musingswhileunlearning

Credits: facebook.com Inferius (plural inferi): A corpse that is reanimated by a Dark Wizard’s spell- a term that came to us from Harry Potter, the origins of which are explained by JK Rowling in Pottermore! Credits: pinterest.com Zombie: Similar to the Inferius in that they are also reanimated dead, they have their origins in Haiti and parts of Africa. They have been used widely in movies and texts mostly to aid horror! Me-Now: Not dead so not reanimated but with a blank and robotic existence on most days! Credits: shutterstock.com Does it happen to others I wonder when they walk with determined steps to the refrigerator, open it and stare hard at its contents till the music starts playing to remind, that the door has been ajar for too long? Worse, the reminder that got us out of the zombie stare still cannot get us to remember what we want so we promptly shut the fridge and walk back to where we came from, pick up something to do and Ah! We remember and...

Credits: greaterkashmir.com Unlike the West, where there are three (or more) huge bins for different types of waste and specified days of a week where each bin gets emptied, in India this ritual has not caught on completely. The bins have been distributed in some housing societies and are functional but in most they have come with the instruction to not use them till further orders. In a few societies more than a year has elapsed since then! The present garbage disposal system still has us putting all kinds of waste into one bag, which is collected from our doorstep on a daily basis.  I live in a colony which has twenty one blocks, most of which have five floors and four to six apartments on each floor. It is a well maintained complex, run by veterans who reside here. The place is green with loads of trees dotting the entire area. Parks and grounds for the elderly and children have been made with great care. Plenty of benches and shaded bus stops can be seen by the roadsides ...

Credits: pinterest.com Standing on the rear balcony and pulling out clothes from my washing machine to dry out, I heard a man’s loud and angry voice, “Can you ever keep this house clean? There’s a dead pigeon on top. Call the cleaner at once” to which I could hear a distant, irritated, shrill reply from his wife, “Why do you have to start your cleaning operation after the sweeping and swabbing has been done?” The door opened as she came out and screamed in despair, “Look at the mess you have created! There is no one to clean it up.” He raised his voice and began condemning her rudely by which time I had gathered the wet pile of clothes and quickly rushed back into my house. I then walked to the other balcony (yes, this house has three, lucky me!) to hang out the clothes and there I see the silhouette of the man who was still shouting. He hadn’t seen me. I hurriedly hung the clothes as he spat the words out, “aaj aane do tumhare bete ko, dono taange thod doonga uski” (let your son ...

Credits: store.gocomics.com People (read young adults) would much rather read a blog and learn than hear it from the old fogies (read parents) back home! Keeping that in mind this devious mother has chosen the topic for her son, who would leave home in less than a year if all goes well or in less than two years if he takes a drop year. Credits: drawception.com While the son cannot wait to fly the coop, the mother is all frantic about what her son is going to do considering the fact that she has spoilt him rotten in so many years! His training has started (errands for Mom- buying vegetables after identifying them for you’d be surprised how they forget them after kindergarten, groceries, giving clothes for ironing and collecting it, making tea…) because after this he would never be back in the same way as before- that’s the way it ought to be as well!   Credits: vice.com The period between a young adult leaving home to the time he/she gets married is a lon...