25 May 2010

Blood And Butter

"Well, Jack, looks like the village of Lavenham will be witnessing its harshest blizzard ever, if the weather forecasts are anything to go by," said the television weatherman.

"Oh dear," Grandma Wilmer said softly, as she walked past the living room, and into the kitchen. She placed a kettle on the stove, and took out a large metal tray from the cupboard. Grandma Wilmer was well past the age of 60, with wrinkled skin and a frail body. Yet she had surprisingly agile hands, perhaps the result of 40 years of devoted service to her late husband.

Though it was still snowing heavily outside her cottage, Grandma Wilmer decided to bake her usual batch of Sunday butter cookies. Pity no one else would taste them...

18 May 2010

Four Wars...And Counting

 Recently, my brother - in - law and I were having a casual chat about everything under the sun, when he said: Canada and U.S have the longest undefended border in the world.

That, along with facts like you cannot lick your own elbow (Seriously, you cannot,) were tucked away in the Trivia section of my brain, until he said something else as well. "Look at us, fighting between the border of India and Pakistan."

Naturally, I replied the same way any Indian or Pakistani is expected to reply. "But its different in our case," I said, hesitantly.

15 May 2010

"Threshold? What Threshold?"

Odds are you've been in this situation yourself. A friend, colleague or relative is crying about something horrible that happened to him. And into this scenario walks in another fellow, delivering the cliched yet necessary line that goes something like this. "What're you crying about? This is nothing. There are so many worse things that could happen to you..."

Like most of you reading this, I've heard this myself. I've been told so by my parents, friends and teachers. In fact, you might have even read posts of mine declaring that the pain we suffer is little compared to that of people all around us.

Yet, recently, I had....you could say, an epiphany, though it wasnt all that dramatic. More like an apple-falling-on-the-head moment. And that's how I got this post.