August musings, (with a little July)

My duranta is in bloom.

A lone balloon on the lawn

A skinny kitten eludes the camera

Whitey perches on the guestroom

window sill

A few fat drops of rain

That do not keep me from

Completing my last round.

Happy morning!

26th July, 2022

The insomniac's wife is majorly sleep deprived.

He sleeps whenever sleep comes, like a baby.

Like a small baby's mother, she is advised,

Sleep when he sleeps.

It didn't make sense then,

It doesn't make sense now

There's the household with its rhythms

And its help, its particular timings.

And morning walks are possible only

In the morning.

Breakfast merges with lunch.

Leftovers get leftover again,

Then are given to the help.

Each snore is an onslaught upon her brain.

She prays that he sleeps through the night

And life gets its rhythm back again.

28th July, 2022

Betrayal

Who was the betrayer,

The one I always loved

Who now refused

To be good to me?

Or the vicissitudes of age

Which led to problems

Between my beloved and I?

No longer were we in harmony,

Once made for each other, but now

Troublesome, painful in the extreme.

My beloved, favourite arhar (tur) dal,

Tell me why I can no longer digest you?

31st July 2022

Random thoughts on Independence Day 2022

We were brave enough to move house last year on this day!

Our "own" apartment, as 'permanent' a residence as is possible in this temporary world of ours

Which fact many forget in their hubris...

We are only guests on this planet, not permanent residents.

We, humanity, haven't been good tenants on this earth of ours

Leaving it in a greater mess than before

While Nature wreaks havoc in despair.

My mind leaps from thought to thought

Is it not a strange coincidence that our housing societies are governed by RWAs

Which seem very Right Wing in their practices?

The polyester flag is statutory this year.

You have no option but to pay for it

And have it installed in your balcony

While poverty, ignorance and disease

Run rampant. Huge funds spent, and collected, on shiny polyester flags.

Symbolizing perhaps our synthetic patriotism, in a country where huge power

Is held by descendants of the polyester baron.

And yet, my heart sings songs of freedom

'Jhanda ooncha rahe hamara

Vijayee vishwa tiranga pyaara'.

Though I despair of so much that happens here

My love for my country is visceral.

Happy 94th birthday to my mother.

She was already mother to a toddler then,

And would go to Gandhiji's prayer meetings

With my father, all those decades ago.

Our independence was truly hard won, something to cherish and preserve forever.

Happy 75th Independence Day, India.

15th August, 2022

The Archeology of Dentistry

Every single new hairdresser I've ever been to

Complains of the lousy job the one before them did.

Similarly, dentists.

When you get to my age

And have lived in several cities

And have had several dentists

You are asked strange questions

To which you don't remember the answers

If you ever knew them, that is.

Because once pain is over

Treatment is done, and you feel half human again

You blank out all memory of visits to the dentist of the day/month/year/city,

And what was done to what tooth when.

Which dentist was responsible for which root canal, which crown, which implant...

Impossible to remember.

While having a very long overdue cleaning session today, with my very competent and charming young dentist, I recalled an ancient fantasy of mine:

To be wealthy enough to have a dental chamber at home, with my personal dentist brushing my teeth for me every single day,

So that I would never have to go to the dentist!

24th August, 2022