My mum’s schedule

March 1, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

As my mum’s carer, I spend a fair amount of time with her. I pop down to see her about four times a day as she lives on a lower floor in the same condominium as my husband and me. I know her schedule. She is up between 5-5.30am every morning. Yes, that’s correct. I’m […]

Birthday countdown

February 22, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

Its 31 days to my birthday. A milestone. A beginning of a new decade and an end to the previous five. Am I keeping track by drawing lines and crossing them out every 7th or 10th day on a wall? No, I’m not. Thanks to my dear husband, I know exactly how many days there […]

Induction into induction

February 8, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

I finally got myself an induction hob. I have been hob-less since my gas powered stove blew up on me. Even now I shudder at the thought. Expectedly that scary incident has been a little difficult to forget. It was also the reason I took my time to find a replacement. Anything but gas. The […]

Speaking at…

January 25, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

A phone call from a friend, whom I hadn’t texted or spoken to in a very long time, made me wonder about conversations. She and I, two people speaking with each other; exchanging information and updates about each other’s lives. But, that wasn’t what occurred. After asking me how I was, obligatory niceties out of the way, […]

Yellow-black banana

November 23, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

Bananas ripen and turn yellow-black before I get home from the supermarket. Mangoes develop unsightly spots as I wash, dry and store them. Tomatoes get mushy and even the hardier carrots look scruffy in a few days. Fresh and inviting in the store. Wilted and sad at home. Fresh produce become un-fresh, and spoil at an […]

Deepavali 2020

November 9, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

My mum’s most anticipated celebration is happening this Saturday, 14 November. Not easily excitable nor normally demonstrative, this is the only time of year that she’s animated with almost childlike enthusiasm. Deepavali – the Festival of Lights – has always given my mum a sense of joy and excitement. As a child, a wife, mother and […]

PHP 7 – How? What?

October 12, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

Its finally caught up with me. No more excuses. The dread of the PHP 7 upgrade. I’ve been dodging the bullet for over a year now. I’ve read enough. I know why I should upgrade/migrate. I sort of get and don’t get what I should do to make the upgrade possible. My head is blurry. […]

Memory lane

September 21, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

I love my mum. Always have. She turns 87 next Sunday. With her birthday around the corner, I was thinking more about her. As she is now. An old girl. Hearing suspect. Memory failing. Sleepy dopey. Heart and head willing, but body lagging behind. With flashes of determination and stubbornness. And, as she was many […]

Forgiving

September 14, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

I had watched the movie, ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.’ The same week, my mum told me a story about her estrangement with her stepsister’s sister-in-law. It made me think about family and friends. People, who have fallen out, and have not spoken or visited for years. Deleted from each other’s lives. With no […]

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

September 7, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ is a beautiful movie about a beautiful person – Fred Rogers. I hadn’t heard of him before and didn’t know that he was a real person when I watched the movie. I thought he was just too nice to be true. His gentle persona. His soft and slow way […]