Nature’s Mercy
rushikeshgk2 It is a hot May afternoon. The entire rooms feels like a furnace. The exhaust is non existent, the food being cooked is cooking up the entire house. There are…
Flying Out
Taking off is a good feeling. But that is until you actually take off. ATC says that we can’t take off because of the congestion in the air. I am…
Innocence
As a child, one looks at the world so simply. Without malice and hatred that comes with age. No cynicism. Just pure unadulterated view of the world. It is us…
Stormy Evenings
what explains the fomo that one feels while watching a seemingly cataclysmic event unfolding on your screen. Maybe it is to experience a period of drama before it passes over.…
Taking Off over Bombay
One of the advantages of travelling to the south of India by air from Bombay is the beautiful sights one encounters, especially that of South Bombay. While aerial photographers have…
Desultory Living
An endless walk without a destination seems exciting at first. But then, a few hours into the journey it becomes a chore. One forgets why you began to walk in…
In search of a quiet lane
Walking is important. Walking opens up your mind. But walking on the roads is difficult nowadays. We don’t have a footpath in most places. Where it exists who knows.
Shawshank
What happens when music fails to cheer you up when it can’t lift your mood when life seems tougher than usual? You can escape Like Andy in Shawshank but for…
Baby Reindeer
Watching an entire netflix series is a rare occurence for me. But yet, I somehow managed to finish this series. It was a moving watch. The duality of the urban…
Yellow Yellow
Today after many days I stumbled onto a Vishu tree. A Vishu tree is a visual delight. Especially in the summer months. This tree blooms and showers yellow flowers on…
Drowning, Sinking
Have you ever drowned? Once nearly. I remember. But I knew how to swim. What is swimming anyway? Staying afloat. What happens when you are swimming with weight tied to…
Attending the Feast of St. John The Baptist – SEEPZ
There are some places in the city which remain obscured from public view. There are various reasons for this, but mainly because they are under government owned land. One such…
Trade Offs
Did you exchange A walk-on part in the war For a lead role in a cage? These lyrics haunt me everyday. They are such a potent reminder of the choices…
Just a walk
There is no greater joy than setting out on a walk in the evening. When the day is behind you. When the sun is on a swift descent into the…
Risk, Reward & Luck
There is so much to do. There is so much to learn. There is so much to eat. There is so much to see. At times I don’t want to…
Four Working Days in a Week
A midweek break is a beautiful thing. A four day workweek separated neatly by a respite filled break in between. What a wonderful concept and idea. Alas! It’s a rarity.…
Like the fourth seat
they say one has to live life king size but wasn’t monarchy abolished? Why even dream of royalty when even living like a pauper is difficult? But one can’t live…
Dreams of Freedom
I often dream of a cliff which overlooks the sea waves crashing over at the base looking down is scary But look across and you see the wide horizon stretching…
Escaping to the Coast – Erangal & Dana Pani
There are a few places in Mumbai which have endured the onslaught of development and stuck to their original forms. The reasons behind them vary but the villages of the…
The Bookshop
A bookstore is always a nice place to be at. Especially those who have stacks of books everywhere. No categorisation, no cataloging. Old books and new. Hardly read and read…
Chasing Sunsets
Have you noticed how sunsets are a silent wonder? The setting sun radiates its glow and turns everything golden. Your visual senses are activated fully and you are drawn to…
Dreams
There are many kinds of dreams. Certain dreams help us to sleep better. You wake up restful when you have had those dreams. You wake up with a promise in…
A Warm Sunny Day
There is not a day that passes when I don’t think of that warm sunny day. That warm sunny day which may or may not have passed. It definitely has…
Embracing the Distress
The heat of the day is difficult to deal with. But that is precisely why one must embrace it. So over the past week, I have been making it a…
Migrants in Colaba
Every month a visit to the local saloon brings new insights and stories. Today, Monday, most hair cutting parlours are shut. It’s their weekly off. But I was lucky to…
A Tale of Two Colonies
Certain neighbourhoods hold precious memories. They act as pockets of nostalgia, portals into the past. A jog down memory lane means exactly that when you visit these areas. One such…
Sweet Sticky Rice & Mango
Sticky rice and mango. What a delightful combination. Today a friend of mine cooked it for us. He sourced the rice from Assam, another friend brought the coconut milk from…
Birds
The Oriental Magpie Robin is a songster, he sings for a mate, sometimes with a mate. I see two of them, a happy pair, trying to build a nest. This…
Hanging Out By The Tracks
The Suburban rail network of Mumbai is inextricably linked to the lives of the city dwellers. It is even more embedded in the lives of those who live next to…
The Heat Wave Washeth Over
The heat wave is washing over the city. The humidity is at an all time high. Now I’m not the one complaining. I’m good with warm sunny days. It is…
Choti Si Baat & Other Stories
