Okay, so this blog post cheats a little because even though it is about letters I’ve received, I’m also going to write about ones I just received – as photographs. They’re letters that I sent over 18 years ago. In my previous post, I wrote about the only crossed letter I ever wrote. I just […]
Letters I Receive – V
I’ve written about both Sreeja and her grandparents before. When Sreeja was studying at IIT-Kharagpur, she invited Veda and me to come for Diwali and see the magnificent illumination and rangoli on campus. All the dates went awry and we finally reached Kharagpur the day after the illumination. Oh, well, we saw what was left […]
Letters I Receive – IV
Recently (well, not recently really, but not long before the lockdown began), I did a letter-writing activity at a couple of workshops. I’ve always loved receiving letters. A letter in the mailbox with YOUR NAME on it? Ooh, the joy! I wanted children to experience that too, and what better way than through a workshop? […]
Letters I Receive – III
Have you ever had chicken pox? But more importantly, did you have a special friend to write letters to when you were quarantined? My sister Nisha missed her sixth standard final exams because she had chicken pox. Right through those weeks, she was extra careful, taking precautions rather similar to the ones we’re taking right […]
Letters I Receive – II
Once upon a time, we had a dial-up connection. I don’t know if younger readers of my blog even know what that is. Email took ages to load. You could read a book while you waited for the connection to be established and then … Never mind. For some reason, I had a usa (dot) […]
Letters I Receive – I
Have you ever wondered who uses the stationery in a hotel room? I mean, who needs an envelope and letter-writing paper and all of that when you spend one night in a hotel? I raise my hand. It’s me. And I take after my father. During the lockdown, I plan to share a story about […]
Leap Day
I’ve always been fascinated by leap years. Who hasn’t? Magically, out of nothingness, a day appears every four years. Where does it hide, squished between the 28th of February (a special month anyway) and the 1st of March? What does it do when it is hiding? Equally, I’ve been torn by envy of and pity […]
Reading, Writing, Dancing
Two weeks ago, I asked the children at my Writers’ Club whether they would like to make readers laugh or cry. Three girls said they wanted to make readers laugh. 12 said they wanted to make readers cry. When a few said they would like to do both, those who had already raised their hands […]
I used to think
I used to think That if I held my breath, I could make friends with Anne Shirley, George, Sara Crewe, And Dorothy. I used to think That if I oiled my doll’s hair And shampooed it Maybe trimmed it now and then; If I took care of it, It would grow. I used to think […]
Changes
I’ve been away from my blog for three weeks! Now, nothing seems Momentous enough to resume my regular writing. So, finally, I’m putting lots of things together just to set the writing rolling once more. 1) I got married. 2) I had another birthday and became one year older. 3) I discovered that Red Turtle […]
Memorabilia
Sorting out my grandparents’ things, we come across all kinds of things. Expenses incurred during my father’s wedding. Details of my father’s birth – time, place, date. Hundreds of bank things. Greeting cards. Invitation cards. Newspaper articles. Here’s one of many. Somehow, I don’t seem to have it preserved.
Rainbow!
For so long, for so many years, I’ve been looking at the sunshine and the rain and thinking, “The sky owes me a rainbow. It is too hot to wear a raincoat, but if I don’t wear one, I’ll get wet. The sky owes me a rainbow.” But I didn’t see one. For years. And […]
Monsoon!
I love the rain. It’s magical. My mother got three stems of lavender hibiscus from my grandmother and we dumped them in a mug of water. Days passed. Finally, when the leaves were wilted and the twig was mouldy, we felt guilty enough to stick them into a pot of mud. The next day, there […]
Website updated!
My website has been updated! Here’s what’s new – – My story Sacrifice is now on the home page as well as in ‘Published Work’. It’s now easy to access through my site! – For those who tried to read The Caravan of the Cultures of the World, the link to the story has been […]
Theory of Knowledge – Mathematics
Planning my Theory of Knowledge class on Mathematics as an Area of Knowledge, I realise again what a strange mixture of art and maths I am! How I enjoy mathematics! Yet, I realise how much can be challenged. Is mathematics associated with beauty? What is the focus of mathematics – reliability, validity, certainty or truth? […]
A Dream
Last night, I had a dream. My sister and I were walking through old streets towards a tall block of flats. Beyond the building was a meadow. The grass was tall, gleaming in the sunshine. The two of us sat down on a bench nearby. “How wonderful it would be to live in a flat […]
Musée des Beaux Arts
I’ve been thinking of this all morning. Loss and suffering exist in astonishingly closed cabins, shut off from the world. Here is Musée des Beaux Arts by Auden. A classic. About suffering they were never wrong, The old Masters: how well they understood Its human position: how it takes place While someone else is eating […]
Another Foggy Day
It was not a cold morning, so when I reached school, I was more than a little surprised to see that it resembled a hill-station once more. Once again, there was no school. I stepped out of the warm bus and was astounded to see that when I breathed, there was steam coming out of […]
Con Person
I felt like a con-person the other day at the airport. Every con-artist finds a way to function; I could have stumbled upon one too. I was in the car, dropping my grandparents to the airport. As soon as we reached, I jumped out of the car, ready to go to the airline counter to […]
Expectations
Theory of Knowledge challenges the way we know, and I wanted to show how we see what we expect to see. Of course, these are old, old ideas, but they were fun anyway! I showed my class this picture: “What does it say?” I asked. “Paris in the spring!” “Are you sure?” I asked several […]