DilliMeriJaan

 The first gift we bought for our daughter, when she was a few days old, was a book. It was made of cloth and acted as a pillow, plaything and teether later. When she became old enough to sit and turn rather than eat pages, we were in parental heaven. There were so many Tulika books (https://www.tulikabooks.com/) with splendid Indian art, designed by fancy designers from NID, and told by village people who have kept storytelling alive over bedtimes and their version of fireside chats. My friends, significant other and I spent hours browsing these in shops, ostensibly for daughter. Daughter grew up drawing, singing, playing sports with her dad – skills I do not possess so could only clap on the side.   Reading continued, but our common interest of Tulika now gave way to she reading whatever her friends were and I to whatever Reese Witherspoon/Bill Gates was. Like all daughters, she had to read what her father did so suddenly both were chatting Sci-fi and I had nothing to cont...

Everyone has discovered their inner Anthony Bourdain, during the lockdown. I also tried and baked bread, as a change from boiled vegetables and rice – a big family favourite and am now seeing why. My first clue should have been that I had to use a large cleaver and ‘chop’ the bread! The family was ecstatic when we went back to boiled vegetable rice. People have also discovered all kinds of other hidden talents. I don’t have opposable thumbs so can’t do stuff which require fine motor skills. Ok I HAVE opposable thumbs, but they aren’t opposabling as much as they should. It’s a thing. I checked on google. So that left me with oodles of post-work time, which I didn’t want to spend on TV/other multimedia. What with decreasing grey cells and increasing grey hair – couldn’t take a chance. Instead of twiddling my semi opposable thumbs, I just had to step up the reading – from 2 books per week to at least 3. Like a good sandwich, a reading list should have intermittent heavy duty non-fiction...