The Curry Affair

  It is Day Two at the Jaipur Literature Festival. An afternoon, post lunch session is about to commence. The hustle and bustle is slowly settling in, the commotion is giving way to structure, and avid readers and fans are making their way towards their favourite authors’ sessions. I make way to mine, and some formidable planning meant that I could get a decent seat for the session (planning here, read as: carefully crafted festival itinerary, hand-written for each of the four days of the festival I attended, in a dedicated pocket diary, just like old times:P). There are still a few minutes to the start of the session, enough for me to observe that the row in front of me had a well seated group of three young kids. One of the three suddenly pops from her seat, probably to grab something to eat. She is now well gone for five odd minutes, her peers have ‘booked’ her seat, and I suddenly hear a small shriek from one of the festival organisers. She is directing a lady with a young baby...

  Not exactly sure why, but each incoming month of the solar calendar does not echo the same sentiment as October does. “What’s special about October?”, I ask my heart.  Maybe it is the slight chill in the air, which slides by you like a warm morning hug. Maybe it is the cheery chirp of the birds, which doesn’t get drowned by my growling air conditioner. Maybe it is the slightly clearer skies, printed with subtle hues of crimson and orange, and specks of finely drawn foam clouds. Maybe it is the hope of togetherness, fostered by the spark of the Indian festive calendar. Maybe it is the motion of the leaves, the dead ones wilting away, the healthy ones still clinging strong. Maybe it is the flavourful fragrance of fresh desi ghee halwa, peaking in from your neighbour next door’s kitchen. Maybe it is the aroma of the damp jogging track at your neighbourhood park, made damper by the final farewell of the seasonal drizzles. Maybe it is the nostalgic memory of the annual mini-Diwal...

The past week, the world celebrated International Woman’s Day, and if I may say, celebrated with all the pomp and glory, and thanks to media companies, women-oriented brands and gifting enterprises, seemingly made the day even more commercial than each past year. An interjection here, before you think of me as a ‘woman’s day celebration’ phobic, I am all for celebrating days like these, even though the GenZ argument is that you should celebrate women each day and not just one. While that is true, celebrating days like these is an opportunity to spark debates, highlight issues and appreciate the achievements, amidst all the noise around. I translate this logic of mine to celebrating birthdays: however much adulting is tough and life brings on challenges as we grow, it is important to pause amidst the noise and celebrate your one day highlighting your existence, while at the same time, trying to celebrate small wins and moments the rest of the 364 days, it just helps you keep moving. Th...

Ah, I am so happy that I am finally sitting down to write this post for my blog. Collection or recommendation posts like these usually take some effort and curation and I wanted to put something which felt really close and personal.  But before we begin, a little backstory first. Coffee is something I have had a love-hate relationship with since the very beginning of me knowing about this source of caffeine or dopamine, if I may. But it was during my stay in Sydney as a student, that I first fell in love love with coffee. That whiff of coffee being roasted as you pass a cafe at 6 AM in the morning to reach your university, the sound of the Barista romanticizing and almost whispering something to the coffee machine in a language of its own, the smile from a person sitting across the table from you, waiting as eagerly for their coffee as you.  So, when I came to Chandigarh for my job, I was always on the lookout for new cafes to try, and I must say, the city has been pretty welc...

My recent trip to Singapore coincided with one of the world’s greatest sporting and viewing events in history : the FIFA World Cup 2022. I am honestly, a relatively newer fan of the game, if I may, but however much of it I have followed since the last FIFA cup, I have thoroughly enjoyed. So this time around, I was determined to follow the games closely, and deepen my interest and knowledge of the game, which I successfully did to an extent and I am happy about that. But this random musing is about how much this game and sports in particular impacts people, their emotions, and evokes spirits of brotherhood [and sisterhood :P] amongst ardent followers. On the second day of my Singapore trip, while walking back from our visit to Burger King [P.S. one of the very few places in Singapore which serves vegetarian burgers], me and my dad heard loud cheers next to a lane, very close to our hotel. Curious, we straddled that path, the cheers getting louder by the second and guiding us to our dire...

There are days when you want to just run away from work, however much you like whatever you do. Sometimes it’s the monotony, sometimes it’s the people, sometimes some toxic elements overpowering the good or sometimes, it’s just Friday :P Today was one such day. So I booked a cab to a new cafe I had recently discovered on Instagram, called the Curve Coffee Roasters. I was initially excited by the word ‘Roasters’, to be honest, since home grown or fresh roasted coffee has no comparison and I sometimes think, in this ever growing cafe or coffee culture fad, are we missing out on the real taste of it? Okay, let’s not be pessimistic in our very first blog and park that thought for another random musing post:) So I am here, and the moment you enter the cafe, a whiff of coffee beans hits you and some fifth sense of mine tells me I am at the right place. The staff cordially welcome me, the ambience is nice and warm, very homelike and still very artistic. I catch a seat overlooking the busy Sec...