Window Seat Scribbles

For about a week or so now, there has been a huge outrage in the Assamese community concerning a particular "news item" shown on a regional channel which passed moral judgement on women based on what they were wearing. The said piece went from being riduculously stupid to simply bizarre ....comparing girls dressed in short skirts and shorts to monkeys! As expected, the channel had to withdraw the video and issue an apology. The outrage still continues though. My facebook newsfeed is full of satirical memes featuring the so called journalist and I have seen flyers of lectures and discussions being planned in colleges to protest the moral policing. As a person who swore off watching Assamese news channels years back for its regressive content, this kind of "reporting" didn't really come as a surprise to me. In fact, it was a similar segment I saw in another one of these channels a couple of years back which actually made me skip watching these channels in the f...

Vanity has a new name...and a new face...and all it takes is a click on the front camera of your phone to be deemed "cool". One of the biggest internet fads of recent times, the "Selfie" has amassed quite a number of followers for itself. Who would have thought that clumsily taken self-clicked pictures of yourself from your phone could tell the world how tuned in you were to the latest trends? Lets face it...its really not so simple to take a decent selfie! To start with, its confusing where to look...you may be staring at the screen of your phone and smiling stupidly at it, and your selfie may just turn out to be a cock-eyed version of yourself. Group selfies are even tougher, getting all of them in one frame requires creativity for sure, as on most occassions, you would be left with a ear or half a face in the picture. Full kudos to Ellen DeGeneres for being able to accomodate all those hollywood biggies in one frame, but I'm guessing not many of us look all ...

The word Vacation has such a lovely ring to it, don't you agree? It brings with it visions of cavorting on sunny beaches and relaxing in seafacing resorts...or for the adventurous amongst us, it urges them to pick up their backpacks for yet another trekking trip. Hill stations with their waterfalls and mountain cafés beckon us in summers, and sandy beaches or the houseboats in backwaters lure us in winters. Either way, its always fun to go on a vacation, and the way I see it, planning the trip is no less fun than going on the promised holiday itself. My family loves taking holidays. I have fond memories of looking forward to summer or winter vacations at school as they simply translated to family holidays for me. It is small wonder then, that the idea of taking a holiday even now fills me with childlike excitement! Much has changed about planning a holiday back then and now. My father loved planning our trips back then, but now, the reins of planning have been passed on to me. Of...

There is something about observing random strangers that I really enjoy...I can't exactly put my finger on what it is, but I could spend an entire day at an Airport lounge just looking at people. A certain consuming interest in these people in transit grips me, as I draw my imaginary conclusions and build a fictional story around them. The nervous middle aged woman travelling alone, the confident teenager with neon coloured headphones plugged in her ear, the toddler glued to his fathers cellphone games, the young man speaking in a low tone on his phone, the elderly couple clutching at their bags...all of these and many many more have served as protagonists in my make believe world. But sometimes, a few of these faces just tend to stay with you. I find it difficult to shake off the memory of few faces, and I can't help but wonder about the real stories these people's lives hold. One such face was that of an elderly man who lived across the street from me in Delhi. It would...

I have always been very particular about casting my vote. Ever since I turned eighteen, I have taken pride in being a part, however miniscule, of the world's largest democracy. I have squelched through mud and dung to get to the local school and on reaching there,stood for hours in rain or shine to cast my vote. I may be far from a political analyst, but I try to keep myself informed about the political situation to be able to vote intelligently. So imagine my surprise and indignance when one fine morning, I discover that my family's name has disappeared off the electoral rolls. We would never have known of this had we not gone to enquire the reason for not receiving our Electoral Photo Identity Cards ( EPIC ) yet. The Village Headman was apologetic ( and somewhat drunk), as he proceeded to tell us that a certain official has bungled up, that there were many more similar complaints and that the officer in question had already been suspended. It took him some time to figure out...

Don't we all love our weekends? Sure, God may have ordained Sunday to be the day for rest, but trust us to include our Saturdays in it too, with all our parties and night outs...so much so that we ended up coining TGIF ( Thank God Its Friday for the uninitiated) as a welcome note to these two days of bliss. Sunday mornings are undoubtedly my favourite. I am not particularly given to Monday morning blues, simply because in my line of work, it sometimes becomes difficult to differentiate one day of the week from the other. But a Sunday is a Sunday, and having the luxury to spend it not working is always a welcome idea. Today, as I woke up to a brilliant sunny Sunday morning, I realised I had the day to myself...to spend it just the way I choose, to plan the perfect Sunday. At the same time, I couldn't help think of the many versions of a "Perfect" Sunday that I have lived through the years. As a child, Sunday simply meant the Matinee Show at the nearby single screen ...

Every year, as the month of March draws near, the world around us goes ballistic over International Womens Day. Talk shows, telethons, concerts, panel discussions, debates and their likes seem to prop up on every television channel. The multitasking woman of today is lauded and celebrated, the downtrodden are encouraged with charity drives and movies like Monalisa Smile and English Vinglish are given generous primetime viewership. I have always wondered how the men feel about all this. As the newspapers and magazines and social media at large would like us to believe, every other man out there is projected to be the woman-bashing types. The men are supposedly either too narrowminded to let women work, or are too lazy and egoistic to help their partners juggle responsibilities. I shudder to think what would the world have come to if all of it was really true. This is my Thank you note. To the men in my life who have been with me at various stages in this incredible journey called life...