Watching the world go by....

Two people i know lost their pet dogs over the past two days and I so much feel their loss. I lost mine a few months back and only in her loss did i realize what she meant to the family   😢 We have a new pup, about 7 months old, filling up the big shoes of my previous dog..but this one is bratty, hyperactive and obstinate. I lose my temper with him many times a day and had even given him away to a friend since we could no longer manage him... 24 hours is all we could manage his absence and lo he was back home. We are still unsure which of the two is a tougher call - the one we took to give him away or the one to bring him back home under 24 hours  :) Its now tough for me to imagine a day without ginger ... a day when I don't wake up to his incessant barking...the sight of his face thrust against the balcony grill as I drive off to work...running away with my sock as i open the shoe rack just about everyday..not a meal that I can have without him demanding his share....

Chennai, the city I call home, has for long been industrious, understated and largely unaffected by the global appeal of its more flashy and glamorous neighbors - Bangalore and Hyderabad. The tolerance levels of our people will find a place in folklore. We don't get flustered when we are generally branded as Madrasis and grossly confused with keralites or kannadigas.. We hardly react when people mock our cuisine, our dress sense or our inability to speak hindi. We are generally at peace with oursleves... we are quite happy to celebrate larger than life politicians and film stars who seldom offer anything more than lip sympathy or service to the common man. But I guess the quote "hell hath no greater fury than a silent man's anger" is very fitting for Chennai and people of tamilnadu Chennai has been subject to some really challenging times and unrest more recently - some triggered by nature, some man-made. A series of events since October 2015 have brought the ...

Some profound weekend reflection. Unusually long one from me, but I had to write this out..if you are reading this bear with me... My neighbor's daughter recently got married..I know the couple fairly well, both of them run a fairly successful business. Have seen their son and daughter to be mostly independent and busy in their own right. The run up to wedding was hectic but the mood nonetheless celebratory. The hustle and bustle at their home sh ifted to the wedding venue and a silence descended the house already. The wedding was a grand affair and one that brought together hundreds of family members, friends and acquaintances.. Post the ceremony, the bride was off to the grooms household and my neighbors returned only late that night; I presumed they would be exhausted and didn't engage them in any conversation then. The next morning, I was leaving home when I saw my neighbor and enquired if things are fine and if he had a comfortable night..he managed a nod but I ...