Flapping Footsteps

  While in my twenties and even in my early marriage days, I was not prepared for a parenthood and neither was my wife. We wanted to travel places, party hard and have a good time before we get stuck with the monotonous routine. I kept on pushing it ahead and it is not like I hate kids. In fact, I love and adore them, but I just did not feel I was ready to handle it myself. So, when I and my wife decided to have a baby, I was excited for the next chapter of our life. Just like many expecting parents, our talks and thoughts were all focused on the baby and its health. The good music to soothe him/her down, to have good food, to be happy and experience this beautiful phase of life. All the excitement running through our veins with the sonography tests and staying unknown to the gender of the baby made it even more exciting. I always liked it that way. A surprise is always fun so why reveal the gender until the D-day arrives. Talking to the baby and feeling it roll inside the womb w...

Back in the mid-2014, while I was about to get hitched, I really wanted our honeymoon to be special. Being a travel addict, and smitten by beautiful landscapes and culture, I am always eager to explore new lands. While I was thinking about the place to wind down after the big fat Indian wedding, I was keener on exploring some place in India than an international trip. But life had some other plans and we ended up booking ourselves for Bali. I did an extensive research on the itinerary with the help of a friend who had been there a year back. And so there we were exploring the beauty of Bali. When one starts exploring Bali, they can truly make out why it’s called as The Land of Gods. An Artist in Ubud From beautiful turquoise water to the volcanic mountains to the cliff side temples to the rice paddy fields and beautiful music, its truly a place that hits your wanderlust chord. As soon as we land in Bali, we get to see the war statues depicted from the Hindu epic Mahabharata ...

               Me and my friends have been doing a monsoon trip every year. It has been a ritual for us no matter we meet some other time of the year or not, but this trip short/long doesn’t matter, we all go and have a good time. It all began with a random trip we took in the monsoons to Mahabaleshwar couple years back and the fun we had has been itched in our minds forever. From there on, every monsoon was eagerly waited for a new place to be explored. For the last 2 years, this ritual is broken and it’s not like an effort was never made but somehow, it just didn’t happen. However, I knew I’d get sometime by the end of year and had already geared up friends to make themselves available, no matter what!! And it was affirmatively agreed upon right away. We all started looking for places where we could ride to for a weekend since that was the only time where all of us could fit in. The priority for this trip was a...

               Last weekend I was at a wedding with my dad and we were killing time between the Wedding and Reception. He realized that he saw a decent vegetable market on the way but doesn’t recollect where it was. So, we asked the Security person at the venue Bhaiya Vegetable market kahan hai? (Where is the Vegetable market?). And he responded Sidha jao aur signal se Right lena (Go straight up to the junction and take a Right) but his hand gesture suggested the opposite. Dad got confused and it just made me laugh as it reminded me of the day when we had one crazy time with the Odds. I told dad he meant Left as the words that come out of mouth could go wrong, but the body language is always in the right direction. We reached the junction and took a Left. The market was right there as the hand suggested. We got our stuff and, on our way back, dad asked what made you laugh. I told dad about that crazy day as it...