Author Archives: memoriesandsuch

Short Story: Home is Where the Heart is

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Vatsala took one last look around the house. Every room, every corner had loads of memories and she wanted to savour each one of them before she left. She knew she will not return to this house and wanted to fill her head, heart and soul with the very essence of the house. She had entered this home as a blushing bride more than half a century back and now, it was time to leave the place where she had given birth to her children, brought them up and gotten them married. She could see her children as babies and then as adults and then her children’s children, her grandchildren laughing and playing in the house.

“Hurry up Amma, otherwise we will miss the flight” This was from her son Arun, her firstborn who had come down from his important job in London to help her and Vasu, her husband move to a retirement community. Vasu’s fall a few months back had cemented the arguments the couple had with their children, Arun and daughter, Aruna who lived in Houston in the United States of America.

Giving one last look at the nook that housed her Gods and Goddesses, Vatsala shook her head and left, locking the door. She passed the keys to her neighbour and best friend, Shilpa and after asking her to look after her house left without a backward glance.

By the end of a tiring day, Vatsala and Vasu, helped by Arun, finally reached Rose Garden, their new home in the southern city of Coimbatore. Too tired to do anything or even look around, Vatsala soon got into bed and fell into a deep, but tired sleep.

The next morning was busy. Their things from their home were to arrive and aided by her husband and son, Vatsala tried to make this flat as welcoming as her own home. The couple also completed all formalities and medical procedures required to stay in the retirement community.

A couple of days later, Arun left for London, after ensuring his parents were settled in their new home. Slowly, Vatsala and Vasu started integrating themselves into the complex and their residents. Every once in a while, Vatsala would look back and think of her house and start to feel sad again. But she would pull herself up for Vasu. The retirement community was not too big, it had around 100 couples like them and most importantly most of the residents were similar to them so that made things easier in getting adjusted to the community and make friends.

Over the next year, Vatsala and Vasu started enjoying life at Rose Garden. They made friends, started taking classes that were offered including group exercise classes, and meditation classes and most importantly started spending more time with each other. Now that they were free from the tasks that take up daily mundane activities, they had time to sit down with each other, really talk and learn about the other that they had not known even after being together for more than 50 years.

Soon, it was the first anniversary at Rose Garden and during a party at the community to celebrate this, Vatsala and Vasu were surrounded by new friends, who in a year became as close as her friends back home. Their children, Arun and Aruna were also there with their families, their grandchildren cheering at this new version of paati and tatha, who were so much more fun to be around. A surprise was Vatsala’s best friend from back home, Shilpa who was pleasantly surprised to see the change in her friend and also bummed that Vatsala now had new best friends. “I am going to buy a flat here soon, Vatsu”, Shilpa explained. “I am going to work on Sumeet and we will join you within the next six months, you just wait and watch!”

Surrounded by family and friends, both old and new, Vatsala was suddenly reminded of the old saying, “Home is where the heart is”. She realised she had not thought of her old home for months now and when she did, it was tinted with the soft glow of nostalgia and not with the profound sadness she had in the initial months.

“Yes, definitely, this is home now and this is where my heart is in the golden years of my life, surrounded by family and dear friends”, mused Vatsala as she was pulled forward by her grandchildren to cut the cake brought specially for the occasion.

In My Hands Todday…

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The Queen: Her Life – Andrew Morton

Painfully shy, Elizabeth Windsor’s personality was well suited to her youthful ambition of living quietly in the country, raising a family, and caring for her dogs and horses. But when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated, she became heir to the throne—embarking on a journey that would test her as a woman and queen.

