AbsurdAnce!

Monday Morning. The plan is to wake up early and visit Humayun's Tomb when the crowd is less and day is just starting. And I did wake up early! Since I wanted to come back to the hotel room as early as possible as I was working from home (hotel!). Opened up the curtains, peered out to see some trees swaying in the breeze. A little wind never hurt anyone, I thought to myself. Closed the curtains and we both got ready in ten minutes flat. Just to check if the day has brightened further, I opened up the curtains again. And saw that the winds were accompanied by rain now. Wow. Middle of summer. Middle of our trip. And it starts raining. We had not bothered to carry our umbrellas to Delhi and now Delhi has decided to treat us to summer rains. But we were not to be dejected. On and aboard, we decided. Called an Uber in deference to the rains and we set out for Humayun's tomb. It took us less than half an hour to reach the complex. Contrary to our expectations, the Uber drive

Since I was a 'Delhi veteran' and claimed to know everything that is there to know about the touristy Delhi, I was spouting off facts about all the places as if it were my own backyard. We entered the hotel via a backdoor entry and reached the reception. The reception resembled the office of a business tycoon from the dubbed Telugu movies, complete with the Dad and the Son. They agreed to keep our luggage safely till it was time to check-in so that we can go off sightseeing. The plan was to travel solely by Delhi metro and not depend on Uber or rickshaws. When we realised that Qutb Minar was just 4-5 kms away, we decided to give in and take a rickshaw. The funny thing about rickshaws in Delhi are, (they obviously don't go by meter) the fares multiply in terms of 20. It is either 40 or 60 or 80 or 120. No dearth of willing rickshaw-walahs either. We jumped into one and within no time reached the gates of Qutb Minar complex. It was an early Sunday morning around 8.30 and

7 April 2018, Saturday First trip in Rajadhani. I was expecting Raja-comfort, Raja-food, basically Raja-everything. Well, at least I met with two others who felt entitled to the same if nothing else. We had booked aisle seats/upper berths and entered the compartment to find a grandma and grandpa sprawled across the entire seating area. They were perfectly comfy covered with those thick blankets and showed no enthusiasm to move even a tiny inch to accommodate us. After waiting for may be 30 seconds, I moved the edge of grandma’s blanket aside and placed my butt firmly on the seat. And hubby laid claim to his seat also, right opposite to mine. After settling down with all the luggage and Pollyanna, I started reading. Much to my dismay, I slowly began to realize that the book I was reading was not what I had intended to read. I had confused Pollyanna with Pippi Longstocking and had eagerly taken it out of the library without even checking it properly. And, Pollyanna was too

I am going to record a story that can be used to embarrass and humiliate me to the ends of the earth. Let us all take a moment to appreciate my bravado in committing this to the never-forgetting dark world of the internet. That too, in my own words. Here goes. It was a school day and I was back home after another set of repetitions of "Good Morniiiiiiiing Teacher" and "Thank Youuuuu Teacher". Those were the days when I thought 'Sit straight' was 'Six Rate' and 'Thorough' was 'Tharo' - something as firm as the ground (thara) - and we should learn everything 'tharoly'/firmly. Among those unalterable beliefs, was another one. There was no need to take bath everyday. Unfortunately no one else in my family shared any of those beliefs. So, on that fateful evening, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I decided to shut myself up so that they cannot make me take bath. And the ever so smart me found the perfect place to

On my way back from office today, I saw a man crossing the road. He was standing on the divider and the thing that caught my attention was his blazer. It was velvet! I will admit that this is not the first time I am seeing a velvet blazer but this was surely the first time it ended up triggering a lot of memories. You see, I owned a velvet dress once. Once as in, some 20 years back. It was a dark shade, not black, not brown but something which is a mix of both these colours. There probably exists a unique name for that colour but I have no clue what it is. It was gifted by my cousin I think. Probably the eldest one, who was our source of exotic clothes and unheard-of books (Harry Potter being a prime example!). It was a straight cut plain dress made of brown/black (?) velvet. That's it. End of story. No sequins. No embroidery. No embellishments. Nothing. When I wore it for the first time, I felt like I was wearing the shed skin of a snake. And, I was so skinny that I probably