dreamland

Neetu sat patiently waiting for him to come. She looked around but could not see him. She hoped he will come before his parents came home. This was her little secret that she cherished. She knew that her parents would never approve of this. She didn’t want to get caught when these moments gave her the happiness she has been yearning for. It was not that her parents were bad, it was just that they were strict and wanted her to study and be the “good girl”. She had always wanted them to approve of what she does but they were too busy to notice this. Being a single child, she felt bored at home doing everything herself. All her friends lived quite far and she was not allowed to go alone to meet them. The one time she had thrown tantrum to go to her friend’s place, her mother had made her sit in the dining table and tried to explain the “safety” reasons of not allowing her to go alone. But it didn’t help her mood and only made her angrier. She still remembered the day she met him...

As the princess  (she is called this by her friends but I have always seen her dress unlike-princess!)sat in front of laptop, I peeped from behind and saw her google for shrieking shower and found the answer as "faulty faucets". Bless these new technologies and the technical terms it keeps throwing! Soon the Biker(I have always seen him with camera and not bike!) came and they laughed over the shower incident and slept off. I wondered how long these 2 new folks will stick on here. This was my place and all the previous folks who stayed had left this house thinking it was some kind of bad omen but then they never realized that it was because of me! The next day again, princess got scared of the shower for a second and then reminding biker to get a plumber to fix it, both of them left. With the whole house to myself, I started snooping around. They had not unpacked everything but the 1st things I saw outside were some kind of strips of colorful papers and glues etc even ...

How life can change in a week! And that too in a total mixed bag. On one end we were celebrating the arrival of a new joy to our family and very soon on the other end, tearful farewell to another soul! Mind and heart needs the power to handle and deal with situations that we have to face suddenly. And such times are the ones when you see your parents and uncles/aunts at their emotional breakdown and you realize that you need to step up and take care of them and the roles have slowly reversed! There are times I wonder why life is cruel also. I got a chance to visit Vishranthi yesterday. It’s a place of destitute women. What started as a small Monday afternoon ladies club of meeting and sharing ideas and recipes and having “ladies time” soon turned to a charitable trust which led to this place called Vishranthi . Right now providing shelter for 170 women, this is one of the well known homes being run in Chennai. Ironically, the woman who started this amazing servic...