Glass Half Untouched

Disclaimer: Heavily influenced by Avengers: Age of Ultron yet hopefully relatable to everyone.  I just finished watching Avengers: Age of Ultron. Make no mistake. It wasn't the first time that I watched the movie. I have watched it enough number of times to look beyond the glorified characters and brilliantly choreographed action sequences this time. And because I have watched it enough number of times, watching it today, amidst lockdown with Covid-19 threatening my world, made my mind wander from the bewitchment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Well, I can't give all the credit to Marvel. Today, my day started with a discussion with my parents about how there are conflicting views about the lockdown. Because it definitely came at a cost. Then somewhere in the middle of the day, my wonderful friend texted reminding me that today is the one-year anniversary of Avengers: Endgame. We ended up discussing who would have thought that one year later our world would be at ...

It was a beautiful day for Rekha. She woke up before her alarm went off. Bathing water was at optimum temperature. Got ready 5 minutes earlier than usual. Walked to her bus stop instead of taking an auto. And...there she was. Occupying her regular seat in the bus. All familiar faces. Her neighbor was engrossed in his morning newspaper giving her enough space to sit comfortably in her half of the cushioned bench. All comfy and good.  She was so relaxed that she could hear the birds chirping. She noticed that it was not too sunny today. Just pleasantly bright. Her neighbor, who was done reading the morning news, looked at her while folding the newspaper. They exchanged smiles and returned to their respective morning commute contemplations. Just when she was about to call it the best morning ever, it happened. A horrendous, unimaginable and unacceptable act.   Calm down. Maybe that's not it. Maybe he is about to do something else. Don't panic. It...

The classroom was filled with students. It had been just 1 month since this school had started. The students still sat in their packs. Some ice-breaking sessions were needed to resolve this groupism in the class. The whole purpose of this school was gathering students from diverse backgrounds, helping them acknowledge their diversity and uniqueness, and come up with a united group of wise young adults. Their class teacher believed that this ice-breaking will happen soon. Rather, it would begin in this very class. He wanted the students to get over the fear of the elephant in the room but we will talk about it later. While they were all sitting in the class, chitchatting amidst themselves, a tiger walked into the classroom. Everyone bowed down saying,” Good morning, Rama Sir!” Rama, the tiger was one of the senior animals in the jungle and had been conducting this class for past one month. As the sound of “good morning, sir” echoed in the jungle, informing everyone that yet anoth...

When you take a left turn from Wakad Bridge, somehow your heart goes into hibernate mode. You are ready for a mechanical day ahead. Driving through the Hinjawadi traffic, when you look out the window of your bus, your mind always wanders off. What you see outside your window is like the ads that feature before a YouTube video. Not important! The only time when you are compelled to watch the scene outside your window is when the bus stops somewhere longer than usual. If you are an employee at Hinjawadi and your bus is not in a state of motion for a long time, some kind of alarm goes off. Your wandering mind comes back on track.  While going home this evening, something similar happened. My bus stopped at the signal longer than usual. The alarm went off and I immediately started analyzing why my bus was not moving. A rickety roadside sugarcane juice shop outside the window caught my attention. A 3-year-old was stacking sugarcanes in the machine. First look at that picture le...