This year was S’s first real Halloween – the first time she went trick-or-treating. Last year too, she dressed up in a costume while handing out candy (she was an Angry Bird last year, which somehow seemed very appropriate for a 2 year old). This year she was a Ladybug. She almost wasn’t one, though…
Mandatory rural service for doctors seems to be an idea that is gaining strength in India. The Union Health Minister has reportedly said that soon, medical students would have to spend a year in rural areas. Already, students in Telengana and Andhra Pradesh are being asked to work in rural areas for a year –…
One would have thought that those pathologically law-abiding Germans would follow all the rules, even the unwritten ones. The biggest unwritten one of them all in this FIFA World Cup seems to be that there should be no goal during regulation time. Did Germany not know what Brazil clearly did – that no goals were…
It’s a slippery slope when we start banning books and even worse, withdrawing or recalling books. Do books need to start passing through a censor soon, to determine what is acceptable and what is not? Not that even a censor would help – because apparently all it takes is a few people to take offense…
The Polar Vortex never went away. Even now, it’s swirling over the Hudson Bay. Its home is somewhere far away, On Yukon, Barrow and Prudhoe Bay. Then why is it here, holding its sway, Spoiling my mid-western winter day? Presenting the same My city versus Barrow, Alaska comparison (as before, note the RealFeel temperatures which…
The Polar vortex swept through most of the US this week, and like everyone else in the US, I suffered. I suppose I should feel lucky that I was not, for instance, stuck in a snowbound Amtrak train or wasn’t a passenger in one the thousands of cancelled flights. I shouldn’t be complaining about the…
It took me a long time to realize that my previous blog theme (Arras) was not mobile friendly by a long shot. It looks all right on a desktop, and passable on a tablet, but on a cellphone it is practically unreadable. (No wonder I don’t get as many questions these days from people looking…
It’s not just the blog that is in deep freeze. This was how the weather here looked the other day: Frustrating at so many levels. This is not unprecedented cold, mind you, just too cold for early December. We do get this kind of weather in mid-January and February. But to start winter with this…
It seems one cannot open an Indian newspaper without reading about at least one rape happening somewhere every day. This time it is a gang rape of a journalist in Mumbai. The bastion of the last city supposedly safe for women has also fallen. Mumbai continues to be much safer for women than many other…
A lot of muffins are being baked (and devoured even before they cool) in the Lekhni household recently. There were the oatmeal cookies I baked a few weeks ago (mostly for the neighbors) but otherwise, it has been muffins all the way. A big reason for this is that they are so easy to make.…
This is a very moving survivor’s account of the flooding at the Kedarnath shrine. It is hard to imagine the scale of destruction and the suddenness of it, even reading news reports. To actually live through that is horrific beyond words. I keep reading reports about how the Government is not doing its job, evacuating…
It is a cycle almost as predictable as the boom and bust of economic cycles – every few years, the monsoon fails and suddenly, there is water scarcity in the cities. People suffer and try everything they can to tide over the shortage. Then, the next year the rains are better and everyone forgets about…
You know it’s time to blog more often (or shut down the blog) when the frequency of wordpress updates far exceeds that of your posts. Not that there haven’t been topics I’ve wanted to blog about. But typing on your phone (as I am doing now) or on a tablet can be really frustrating. Maybe…
Now that the government has approved FDI in multi-brand retail, it has paved the way for the likes of Walmart and Amazon to set up shop in India. Predictably, there have been protests from shopkeepers and Bharat Bandhs from political parties. Street vendors are saying the government is ignoring the working class, while others are…
You know you are in trouble when WordPress has software upgrades more frequently than you have published posts. In fact, every time have opened my blog this year, there has been a new upgrade, which is not a reassuring thought at all. I may be an extreme case, but apparently, I am not alone. It…
My grandmother died last week. When I heard the news I was profoundly relieved. Sad, yes, but mostly relieved. Let me tell you why. She had spent the last month or more in the hospital, mainly in the ICU at a big name hospital. A great team of doctors was taking care of her round…
Long years ago, I went to the Regional Transport Office twice – the first time to get my two-wheeler driving license, and the second, to get my car driving license. Both are still valid, which means, in theory, that I can drive a car anytime I go to India, if I am feeling particularly brave,…
Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog got it badly wrong when he looked at his shadow this week. Six more weeks of winter? We are still in winter? Yes, I know it is February and normally the peak of winter, but this year winter seems to have made a guest appearance. There is practically no snow on…
If you are like me, the only time you have ever met an Amish person is when you have stopped off to look at the sturdy furniture they make. You are fascinated and mystified at their 1800s lifestyle (no electricity, cars or phones, or even indoor plumbing) but don’t know a whole lot more about…
The other day, I sat down with a lot of enthusiasm to blog. I typed a few words in the WordPress editor, and they promptly disappeared. I typed a few more, and they too, joined their companions into invisibility. I could still see my words in preview mode, so they were clearly there somewhere, but…
The Imagined Universe 