A day at the Jackson Tolaram Company doesn’t seem so bad. You arrive at 10 and punch out at 5. There is a long lunch break. And grade 2 promotions…
Bhelpuri
What a great Indian innovation. Puffed rice, fried lentils, peanuts, some basic vegetables – TOP (tomatoes, onions, potatoes), some chutneys and sev – all mixed nicely, served in a rolled…
A Syncretic City
Where I grew up, we were always surrounded by three places of worship. The temple of the village goddess – Jarimari, the Madina Masjid and the Our Lady of Remedy…
The Power of Now
One of the greatest human fallacies is the wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes, they say. Tomorrow never dies, if you ask Mr. Bond. But tomorrow is just too far…
Sold on the Streets
The other day at Hill Road, at one of the many stores I saw something peculiar. Branded stuff available at fixed rate. Now one of the two is acceptanle but…
like a merry-go-round
Silent lanes, criss cross each other5th Road, 10th Road, Carter RoadQuiet homes stand tall over meLit with warm yellow lights Like a street urchinI look up longingly into these homesWhere…
Losing Myself
Where does one truly belong? It’s a question that haunted me and kept me up at night. Am I produce of the city’s slums or now another hobobbing faux elite?…
A noise filled world
What do you absolutely detest? I detest noise. Source of the noise doesn’t matter. Noise which disrupts the silence. But it’s not always auditory noise. Like the great Daniel Kanheman…
Punishable Offence
Sweaty brows have returned. It is 745 am and the sun is beating down upon my brow. I look to the north but there is no sign of the train.…
Story of Sewri Fort & The Siege of Bombay
The eastern seafront of Bombay has not featured in popular imagination in recent times. However, with the advent of the Eastern Freeway, a lot more traffic flows through or rather…
Old Times
What happens when you catch up with people after a decade? A decade is a fairly long time for a tectonic shift in people’s personalities. But to see that not…
What’s the word
Each time you struggle to articulate your ideas, it’s mostly because of the words that elude you. A bad vocabulary is okay but what happens when a word fails to…
A Walk Across the Maidan
The grass is nice and warm at Oval Maidan in the evenings. If you are lucky, you may find a friendly cat sitting and observing the world, as cats always…
Bombay Fast Musings
Where do needs end and wants begin? What comes first. With limited means, needs take over. What happens when needs are beyond your means? How does one make ends meet?…
Energy Sappers
There is very little written about energy sappers Those people and things and moments Which steal the good life from you Absolute thieves of joy and happiness They make life…
Build Something
There is magic in creating something. Building something. Watching it come alive. It could be anything. A business or a book. A house or a household. It’s all part of…
Salaam Bombay
The other day I boarded the train at the last minute. Normally in the mornings I take the same train everyday. Missing the train has a ripple downstream effect on…
A midnight rickshaw ride
In this neon lit autorickshaw The wind blows fiercely As we hurtle down the highway. They say rickshaws topple over When they go so fast. It wouldn’t be so bad,…
An evening by the sea
Nothing compares sitting by the sea on a hot summer evening. Summers in the city are gruelling but the interplay of differential pressures over sea and land in the evening…
A Black and Yellow Sunset
A setting sun indicates the end of day. Or the beginning of a new chapter. Why does everything have to be in these two shifts? These two shifts signal work…
Inspiration
There is an intense struggle that ensues every morning. The struggle between one self with the other. What can be done. Who will win. The rational, disciplined self has accepted…
Oriole
At the window I stood today Looking at the trees And the traffic below Summer is here I sighed lightly. At that moment An oriole flew; into my sight. Yellow…
DJ Nights
I don’t remember going to a DJ night in the recent past. Singing along and even shaking a leg to all the Bollywood hits. It is always fascinating to me…
An Unexpected Delhi Encounter
Rushikesh Kulkarni My relationship with Delhi has always been fraught with uncertainty. As a young boy I dreamt of living in the city, roaming the bylanes and preparing with all my might…
Wonder Why
There are so many reasons why one must not quit. One must persist. Wonder why and where these ideas come from. Some endeavours are best quit as early as possible.…
Traveling Light
You often don’t realise how heavy your backpack is really until you lay it down after carrying it for way too long. A never ending journey of sorts, like a…
Red Eye Warrior
A red eye flight is so aptly named. It actually gives you red eyes. Today when I left for the airport at 3, my eyes were bloodshot. It made me…
Driftwood
Losing myself in this ocean Like floating driftwood A piece of wood which was Once a fallen branch of a Banyan Tree Or a broken hull of a capsized boat…
Looking up
A greater purpose or a lofty mission is often enough to make you go above and beyond. What drives hard work is often that goal. Now that goal may vary.…
A hearth in a corner
In a corner of this cold desolate room There lies a hearth – warm and pleasant stoked with dreams and desires unfulfilled in the time that has flown by throughout…