Solitaire is any card game played alone, where you use up all the cards by forming specific sequences. My oldest memory anyone playing this of this kind solitaire in flesh and blood was my mom’s neighbor. She’d sit on the floor with a set of cards and patiently lay them down and play, only to…
Tag: Artifacts
Fancy A Break?
A more traditional Indian breakfast, depending on the region you come from, is light yet filling. You’d barely find many people consuming cornflakes back in the days, but now our on-the-fast-lane life is making corn our first meal. (Pretty much like beefing up cattle to be slaughtered. Ironic, isn’t it?) To get kids eating some…
Lock Down Baking
I like cooking, but I don’t find the activity therapeutic or spiritual. There was a time I would bake a lot of nankhaties (Indian shortbread cookies) in my mother’s microwave, but that phase faded when college ended. A lot of life happened, and cooking eventually became a burden. I did start cooking again when I…
Breaking Bread
Cravings are inevitable, when you are explicitly told a stern no. When things were freely available, I’d usually avoid breads and fruits not because I don’t eat them, but because I am lazy. There is always a weekend to stock up, especially when you have a list to stick to. But when you become the…
Vishukani
Vishu, and Tamil Puthandu are the start of the Solar calendar in the two states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. As my father is originally for the border of both states, we observe both festiviteis at our home. For Vishu, the celebration involves setting up a Vishukanni. In Malayalam, kani translates to “that which is…
Over the Rainbow
So after the country-wide lock down was announced, in the second wave, the PM invited people to switch off all lights, and light a candle, lamp or any torch for 9 minutes to show solidarity with those who are on the front line of curtailing the deadly disease. Since it did not involve creating a…
Stay Calm, Peace On!
The collective thinking of any race, or herd mentality, is a force to reckon with. Stupidity and confidence are two sides of the same coin. Knowledge through facts, and research guided by intuition is what keeps the world sane and logical. But when intuition (read over-confidence) becomes your source of knowledge, and you use research…
Difficult Times, Tough Measures
The world around is calm, with the unexpected breeze blowing on Mumbai skies. The incessant honking is replaced the chirping (rather cawing) of birds (my locality is home to more crows than any other birds). The silence can be deafening. The echo of every sneeze, that comes out from the kitchen windows when tempering spices,…
Being Royal
Whiskey and the army has a long standing association. I recently started reading a delightful yet compelling account of how the fearless jawans of the Indian armed forces fight valiantly and very few come out alive. The ones who live to tell the tales of their bravery are often treated with very expensive malts and…
A Whole New World
A whole new world (don’t you dare close your eyes)A hundred thousand things to see (hold your breath, it gets better)I’m like a shooting star, I’ve come so farI can’t go back to where I used to be A whole new worldWith new horizons to pursueI’ll chase them anywhereThere’s time to spareLet me share this…
Snapshots of my World 