Whispering Shadow

There is rarely a time when you hear the alarm ring at 4:00 AM in the morning and wake up to do something more than just turning it off. At least for night birds like me, it is pretty close to impossible. Exceptions to this case are times when you have something extremely exciting up your sleeve and the thought drives all the lethargy and sleep away. On last Monday, it was truly the latter because on that day, Matheran beckoned. Yes, I was up and raring to go at the break of dawn. Ting-tong, "CST se Karjat jaane waali 5:53 ki dheemi local platform kramank ek par aa rahi hai." In no time, we found ourselves at Ghatkopar station, waiting for our train. Wait, when did I become we? My bunch of trekkers included a geek G, a topper T, a bubbly chirpy animal (strictly metaphorical) B, the youngest youngling Y, the mean M (Hindu astrology) and a makeshift Supandi that was, S. Here on I will only use the alphabets to refer to my fellow trekkers, in case I am forced to, not for rea...

We reached Dasturi chowk , the entry point to the hill station. Whoever told us it was 6 km should have been shot dead because the sign board there showed Neral was 9 km downhill. We were so hungry that at that time, the only thing that was on our mind was lunch, so we delayed the shooting bit to a while later. We found a reasonably decent restaurant and got ourselves something to eat. Dal fry and jeera rice never tasted so good before. All the time we ate, we had to be on the lookout for the monkeys, because they were all over the place and trying to find a way into the restaurant. We were over-conscious after having under-estimated Mawali. With our stomachs full, we reconsidered our plans with regards to what were we going to do while in Matheran keeping in mind the time we had on our hands. We decided we will walk it up to Charlotte lake which was another 4 km from where we currently where. This time we took the mini-train track leading to bazaar peth and from there on the jungle...

The age of 60 is when most people retire in our country. It represents a change in life from the 9-5 routine to the 5-9 routine. Nonetheless, in the current context, when I say 60, I am not talking about the age of an individual and when I say retirement, I don't mean to imply retirement in the true sense. I am referring to the age of an independent India and the withdrawal of the rusty mindset that chains dynamism and the progress of a budding nation. The average age of politicians in India is way above the world average. Yes, we have a stable government, unlike majority of our neighbours and we are a very strong democracy, but is the current governance truly the epitome of the axiom ‘of the people, by the people, for the people?’ We still have politicians who came first on stage during the freedom struggle. With all due respect to their efforts, the big question remains whether their vision is still coherent with the needs of a rapidly developing economy. We are taught the new e...

Trips to the dentist can be rarely classified as happy memories. I have had many experiences on that ominous mechanised chair, but few match the gory nature of the one which follows in the coming lines. Read further if you don't mind it getting a little disgusting at times, but then I have spiced it up enough to make it entertaining. There are a few things, looking at which, you can't help but ask yourself the question - "What is the reason for its existence?" A Wisdom tooth is definitely one of them. What's the wisdom behind having a tooth which serves no real purpose but adds to your agony (not always though in most cases)! To top it all, you don't have one, but four whole wisdom teeth. Besides, a completely unrelated query comes to my head when I write this. Does any one know why it is called a 'wisdom' tooth out of all things? Mine too had been contributing to my share of problems. Mine was indented beyond repair, so it left my dear dentist with no...