by Manju Gupta
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This observation by Leo Tolstoy aptly explains the uniqueness of the Mehra family in Dil Dhadakne do. So there is the philandering ‘self made’ father, who never lets anyone forget his hardships, the long suffering society mom who has learnt to play along because she has nowhere else to go, an enterprising daughter who inherits her…
Shhh…… They have ears! I am not sure whether they can read but they can definitely hear. I have learnt this the hard way but want to warn you. It all started when we were planning to buy a new fridge. The old one was working perfectly but didn’t match our renovated kitchen. So we were discussing the newer models with their superior cooling power and hot metallic looks. Some…
We had perfected the drill over time. I would get up early, coax my children into the car, and rush to the airport, a 20-minute drive from my brother’s place which was our usual night halt. This enabled my daughter, who was studying design in Gandhinagar, to be in time for her classes after her visits home. On one such occasion when we reached the domestic terminal we were told…
It could well be the final frontier, the universal equaliser, the ultimate tool of women empowerment. It is called a F.U.D, a female urination device, and is essentially a small contraption which helps you pee while standing! Before asking me why you need it, think of all those times when you have nearly burst your bladder trying to locate a toilet, or cringed at the thought of using one of…
It must have been incredibly difficult and scary. To appear confident and composed when the heart is hammering away, and yet she did it. Mum, with her government school grammar, who learnt her alphabets in sixth, got married in twelfth and had three kids by the age of twenty four. My petite mum who, as dad loves to say, stopped growing before she reached five feet. She had never left…
As medical students living in the hostel we looked forward to those weekends. Every once in a while, when we were not preparing for a test or rushing home, we would go to a friend’s place in South Delhi. Apart from her mother’s excellent hospitality, the chance to watch English films and gorge on pizzas which were unheard of in Haryana, it was her father who drew us in. A…
If the prime minister has to beg his people not to kill their daughters something is gravely wrong with the country and its citizens. But the question is , are the citizens the only one to blame or does the state also have a role in this mess. Before deciding, consider the other extreme “What if the indiscriminate elimination of girls was planned—not by individual parents thinking only of themselves…
The celebration is over, the euphoria over ‘Lotus greets Potus’ has died, the guest has left with his beast, children are back in school, the armed forces back on guard , performers back in their states and the ceremonial dresses have been stowed away . The administration is heaving a sigh of relief. Another Republic day parade is over without incident. After all its an important national event . It…
Love is in the air and although my rational mind knows that it is the angular momentum of the earth which makes the world go round my heart wants to believe otherwise. And I am tempted to bare my heart and recount an unlikely love story. He came somewhat late in my life and changed it forever. We enjoyed a great companionship, a perfect camaraderie. We shared comfortable silences…
I remember it was 1975, I was new in school, and the preparations for the upcoming Parents’ Day were on. For a geography project, a classroom was being changed into a miniature landscape. The idea was to trace the journey of a river from the mountains to the sea, where it forms a delta. Class 10 was involved mainly, but a couple of us eighth graders who hung around were allowed…