Glass Half Untouched

(February 2017) I wasn't a complete stranger to Mumbai when I moved here two weeks back. On the contrary, it's where I was born. After spending 23 years of my life in Pune, I moved to my uncle’s house in Mumbai for an internship. I didn’t read too much into it until my little cousin asked me the other day, “which city do you like more – Pune or Mumbai?” My answer should have been Pune, undoubtedly, but I said, “it’s too soon to tell. I have spent 23 years of my life in Pune and just two weeks in Mumbai. It's not fair to compare my connection with both the cities.” Though I seemed to have dodged the question, it got me thinking. Being brought up in Pune, I am fond of the peace and serenity that place offers. Its charm, its calmness, and moderately lazy but culturally rich and tasteful lifestyle is part of me now. Yet there has always been this inexplicable attraction towards Mumbai. My family had decided to shift to Pune before I turned 1. So, till tw...

He looked up as she called him for makeup. His wandering eyes tried to narrow down her position through the crowd. As he politely asked the people around him to step away, she looked at him with awe. He arrived where she sat and settled comfortably in his seat. Finally, she began his makeup. No, he was not a celebrity though he was quite celebrated in her world, she was not his makeup artist, and no, they were not in a gleaming makeup room of a reputed studio. They were on the, usually bustling and seldom quiet, Ferguson college road in Pune. Sitting in front of a fancy mobile store, she had already laid down colorful and unique ornaments on a maroon makhmal-y cloth, below which, there was a cheap, pale pink plastic sheet (which she used to lay it below him when he was in his bed-wetting phase). Now that her roadside shop was opened for the day, she turned towards her 7-year-old and continued their daily routine. She started painting his face with all the bright colo...

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...

Before I start this blog, I would like to thank a few important people. All those beautiful beings who inspired these stories... My beautiful Ladakhis...because Ladakh is where this started and we shared this magical journey together... My go-to proofreaders, Jyoti Rana, Kanika Srivastava, Nikita Gagneja, Izabel Thomas, Harshavardhan Kamat for making me look decent... All the sweethearts who have read these stories and given their valuable feedbacks... My family. They are "my precious"!!!

I am an engineer and a mental health social worker. Needless to say, I am constantly learning, unlearning, and relearning and I love every part of it!  This blog is a bunch of short stories about people, incidences, or happenings around me or just my thoughts that I couldn't help but jot down.