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The 'One'

He was woken up by the lights flooding the cabin, accompanied by the pilot's announcement that they will be landing in Hyderabad in approximately forty-five minutes. The outside temperature will be 32 deg celsius and the local time in Hyderabad would be 2.45 am. Rubbing his groggy eyes, Rohan sat up straight and pushed open the window blinds. Dim, obscure lights were visible on the ground, probably a tiny little Indian town. The lights were random and almost looked like stars in the sky on a slightly hazy night. The haze. That's what it was. The lights were obscured by a layer of dusty haze covering the ground.    Sravanti, his cousin was getting married in a week and he had a lot resting on his shoulders. Relatives would remind him of his role in keeping the brother in law from running away to Kashi several times during the next week, sometimes joking and pinching his cheeks, and at other times, with a seriousness that bordered on delusion. This was an important ritual in Tel...
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A 'Barry' Goodbye

In August 2018, N and I moved to the US for about 9 months. We were to move in to our rented apartment by the end of August. But due to certain paperwork issues with the previous tenant, the apartment wasn't available to us till the first week of September. We had to find intermediate accommodation for about 10 days. N suggested that we book something on Airbnb as the hotel rooms seemed slightly expensive. Being the last minute and given that it was the beginning of a new academic year in the university town, most apartments on Airbnb seemed book or beyond our budget. We were also conscious about the neighbourhood that we rented in as we had heard about the high rate of crime in NH. However, we did find a room in someone's house which was available. The only concern was that the owner had clearly mentioned that she had several pets - two dogs and two cats at home, and one cat who lived in the backyard but wasn't allowed into the home. Never having had pets, N and I we...
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To be (kempt) or not to be

A few days ago, Singapore came out of the circuit breaker after being in lockdown for about 8 weeks. On the first day, a friend of mine went out for lunch to Tanjong Pagar, an area that is popular for global restaurants and a vibrant nightlife. There he saw a few people gathered around photographing a hen and her chicks walking around the usually traffic ridden roads. On another occasion, photographs and videos of a family of otters lounging around in front of the (otherwise) ever-busy Mustafa Centre made the rounds on social media. For a city that's boasts of a huge amount of biodiversity , displays of farm birds wandering around or wildlife loitering around are rare in the urban settings. Even the wildlife in Singapore's nature reserves know well not to tarnish the carefully manicured image of the urban cityscape. Talking about manicured, the lawns, gardens and parks around Singapore also started to show their natural state in the last couple of months. While I never a...
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