I was in two minds. One said I had betrayed my parents’ faith. The other said I simply don’t care. I was nine years old, attending the fifth grade in school. I stood beside my father as he looked through my report card. I hated the very idea. Why would any one give a ‘report’...

  I am a perfectionist. I like things done a specific way and am not too enamoured if it is left half undone. It bothers me - I mean - it really bothers me when I see slipshod work or total disregard for one’s work. It is a physical phenomenon - my heart beat raises,...

I could see her grazing peacefully. She had come away from her group, not too far away but enough for me to handle separately. I moved – just an inch. She could smell me I guess. Her ears popped up alert and ready to flee. It was now or never. In one leap I covered...

She stood right in front of me. We had lost the order. As I looked at the paper work it was apparent that it was not a good job. A major specification had been overlooked. Even before I could find the words she stoically said - ‘The team has goofed up. They should have told...

She looked up into the sky, the vastness was simply breathtaking. The serenity of the moment seemed to extend forever. A distant noise - a bird call or was it her imagination. Still sleeping under the open skies, she gently moved her eyes backward. A glorious sight unfolded - a thousand birds flying across the...

I never understood the caste system as a child. I still don’t. I never realised names had religious connotations. In one of my very early stories as a storyteller, the protagonist Ayesha had a mother named Asha. When someone asked me why I had chosen names from different religions, I simply said I liked those...

Along the way of growing up, we change in large and small ways; we change by our conscious effort and through unconscious thoughts and deeds; we strive to change and struggle to make it happen, and sometimes it is instantaneously and you don’t even know how… But change you must and you will, for that...

Any one who knows me even for a few days know that I am not a willing cook. But many don’t know why… Since April 1980, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale had taken residence in the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar, Punjab. In 1984, Prime Minister Mrs.Indira Gandhi ordered an Indian military operation called ‘Operation Blue star’...

After a series of dance shows celebrating my silver jubilee on stage, in January 2007, as I was climbing down the stairs, my left leg simple gave away! It was horrifying! There I was just having completed a successful ‘margazhi season’ and the very next day, rather than a sense of euphoria at the accomplishment...