Ascending to the throne at only 25, this self-effacing monarch navigated endless setbacks, family conflict, and occasional triumphs throughout her 70 years as the Queen of England. As her mettle was tested, she endeavored to keep the monarchy relevant culturally, socially, and politically, often in the face of resistance from inside the institution itself. And yet the greatest challenges she faced were often inside her own family, forever under intense scrutiny; from rumors about her husband’s infidelity, her sister’s marital breakdown, Princess Diana’s tragic death, to the recent departure of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Now in The Queen, renowned biographer Andrew Morton takes an in-depth look at Britain’s longest reigning monarch, exploring the influence Queen Elizabeth had on both Britain and the rest of the world for much of the last century. From leading a nation struggling to restore itself after the devastation of the second World War to navigating the divisive political landscape of the present day, Queen Elizabeth was a reluctant but resolute queen. This is the story of a woman of unflagging self-discipline who will long be remembered as mother and grandmother to Great Britain, and one of the greatest sovereigns of the modern era.

Instagram Interludes

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Regular readers will know Lord Ganesh is my ishtadev. I collect his statues whenever I see something different or unique and I have been collecting for decades now. My family also will buy statues when they see a different one and over the years, I’ve managed to fill up a cupboard full.

This year, I will showcase some of the statues. Here’s the first batch.

2023 Week 04 Update

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Today’s quote is a lovely one from author and speaker, Mark Black and one which I endorse 100%. Being able to relax and take time away from work, and anything that could be construed by work, depending on one’s point in life, is actually proven to make one more productive overall whilst also increasing the mood and improving mental health. This makes purposeful relaxation extremely important, and a valuable part of the daily routine. So, as I am doing this weekend, I would like all of my readers to purposefully relax this weekend, so you are fully charged for the new work week.

This week, GG applied for her first university application and she will soon apply to the other universities she is interested in. Please send her positive vibes and wishes so that she gets a place in her first choice of university and course. Both she and BB will soon finish their course by the end of next month and then they are free for a while, at least until BB enlists and GG, hopefully, enters university.

This was a very short work week because of the long Chinese New Year weekend, so there’s nothing that happened that I can talk about. That’s all for this week, take care and stay safe people!

In My Hands Today…

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Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World – Maryanne Wolf

The author of the acclaimed Proust and the Squid follows up with a lively, ambitious, and deeply informative book that considers the future of the reading brain and our capacity for critical thinking, empathy, and reflection as we become increasingly dependent on digital technologies.

A decade ago, Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid revealed what we know about how the brain learns to read and how reading changes the way we think and feel. Since then, the ways we process written language have changed dramatically with many concerned about both their own changes and that of children. New research on the reading brain chronicles these changes in the brains of children and adults as they learn to read while immersed in a digitally dominated medium.

Drawing deeply on this research, this book comprises a series of letters Wolf writes to us—her beloved readers—to describe her concerns and her hopes about what is happening to the reading brain as it unavoidably changes to adapt to digital mediums. Wolf raises difficult questions, including:

  • Will children learn to incorporate the full range of “deep reading” processes that are at the core of the expert reading brain?
  • Will the mix of a seemingly infinite set of distractions for children’s attention and their quick access to immediate, voluminous information alter their ability to think for themselves?
  • With information at their fingertips, will the next generation learn to build their own storehouse of knowledge, which could impede the ability to make analogies and draw inferences from what they know?
  • Will all these influences, in turn, change the formation in children and the use in adults of “slower” cognitive processes like critical thinking, personal reflection, imagination, and empathy that comprise deep reading and that influence both how we think and how we live our lives?
  • Will the chain of digital influences ultimately influence the use of the critical analytical and empathic capacities necessary for a democratic society?
  • How can we preserve deep reading processes in future iterations of the reading brain?
  • Who are the “good readers” of every epoch?

Concerns about attention span, critical reasoning, and over-reliance on technology are never just about children—Wolf herself has found that, though she is a reading expert, her ability to read deeply has been impacted as she has become, inevitably, increasingly dependent on screens.

Wolf draws on neuroscience, literature, education, technology, and philosophy and blends historical, literary, and scientific facts with down-to-earth examples and warm anecdotes to illuminate complex ideas that culminate in a proposal for a biliterate reading brain. Provocative and intriguing, Reader, Come Home is a roadmap that provides a cautionary but hopeful perspective on the impact of technology on our brains and our most essential intellectual capacities—and what this could mean for our future.