Shilpa Roy Kota

The clock on my wall hums the silent tune – tick tock, tick tock. Night after day after night, I can hear it beating silently in the background, oblivious to the madness of the mornings or to the serenity of the midnight hours. The pace consistent, the mood somber, it continues to beat till its small sources of energy can provide. The rhythm of the wheels is now a part of me; my heart trying to keeping pace with the mute beat.  It stands witness to all my eccentricities, desperation, happiness and even tears, but it never blinks or tries to share any advice. In all times good or bad, it…

Just when you think you are settled with your existing life, have learnt to be happy about the good things and happier about the missing things, life decides to turn around a brand new corner. What awaits you ahead, down that corner, is  a mystery, sweet and exciting, which only a fortune teller could ever predict for you.  The amazing fact is that you don’t even want to know what lies ahead. You are happy in the believing that this new corner starts the journey towards the best part of your life to come. Even though it is pitch dark right now; even though you seem utterly alone on this…

I guess no one really likes farewell parties! While you are trying to be cheerful and wishing luck to whoever is leaving; deep down, there is this feeling that you are soon going to miss them terribly. I also used to feel the same till yesterday evening.  Yesterday, we decided to be a part of one of the largest farewell parties in India – bidding adieu to Ganesha, the God, whom we had invited to stay with us for about 10 days. I have usually associated community events in India to stampedes, traffic jams, manhandling and rowdy, drunkard behaviors. I don’t know whether India has changed, or whether I have, but I…

As I went walking today, I was struck by the sound of loud laughter, muffled giggles, tiny feet thumping as they ran on cold pavements and chitter chatter that perhaps only tiny tots can talk and understand.  I saw a tiny boy, no older than 5, rolling around in a pile of sand, and his friends helping him go deeper and deeper, ensuring not one speck of him was left free of sand. My first reaction was disgust. How could children be allowed to play in dirt till 9 at night. Is no one cared about their health, sleep, education, etc. etc. A little closer look and I realized, the…

Have been quite busy lately with boundaries between days and nights, weekday and weekends blurring into a haze. Life has been about juggling priorities and finding what needs the next set of attention. While I am physically and mentally exhausted, I am kind of excited about this life. Why? -because it makes me feel I am important, like I am working on something big and it needs me to be there in order to come alive.  I have known a lot of people get this excited about work and honestly, I never thought I would join the same league as well. While I enjoy basking in the feeling of being important, deep…

Story time yesterday – I offered to read about fairies or princesses, but had to give in and read about dinosaurs and giant tiramasus (not sure if I still have the name right).  As we learnt about how life started in water and moved to land, we read about  a number of alien looking creatures. She had a number of questions, as always, about each one of them. One question remained common for each – did he kill other animals for food, or did he eat plants and trees? I realized based on the answer to the question, she would quickly jump to the conclusion – Oh! so this dinosaur…