Mental Excursions

Lockdown hangover Ten weeks is a long time on any calendar. It witnesses a change in length of the day, season, food and diet, clothes, sometimes even style of working. Come to think of it, it is longer than the life span of a few thousand creatures on our planet. No wonder, the lockdown period has spelled out the boundaries of human limitations, changing the meanings of common words like normal, office, social life, entertainment, even health and wealth, knocking our lives for a six like no war, political turmoil or social revolution could ever do. The time has brought about an earthquake-like change in our lives. Now as the end of lockdown (sadly though, not Covid infections yet as we see or even as say the soothsayers) comes close, the dimmer goes the light at the end of my tunnel. I confess that even while living a cocooned house-bound life I have missed out on a few simple pleasures of life during the shutdown period. Grocery: A necessity-driven sh...

Summer Vacation! OMG! (This week is only for kids.) Some days ago, Pallavi, an HR executive and a former neighbor, sent me a message about how children were the worst-hit, not only by the Covid-19 scare, but by the lockdown, and the restrictions imposed on their movements therefore. I did not think much about it. But over the days whenever I heard the sounds of footsteps and running around, pulling and screeching of furniture and dropping of things in the flat above ours, I slowly became aware of that. In this time of social distancing those noises bring a smile to my face as I imagine the owners of those footsteps being what they are and the parents either wholly ignoring them or getting really irritated. Now my dear friend Shalini Sinha, Principal, Study Hall School, tells me the summer vacation has officially started and the new school session would start on June 29. That means officially no more school till then (And nobody knows when children will be able to go ...

Akhbaar Aaya? (Is the newspaper here?) Do you like the rustle of long sheets of unwieldy printed paper in your hands with your morning cup of tea? Is the process of waking up incomplete for you without either tea/coffee and newspaper? In these times of internet do you still like to read the newspaper? And do you keep going back to pick up the paper and read, reread or check something throughout the day. Many of us still enjoy reading the dead tree version even though the news updates are available on smart phones and other hand-held devices and no doubt, both the paper and the phone, are equally portable. Some people do, also complain that they do not enjoy reading from a screen. Does Kindle give you the same feeling as reading a book you are holding in your hand? A reminder of what newspapers offer after all. Latest Updates and News  – Most of us want to know what is happening in our city, state, country and the world. The newspaper brings them all together at o...