A Cup of Tea & Biscuits

I am afraid. Thirty-two thousand feet in the air, warm and comfortable in a blanket, some coffee, a drink and food at hand, the only confession I can make and admit to myself is that I am terrified. Of all the things I just left behind and the choice I’m hurtling towards. My heart is in my throat right now and I cannot stop the tears that I keep dabbing away. Less than an hour ago, I boarded a plane from Chicago to Seattle. As I went past security, a TSA agent asked me if I was heading home. I found myself tongue-tied. I was leaving home. A place I made my home in and going away. A conscious decision, I should add, but I was still leaving. For nearly 6 months now I’ve known this was bound to happen. Two months ago I signed certain papers and it became official. As I revealed the news to those closest to me, it slowly began to sink in that I wouldn’t see them again. Some of my best friends had already left Chicago and while I felt their absence keenly, it never struck me as a fina...

Also adapted & published on Medium . For years on end, I have signed up for reading challenges. Ok, scratch that. A few years ago, probably when I started working in 2011, I realized that I was reading fewer books. News, editorials, and essays I continued to read online, but never really books even though I continuously bought them. It was about that same time that Goodreads first wandered into my general awareness and off I went - creating lists, finding books I owned, read, wanted to read, etc. This included books I owned, borrowed from the library, friends, picked from at the office share-a-book shelf, pilfered (didn't do that)... I liked it! Watching my lists grow, knowing that I still hadn't accounted for several hundreds of books that I've covered in all my years of reading - which, I have on good authority, is a good 20 years now! Anyway, around that same time is when I figured I ought to challenge myself if only to prove that I genuinely was consuming as...

Consider this book for what it is - the transcript of a play, based on one of the most popular fictional storylines to have ever been written. And yet, it does not live up to that expectation. Of a play. I'd like to think of myself as part of the generation that grew up with Harry Potter . Physically, I mean not just in terms of reading. The character itself is actually older than me, but I was only a few years older than Harry when I read the Philosopher's Stone, and 21 when the story ended. Supposedly. When the Cursed Child was announced, it not only took me by surprise but also filled me with a certain apprehension of how much to expect from rehashing a story that ended on a note of closure. I was in England the day the book was released and having pre-ordered and picked it up at Hatchard's (with the nerd in me doing cartwheels), I settled in - with cupcakes and wine - to read this much-awaited sequel to the series that was the means of introducing me to my now best frie...

Finding solace in places like this, I am at peace with myself Also adapted & published on Medium . As a somewhat seasoned (luxury) traveler, there is very little that can bother me in means of making plans and traveling on a day’s notice. Or a few hours as it happened once. I have a small vanity bag packed at all times with essentials, and this can truly be brought down to just my contact lenses. Everything else can be purchased at my destination. From weekend trips to month-long vacations, I am quite at ease. A mental checklist and alarms set for any morning flights are mostly enough. But, I still remember my first trip. The one I took on my own - decided, planned and executed on my own. It is quite an intimidating task and it takes courage to go through with it. With my measly first bonus check, I picked Seattle as the destination of my first jaunt. Why Seattle ? Because very few people choose to go there as their first vacation spot. A month before the trip, I signed u...

If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. – Japanese Proverb A common tea time ritual, when measuring out tea leaves to be steeped, is always some number of tablespoons to serve and one for the teapot. This is how a tea pot builds its character. Perhaps it’s one that has been handed down a generation, or few, when it will naturally be  too  characterful or a brand new shiny pot that is waiting for its infusion. And so life goes on. With a mix of inherited behavior and newer ones being created. My first ever lesson in life comes from family. I am an only child, though the first millennial born of my (maternal) family. A second generation Bangalorean, this meant I did grow up with quite the finer things in life because it was the firm belief of my parents, and grandparents, that every generation of the family should be better off than the previous. This thought process seems a sensible one to me. A simple example here - Grandpa was ...

"It feels like I'm experiencing someone else's dream. Like we're simultaneously sharing feelings. But I can't really grasp what it means to be simultaneous. Our feelings seem extremely close, but in reality there's a considerable gap between us." - Aomame Had I known, before I borrowed the book, that 1Q84 was approximately 920 pages, I might not have read it. I would have, in all honesty, picked up the Lord of the Rings again in preparation for The Hobbit. But I had already checked it out and I obviously could not put it away. [ Writing out a quick summary of this novel is going to be quite a task for me because there are so many details in it that I would love to include. I must, however, try and keep it short, so I will simply restrict myself to sharing my thoughts and opinions of the book ]. The plot of the novel is quite large though it essentially boils down to a love story that persists through 20 years of time and finds closure in the alternate real...

My mind, the part of it that appreciates a good book, was rather wary and numb of mainstream portrayal of vampires and their kin. It's too much glitter and falling into arms of an immortal one who will protect the helpless heroine for all eternity going on there. It may be what makes them read by all and produce a senseless fan gathering, but it has not allowed imagination grow. Therein lay my mindset when I picked up Vampire Empire by Clay and Susan Griffith. The blurb on the back of   book set my expectations - as simple as it seemed. I was so pleasantly taken in, hooked and surprised. This trilogy, titled Vampire Empire , written by Clay and Susan Griffith , begins with the premise that the Great Killing of 1870 pitted the entire world into a horrifying war. A plague, if you will, of vampires. Millions of humans died at the hands of the parasites while the aftermath ensured the death of more. Empires were brought down and humanity driven to the edge of despair. Vampires settled ...