A Letter To My Daughter

Dear Anam

You were born on a rainy morning on the 31st of July 2018. The first time I held you in my arms, you wailed (we have video evidence of it), and a very red you looked at your grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was 'the' moment that took my breath away.

But long before that defining moment, your Umma carried you inside her for nine months in the desert heat of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the rain and humidity of Kannur and Calicut and the pleasantness of Bengaluru. During those days, we sang to you (especially your Papa in his trademark discordant voice), had secret story telling sessions (ones that even Umma could not eavesdrop on) and laughed often. Your doctor in Abu Dhabi - an ex-military personnel - was sad that you were going to India to make your grand arrival, but a red carpet had already been laid out for you back home.

As is with any expat to-be-Dad/new-Dad, it was hard staying away from you the last three months before you made your entry and the following three months waiting for you to join me in Abu Dhabi. But those days are long behind. Today, I have you in my arms the very second I come back from work. We wake up in the morning and do a bit of sunbathing for some much needed vitamin D. You do occasionally scare your Umma with an earth-shattering cry in the middle of the night, but no matter what, you brighten up our lives every single day.

The purpose of me writing this open letter to you is not to go on a rant about how the world is today or how it will turn out to be. But, it is rather to tell you that this world is good. The people are good. And there is goodness all around us. There can be detractors that might make you feel otherwise, but even for the briefest moment do not be disparaged. You go out there, conquer what you set your eyes on and be the woman you want to be. While at it, be good and do good.

I do not know what trajectory our lives will take over the coming years, but let me tell you this - we will always have your back. You are beautiful, fierce and a whole lot of amazing! Be happy and always spread happiness, because the life we have is a very short one, and it needn't be wasted otherwise. We love you with all our hearts and no matter what, you will always have us by your side.

Love,

Your Papa

A Blogger's Observation

I think sequels don't work. I was trying out the new interface of Blogspot (which is super awesome to say the least), and found the stats page as available on Wordpress. When i checked on which was my most read post i found that my blog post - The Nomad That Is Me - Part 1 (The Story Of My Homes), had the most hits, while the subsequent posts on the same, saw far fewer readers. It was like comparing my posts to the norms of Hollywood - the first is always good, the sequels - eh. What was more disturbing was to find out any similar post, which goes beyond 2 sequels tend to bomb badly (sadly The Nomad That Is Me - Part 4 (The Story Of My Homes) was my worst sequel ever considering it never even made it to the top ten list.) So what have we learned here?

• Stick to originals.
• If you plan to do sequels, don't go beyond two.
• If you think this post will increase hits to my earlier blog posts - tough luck.
• Don't go pop culturing yourself.

Waking up to the call

i was unearthing my past digital records and i came across this essay, once again for some assignment most probably.


“Life is a festival only to the wise. Seen from the nook and chimney side of prudence, it wears a ragged and dangerous front.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Humanity is what man requires from the society, but most of the time he is denied of it. The long history of man from the barbaric age to the present modern world is a history of how evil won over good, and how evil wishes and actions got the better of peace loving people. Crime has thrived from the days of Adam and Eve. Even today it is as conscious as it was then. And the levels of crime have also increased manifold. It is just not crime relating to humanity. There are crimes aimed at technology, country, animals and even nature. And what do we do about it? Just talk, let other people know about it, while crime has a steady climb. It’s high time we reacted. If we do nothing about it, then who knows, crime might rule over us pretty soon, like the nightmarish democracy of the fictional Gotham City. The time is now and the action is immediate.

So what can the common man like us do about it? Well for starters, we need to clear the world of the evil it has at the moment, and then see to it that it does not resurrect itself. And this needs to begin from the bottom level of society, maybe somewhere around the community level. We could have less of moral policing and more of criminal policing. Instead of seeing what culture is being followed or who is doing what, one has to see that other anti-social elements that function in the shadow of such availabilities don’t escape. One can have public – police interactions at least once a week. They can suggest to each other as to how the place can be made safer. Sometimes people are scared to report anything to the police with the question as to whether they will be targeted by the criminals for just opening their mouths. So for such informants, the police needs to create enough anonymity, so that anyone can call in to report any crime without fear. Community policing is another ideal manner to tackle this problem. This can lessen the burden on the police, as well as give the satisfaction to the public that there is at least someone whom they know around them to protect them. Thinking of ideas, there are more than a million at hand. But those lie in the minds of the public out there. More of awareness classes to bring forward people into giving out new ideas should also be conducted.

But without personal involvement we may not be able to reach anywhere, because as Pubillius Syrus, the Latin writer once said – “You yourself are guilty of a crime when you don’t punish a crime”. So strap up some courage, and say no to crime and criminals. This provides us with a safer future and a better society.