Musings, facts and fun

Many Indian trucks you come across on the road would be carrying signs of this form “ Blow Horn” or “Horn Please” on the rear end . These phrases are pretty ubiquitous on trucks throughout the nation and are meant to encourage a motorist approaching from behind to explicitly sound a horn if they wish to pass. Coming from a place where horns are very scarcely used on the roads or their usage in general is frowned upon, you might be surprised. While the origin of this phrase on the trucks may have a historical need due to single lane roads in the past, but today horns happen to be an indispensable tool while driving on many Indian roads. Kerala is one place that I know of which is quite different in this regard. I was instructed by my driving tutor to sound a horn whenever I approached a bend, a crossing or if I was attempting to pass someone.  Why would this be? Firstly, the usage of side mirrors isn’t common. While this may not be true for all In

Day 1 Slight bad throat to start the day, but not too bad. Maybe, I would go for a walk outside and then spend rest of my weekend curling on the sofa with a book. Stay-in weekends are the best. 3 hours later. God takes my wishes to the word, literally. A stay-in weekend is precisely what I get, did I mention about that the head has started to throb yet :/ and the fever and the throat and the bodypain? Day 2 Still surprised by what is driving me to so much sleep. The head continues to blast, did someone happen to sneak in a dancing hippo in there. Feeling feverish, need to pop in a couple more paracetamols I think. Take a lot of fluids they say. I think I am floating(and bloating) inside. The seattle dark weather doesnt help at all. Day 3 Was able to get up in the morning and made it to the couch on my own! No force can stop me now. Unless - its the hippo grooving in my head. As the day goes up, the fever is rising yet again and I feel gross :/ Evenings arent the most active

Lancing through the sliver mist Dissolving the dark shadows in its embrace Bringing back the colors and the glow to what was steeped in a sombre haze The chilly breeze flows as a chariot with the earthy fragrance so sweet and moist The dew gleams on the blossom Swathed in a crisp air, the little birds rejoice I snuggle up in my warm quilt And its a glance I take The crystal rays of the morning sun danced on the window Lighting up the room and kissing me awake

Dubai, 2016. "Mere Sapnon ki Rani kab ayegi tu" , the delightful voice of Kishore Kumar greeted me as we got into a taxi in Dubai. I was taken in by a pleasant surprise because it was after an extremely long time that I was hearing Kumar's melodies, more so in a place hundreds of miles away from home.. Soon the track changed, giving way to more songs from Sharabi and Padosan. "You have a great collection of songs sir, I could have never imagined getting to hear these outside India",  I said to the driver, naturally assuming him to be from India. He inferred I was an Indian from this comment and said in Hindi, "Maam hum Pakistan se hain lekin Bollywood ki toh baat hi kuch aur hai" (I am a Pakistani and love Bollywood). "Oh wow! From where in Pakistan?" , We asked him visibly surprised. "Multan", he replied. This was the first time I met anyone from Pakistan and I had tonnes of questions for him. We talked everything right

I took a deep breath as I stood in front of the little black door vexing at the thought of what awaited me on the other side. Deep down somewhere, I knew there was a giant kraken was about to be unleashed, but deferring was not an option — certainly not today; so I took another breath and flicked the keys and the door swung open. Inside, almost mockingly smiling at me was a colossal dump of paper mail that had accumulated over the course of past month while I was on vacation. It was so huge I could barely even keep half of it in my hands at one time. From catalogs of furniture stores that I have never visited to credit card offers from each and every bank, it was almost comical how everybody just seems to be relentlessly trying to onboard a menial me onto their services. And, boy, aren't they so much committed to this goal that they print out an army of glossy pages every week to send out my way only to spend a few seconds in my hands before being tossed into the bin. I rememb

Its fun, especially if you come across gems like 'coat paint, blazzer ' . Will keep adding more to this collection going ahead.