Footprints

14.2.2012, 8:45am      From a very young age, he'd learned that princesses never married kitchen boys, and he firmly believed that there was no such thing as love. 'Why?' you may ask; because his mother, the purest form of love he had ever known, loved his father, but that love wasn't enough for him. His father truly loved the other woman, but it wasn't enough for her. Both of them loved him, but it just wasn't enough for them to stay together. The only love he knew was the way his mother sang him to sleep, the way he used to bite her cheeks in return, the way they danced in the rain, and the way he lit a candle in memory of her, every February 14th.  Now, as he hugged his grandmother before leaving for school, as far as he could see, the stores on the street were decked in red. From ribbons to curtains, from banners to tiny heart-shaped stickers stuck on huge glass windows, and from gift hampers to chocolate wrappers. 'What is with the whole Valentine's...

 I see your thank you message at 7:21pm, and my mind goes back to the minute we decided to take such a day for ourselves in the first place - and how both of us just knew that we wanted to be by ourselves. We just knew that we could be in our own little world for the hours we choose to spend together. I have zero expectations when I get up in the mornings for days like this, but somehow that sudden hug in the confines of your room made me feel otherwise. It actually felt like I was going to enjoy the day to it's fullest; just because I was with you. So in our cab when you said that you're fine because you're with me, I just couldn't help but smile and sit an inch taller.   My 'clinginess' was an issue with some of my friends in the past and I didn't want to repeat the same thing with you; but then we walked - hand in hand mostly and I realized how much I missed that touch, how much I missed being myself around someone who feels the exact same way. And then...

  The clanging of a bell woke me up with a start. Sitting up hurriedly, it took a second for me to register that it wasn’t the prayer bell that usually rang at 5:45am; it was the campus bell that rang at 5:00am. Breathing in, I picked up my phone off the floor and pushed the power button – it didn’t light up. I blinked twice and tried again to no avail. Trying not to think of it too much, I plugged in the charger into the C-port and waited, yawning. A few seconds later, the image of a battery with green bars slowly rising to its top popped up on the screen. Shaking my head, I realized that I hadn’t charged my phone the previous day; and if it wasn’t for the bell that had made me get up half an hour early, I would’ve overslept and gotten late. I murmured a ‘thank you’ and grabbed my toothbrush.   Two hours later, I was at my desk in my room, clad in my Wednesday-best, jotting down the tasks I had to finish before 5:00pm that day. The unexpected pats on the back and greetin...

 It had been a long, completely engaging day and she had just finished three lectures and four lab practical hours when Anita knocked on her hostel room door and pushed it in.  “Hi Ani!” Her seemingly-always-cheery roommate Rani looked up from her desk.  “Hey Akka! (transl.: ‘Elder sister’ in Tamil)”  “How was your day?”  Ani looked up at her almost-adopted-elder sister and smiled. She was from Kerala while Akka was a native of the neighboring state. They had only been together for the past nine months but it felt shorter every day as it went by. They were known as the ‘symbiotic sisters’ among most people but to friends, they were titled ‘partners-for-the-common-good’!  “You know you always make me smile as soon as I enter our room,” Ani walked up to Rani’s desk and gave her a hug from behind, “and that makes all the difference!”  “I just really like to see you smile.”  “Aww!” Ani grabbed her sister’s cheeks and pulled playfully....

 “ Akka (transl.: ‘Elder sister’ in Tamil) come quick,” the knocking at my hostel room’s door was becoming loud and impatient.  “Who is it?” I answered, pulling the covers off my legs. It was one of those lazy-Sunday-afternoons. I had finished off my weekend tasks, had a hearty lunch - courtesy of the ‘Biriyani Corner’, spoke to my mom about the Sunday service and was lying down to watch a movie.  “ Akka it’s me Shivi,” she answered back. I opened the door.  “What’s going on Shivi? Are you okay?” I looked my junior up and down.  “Can you come out?” she asked, “It’s important.” I raised my eyebrows, there goes my movie time!  When a junior comes to see you, it’s mostly because of some guy problem or some homework issue or some gossip-misunderstanding-trust-issue between best friends – so that’s what I expected Shivi to tell me. Instead, she’d taken me up to her third floor room and opened the door, asking me to go inside.  “Oh my God,” the w...

 x-x-x  You don’t look her in the eye. Sitting at a table for two, you both are enjoying each other’s company. ‘For the last time?’ you ask yourself. You can’t see through her, you can’t seem to break through that wall she puts around herself anymore. It’s been this way ever since that disinterested-in-this-relationship talk you both had.  “You don’t have to be insecure about it,” you had said.  “But I do, I don’t appreciate the fact that you take out time for things, and then have absolutely none for me when you come back home,” she had nearly shouted at you.  “She needed me today,” you’d tried to say.  “And I don’t?” she’d cut you off.  “As a friend Jay, as a friend,” your voice had cracked.  “Fine, whatever,” she had left the dinner table; her meal untouched.  The pleasant aroma of the sweet cakes, warm coffee and just-out-of-the-oven croissants meant nothing to the either of you now. The Bread World, five minutes from your house had alway...

  (Click Here for the above Image's Source Link)     I recently watched this film that had released in 2017 and was directed by Neil Burger, entailing ‘a comedic outlook at the relationship between a quadriplegic wealthy man and an unemployed man with a criminal record who is hired to help him’ (IMDb, 2019). This movie, that was itself a remake of a 2011 French film, has since then been remade into South Indian Films as well. It brings together the primary fact that humans need each other to function irrespective of one’s physical, social or economic status. It outlines the journeys of two human beings who have all-but-given-up on life but who also just need that ‘little push’ to bring them back from the edge of despair. It also teaches us that it’s easy to blame the World for our problems but the hard part is realizing that we ourselves are letting the problems get the better of us.  There’s a lot of mental health awareness that’s going on now, and it’s great! We ...

  It was crowded in the banquet hall foyer. I was among friends and family – especially my cousins who I hadn't met in almost nine years. It was a warm day and I was happy. This wedding was probably the last of my father’s generation in my grandmother's family and it was a bitter-sweet moment or moments, I must say. I looked at my little sister – Jojo. She was smiling ear to ear as she greeted our relative one by one. This was one of those moments where we just hugged and hugged and hugged our people. My brothers were speaking animatedly over something they saw and the youngest pulled my sister aside saying, "Is that Ben Achachan (transl.: elder brother in Malayalam)?" My sister's eyes widened. "Where?" she asked. "There," he gestured towards the parking lot. He didn't look so sure anymore. "Jose! That wasn't nice," Jojo said. "Was that a prank?" she dug his ribs. "Ow!" he flinched and made a face. ...

(Statutory Warning: If this is you, enjoy the ball Cinderella!)  She was a silent one. I didn’t see her even after being a full time scholar for two weeks. Why I noticed her that day was because of the way she reacted to a senior who attempted to mock her. “You don’t understand,” a senior was talking to another senior. The day was hot and it must’ve done nothing less to people’s tempers. “Sometimes, talking about dieting and exercising and taking a break from all of this actually reduces the tension around here.” The senior had gestured to all of the room with that last word. “Why are things so difficult for you? Don’t think so much. I mean look at some people here – like Devi. She doesn’t have to bother about her figure. She just doesn’t even eat, so less weight and less tension!” the senior had smirked in her direction. Out of the corner of the room came a meek, yet adamant voice. “ Didi, (transl.: elder sister in Hindi) if you want to say something to me or about me, I th...