I'll have you know, me lovelies That the opposite of pain is not pleasure (Though there is pleasure in pain, the kinky folks will have us believe). The opposite of pain is not no-pain either Uh huh, no. The opposite of pain is numbness. Not comfortably so, Roger Waters, bless your soul, you were on [...]
An average homeschooling day
I'm always accused of being disciplined and brave by the mere virtue of being a homeschooling parent. I swear to god, I'm none of the above. My kids are ill-brought-up and as idiotic their parents. Yesterday, in the middle of desperately yawning through ancient Egyptian history of Cheops and Isis and Osiris and Nut and [...]
The Gift That Kept On Giving.
Pepita had nothing to offer Baby Jesus as a gift on the eve of Christmas. She watched sadly as all her schoolmates walked past her hut to the church, their arms laden with the choicest of food and clothing and toys. She knew her poor parents wouldn’t be able to help her, they had barely [...]
The Dark
I had an epiphany: We are scared of The Dark. Both inner and outer. The fragile inner nightscape, we napalm it with opioids, antipsychotics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, anxiolytics. We walk around like shell-shocked extras from District 12 and are deemed fixed. The outer darkness was far easier to civilize. Pluck the forests, drain the swamps, [...]
Mahabharata and gender wars
Gandhari had been pregnant for nearly two years with no signs of a baby emerging. It had been a most difficult pregnancy too. In despair she struck at her belly with an iron rod, and in that instant she went into labour and delivered, not a healthy baby but an unformed, hideous lump of grey [...]
Decoration
With half my life gone it occurs to me In a maudlin moment that I'm nature's Hippocratic oath, Primum non nocere. Harmless, More decorative than decorated, Like the epaulettes on my jacket That bear no rank, nor insignia For I won no wars. Just bright and inconsequential bits of Haberdashery picked up From Colaba Causeway [...]
Rescue
A few days ago, I had had a conversation on FB about boundaries that one draws around oneself, boundaries of revulsion and fear. Well, two of mine were erased today. One was to rescue and release a huge Black ( Pariah) Kite and other was in being forced to acknowledge my fellow rescuer, our building [...]
