Whispering Shadow

I am a self-confessed net-a-holic now but I wasn’t so once upon a time. So much so that I would only have a very selective list of individuals on my list, the ones I interacted with personally everyday. There would be the plain ‘wassup’ messages and the same old ‘nm’ replies. If you meet someone everyday and talk to them at least thrice over the phone when you are not with them, there’s barely stuff left to discuss online. I moved to India . I was all alone at least during the first few months. Having nothing better to do, I started experimenting by talking to people who I didn’t know personally. Not the ones you meet in chat rooms but friends of friends of friends or some long lost person whose name I heard in school. We started of as strangers but soon, I would know them so well that they would get a new status in my social hierarchy - that of net pals. It was not that the bond lasted forever, but yes there were a few precious ones who I held on to and am still friends with even ...

Yesterday, I found out how it is to be completely transported a different world. No sounds from the street. No phone calls. No thoughts of the impending exam. Just pure exhilaration, the kinds which you cannot see on your television set but only feel in the stands. I am talking of the T20 spectacle between Chennai and Mumbai which I witnessed recently. Before the match, I was confused which team to support. As far as cricket went, I knew my loyalty was with the Indian team but I had not yet made up my mind among the teams in the Indian Premier league. At the venue I realised I didn't have much of a choice. From the moment I stepped in to the end of the match, the crowd was only supporting one team - The Mumbai Indians. The Chennai Superkings were lost for support. I have been to a cricket match before but the T20 atmosphere was electric. Even before the match started the music kept the crowd going. The dhols and cheerleaders added to the fervor.People had started filling in th...

I had only read about old people being stubborn and child-hearted at their age until I started living with my grandparents. Fifty years separate them and me and it is quite substantial for a generation gap. But the trouble is it is not about a late night party or a trip to Goa, it is about the most basic of basic issues, like taking medicine or not exerting. If you had to think for reasons for not taking a pill, what could they be? It is bitter. It is giving me loose motions. Or worst come worst, I just can't swallow them. But here I here reasons like: Wednesday is not a good day to take medicine. This pill will give me a haemorrhage. The gold drops recommended by xyz relative are working just fine. The doctor doesn't know his job. You can only win a debate if someone is willing to argue. If there are two parallel arguments without any common grounds it becomes impossible to even debate, forget winning. Age on their side gives them the edge of seniority. Seniority means they ca...