RELATIONSHIPS: COLUMNS AND STORIES

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Relationships

My life is a web of relationships. The great Indian joint family.

Messy, loving, crazy, contradictory, complex, never easy

But it defines who I am and what I value.

Connections: between people, place and time.

First cousins

Second cousins

Lady communing with the divine at Someshwara temple in Ulsoor, Bangalore

Do relationships make you or do you make them?

With love comes the ability to forgive. Only if you are able to forgive can you overlook slights, flaws, mistakes and miscommunication

While the Dalai Lama talks about loving-kindness meditation as a way to bridge divides, it is essentially about assuming goodwill.

Relationships are defined by connection

Connections can happen perchance but require care to flourish. Ultimately, it is these connections that define the human experience.

This web of connections floats to the surface in cultures such as India, where people are forced into proximity, thanks to density. What you do with (and to) the people around you defines character.

How you behave in times of stress depends on how you value what is at hand.

Relationships and connections are supreme in the path to happiness.

Relationship columns

Of Snapchat stalkers and Musical.ly yours
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Of Snapchat stalkers and Musical.ly yours
Columns, HT Brunch, HT Media, Relationships

Of Snapchat stalkers and Musical.ly yours

Living our lives on social media may be great for our personal brand, but it also means giving up a bit of our soul

Role reversal: you become an adult when your parents becomes the child
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Role reversal: you become an adult when your parents becomes the child
Columns, HT Brunch, HT Media, Relationships

Role reversal: you become an adult when your parents becomes the child

When do you become an adult? People have different answers for this. Some say that they become adults when they leave home for college, when they make decisions on their own. Others link it to their first kiss, or more prosaically, their first paycheck. One friend said that she became an adult when her parents died. My parents’ relationship is beyond the realm of words or date nights or flowers on anniversaries. Their bond is primal.

Summer pleasures: the intoxicating taste of padaneer
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Summer pleasures: the intoxicating taste of padaneer
Columns, HT Brunch, HT Media, Relationships

Summer pleasures: the intoxicating taste of padaneer

Come summer and I think of the time my grandmother and I got drunk together. Our libation was the sap of the palmyra tree and it appeared like clockwork this time of year. Called padaneer in Tamil and neera up North, this sap of the Borassus flabellifer tree tasted of jaggery, coconut, and water. The men who sold it to us insisted that it had “no kick,” but was full of “strength and vitamins.”