teachers are the best memories we possess and cherish. The knowledge and wisdom imparted, the skills taught, the lessons and anecdotes shared, the punishments meted out, have all contributed to what we are today.  Handling noisy and talkat...

  “People join the Army and Police to die and are paid to die…” said the self-assured Bihar minister as millions of TV viewers watched aghast at the insensitivity and brazenness of an arrogant politician.    The hue and cry raised over the issue frankly left me untouched and unmoved as do many of the concerns raised by the media and the so called political parties.  Why you may ask am I not angry at the rant of this callous man who feels that people act and behave in a particular way only because they are paid for it? That’s because I have heard it before…from not one, not two but many people who feel that the people employed in the Armed Forces are a blessed lot who party and drink with great gusto and then….well that is all that they do. According to most people (civilians as they are referred to), the job involves ‘free rations, Canteen facilities, cheap and good liquor and subsidised accommodation.’ As an Air Force daughter (21 years) and...

It’s that time of life when you sit back and wonder if your life has been all that it should have been (yes, the big ‘FOUR O’ is not too long away). Have I done enough as a human being to stake claim to being a success? Have I done enough to make a difference? How do I even begin to define “enough”? Barack Obama, in his Arizona State Commencement Speech, in 2009 said, “ I've come to embrace the notion that I haven't done enough in my life. I've come to confirm that one's title, even a title like president of the United States, says very little about how well one's life has been led. No matter how much you've done or how successful you've been, there's always more to do, always more to learn, and always more to achieve.” And that’s what the President of the US of A says about his life. I haven’t even scratched the surface of the kind of life he may have led till now. It sure looks like I have been failing and have failed at a lot of things in my...

Most stars when interviewed say they hate running around trees, singing silly songs and running in slow motion looking, please note, fabulously beautiful. They say they want to do meaningful cinema. Heyyyy…maybe when you are a big Bollywood super-duper star with millions of fans (and millions of bucks in the banks) you can say that. But me….. give me a chance to do the same and I will do it for free. As all other Indian kids I too was brought up on a dose of Hindi movies, Chitrahaar and in those days Pakistani serials and some pretty popular American serials. Not too much of meaningful cinema there. We didn’t have cable TV then nor did we have TV for the whole day and night. The evening would begin with “Krishi Darshan” (a programme on Doordarshan for farmers) and go on to some serials and song programmes. Today of course I can’t imagine living without a day full of serials, songs, movies and news. I am what they say a couch potato…I can watch serials and movies the w...

We teach our children to be polite, well-mannered and respectful and to never ever hurt others’ feelings. We do it because we in turn were taught by our parents and elders to do the same. So, we tell them not to speak loudly, never shout at others, walk away from a fight, and if someone is doing something you think is not correct just ignore that person. We ask them to do all these things because we don’t want them getting hurt when people who don’t really mind fighting, or raising their voices, or are rude and sarcastic make our children their targets. I have always on my part put myself in other people’s shoes so that I can understand why they may be behaving in an offensive way and have the ability to tolerate such aggression, or if it becomes very hurtful I  just cut myself off from that person. Jeff Peterson says “I think the best way to tolerate people is to put yourself in the other person's shoes. I think it makes it a lot easier to understand where someone is coming ...