Happy International Dog Day

26th Aug, Pune, India

My brother and I grew up with dogs! We learnt to share and to appreciate all that our humans did for us, in this case my parents did for us with loads of love, hugs and kisses! I believed that there was not a person in the world who could not love a dog ever!

Then I came across cats and wondered – are dogs and cats like sworn enemies! Always hissing and barking at each other! I wondered what was the story behind this?

Then I came across a few humans who were cruel to animals! Abusing them, abandoning them, starving them, being so violent that a place in hell would not even cut it for them.

I was left to change my perceptions over the years! So I put myself in a dog’s shoes. Imagine being abandoned as a human, that feeling of someone not wanting you enough, imagine being kicked for stealing a bite or shot for entering a farm in search of food! Imagine being crushed on the road and your remains spilled over in bloody bits!

They say the world has gone to the dogs! If the world would really go to the dogs, imagine if they took revenge on humanity for all the cruel things that happen to them! But nope, they are and have always been the most loving, the most trusting and the most loyal to us!

We will never know what we have done to deserve their infinite love! Here’s to wishing all doggos a Happy International Dog Day! Let’s learn to be humans again from our dogs!

The Happiness Of Small Things

25th Aug, India, Pune

Once upon a time there lived a person who aged gracefully till the age of 70 years. On turning 71, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the third stage! His wife and children were devastated!

But the man remained unfrazzled. He knew he didn’t have much time and decided to embark on a bucket list of adventures! His wife watched him silently and wondered who this person was.

He travelled to Jim Corbett and saw the tigers, he burst with happiness when he saw the Doodhsagar falls in their splendid glory, he bought his favourite pair of Raybans and flashed them at his wife with a wink!

She still remained unperturbed and wanted to know why he was squandering their life savings. His answer was, I have just a few days to live. Her question was what about me? He lowered his eyes and didn’t have an answer!

She gave him an ultimatum and said that if he continued on this path she would leave him because after every adventure he would come back home with some infection or disease! She was tired of the multiple visits to the hospital! Age was catching up with her too.

One day he collapsed and was bed-ridden. The doctors told him he just had a few days to live. He repented his bucket list and wished for the happiness derived from the small things that he and his wife enjoyed! The morning race to solve the sudoku puzzle first on the newspaper, the debates over chai on why it was important to know how to communicate well with people, the video calls with children with the dogs barking in the background; these were small things but the happiness gotten from them was a hundred fold than any bucket list!

The man passed away a week after and his wife was left with an empty nest for the second time! First, when her kids left home and the second when her husband passed away!

The Pressure Cooker

12th August, 2021, Pune, India

The Cooker as it’s referred to in India looks humble, but don’t be fooled! It is known to infuse mass terror in its fan base! The first thing to be introduced to budding chefs or ‘teach me to handle a pressure cooker to save me from dying of hunger’ students who are leaving for greener pastures abroad – the pressure cooker is respected and revered in every Indian household!

Just as I’m writing this, I am distracted with the cooker seetis that are shouting furiously to grab my attention and make me look out of the window! It’s the neighbors, mostly dal and chawal, but smells heavenly!😌

The seeti has its own terror mechanism! I’m sure it can be heard even by the biggies when they go for a space trip and do the stone, paper, scissor on which of them, Elon, Richard or Jeff are going to put the cooker off so that it stops getting so dramatic. Either that or when either of their mom yells at the top of her voice to put it off! 😂😂

On a rainy evening, when you are too tired to order or cook anything, the cooker makes sure it reminds you of your childhood days when the only task was to ensure that after 3 seetis, you have to simmer the gas and reach there to do just that before the fourth seeti starts! 😆

Learning how to close the lid of the cooker is another art! You have to know just how to twist it and make sure you understand how it fits and gets locked! Then there is the important matter of the right vessel that goes in for rice and dal with the right lid or the whole thing is going to spill over and look like some royal soup! 🥴

The first thing to go in your travel bag, the cooker brings amazing memories to you! The time when you got home from school and had hot dal chawal with ghee and that was nirvana or when mom/dad made the yummiest masoor usal which discreetly smelled of mutton masala and that teared you up. How can something smell and taste so heavenly? P.S – Happy Shravan! 😉

Is the cooker a magic pot? Can I make a wish? I stop here or I could go on! ☺️The cooker stays with me! You go reminisce over yours!

The Reader’s Block

11th Aug, 2021, Pune

Have you ever heard of a reader’s block? Well, it definitely exists! Just like every writer faces a ‘Writer’s Block’ – when the words just don’t seem to flow and you are at a creative standstill, you procrastinate till the deadline consumes you and then you hustle like crazy! The reader’s block blindsides you, completely and throws you off the cliff! A tad overdramatic, yes, but true!

The reader’s block is when you have tons of books in front of you – the likes of Kafka On The Shore, Wonder, The Comfort Book and yet there is a hesitancy to read either one of them? Let me tell you, the reading has begun, but it has not consumed you totally. You stop and stare, take a moment, is there a thirst to multi-read just like multi-task or then to not read at all!

Is reading overrated? Are we all so fixated on visual content that lasts for 30 secs and we don’t have the patience to read a whole book leave alone a short post? How does the reader’s block end? Do we turn off all social distractions, dump the phone and read in solitude? Have picked up Pandeymonium and have not put it down yet! Fingers crossed to ending my reader’s block! Abrupt afterword! Freed, Read, Red, Road!

About Aie

8th Aug, Pune, India

The thing that she most loves is dipping a slice of Kayani’s choco-walnut cake in a huge mug of chai and tasting that soaked bite with relish that brings absolute content to those Sunday mornings! She calls out to me when I wear shorts at home and prance around as if it’s my kingdom. It is my kingdom, but ruled by her. 😉 She is meticulous to a fault. Always scavenging for dirtied clothes that have been discarded and not found their way to the washing machine, courtesy her grandsons.

Her morning routine is set, have chai, dress up and go for a 45 minute walk, make small talk with the regulars, get sniffed for new smells by the two doggos – that’s Rog and Cokes and slide down my car wipers after they’ve been bathed by my car wash guy! She has raised her sons all alone since 1985 after she lost her husband to a heart attack. Her favourite are chicken hakka noodles, ofcourse made by yours truly and she is excellent when it comes to calculation and communication!

What else do you need in a mother-in-law who lets you have your space? I admire her from afar since she abhors physical contact and I am probably the only one privy to hugging and kissing her other than her granddaughters! Why am I writing a plog on her today, just, no reason! If I ever need a different perspective on life decisions, she will narrate one of her stories that actually get the matter home quickly! She and me are same in a lot ways but we do hold on to our individuality tenaciously! Guess that’s what we admire the most in each other! ☺️