Girl with the Pink Pen

As I walk my way to Malone's Irish Bar, sleepy and tired, I somehow feel a sense of relief at my first dissertation submission for the session. It has been 3 months already since I came to this enchanting city.. 3 months full of new experiences and diverse emotions.. Meeting some of the most interesting mix of people.. I still remember it like it was yesterday that I walked out of the airport, the chilling cold breeze lifted my spirits with the excitement of the year to come.. A warm smile on my lips... Winter has set in.. 3 pm and it is dark already.. As I come to the entrance of the Meadows I suddenly halt.. there is a sense of  anxiety  that overpowers me.. I am familiar with this feeling but have not felt it since I arrived in this city.. I wonder why there is this shiver in my spine.. and suddenly the quiet loneliness fills me up.. My brain has already set in action the reactions to this anxiety.. all my senses are heightened.. my heartbeat is racing.. I keep loo...

"Is it 6 am already?!" Smita thought to herself as she placed the pillow over her ears to drown the noise of her mother's calls to wake her up. After what seemed like only a few moments, she was pulled out of bed by her mother, wailing and kicking, and pushed into the shower to get dressed for school.. Listening to her granddaughter Smita sulk and shuffle her feet as she headed out the door to school, Ramya was reminded of those times when she was back in Rajkot, almost two decades ago.  Each morning, her mother would come in the room which she shared with her sister Bhavya to open the curtains and let the sunlight seep in. That day too, Ramya tried to turn over and steal those few extra minutes to sleep in while Bhavya and Nakul, her older brother, would get ready.  Today was no different...making Ramya feel glad that she was the youngest.  Slowly, as Ramya crawled out of bed and into the shower she suddenly heard a commotion from outside her room. She quickly dri...

On a pleasant spring evening all four of us squeezed onto the bed together watching television, having conversations and just being together! This was the routine for every weekend that my brother and I visited home from college. As it came close to 4.30 pm, Mom Dad started getting ready for their evening walk when something on television caught my Mom's attention... It was a show on Breast Cancer Awareness on one of the Lifestyle channels. A group of women shared their experiences of dealing with the disease. Each experience was different. While some talked about dealing with the disease, others focused on the disease and creating awareness about catching it on time. Something there seemed to have struck a cord with my mother. As she later recalled, she was well aware about Breast Cancer and had been having regular mammograms and self examinations until somewhere the family took over her life and taking care of herself took a back seat. The next morning after we all left for our r...

A dog lover since childhood, my husband was known to adopt strays in the colony, feed and care for them. Although he always longed to bring one of them in, his parents would hear nothing of it. Along came Whitey and everything changed. Born in one of the quiet corners of Sector A, Pocket A Vasant Kunj, Whitey was a fiesty little thing. The story of how Whitey found a home in Gaurav's room is his fiesty nature...something Gaurav says they both share ;) As the story goes, Gaurav, while in college in Bangalore would see Whitey on his visits home during the holidays. Whitey would walk and play and follow Gaurav and his friends while they walked around the colony during their late night hang out sessions. He was a very territorial dominant dog, and with these young boys by him, he felt even more confident to conquer the streets! This continued for a few years till Gaurav completed his education and moved back to Delhi. Now Whitey along with his docile lovable companion Browney decided ...

Stuck in a traffic jam on my way to work today, I looked into the rear-view window of the car to find a man sheepishly smile as he caught my eye and then slyly winking at me his smile slowly grew into a grin. As my blood began to boil, I looked into the mirror again to find him staring back at me, proud of his deed, confident that I could do nothing to him. The fact is, I could not get myself to get out the car to say a word to him. Although my brain had many scenarios of what I can do to give the guy a piece of my mind, I did not have the courage for any of it. I tried to justify my lack of reaction to myself without much success for through all the reasons I gave myself, I knew perfectly well the only person I was trying to fool was me. I said so many things to him under my breath, kept thinking of all the words I wanted to use at him, how much I wanted him to feel ashamed of how he made me feel. In the same instant, somehow I wanted him to learn compassion and understa...