Much Ado About Something

How Do I Say Goodbye?    You are God’s chosen one, watching me from above I wasn’t able to be with you during your most difficult time Mimi how I wish I can get back to that period when your illness was not prime What do I tell you, my sweet sister, except that I am shattered The last message you sent me was that you were coming back alive - that really mattered   This new normal is impossible to take I hold back tears and try to be strong, I feel so fake You know what I am going through, don’t you sweetheart? Coz you and I were never ever apart If I can just touch you for a mere minute the pain may disappear God knows best as I hold on to memories that are so dear You are my best friend, my confidant, my sparring partner Be free from pain darling girl, rest in peace I love you, and I always will          

  All of us like positive responses. We await positive verdicts on a variety of subjects. But when it comes down to a positive medical report, it throws us off guard. When I was declared positive with Covid a few days back, I was shocked. I am vaccinated, I follow protocol, avoid crowds, but the sucker came for me! My Indicators I thought my symptoms were typical of regular flu – an occasional shiver, some fever. However, there were other symptoms - cold, tiredness, rash (which I get because of an allergy so I didn’t pay attention), tummy pain, and some coughing (once in a while). Since I have been tired and exhausted for a while, I put it down to a low immune system. I had to get tested. And lo and behold the freaking results were positive. I wanted a negative verdict. I was pissed. How could this happen to me! I take all the precautions necessary. I realised while I was careful I must have let my guard down. I cannot pinpoint for sure as to the carrier, but all that I c...

  Trust is a loosely used term. Imagine if we are alert always, disappointment will never set in and trust never gets violated. Trusting someone means that we expect them to conform. When the person does not follow the unspoken rule, we get upset. I realised over time, that trusting people was going to be the end of me. I was fragile unable to move ahead. After thinking, analysing, and beating myself, I realised that I had let down my guard. That was wrong on my part. I let go, I felt free. It dawned on me that my heart was not made to be crushed. I have to take care of myself, not be used again and again. I also accepted the bitter truth - there are no sureties in life. We come into this world alone and go alone. Why have expectations anyway, right? When you do not expect anything from anyone, you do not get hurt. Ditto with others, they cannot expect you to conform to their set of rules. Yes? I don’t know about your points of view, but I am pretty sure that when y...

  I was in a deep conversation with a friend of mine some time ago on why it is necessary to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Her choice of argument was the misuse of language. She has an immense dislike for bad language. The debate went on for a while and while there were no winners, I got her point of view and hoped that she was open to mine.   Say it With a Smile One day she found herself caught between a rock and a hard place. Out of sheer frustration, the choicest words flew out of her mouth. She was deft, accurate, and pretty darn colorful with her language. She knew what words highlighted the issue. She was frustrated because nothing was going her way. To her bad luck, I was in the vicinity and this was priceless! Here was a person who outs others because of their use of colorful language but used every F, B, C, D to drive home her points of view. I guess the shoes fit this time. But, I couldn’t stop laughing! I still do. I would like to address the issue o...

  The absurd fact of the matter is that there are more people out there who do not give a fig about others. Some are referred to as COVIDIOTS, while others are mere self-centered individuals who just cannot be bothered, at all, ever. And in this context, I am not referring only to the shitty pandemic. I am talking about the realness of people who are either going to mask up or use pretense as an excuse. What can you do if you are in the company of such types of people? When it comes to protection, it is quite imperative that you wear on the mask, social distance, and avoid anyone who does not follow protocol. You cannot din sense in people who aren't interested in playing safe for themselves and others. Self-centered morons cannot even bear to consider life aside from their limited purview. These are people who you should be socially distant from, or you may lose your peace of mind. Masking up is not only related to the pandemic, which is very important. It also requires that y...

