Quo Vadis?

This post is about something that polarizes people coming from Tamilnadu. This is the famous pongal. I am not talking about the festival, there are no doubts about it, Pongal is the most important Tamil festival. This post is about the breakfast staple “ven pongal” or kara pongal that is loved and hated equally.  I am on the side that loves it with a caveat. I prefer to eat pongal with sambar and at least coconut chutney, a vadai is a bonus. After all how can you eat just a gooey, almost tasteless mash? So if it is breakfast in a restaurant I go for a pongal vadai combination. This does not seem unusual to many unless I am driving on a road trip. I have seen eyebrows raised when I opt for this combination during a breakfast halt. The infamous after effect of feeling drowsy after a plate somehow does not work for me. I love pongal and I enjoy it on road trips. At home knowing my preferences sambar & chutney are usual with pongal. Pongal is an essential carb loading ...

We have heard normal is boring and yet here we are after more than 90 days being locked down hoping for a normal. In all probability the new normal will not be boring but can be terrifying. What is scary is the collateral damage that this pandemic has inflicted on us. Loss of jobs, pay cuts aside, there is the loss of livelihoods of the hidden population who are invisible to the common eye. I remember the pain on the face of the iron man, (not the Marvel one) in a normal week he would be carrying a large bundle of clothes for ironing but now there are no clothes to be ironed. His smiling face could not mask the resigned acceptance of possibly hungry days ahead. This lockdown has shown us how much of our time, energy and resources we used to spend on non-essentials and how we can survive fairly well without them. This lockdown has also taught us that communication networks and devices are essentials and in many homes, one device is just not enough. India may have more mobil...

“do it quickly.” ..“When you are done, don’t linger.”..  “Wash your hands afterward”.. If you were wondering what those instructions were for, it is for the most underrated, feel-good human connection that the coronavirus put the kibosh on with its social distancing ways. But if it's some hug therapy you are really yearning for, an aerosol scientist  The New York Times  spoke to has a way. Wear a mask. Hug outdoors. Try to avoid touching the other person’s body or clothes with your face and your mask. Don’t hug someone who is coughing or has other symptoms. The above is reproduced from an online article and it made me wonder if things will ever be normal again. There is something magical about a hug and there is some merit in what Munna Bhai or Vasool Raja said in their movies, it can be a treatment. Some searching online will tell you that oxytocin levels rise when we   hug, touch, or even sit close to someone, it's associated with happiness. A UCLA s...

Yesterday I was annoyed by the repeated prompts from Google about running out of the free combined space of my Google accounts. So I went about on an aggressive deleting spree and found that I did not even scratch the surface. What puzzled me was the amount of mails and files that I had deleted which was a part of my life for over many years did not even make any impact to the total memory consumed. All these days of the lockdown there is a massive cleaning exercise at homes where everything that comes from outside be it man or material are cleaned before anything else happens. Mercifully in Chennai the drought is yet to hit despite the many hand washing, baths, and objects washing being done every day everywhere. Usually after any cleaning the waste is let out carefully or casually depending on what we use or how much we care for ourselves and the other. Surgical waste should be incinerated, likewise the masks we use should be safely discarded if we want everyone to be spared...

The first of June means so many things: -           For the last three years this was the day, dada left us after a fatal road accident -        For much longer it was the start of my birthday month, not that it made a difference but it reminded me that I am getting older -         For school students till this year, this was the warning that school will open in a day or two after the long summer vacation -       For much of my work life in this job, this was the day when I will get my appraisal and whatever that came along with it -           For many this June is the start of what people are calling Unlock 1.0 -           For many it is a milestone of the uncertainty that lies ahead because whichever way you look at it, the government has fail...