We play favorites with the heart while other organs gaze from a distance — In many cultures that I am familiar with, the exchange of hearts implies two people are in love. This exchange could be due to the stealing of the heart of the first person by the second person without the second person having any memory of doing so. Then the first…

I have been nothing but a loyal and an active user — Facebook, it seems, deliberately shows me posts containing events and things that I can’t do or don’t have. Travel posts, posts introducing a baby to the world, wedding posts, graduation posts, celebration posts… all at the wrong time. During the Covid-19 pandemic, people were posting throwbacks about their travels to…

What was an uneasy excitement then is today a fond memory — Feeling infatuated with someone was perhaps the most exciting part of my teenage and young adult life. There are certainly some interesting benefits of one-sided romance due to an uncontrollable infatuation: You become a poet and write couplets and songs. She’s such a delight, I lose my might, when she’s in sight, what’s…

Slow and steady could win some races — People often look down upon a slow person. When in a group, they feel that the slow person is holding them back and that they could have progressed much more without that slow person. I’ve been slow all my life. But it has benefited me a lot! 1. I wasn’t…

Every queue leads to the same place — Long queues at the checkout counter in a supermarket or a mall can seem overwhelming, especially on a weekend. You have a trolley or a basket full of items for consumption over the next week and you can’t wait to get back home with all that stuff and resume your…

The day he compromised his time to save his principles — He stood at the traffic signal. He watched other two-wheeler pass him by and get onto the adjacent lane where traffic moves in the opposite direction. He knew they would block the traffic in that lane, and also that they would never realize this. Even if they did realize it…

This was my first experience, made possible due to Covid-19 — Even today, being a man in his mid-30s, I can’t say the word “condom” publicly. “Do you have a lubricant?” I asked the pharmacy guy, to begin the required conversation. I saw him unpack a box of condoms but didn’t ask for those, yet. I thought I’d piggyback my request…

Proverbs often confuse me. Sharing my thoughts on some of them as follows: A barking dog never bites: not in my experience! Failing to plan is planning to fail: What is this, a palindrome? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: who knows, two in a…

Do we really need these words? — Last week my college buddy had shared on Facebook: “On a long drive with wifey!” and tagged his wife. ‘Wifey’? I had to read that again to ensure he had said ‘wifey’ and not ‘WiFi’! Wouldn’t be surprising if the latter were true since people these days are more in…

You can not guess it — I strongly believe that a superpower is an extraordinary ability that must help that person (and perhaps other people too) in difficult situations. Super strength helps fight bullies and muggers, super speed help reach the office on time, and super invisibility helps you vanish in embarrassing situations. But the situation…

Something my mother and my wife couldn’t — Covid-19 has ruined many lives in worse ways than one could imagine. My family and I also lived in fear throughout the year 2020 and most of 2021 until we got fully vaccinated. We learned that sticking together in difficult times need not mean being physically close, and sometimes must…

It is possible to exit a classroom (or one’s wedding) without being noticed but not possible on WhatsApp — Leaving a WhatsApp group is like someone blowing a trumpet and making a big announcement when someone leaves an ongoing meeting or a lecture. If you leave any active WhatsApp group, within a couple of hours you are bombarded with messages that flood your WhatsApp. Those who either ignored you…