What if now is the good time

Okay. Now a bubonic plague is emerging out of Russia and China. And the permafrost, ice that contains and protects us from ancient inactive viruses, is melting. China wants to establish global supremacy and India is directly in its line of fire. The economy is in freefall.

What if we look back months from now and see that these were the good times? At home, safe with the people we love, eating what we want and shit posting on social media. What if now is the window we have to seriously enjoy ourselves? What would we do differently now?

I'm thinking about this. I don't yet have an answer. Like Alia Bhatt says of questions she asks herself in Highway. "Sochke batati hoon."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Indian Matchmaking

There's this bit in Indian Matchmaking, where Akshay's mom is sitting with her kitty party friends, and they're all nodding in agreement at her distress at not finding the appropriate daughter in law. They ask her what her options are. First, she says she wants only "business family" girls because those are good girls. Then she lists her options: One prospective daughter-in-law is from Udaipur, one is from Delhi, and a third is from Calcutta. One of the other ladies expresses approval. "Calcutta girls are good." They all agree. Calcutta girls are good. In many ways, the story of the Calcutta business family girls is also the story of where I come from. We're raised to be paraya dhan , good looking and obliging. We're constantly watched, judged and chaperoned, and told that if we make mistakes, or are seen to exercise agency it could damage our chances for the future.  We are raised to  make diwali gift bags and plan baby showers, and the
Read more

A good doctor is a miracle

For a good rheumatologist, in my opinion, what you want is the intersection of scientist and philosopher.  This is a tough one. It requires the rigour of reacting to empirical evidence. It also requires looking at the greater patterns of the universe. How many people do you know like that? I've had some bad rheumatologists. After my initial diagnosis by a GP,  the first rheumatologist I met was in a fancy hospital in a fancy country. He gave me multivitamins, calcium tablets, and told me that he could surgically burn the nerves in my lower back so I wouldn't feel pain. (This does not work). I had turned 23 the previous week. The next doctor  I met was at a fancy hospital in this country, and he told me that this diagnosis was impossible. Get this: because women simply didn't get this disease. (In fact the male-female ratio is closer to 70:30. In fact poorly gendered data based on poorly gendered medicine is something I will keep coming back to). He asked me if there wa
Read more

Ladies, you have been scammed

I have not worn a bra for three years now. When I tell women this, they inevitably ask me about the logistics of living life without a bra. How do I contain my boobies? I don't. I do what men do: I put on a shirt. Here's a little story about how I got here, why this is not revolutionary at all, and why we have all been scammed. *** The women in my family are quite petite; you know, the kind who did "I must I must increase my bust" exercises in school. I was not like them. By very early puberty it became apparent to my litany of body-shaming aunts that I was an early-developer. This was a source of tension between my mom and me. My first memory of this is when I was eleven. My brand new breasts had emerged over the summer, and I was dragged off a tennis court by her because I'd "forgotten" to wear a bra. (I hadn't forgotten, I  was pretending. I think she knew this.) I remember not understanding why. The next memory I have is of watching
Read more