Enthralling Trails

  “There is no teacher equal to mother and there’s nothing more contagious than the dignity of a father.”― Amit Ray Devlekhaa’s greetings appeared on my social media post. Many years ago, she was a student of mine. My inquiry revealed that she was doing well and pursuing her higher education abroad. She sounded strong and confident, just like her mother Iraavatii. My first words were, ‘Congratulations on doing well, all credit to your mother who helped you do well. She answered, Thank you ma’am, but we lost her last year during the Covid’ I was thrown back to Iraavatii’s serenity and acceptance of life, and I saw many more faces of the young students and their parents. I kept musing about life…so short yet so long… I have worked as a school teacher for many years. In every place that I worked, I found one thing that students did not appreciate much was the Parent Teacher Meeting (PTM). I do not remember my parents visiting my school, they had great trust in my teachers. Occasionall...

  “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”― Lois Lowry After two years of the pandemic, the festivities in India began with greater fervour, almost as if people were making up for a lost time. It has been nothing different in Pune. The festival of Navratri is very special for an Indian. Every community has a different way of celebrating these nine days in the invocation of Goddess Durga but the most liked one is the Garba Dance. This is an Indian dance form that originated in Gujarat. Alagumuthu was past her seventies and had recently moved into the Vrindavan society. Though the name Alagumuthu meant precious gem, she was ordinary and had never found anything special about her. She was a tall strapping lady who sported saris with sports shoes. She would saunter at least thrice a day on the lookout for a smiling face to ease her loneliness. She lived alone but had many of the elderly ladies as her friends in the...

  “India is not a nation, nor a country. It is a subcontinent of nationalities.”― Muhammad Ali Jinnah It’s seventy-five years since India’s independence. During this time, India has witnessed splendour, poverty, pandemics, epidemics, droughts, floods, wars, peace, joy, grief, and many more. A 139-crore Indians will raise the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav flag for three days this year to mark 75 years of independence. Every street, every road, every shop, every vehicle, every house, and every heart will unfurl the Indian flag and sing the national anthem with great pride for their motherland. It reminds me of the days when the recent pandemic brought us closer, we had lit lamps to show our fraternity and rang the bells at home in sovereignty, as loud as we could and prayed that COVID 19 would end. There is nothing that happens quickly. COVID 19 stayed with us for two whole years when it mutated and propagated. Patriotism has been a strong value for Indians. It symbolises equality, loyalty...

  “The entire life is an exam that never ends until the life itself ends.”― R.H Ork After two years of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the University decided to switch to offline examinations. The news wasn’t new to the students. Before the judgement was approved, there were many discussions, arguments, and concessions. The students kept asking for multiple-choice examinations as they had during the pandemic. They felt it wasn’t fair that a part of the session was completed online during January and February early this year for a short period when there was yet another lockdown due to the brief third wave of the Covid 19 pandemic. The faculty feared that the Pandemic and the digital world would arrest the students’ brains. The students had forgotten to think critically and write. They could type text messages quickly with emoticons and alphabets in the shortest possible form. Many of them didn’t know how to spell basic words as they were used to the cellphone autocorrect. None of the p...

  The carefully swept muddy path leading to the ancestral home was dotted with a variety of birds. These birds flew around in a playful manner. Everything appeared just the same, except that no one stood out on the veranda to welcome us. My husband ran into the backyard and my son headed to my mother-in-law’s brother’s place through the hedges on the left. My mother-in-law’s brother had his daughter, grandsons and family living with him. I stood there all alone watching every detail of the vast greenery. My mother-in-law would always wait for us close to the short wall near the well. I always wondered what was the purpose of this tiny wall since it was barely a foot tall. ‘A tiny demarcation for plants’, she would say with a smile. My father-in-law used to walk to the main gate and beyond. She would always have plenty of work and would always welcome us with her hands full. I looked at the pond that was full now on the far end and the almond tree that had stood four feet high when ...

  The day we reached Leh, Nono, our tour guide had asked for our identity proofs. He said he needed it to get an inner line permit. There are certain restricted places in Leh such as Kargil, Pangong, Nubra, Changla Pass, Khardung La pass and others which require an inner line permit due to security reasons. These Permits are issued by the Deputy Commissioner’s Office in Leh. Nono told us that he would take it for our visit to Pangong and Changla Pass The roads after the magnetic hills were wide and well laid. Niyas played Peppy Hindi songs to cheer us up. I was feeling much better as we went downhill. The roads were getting busier with tourists touring. We had also met a few ladies working for the taxi controllers. A young girl in trousers and a jacket ran towards our car waving her hand high up. Two more women stopped the cars. They said something musically in the local language. Niyas kept saying something that sounded as if he was trying to convince them regarding the permit iss...

  The Leh Palace in the City of Leh is located on a hill. The roads in Leh grow narrower between the terrains. Parvez drove the car carefully and with great expertise. A lot of women drive their cars in Leh. This was surprising since there was barely enough room for a second car to move on these narrow roads. Parvez dropped us off a short distance from the Palace, where there were cars parked for almost a quarter km. As there was plenty of sand under our feet, we moved slowly. Occasionally, a bit of the soil blew off the mountains. As we reached closer to the palace, we were able to stand on a flat platform with protected grills to view the magnificence of the snow-peaked mountains far away and the partially crowded city close by. On the other side, there were just tall mountains. The palace did not seem palatial. It was nine stories tall, but the height of each floor seemed low. The entrance had motifs just above the main doors that were swung open. People said that the view above...