Newerways

  You always say you don’t see many movies but still, you seem to have seen every one of them’ commented my husband. ‘Yes I used to see all the movies in my younger years that came on television and besides this, we have always been blessed to stay in houses which had cinema halls just within walking distance. Living in a joint family with uncles and aunts was an additional privilege too. The good old days are gone. Never mind, we now have theatres in every house. The fifty-five-inch screens and the Netflix, accentuated by home theatre systems suffice for the theatres. Soon I too disappeared into my phone, tablet and the next smart thing, all too tempting to disengage. Google's recommendation to watch ten movies before Netflix decided to remove them drew my attention to a classic. It was a recommendation also once from my sister, by name it was a woman-oriented movie and not one but two women and lastly, it appeared in the comedy section. I was all eyes and ears to ‘Julie and Juli...

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...