There used to be a time when I lived more on my balcony than inside my room. Now I sit down in the same spot on my study table, facing the window, trying to look out through the negative spaces between the drying clothes. As days go by, I miss how the outside of my window used to look. When I was 12, my family unanimously decided to annexe the balcony into our rooms. On paper it was a great idea; the balconies were tiny and any added space in our small rooms would be awesome. I recall the process of this annexure, with numerous masons working in the house, demolishing a few existing walls and then constructing new walls and windows. I remember thinking how astronomically huge the rooms felt to me at that age, although the extension was barely 2.5 feet in width. I would frequently play cricket in that tiny extension, with no clue of what I had lost. Another 13 years later, now I feel we didn't gain much, the rooms are darker, the quality of space in the house feels low and we have b...
Tipu Sultan's forces during the Siege of Srirangapatna. Introduction : Exploring Bangalore It was a cool sunny morning in Bangalore and I had a day to spend as a tourist exploring the city. Putting aside my fears of being a non-kannadiga, I ventured out with the Metro as my magical no-conversational vahan to take me to a prearranged list of places to visit. It was a fairly fun day trying out thick, crispy dosas, savoury coffee and marvelling the weather as I walked my way from one place to the other. I walked through the roads with colourful Karnataka transport buses speeding to market places with fresh and vibrant flowers along with plastic stationary being sold in roadside impromptu markets. A sight I got to see was Bangalore fort, which began construction in 1537 as a mud fort. The builder was the ruler Kempe Gowda I, a vassal of the Vijaynagar Empire and the founder of Bangalore. Kempe Gowda is honoured in many ways in the city with locations and buildings named after him. The...
What part of myself makes me wake up every day, attend to my hygiene, eat breakfast and head out to catch my bus to work? Over 99.9% of the world shares this trait with me; who want to survive and provide for the people they care about and continue doing the same every day. This is including a minority of sociopaths who can go out of their way to hurt others indirectly in order to further themselves. A notable mention of this phenomenon for myself was in May 2020, when the country locked down and mass hysteria filled the news and streets. I was lucky to live with three other people with whom I shared this conundrum. Every day was somehow a positive start for us who came together to do basic tasks like figuring out where to get groceries from and praying for when will the alcohol shops open again. The Haywain by Hieronymous Bosch c. 1490-9 Bosch, inspired from religious teaching, would paint scenes of people rejoicing in heaven, living on earth and suffering in hell. These were meant to...
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