  Years ago you told me something and I did not believe you You had my best interests at heart, but I doubted you I did not listen Your reasoning was true You saw the big picture, I didn’t Your words come back and haunt me I cannot give you credit for having seen what I did not Today, my blinkers are removed You were right all along If only I had listened If only I could turn back time I would redo the pages But, that is not possible I will move on and hope for the best I should have listened Should have paid attention        

And like the earlier piece, my rant today is about this damn pandemic, and the lives Covid has taken. My rant. Impose Fines People are still moving around without masks, can you freaking believe that? Amidst cries for help, Covidiots remain on point with their lack of concern. Like I had said before if these fools don’t give a damn about their health, the rest of us do. I believe strict fines should be imposed on anyone who leaves their homes or offices without a mask. Even if they are just going outside their gates to buy veggies from the vendor. Strict policing even in the smallest of lanes is what will keep us relatively safe. In my opinion. Mask Up, Already! Take this example, a woman who was hospitalized for ten days was seen walking her dogs after just two days of returning home. She had a mask on - to cover her chin! She kept coughing outside with no concern about the spores she was spreading. Ultimately, a neighbor and her family contracted Covid - they are suffering....

  So, there are these people in my neighborhood who walk around without masks. A couple of days ago, a neighbor walked toward me wanting to talk – she wasn’t wearing a mask. I moved away but told her that I would talk once she masks up. It did sound rude, but in my defense, it is better to be sensible rather than stupid. She looked at me like I was weird – that is her prerogative! She still moves about without a mask. The situation is precarious with people I know falling prey to this evil virus. Many have lost their lives battling Covid, so therefore wearing a mask is simple math. The people who care for others and themselves will mask up, the rest will probably contribute to the spread. And I ponder over these vicissitudes. Losing People A friend battled the dreaded illness and after days passed away. Another friend of mine lost her young sister to the illness. The family doctor presumed it was just a viral infection. Eventually, she was hospitalized, put on a ventilator...

  They won't miss me when I am gone Or will they? Probably sigh with relief Never wanted just required Convenient to have around Not good enough Minds on the bigger prize When I breathe my last Will they cry or have a blast?

The fallacy that a man must be older than a woman in a relationship is pretty redundant in today’s time. But, I am pretty sure that there are many people out there who will disagree with my point of view, and so be it. My point - there comes a time in both a man and a woman’s life when being attracted to someone way younger is not alien. How about we dive into this paradigm, and quash all the myths of the older man younger woman versus the older woman younger man syndrome without making a big deal.  Let’s, for the point of driving the nail home, suggest this scenario. A woman in her sixties, happily married notices a young man across the aisle while she shops, and is appreciative of his good looks. And why the heck not, yeah? Her children who are with her maybe mortified because they believe that their mother should not be … you know. However, if their father is with them, notices a pretty girl, and is appreciative of her, they may not blink. It is such BS in my book. Don’t you thi...

When you have no way to contact anyone or receive calls because your money is over a little something from a kind supporter help. You have a regular job, but the lockdown has you on tenterhooks. The office is still temporarily closed. The school that you teach at cannot pay you the salary you are entitled to, or your employer flat out refuses that s/he cannot pay you. What is the next option?   Supporters can tide you over for a while, but after that, what? Not everyone can help out.   Putting food on the table, paying EMI’s, utility bills, ways to stretch the notes, is a constant with no let-up around the corner. None of us have a clue as to whether this pandemic will ease. And if it does, what is the new normal? Educational institutions remain shut for obvious reasons. Transport is hit and it is the common person who has to face the brunt. Walking and using vehicles sparingly is the norm. Honesty, we don’t know if we will be able to fund ourselves if petrol prices ...

You know that time when you want to snack on something and the lockdown has you going around in circles, simply put - you did not stack up the goodies. Huge boo-boo. You are now on a quest to find a solution, any treat suffices, even the stuff you loathed earlier. You try anything that you can get your hands on to munch, and alternatives appear out of nowhere. The kitchen is your new best friend. As you lay eyes on the stack of potatoes and start cutting away, you fry them not realizing that they get soggy if not consumed soon! The double dip is the solution, but you didn’t know that. Oh brother! You now realize that diving in immediately is a must. And you munch away. Huge relief! My go-to snack has and will always be a packet of chips, diet be dammed. I got to thinking, however, while I managed to munch on a packet of Lays (the best snack in my book), many do not even have a glass of water to drink! And as I ponder over the divide that is so glaring - the poor, the have’s, the hav...

