Smile with love when...

...errors endear! You're stepping out of the home of your friends, after a wonderful hour of chatting between play with their toddler girls.

When you pick up your coats to leave, the younger one - all of about 16 months, puts out her hand as if to say `Bye!', but says `hi!'.

A `hi' greeting so soft and musical, you want to hug her and not leave! She continues to say `hi', till we step out of the building.

Her dad's heart has melted from an ice-cream to milkshake.

An ad punchline rings in my head: `Daag achche hain!'  (Stains are good!)

Any guesses which one?

Sunshine and spring-cleaning, as words

Romantic comedies of the Hollywood kind are so full of the word `sunshine'! Watching these films in India, I never got why the love of your life must be called sunshine of all things. Forget honey, sugar, sweety, cutie-pie and other such chocolates for the romantic feel. Sunshine?

The word suddenly became something I had to come to terms with over the last three months, just as the words spring cleaning do this week. Indians know what sunshine is all about - it can be anything but romance. Unless it's the peak of winter and you're waiting for those rays of sun to pierce through clouds.

Ask a Chennaiite what sunshine means - sun that burns your skin. She would rather not have some sun if divinity permits. It means losing the last drop of what could be called water, from your body - through day and all night. Panting for breath, cursing the government for power-cuts and wanting to escape. To the mountains.

Bangaloreans relate better to sunshine - winter sun. Winter sun is welcome. Summer sun? No way. It means sweat and hate traffic more and more!

Sunshine that's soft is best saved for those sunrise-sunset moments in India - maybe a bit of romanticism can be allowed then.

Out here in the northern half of East Coast, USA - sunshine has such a dramatic and different connotation! It is as if, in my dictionary, it got a new meaning entirely! It means romance!

A strong morning sun in peak winter need not mean you forget your heavy coats for that precious walk outside. Not at all! You would freeze anyways! Still, your mood lightens when you see morning sun bless your living room carpet, through the porch door. Sunshine means smile.

`Vitamin D Vitamin D - bless my day, bless my health'

Sunshine means, people dare to step out of their homes that are otherwise shut for most part of winter. It means welcome. Happiness. Sunshine means softness! It means warmth! What a contrast from the `burn my skin' feel back in India!

Am yet to experience summer sun. I bet it will not be half the dog days' torture of Chennai!

Spring cleaning!

One hears that so much among Indian English language speakers! I have used the words too. Without quite getting why a season matters so much to cleaning. I knew that in the West, spring cleaning had a lot to do with the weather, or maybe ushered in the arrival of spring. Not so in India! With every festival - be it Varalakshmi pooja of August, Sankranti in January, Diwali of November or Ugadi/Gudi Padwa/ Tamil New Year's day of April, there is a whole new round of cleaning! It's so much a part of festive culture!

Spring cleaning - it is used by Indians, but has an alien context. Spring is so short in India that it's almost like a door to summer.

This weekend, spring will arrive officially, or so I am told. The USA clock will move an hour ahead and somehow the day will get, longer. Daylight Saving Time. Absurd logic, but people out here are used to it. I look forward to longer days.

People have begun cleaning their balconies and homes. Retailers and wholesalers were ready about three weeks back, with outdoor furniture, shelters, camping material, cleaning products and more.

It really means putting your winter clothes in, and getting the spring/summer clothes out! It means the end of a season and beginning of another! Spring cleaning, actually means spring-cleaning!

The big question then - why do we Indians have to use it?

Healing hiatus: the other name for my Writer's Block

So many times over the past several months have I opened the blog post page, hoped to write something, and not done it. For those churning out thousands of words in a day, it may sound silly. For those outside of writing profession, it may not even exist. 

After all, what is a professional peddler of words supposed to do? Write. Is it not?

But I could not. The desktop screen would stare at me, taunting. My fingers would want to vent all rage on the keys, pound them ceaselessly - about life, about problems, people. Still, I would go blank. They call it writer's block.


No regrets about what happened at all. Some blog readers have often asked me what happened to the blog. The blog was always here. It was I who was away. I have no apologies to offer. Absolutely none. Because I am not sorry.

Am not sorry, because what happened was something beyond my control. Destiny hits you hard when you least expect it. You walk into its menacing mace, completely unprepared for a blind turn, or a walled mirage. And fall. It takes time to heal from a fall, whatever its form. What defines us, is how soon we push ourselves to get up after that fall. Here I am.

I thank each reader, for enduring me through the absence. Frustrating as it can be, to open your favourite blog, almost by habit, and find no updates - thank you for that faith in me.

So where was I all along? Let's say, on a healing hiatus - completely health imposed and all that's associated. In future posts, I may end up writing about this whole complex process of healing. For now, all I want to say is, your belief got me this far. Thank you, dear reader.

I have finally keyed in something. Have I finally gotten over my writer's block? If yes, you deserve credit.

Quarter of a year, and tales untold

A whole quarter of the year went by without me blogging. It feels like words forgot me. Or did I forget them?

It's not as if I did not want to blog. My thoughts through the day have however been preoccupied with what to eat, how to make it, how much to rest in the day, will i make it through the day? Has my health condition improved? Or has it gone down the dumps again? Will I make it to the stationery store closeby to buy some craft material? Does the vegetable I had for food have enough nutrients to cure my illness?

I did something today, that I never did before during the course of my treatment - sought out an online support group. Reading through others' experiences, mostly from another part of the globe, has thrown up some universal facts about the medical profession - that doctors across the globe just don't seem to have enough time for their patients.

Patients, are at loss to know the methods of treatments, the diet they must go through, if their condition is curable, incurable, persistent, intermittent, will it bring more pain or is there hope? All the same, it was such a relief to see a support group! In times of internet aided loneliness, relatives who live in the same city but are caught up with their own troubles, and the rarity of true friends in a new city, such groups come as solace.

I am not sure if I will write in the same things that I wrote about in the past, when I began this blog that is.
For some strange reason, priorities seem to have changed, issues that concerned me earlier no longer concern me the same way now. I wrote about issues, problems of the world, unhappy people, poverty, abuse, politics. I am now concerned about wellness, positivity, happy thoughts, interiors, decor, natural treatments and the like.

I do not as much as know if I will pen as frequently in this blog. But one thing I can say - Writing on Sand, is part of my identity, even if a virtual one. Am thankful to the readers who have been patient with me. Am hoping, you endure me further too. Pray I write.