In Vacant or in Pensive Mood

I didn't fear my parents growing up, but I did have reverent fear for Valiadaddy, my maternal grandfather. He was the official "hand-holder" at all my birthday celebrations that involved a cake. He is the one who taught me, by example, to love dogs. When my myna bird - Mittoo - died, I cried a lot. Valiadaddy brought me a parrot - Kuttoo - to make me happy again. I've been a picky eater all my life. I've had a phase where I would only eat a specific type of fish, a phase where I would only eat dry fish, a phase where I ate a minimum of 6 Marie gold biscuits (and no other biscuit) with my evening tea. Valiadaddy has always made sure that he made these available to me. What's more, whenever he and Valiamummy would return from a visit to Kerala, they would bring the brown halwa for the rest of the family and red-coloured halwa, exclusively for me. He loved birds and fish and he devoted several hours a day to take care of them, settin...

When I was in college, I had the opportunity to meet and interact with a few students from the USA who were taking classes at my department as part of a study abroad programme. These students made many observations during their time here and would discuss them with us - sometimes asking us questions about things they saw, sometimes pointing out to stark differences in practices they saw between their country and ours. And as it turns out, India and USA are worlds apart in many ways. One of the things these students pointed out to was the fact that motorists, in India, honked a lot. And guess what? Apparently, in the USA, it's considered "rude" if someone uses the horn - unless in an emergency situation! Oh Indians and Americans - how different we are! If you've stayed in India, even for a day, you would have noticed that here, even the rowdiest of motor vehicles - the lorries/trucks - politely ask you to "Horn OK Please".  In most other commercial use ...