Phalguni's Random Ramblings

It’s just another day. I have had tea with a lot of ginger, had a healthy lunch I packed in the morning, stressed over some little detail of my life, made dinner plans. It’s just another day. Except it’s not. I think I drank coffee after too long. Maybe I drank it too fast. Or maybe I didn’t blow-dry properly and walked out in the cold with three and a half molecules of water in my hair. Or maybe I added too much soy sauce in my noodles at lunch. And now there’s a little pulse of pain jumping all over my head.  Initially it’s just a distraction, like a bothersome faucet that won’t stop dripping every three seconds. Or a passing firetruck that gets louder and louder and louder and then fades out in the distance like it was never here. Or the weird hammer noise that the radiator sometimes makes. Except that that radiator is my head and there is an actual physical hammer banging on it. Plus that hammer can teleport from one point of my brain to another. Plus it can leave

It must be 2004-2005. I am about ten years old. Mom and grandma are talking about an acquaintance. From the tidbits that I pay attention to while reading Harry Potter, I gather that this couple recently had a third female child while they were desperately wishing for a son. Apparently some ‘Baba’ has advised them to dress one of their girls as a boy. An image of a male child would ensure that the mother bears a son next time. They choose their second daughter, an eight-year old, for this purpose. My mom and grandma agree that this is insane and unacceptable, and the conversation ends there. I am twelve now. grandma is gossiping about that family again. The mother is pregnant, but ultrasound says it’s a girl. They are going to abort the child. They are giving up. Their daughter will go back to long hair and girly clothes. I must be around ten again. A friend who lives nearby is over to study with me on a Sunday afternoon. She is the fifth girl child in her family, with one younger

पाऊस पडतोय वळवाचा. मग काय, लाईटपण गेलीये! (पुणेकर: तुमच्या 'शुद्ध ' भाषेत 'दिवे गेलेत.') आणि जाताना चांगला ' ढप्प-धम्म ' असा काहीतरी आवाजपण आलेला. म्हणजे लवकर परत यायचं लक्षण नाही. पण खरंतर खूप भारी वाटतंय माहितीए! मला अगदीच वेड्यात काढायच्या आधी त्याची कारणं ऐकून घ्या. अशी अचानक लाईट गेली ना, की  रातकिड्यांच्या आवाजाकडे लक्ष जायला लागतं. आजच्यासारखा पाऊस पडत असला तर मागच्या अंगणातली पन्हाळ्याच्या धारेची टपटप ऐकायला येते. टीव्ही बंद असतो ना, मग वारा  सुटल्यावर चंदनाची पानं  वेगळी सळसळ करतात आणि सिताफळाची वेगळी, हे पेटतं! मंद चंद्रप्रकाशात डोंगर-झाडांच्या आकृत्या लक्ष वेधून घेतात. संध्याकाळ निरभ्र असली तर आकाशातले तारे कधी नव्हे ते दिसायला लागतात, अगदी स्पष्ट! निरभ्र नसली, तर खराखरा संधिप्रकाश किती उशिरापर्यंत ढगांमध्ये खेळतो, याचं आश्चर्य वाटतं! आणि अंधार आणि शांतता असल्यामुळेच असले बघण्या-ऐकण्याचे साक्षात्कार होतात असं काही नाही! भास समजा पाहिजे तर, पण लाईट गेलेली असली तर आईच्या रोजच्याच फोडणीचा वास किती जास्त खमंग वाटतो म्हणून सांगू! पावसाळ्यातपण मात