my life, my stories

It has been a few days since the incident and yet the details have left me flummoxed. Sherlock Holmes was right when he says that ‘ for strange effects and extra ordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination ’. It is quoted from the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the case of the red headed league, and inspired by the lines, I share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life. A few days back as I reached the hostel mess for lunch I was met with...

Chumma , a word hitherto heard only in the dark bylanes of Mumbai or delhi, followed by a few cat calls and whistles. A word which makes every girls hair stand on end and is a word firmly associated with the obnoxious road side romeo. Yet Chumma enjoys an exalted position with the doctors here in Madurai. Chumma in Tamil means ‘ just like that ’ or ‘ainvayyi ‘ in hindi. If the word ‘ Ainvayyi ‘ has made it to every ones lingo because of the movie ‘Band baaja baarat’ then the word ‘ Chumma’ definitely deserves a place right up there with ‘ Kolaveri di ’. Sentences which seem everyday and colloquially common, take on a lascivious and edgy twist with the simple use of one word. “ Patients come with such chumma complaints .” “ We are just doing some chumma timepass.” Chumma is a common enough word amongst Tamilians, but amongst us ‘north Indians residing in Tamil Nadu’ it is all the rage. Especially amongst the doctors, I feel. A race which is upheld for its inherent decen...

They both sat gazing at the moon. It was just past sunset and the sky was turning from gold to vermillion, soon it would be an inky blue and then darkness. They both stared ahead, looking and yet unfocusedly staring into nothing. Sitting on their wicker chairs , with a wicker table between them. The table held empty bowls of Jhalmuri. It was a summer evening and they were glad for the hint of breeze which had beckoned the evening. It was a full moon and the moon was large on the horizon. He thought' Almost like the younger sister of the sun , '. Yes, it was a ch...