India

From 1947 to 2015, the meaning of India has changed over and again. Here's my take on what India means today.

India. A word that means a lot more than a mere indicative of a mass of land. To each of it's one billion, 'India' has it's own meaning.

To me, India is India. It is beyond what words can attempt to explain. It is a feeling that lives somewhere deep inside my heart. Sometimes I am proud of it and sometimes I am not.

India is that smart IT savvy girl, who is now a globe trotter.
India is that husband who makes hot aalu parathas for his wife and greets her with a smile when she comes back from a long day at work.

India is that engineer who is now a chef because he found is true calling, albeit a little late.

India is that poor farmer who looks proudly at his daughter's report card and then thinks what he can sell next to send her to college.

India is that mother who teaches her young boy that there is no pride in being inept, that independence is about knowing that there are no gender roles.

India is that family who loves their son and his boyfriend without thinking about what the world will have to say.

India is those parents who happily get their daughter married to the man she loves, whatever be his religion, caste or creed.

India is that group of boys, fresh out of college, working hard on their dream start up.

More than anything else, to me, India is free. More than it ever was!

 

Darkness

I like the darkness, it calms me down

no one to mock, no one to frown

I love the darkess for it takes away

the tiring glare of a draining day



I like the night when it wraps around

A tranquil quiet no noise no sound

I love the night for the way it feels

A soothing halt of the grinding wheels



Solitude isn’t a fiend anymore

I crave for it like never before

For I find, in solitude’s peaceful reign

The freedom to be myself again!



-KETKI

:)

A moment. A small piece of happiness. Words. Togetherness and a road. Fathomless joy, lost and found. I just lived a dream and live it a thousand times over... "This day be etched in the history of my life." :)

A love letter

Dear Luv,

So, after what seemed like an eternity, the monsoon is back. With the monsoon have comeback the memories…

Memories of those surprising showers

The shivering leaves and dancing flowers

The caressing shade of that saving tree

Memories... of you and me…

It reminds me of the rainy day when among the beautiful realm of things I first caught your eye. The first time when you held me in your arms and gave a reality to my dreams…  You gave a meaning to my existence. How happy you were to have me! How proudly you’d flaunt me among your friends… basking in the envy that you could see in their eyes!

With time, things changed. The man who just couldn’t get enough of me changed into a stranger. I craved for your attention and you ignored me ruthlessly. You abandoned me to live a lonely life. Every unforgiving minute, mocked at my helplessness. The change in your attitude killed me. What you could not kill is my love for you, which still just as deep and just as pure.

Now, as I wait here, in this lonely mansion, I have nothing but these memories and a hope that these dark clouds will bring us together, once again.

Your long forgotten

Umbrella.

Clearing the cobwebs!

Life has been pretty rude to me in the last two years, which is worse, these years passed in a jiffy. Friends were replaced with jealous colleagues, college canteen was replaced with eerie boardrooms and posts were replaced with lingering thoughts that never quite made their way to the blog. Words found it too difficult to break free from the confines of a tight schedule.

With great valor, I did manage to rant about issues concerning humanity like why are the icebergs melting in the arctic, why is some idiot I added when I was drunk spamming my wall, why is my desk smelling like rotten eggs  and why is Arnold's last name schwarzenger..schwarazenge..whatever!

Words often jumped out my mind, but before they could safely land on the paper, the cruel monster of 'not now' punctured their parachutes. So to prevent this not now from turning into a never, here I sit, 600 days after a meaningful post, with a mind as blank as our PMs face and a brain that is still trying to recover from the trauma of having burnt 360 rs on Prometheus.

Now that I have made a start, I'll get a good night's repose. Tomorrow I'll wake up with a new resolution- a post a day on the blog. Poor thing, it didn't quite deserve all these cobwebs!

-Ketki

Ramblings of a mango man...

MangoFalooda

 A mango is never just a mango... Loyalists swear by its richness. The saffron-colored flesh has a taste so exquisite, and an aroma so sweet that a mere thought of the mango can make its lovers go weak in the knees with fruit lust.

This year though, 'aam' took a while to make its way to the aam admi...The wait only served to better its sheen!

The moment it hit the markets, it painted the country in its electrifying yellow! Like every other year, hotels changed there themes to 'Mango Festivals', the couriers guys started a special "Mango Express" service to deliver the royal fruit and every other aunty in the neighborhood started singing paeans of the distant cousin who cultivates mangoes and exports them to anxiously waiting foreigners! 

With this unprecedented mango mania being all over the place, how could my kitchen stay untouched. It took every ounce of self control to not relish the mango fresh and raw but wait patiently and create these two wonders... the irresistible mango lassi and delicious mango falooda!

While i loose my self in this mango mania, I wish you u all an awesome Mango Season!

Mango lassi

P.S.- I think I am a little late for this post and that you should hurry up to have as much as you can before the king of fruits disappears for another long year!

-Ketki

Blogger's block???!!!

I am writting this post at this odd hour, not because I don't feel sleepy . Infact, with this seemingly soporific appearnce of microsoft word (I still use the stoneage version MS office 2003 and havent installed live wtiter as yet) I am likely to fall asleep on the keyboard as I type it . I hope you wont too fall asleep reading it . If you are expecting to read sumthing that will make you laugh your diaphragms out then u definitely will.

Though the frequency of my penning down my airborne thought has gone down with the speed of a rocket with a failed engine, thoughts still keep hovering around my pea-sized brain in little parachutes. I wish come up with reasons like’ Oh-i-was-just-so-busy-making-strategic-decisions-for-my-investment-bank’ or ‘you-know-how-important-these-million-dollar-deals-are!’ But the fact is that I live a much less glamourous life to find no time to write a blog post. The fact is that I have started working and a series of developments culminated in my company have lead the management to believe that internet in the hands of a 21 year old is not such a good idea after all. That’s not the only thing that keeps me from blogging though. Now, as I sit infront of the PC, with a wow to overcome the so-called “blogger’s block” words fail me. All I can do right now is share some pics that I recently clicked (photography, yes, that’s my new-found love. And I hope to buy a DSLR soon)

AWAY…

AT PEACE…

WAITING…

Its almost 2 in the morning now and I think I should wind up. I might drool in sleep . Saliva on the keyboard is not really a good idea.

Quote for the day(or is it night???)-

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."

-Henry David Thoreau

P.S. On days I feel uninspired or just doing all I can to avoid the writing(and these days form a better part of the year), I like to read quotes about writing. Some are funny, if not the quotes then the writers’s names atleast, while others are actually inspiring.

-KETKI