As seconds turn to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days, days to weeks, weeks hopefully not to months, we wait in stunned silence for directives by doctors. This coronavirus has everyone (not the Covidiots) in a confused panic. This is no bandh like we are used to in our country, this is serious. The economy which was on a downslide has plummeted further. We are a worried lot wondering how to replenish our stock. And then the worry that we do not contract any germs from the vendor who has delivered the goods. It is not only scary, but reality has reared its ugly head. This is happening in real-time, and not the movies. I want to wake up believing that it was just another movie and life will be back to normal. But is it going to be normal, today, tomorrow or even a month from now? Are we getting it that there is no vaccine at present? Social distancing keeps us free from the germs that spread rapidly. We need to follow protocol. A number of us want to pin the blame on other ...

I want to say I love you, I do not know how I want to mend fences, you fence me out How do I break the chains that bind? Hear me, when I say Forgive me I need you I hope you need me too. At a time when people are dying to the deadly virus I want to pray with you But you look away I want to hug you but you are stiff I want to feel your gaze upon me with love I need you to love me, again Can you? Though we do not talk This is my prayer for you Stay safe Be brave Be happy Be healthy I forgive you Please forgive me too. And, before I forget I need to say I love you, please love me too, someday.

Monday came with it and like every Monday, brought with it feelings of sluggishness - not wanting to get out of bed. And for the many of us who are homemakers (in a different sort of way) juggling a homebound work freelance life with limited pay, it is frustrating when the maid does not show. My story - I received a message from the maid, (which is kind given the fact that most of them don’t even bother to), but why didn’t she think of calling the previous day, I wondered. Some of her excuses are so weird that I want to scream, but remained staccato for fear of being maidless (for want of a better word). Her reason this time was an illness that manifested overnight. I guess it is because she was pulled up for something she did and decided to teach me a lesson. Her message was clipped stating that she would not be coming for a fortnight, give or take. I did not reply. What is the point, was the point, she would not have answered or I would have received a lame ass excuse. Before y...

Just another day in the life of an average person who wants to watch a rerun of Friends but has to make do while flipping from NDTV, Tiranga, India Today, Times Now, Mirror Now, and the rest. I live in hope that I can watch my reruns again! Will have to wait for the 23rd! Okay, I get it, watching television is not everyone’s cuppa today, though many of us mere mortals still turn on the television to watch a program or the other, especially the news, at this point of time, with elections going full gusto. In my life, while I would love to watch reruns of old comedies, Mum watches the news. When I asked her the other day, why not watch WWF instead - I explained that it is way cooler than the mudslinging, she looked at me as if I had lost my mind. What can I say, Mother I replied. My thoughts were, aren’t we slowly losing the plot while getting drawn into debates? I avoided saying anything more, or I would have been drawn into a debate! We are gripped into this frenzy based on rhe...

Do you get the giggles at places where you are expected to behave, like church for instance? A couple came to church and as the wife knelt down, her keys slipped out of her bag. She couldn’t reach out for them, but her husband did. While he bent down to pick them up like a gentleman, what came out from his posterior was far from gentlemanly! You guessed it, he farted! It was loud and need I dare say, smelly. He looked frightfully embarrassed while people around looked at him with disdain as if to say control your emissions fool. This was a weird ass situation (pardon the pun). But how in the world could he have controlled the gas while he bent, if it lurking within, bound to come out? Doesn’t everyone fart at some time or the other. Heck man, I have smelled terrible odors from nuns too, and while I would love to look at them disapprovingly, I refrain. A fart is just that, uncontrollable. While the priest was preaching, I got the giggles again. I looked across at the man who had a...

Nothing prepared me for the bitterness Never imagined the extent that you would go to I still cannot fathom why. Why did you lie when I was always there for you? I gave you what you asked for, when you did Until I realized that you were using me Lying to me all the time I pulled the plug Now you play the injured party How dare you! I am not in the mood to shout Not in the mood to scream Not in the mood for your shenanigans I am just done with the theatrics. Don’t think that I will fall for your BS again Remember the old adage of crying wolf? You get the drift? Now leave.