Neha’s Blog

March 12, 2020. It’s not a special occasion. But this day is etched in my memory; one that I often recall, during these past few months with nostalgia.   “What time and where?” he asks. I say, “Let’s not do a movie with the whole covid scare looming over us and wait a couple of weeks for things to settle.” “Coffee then?” she asks. And that’s how a bunch of friends decide to “catch up”. Did we know it would be the last time we would be stepping out properly for a social get together? Hell no! Had we known, the plan would have been more elaborate and we would have at least dressed up better.    We headed out for a cuppa coffee. As things would turn out most unexpectedly (as often they do) we landed up in a hip South Bombay restaurant which was surprisingly packed to the brim for a Thursday night despite the pandemic fear haunting us in a somewhat abstract way. That night none of us could fathom the gravity of what lay ahead of us. Schools for the kids were declared indefini...

My aunt sent me a text message the other day. Her exact words, “The lockdown has funny manifestations." I think what she meant was that the pandemic had impacted us in different ways. As humans, we have shown considerable resilience. We have proven the proverbial words, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Some of the enterprising ones have even taken out the shot glasses, added some salt and gone ahead and made tequila - you get the gist… To hush the din in my head and to do something with my newfound time, I decided to take up a hobby. Being the kind of person who shies away from anything conventional, I decided to let my creative juices flow by trying my hand at a new for me but very ancient art form – calligraphy. I quickly learnt that there are many styles within the captivating world of calligraphy. I was particularly fascinated by the beauty and vintage style of pointed pen copperplate calligraphy. English handwriting masters developed this in the 18th century. I co...

When I was a little girl, my family spent most of the holidays plotting and planning various holiday destinations which were solely based on the number of amusement parks on offer. The adrenaline rush the park rides rendered was the touchstone in narrowing down the search to  the  exact continent, country and city. I clearly remember going on one such ride that has etched it’s mark in my memory. It was this roller coaster for which I covertly tiptoed as much as I could to make the height limit of 135cms. Little did my 8-year-old mind realise the consequences of my conspiracy. Or, maybe it did but the exuberance of conquering this ride quickly overrode every other doubt I possibly had.   I laughed along with everyone, excited to be participating in this great adventure as we moved along the endless line. As the ride commenced, it turned pitch dark and I was instantly jolted into space amongst twinkling stars and Star Wars kind of music. Very quickly things took a snarky tu...