Footprints

 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...

 "Baba, wake up. How many more times do I have to wake you up after switching off your snooze?" I woke up hearing Amma's voice. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up on the bed, yawning.  "I'm up Ma," I called after her.  "I told you I had a feeling yesterday na ?" Amma asked. I frowned and swung my legs to the floor. Walking out the bedroom, "About what Ma?" I asked her.  "The Metropolitan (the highest authority of the Mar Thoma Church)." She said.   My eyes widened. "No."  "Yes. Early morning today." She shook her head. I looked over at Appa typing furiously into his phone.  "Good morning Pa," I said. He looked up.  "Not such a good morning," he said. I smiled wanly. Ma was serving the customary morning tea before prayer.  "I'll just come," I told her, grabbing my toothbrush and smearing it with Colgate.   The cool water on my face pulled me out of my morning blues. I stared at myself ...

  (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 ...

  This has always been a frequent question in our household. Be it a piece of cake, caramelized fried banana pieces, halwas or the simple chocolate chip ‘Hide and Seek’, we loved to indulge our sweet teeth. I guess you can say it runs in the family – ofcourse, so does diabetes but, no this isn’t about ‘that group of diseases that result from too much sugar in blood’ – relax.      Mid-morning      “What’s for sweet today?” asked Abu.  “Well, if we hadn’t gobbled up that cream bun yesterday, we could’ve had it for today.” Anu scowled at him. “Okay,  do not  tell me that you  did not  want a bite of that awesome snack last night,” he smirked at her. “Fine; never mind,” she said, trying not to give her brother the satisfaction of her being his partner-in-crime again. “Let’s just think about today. What do you want?” “I’m craving chocolate cake – the real kind and not the one with the curd and stuff,” warned Abu, “t...

  T erms and Conditions Apply   The phone was ringing.  The shrill sound echoed throughout the ground floor. It had an eerie ring to it. Mostly because the flooring was entirely made of white marble tiles but also because, we weren’t expecting calls anymore. We heard Appa pickup. I nudged my brother and he nodded reassuringly. He was never the first-one-to-freak-out types anyway. “No Ma’am, none of us have left the house,” Appa could be heard . “We thought it was better to stay inside rather than go outside and get infected or infect others,” Appa sounded calm. Then, some moments of silence, followed by, “Oh, yes please I’d like to have a copy, just in case.” The suspense was killing me; I put down my phone on the kitchen counter and walked, more like  nearly skipped to Appa ’s room. Amma and Abu followed suit. When I entered his room, Appa seemed relieved. I raised my eyebrows at him. “What?” Appa asked. “And?” prodded Abu. “Results will be mailed.” ...

   Incubation  I had put it there.  Appa ’s frown between his eyes disappeared. “So?” I blinked twice. “So? That Aunty was the one who gave me that envelope. She’s the one who tested positive right?” Appa shook his head. “No, no. She’s not the Panchayat member I was talking about.” “What?” My voice was unbelievably calm. “Yeah. This one is someone else.” Appa said dismissively. “But she must’ve given it to this lady and she’d given it to me na !” I wondered out loud. “The local health official had called me yesterday and had described everything,” he said affirmatively. “The one who tests positive is the primary case. Everyone who comes into direct contact – as in within less than 6 feet distance or remained in close proximity for more than 10minutes to her becomes secondary.” He pointed a pen at me. “So YOU become tertiary, while I am mostly a secondary case.” Oh. I didn’t know how to respond to the lengthy truth Appa had just told me. “Do yo...

  The Envelope    “Hey Dad,” I barged into my father’s office room, all excited about the big sale that was happening on Amazon. “Have you seen these bass buds? They look so…” my voice trailed off. Appa , leaning on his reclining chair, looked up at my face when I entered his quiet work-from-home corner. There’s something in his eyes that is amiss , I thought as I stopped mid-sentence and stared at my parent. “Objection Your Honor, there is something wrong with the defendant.” I said. “What makes you say that?” He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Well, for one, you’re not irritated by me barging in on you while you’re working,” I smiled, “and that doesn’t happen too often, you know.” “Objection over-ruled,” he smirked. I narrowed my eyes. He straightened himself and I braced myself. ‘Oh, I have a bad feeling about this,’ my heart said. ‘Shut it!’ my head hissed. “It turns out,” he began, “that one of our church members who was present at a meeting last week has tes...