When Lavanya invited me to be a guest blogger on her newly revamped blog, the theme she told me, was “child friendly”. Write on anything child friendly, she said. Yars, yars, I nodded sagely, and scampered to googlebaba to figure out what I could write about that was child friendly related and something parents across the globe could identify with.

And then this happened over the weekend – friends of a friend lost their son when he fell to death from the sixth floor of a restaurant. While the parents were dining with friends.

..as to why this blog went all quiet for a while. Right? Well, the usual thing happened – I lost my writing mojo. I hit a blank wall and just couldn’t get over it. Writing anything became a huge drag. There were so many things in my head that I wanted to put down on paper but somehow my voice was gone. And I didn’t know how to get it back.
So I just wallowed. A lot. And then some.
But I missed the joy I got out of writing. I was …

… quite a good one, thanks very much!
Why? Mainly because it was spent lazing at home, my favourite way to spend a weekend. Oh and proof of how desperately I need to get out more? The abundant 17 degree sunshine made me giddy with happiness – cos I could now hang my washing out to dry! No more slowly drying, mouldy smelling smalls and bigs scattered all over the house! No more laundry baskets in perpetual stage of fullness. Wa-hey! Repeat after me: I need to get out more! …

BBC’s “Famous, Rich and Jobless” (telecast at 9.00 pm on March 10, 2010) seems another in the long list of “Celebrity tourism”, as the Guardian puts it, to grace our television. A bunch of “celebs” visited various members of the public who are living purely on benefits to see if they can help them.
That the rationale behind the show was shaky as hell is another topic altogether. What I want to discuss is the issue raised by one of the celebs, Diarmuid Gavin, as he visited a big family receiving …

I took the last step to change my surname today. Finally. No going back. And I feel kinda weird about it.
I have been using the married name slowly and gradually since I came to the UK. From strictly stating “I WILL NOT CHANGE MY SURNAME” to ” hmm yeah maybe in my medical forms – and purely so the baby will have your name”, it was a journey fraught with difficulties. What’s in a name, you ask. Well it is MINE. The one I was born with and here …