Refractive Thoughts

A Kannada proverb goes - hiriyakkana chali manemandigella – the elder sister in the family with her habits sets the pace for the rest of the family members.   When our older daughter turned 18; she was closely followed by her younger sister by a calendar gap of 41 months.   That set the memory jog back to the days when the toddler-infant duo sent us parents going around in circles, or it could have been any geometrical shape! Sibling rivalry is no rivalry but a healthy nexus that transcends a symbiotic relationship.   Older one sought all the attention when the younger one arrived home from the hospital.   An early confrontation is when she ran towards the cot, jumped to perch herself up-in-the-air for a brief period before she bounced off the bed and cart-wheeled so meticulously to land her little behind right on top of the little one’s head!   We parents skipped a heartbeat and stood frozen in our tracks.   In all jest we pull the little one’s leg – ‘deel...

  Traditions, and customs are colours of a country, superstition its rainbow.   In France there is a superstition that an accidental left foot stepped into dog poop can bring good luck, quirk-of-fate the right foot the opposite!   A huge frustration to get the mess off! Year was 1992 during my short trip to New York.   The impeccably dressed people, the otherwise clean streets, large and flashy display signboards, zest for life, impressed me on the streets of Manhattan; the grandiose civic sense acted as an icing on the cake.   A well-dressed gentleman in an expensive suit walked his big dog on a shiny leather leash. Dogs are blessed in that they ‘go’ under the blue sky or a starry night in the precincts of nature!   The Armani-like suit-clad gentleman looked in the other direction when the dog found its ‘sweet spot’ on the cobbled pavement.   I stood stupefied as I watched his hand slip out of his pant trousers, his palm covered with a disposable ...