That Which Matters
Ephemeral thoughts on eternal ideas
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When Things Fall Apart
My life has fallen apart a few times. Or it has felt like that every time I have had a heartbreak, and I have had a few of those. Not all of them were romantic. The most difficult ones were with my mother, father and brother. Three years ago there were a series of heartbreaks, […]
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Sukoon Ki Talaash Mein
It was a few days after my mother passed away and things were falling apart. I came across this spoken poem which poignantly captured my struggle to live in this difficult, difficult world. Here is the video, followed by some of my ephemeral thoughts to go with it. This is a powerful, nuanced poem, packing […]
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Single. On Purpose.
“So it begins, the great battle of our time.” Gandalf, Lord of the Rings Two months ago, I created my profile on Hinge and Bumble. It said I was divorced. Technically that was not entirely true. I was divorcing, in the present continuous, but it was a nuance too hard to explain, and it felt […]
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Discovering INFJ
There were two instances in my life when my jaw dropped as I read something online. The first was when I chanced upon The Necessary Teacher Training College in Denmark while I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was a totally wacky four-year program, the highlight of which was a four-month […]
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Birthing Without Fear
In the early hours of 15th January, the day the city would celebrate Pongal, twin boys were born to us. They were identical twins and their birth weights were 2 kg and 2.2 kg respectively. They came into this world seven minutes apart and the second one had been in breech position. The delivery was […]
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Amidst the Cacophony of Hatred
As the evening sun was setting in the village of Devdungari, Rajasthan, Shankar Singhji and his band of three young men broke into song with their loud baritone voices reaching out into the darkening sky. Sung with equal passion and humour, against the background of a simple mud hut that was the crucible in which […]
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Learning the Craft of Teaching
In my first year as a teacher, I was fortunate to chance upon Kamala Mukunda’s book What did You Ask at School Today? From the chapter titled ‘Motivation’ I gained a perspective (perhaps not intended by the author) that has shaped my teaching practice over the past three years. Broadly speaking, students seem to align themselves along […]
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The Courage To Teach
In 1998, when I was a graduate student of Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I took two courses: Education Psychology and Educational Administration. My heart was set on teaching but I didn’t know how to make the shift from a career in tech to a career working with children. As I was grappling […]
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Baptism of a Boy Miss!
The buildings were the same. So were some of the faces. The Nagalingam tree with its deliciously fragrant flowers, the majestic banyan tree and the large neem tree guarding the slide near junior school were all reassuring memories. It seemed as if things had not changed much, that this was the same place where I […]
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101 Conversations with My Daughter
At the breakfast table A: M, we are going to have a surprise in 3 months. M (mouth wide open): “What surprise?” A: A baby is going to be born. M: Yeaaaaa! A: The surprise is that we don’t know if it will be a boy or a girl. We will know only after it […]