Pongal and others

January 26, 2026.Reading time 6 minutes.

I visited my mum for Pongal last week, not at her condominium, but at her final resting home. Pongal was an important celebration for my mum. It marked the beginning of the Thai month, which I, for the longest time thought, was the first month of the Indian calendar. Mainly as it falls in January, which […]

Thevaya

January 12, 2026.Reading time 6 minutes.

I learnt a new word from a local radio station, while I was driving. It was the Tamil word for necessary. I wasn’t particularly concentrating but I think the DJ said something about trying to teach listeners one Tamil word per day. A ‘learn-a-word-a-day’ sort of thing. As it sounded interesting and a bit of […]

A new year

January 5, 2026.Reading time 6 minutes.

Another new year. No big resolutions. No big wants. No big expectations. For me, 2026 will be a good enough year if I can carry on doing the things I did in 2025. Do a bit more of what I didn’t do as much as I would have liked to. Plus, one or two that […]

Control and choices

December 29, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

I knew it all along. And yet, I didn’t quite allow myself to think, understand, and accept it. It took more than a year after my mum had passed, and several books, mainly fiction about relationships, love, emotions, time travel, death, and the harbinger of death, who knew there was such a thing, that I […]

Happy events

November 17, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

My husband and I were invited to two graduation ceremonies. The graduates were my nieces, number 4 and 5, brother number 2’s daughters. Coincidentally both sisters had their graduation in early November. One on the 1st, the other on the 13th. 1st November was niece number 5’s big day. She got a First in Mechanical […]

Vehicle spotting

November 3, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

I am not the most observant person going. I remember my mum asking me if I had seen this or that person wearing this or that, usually jewellery or something fancy or new, and nine out of ten times, I wouldn’t have/didn’t. She was flabbergasted at my ‘ability’ to not notice people and/or what was […]

My mum’s celebration

October 20, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

It’s Deepavali today. I’ve been thinking about my mum for a while now. How excited she got at every Deepavali. It was her celebration. She said and reiterated how Deepavali was the main event in her life. Not Ponggal, Thaipusam or even her birthday. Nope, it was Deepavali. From childhood, all through her married life […]

Conversations

October 13, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

I’m not a talker or so I tell myself. I considered if that was true. I do talk. I ask questions. I engage in conversations. At work or rather when I used to work, I was vocal and I was heard. As a journalist, I asked or shouted out questions, depending on the situation. One-on-one […]

‘What to do’

October 6, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

‘What to do’ is my perennial lament. I have wondered this aloud many times. Usually for matters that are outside my scope of comprehension, beyond my control or just … don’t know. And, they can be stuff that happen at the micro, personal level or the macro, national or global level. Anyway, I say this […]

Thinking of my Booby

September 22, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

My days are quite full. I try to only do things that I can and want to. And, in amongst all of that, I think of my mum. I do. In the morning, during the day, when I go to bed. She’s permanently etched in my head and heart. Next Saturday, she would have […]