The Serial Quiller

Amma often wished "May the Lord call me upstairs soon". My cousin and I would cringe and squirm, uncomfortable at the idea of our grandmother dying. We would tell her, "Why bother the Lord for that? You can go upstairs, we have another floor at our home.", referencing the fifty-odd, rickety stairs at our childhood home. That didn't deter her.  The woman waited every day to be reunited to the love of her life. My grandfather was much older than my grandmother, not surprisingly. Indian grandmothers are much younger than their male counterparts. But that also meant that my grandmother was left alone for a very long time when my grandfather had a natural, age-related death in the year 1991, 6 years before I was even an idea and 27 years before my grandmother joined him. I was born in 1997. I grew up in a household which ranged from my grandmother who wouldn't let the maid broom the house after sun-fall to my father who would, at every instance, explain to her th...

Let's skip to the end: Yes, it is racist to call the coronavirus as the "Chinese virus". Yet, people (I will call them "supporter(s)") will insist upon there being nothing wrong with it. I will attempt to counter the arguments I have heard against my stance. 1. " China has to be held accountable"  One of the most common arguments I have heard from the supporters is that China needs to be held accountable. According to them targeting and bullying every Chinese in the world, stigmatising them by declaring an entire nation culpable, is the only way for the Chinese authorities to answer for allegedly hiding the true nature of the virus.  Let's start calling the security guard at Kingfisher, a thief and that will help bring Vijay Mallaya to justice. The absurdity of this statement is comparable to the ones supporters are espousing. Such a virus could have naturally originated anywhere in the world and it's a number of factors that made China the gro...

It’s 2009. You are 12. You don’t feel special. You don’t like the image that stares back at you from the mirror. And if you had a rupee every time you felt like your parents are trying to control you, you would be a crorepati (Definitely a better deal than KBC!). Then one day, Cartoon Network starts running a new show. Or in a dusty corner of the school library (where you are always forced to read uninteresting stuff), you find a book. Or you go to the movies.   And just like that, nothing is better. “What? That doesn’t sound right. Let’s see it again.” That new show stars an ordinary girl. (So mundane!) Who discovers she has magical powers after she fights off an evil ogre from a magical land while defending a fairy who is from yet another magical land. (Whoa!!). Our star then goes off to a completely separate magical land to study magic, and her overprotective father just lets her. There she meets a handsome prince (Swoon) from another magical school and has an awesome ...