Yellow-black banana

November 23, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

Bananas ripen and turn yellow-black before I get home from the supermarket. Mangoes develop unsightly spots as I wash, dry and store them. Tomatoes get mushy and even the hardier carrots look scruffy in a few days. Fresh and inviting in the store. Wilted and sad at home. Fresh produce become un-fresh, and spoil at an […]

Not going away

November 16, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

It’s not going away. Not anytime soon. Eights month on and we’re now in a Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in Kuala Lumpur. Various movement restrictions from MCO, CMCO, Recovery MCO, and Enhanced and Semi-Enhanced MCO’s have been enforced in various areas, districts and states in Malaysia, at various times, to control the number of […]

Deepavali 2020

November 9, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

My mum’s most anticipated celebration is happening this Saturday, 14 November. Not easily excitable nor normally demonstrative, this is the only time of year that she’s animated with almost childlike enthusiasm. Deepavali – the Festival of Lights – has always given my mum a sense of joy and excitement. As a child, a wife, mother and […]

Real or fake?

November 2, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

Many years ago, my mum used to read a weekly magazine. I forget the name now. It was a Tamil tabloid that carried news on politics, celebrity and lifestyle interspersed with some bizarre short stories. What I remember most is my mum reading, half-believing and relating the whacky snippets to me. The ones that jump […]

Farewell old favourites

October 26, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

First it was Sri Melaka. Our favourite Nyonya restaurant. My husband and I spent many evenings there. In fact, not a week went past without us visiting Sri Melaka. The exception was when we were out of town. And, it was Sri Melaka that we visited when we returned from wherever. Quite longingly, I might […]

Empathy, sympathy, compassion

October 19, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

The definitions of empathy, sympathy and compassion used to be a little unclear to me. Not anymore. I’ve had some recent first-hand experiences to set me straight. My husband fell off Snoopy, his motorcross bike, a few weeks ago. Sustained a number of injuries. Nothing too serious. Not like the ankle bone he broke last […]

My mum’s recipe 6: Upma

October 5, 2020.Reading time 7 minutes.

I don’t like Upma. I don’t like its taste, texture or look. My mum likes it. So much that she’d probably have it every Friday, her second vegetarian day in the week, if she could. Monday is her first designated non-meat day. My mum’s vegetarian days go up each month correspondingly with the number of […]

Memory lane

September 21, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

I love my mum. Always have. She turns 87 next Sunday. With her birthday around the corner, I was thinking more about her. As she is now. An old girl. Hearing suspect. Memory failing. Sleepy dopey. Heart and head willing, but body lagging behind. With flashes of determination and stubbornness. And, as she was many […]

Forgiving

September 14, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

I had watched the movie, ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.’ The same week, my mum told me a story about her estrangement with her stepsister’s sister-in-law. It made me think about family and friends. People, who have fallen out, and have not spoken or visited for years. Deleted from each other’s lives. With no […]

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

September 7, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ is a beautiful movie about a beautiful person – Fred Rogers. I hadn’t heard of him before and didn’t know that he was a real person when I watched the movie. I thought he was just too nice to be true. His gentle persona. His soft and slow way […]