Skip to main content

A Quiet Corner: Notes from a Desk at 30,000 Reads

A message to all my readers  When I first began writing down my stories in this quiet space, it was nothing more than an open diary. A place to put memories that needed somewhere to rest, reflections gathered over a lifetime, and thoughts that felt too personal—or perhaps simply too ordinary—to share in conversation. Conventional wisdom often suggests that personal musings rarely accomplish much on the wider internet. There are no frameworks here, no quick advice, and no polished agendas. Just the raw textures of life as I have experienced it: the sudden turns, the quiet routines, the moments of doubt, and the steady work of beginning again. Recently, as a small corner quietly crossed 30,000 reads, I paused to look more closely at the numbers. What moved me was not just the milestone itself, but where those visits were coming from. While some readers join from home here in India, so many of you are reading from entirely different corners of the earth—from Singapore across the seas ...
Post a Comment

THE SILVER LINING




Holiday Reading was a wonderful concept in my children’s school. They were given a book to read in English and Hindi during summer vacations, and then their understanding was tested, and later prizes were showered during the annual function, which again were books. These books were classics, and a few were even contemporary; I, too, got to read new kinds of literature with them.

The curriculum in ICSE and ISC when I studied was relentless. There was A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Richard the Second, and Mayor of Casterbridge in successive years. I reminisced to my boys. They seemed to find it incredibly amusing that their mother performed poorly in the subject. To add salt to my injury, my grandfather even shared a school report card that stated “Needs to work hard in English” and a grade of 4, marked in red, describing the inevitable. This report card remains the only family heirloom of my academic record, despite being in tatters now.

There’s a silver lining to every cloud. Besides a comment for English, there was “Diligent in Science. Keep it up!” in the remark section. This report card had let the floodgates open, and no consolation was sufficient to stop the deluge of emotions, as far as I remember.

As I write, I can only think of the source of motivation for this one-liner. It stays with me even today, after four decades, despite its tattered condition. Ever since, I have worked on my English and taken Science as the stream of my profession to make a living.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHATSAPP FORWARDS

"You will not read any of my WhatsApp messages and so it is useless to send you anything.” My mother said to me. I acknowledged her by my silence mentally reciting," I read all that you sent to me". So, here I am busy reading all about Indian spices and medicinal herbs used as daily household ingredients, thereby indulging in more studies on naturopathy as compared to any other ‘pathy’ which has side effects. I speed dialled my mother when my patient refused to undergo the procedure of scaling to clean her teeth in favour of 'alum', or "phitkari," a desi nuskha. No wonder patients shirk away from scaling. I ruminate. "I just called you up to confirm if you WhatsApped something to my patient "I vented. Ever since, I have been scrolling through all her erstwhile messages to know more about natural healthier medicaments, their benefits and roles in dentistry and health. Oh! WhatsApp was not there when I was a student. No wonder, my gold ...
18 comments
Read more

THE FRUIT OF LABOR

Notification alerts continued one after the other and I knew it had to be my sister. Next morning her WhatsApp did not seem so interesting. Thank God! I never got up at midnight to see these. There were images of mud, plants and potatoes. Nothing new, I put it aside without a thought and sipped my early morning tea. As I read further, scrolling down the images was her excited note on her home grown organic potatoes. Now that was a bait I asked her "miraculous, since when have you started all this". "While composting for my garden I had accidentally left a potato in the garbage ditch. This was my discovery just today" she answered and I could imagine her admiring those potatoes. "Great guns," I responded. The matter rested after this for a few months. The feathers were ruffled again as she posted images of tomato, eggplants and potato plants neatly planted along the sidewalls, her today's endeavor .Thanks to our family group messaging system, ginger a...
13 comments
Read more

INHERITANCE

As a student I had to commute in local buses as prevalent during those times. My wait for the arrival of the next bus forced me to notice an old lady curiously observing me. I pretended to ignore her but still found myself to be a subject of her curiosity. Undeterred she stared, unabashed I turned my back towards her, only to find her blatantly changing sides to face me again. Realizing my awkwardness in avoiding her she questioned me about my grandparents and excitedly mentioned my mother’s name to confirm my filial descent. She then introduced herself as an old neighbour of my grandparents who had seen my mother as a teenager and my resemblance to her. Thank God! I whispered as I took a seat and bade a farewell to my new acquaintance. Genetics and not Facebook turned out to be the most potent tool in uniting the long-lost, figures in my mind.  As I was having my morning walk session, I could see groups of people performing yoga and yet another group indulged in a discourse on a...
10 comments
Read more