Life Stories

My weekday mornings usually begin with a walk around the society. Weekends, of course, are a different story—those are reserved for a little extra sleep and a lot less motivation! On my walks, I come across familiar faces and plenty of unfamiliar ones. Most mornings, we simply cross paths without exchanging more than a polite smile. But one morning, I noticed a house help standing near the entrance of a building. Something about her expression caught my attention. She looked confused, worried, and almost helpless. As I walked past, she turned towards me and started explaining her problem. She was trying to make a phone call but couldn't get it to connect. She had recharged her phone just the previous day, so she couldn't understand what was wrong. I stopped to see if I could help. It was a basic phone with a traditional numerical keypad. And there was another little challenge—the phone's language was set to Hindi. Hindi may be our mother tongue, but navi...

We were at Badrinath. The weather was cold with light showers further dropping the temperature. We had a fantastic darshan at the temple. While returning to the accommodation, there were quite a number of stalls selling masala milk. If you're unaware, it is full cream milk reduced by cooking it for an elongated duration and adding loads of dry fruits to it. This is specifically made in places with lesser temperatures. A glass full of masala milk was filling enough. Now this is something me and my dad relish, not something that tempts mom. It was 6:20pm and we had our breakfast at 8:30am. Mom was supposed to eat. We searched for a place and landed over at a place called "Hotel Narayan Palace". We went in to check if they would be serving something for dinner at that odd hour. A gentleman who also turned out to be the owner was on a phone call. I kind of disturbed him by my question. He was fine, but the staff seemed a bit confused if we'll want to have dinner so early....

There are some people who leave an impression on your life without ever becoming a part of it. I've always been someone who enjoys talking to people. Conversations come naturally to me, and over the years I've met countless individuals through work. There was a phase in my career when I was interviewing for different internal projects. Most of those interactions were transactional—an interview, a discussion, and then everyone moved on. Except one. We never became friends. We never worked on the same project. In fact, after that interview, we barely spoke. He eventually settled in Toronto while our lives continued on different paths. A few years later, my first international work trip was finalized—and my destination was Toronto. Like anyone travelling abroad for the first time, I was excited, nervous, and filled with questions. I reached out to people I knew there, trying to understand the city, transportation, weather, and everyday life. In the middle of all those conver...