The dangers of the internet

I went to visit someone quite elderly and we had a cup of tea. When the lid of the sugarbowl was lifted underneath, instead of sugar, were packets of Splenda. This was not particularly surprising. What was surprising was that also in the bowl was a sprinking of long freshly plucked leaves. I enquired, learned […]

Grumping and growling

I was grumping and growling all day yesterday and much of this morning, largely thanks to my father who is getting difficult as he ages, and never more so than when he is unwell. I am worried he has some sort of lung infection, as this is the fourth or fifth time in the past […]

Flashback

My father was ill – only a cold and fever, but it took me back to some years ago when my visits circled around my ill mother. Then I would sleep in her room at night, but last night I slept in the lounge and pretended it was so I could work late at night. […]

Salt

I have just taken a sip of tea and realised that what I’d thought was sugar was actually salt. Happily I don’t take much sugar and enjoy salt Kashmiri tea, so will continue drinking it. But a shock, nonetheless. This morning I went to collect my renewed identity card which is now valid for 10 […]

Two meals

On Sunday afternoon my father and I went for lunch to the home of his closest friend, a former military man from the mountainous north, with a very impressive moustache. It was a bit of a duty but not very as I’m fond of both him and his wife, who was very kind during my […]

Passable

Last night we went to someone’s house to watch a film, Little Women, over bowls of khao suey. The film suffered from the environment: the volume was very low, as there were infants somewhat asleep in adjacent rooms; our hosts were the types who talk and bustle about through films so it was distracting, and […]

Dutiful niece

I went to visit a great-aunt, my grandmother’s elder sister, feeling that I should as she loved my mother very much and I always feel guilty about not being as loving and fun as my mother was. I went with my grandmother, and it was amusing to see the two of them enter their old […]

Wisdom of age

My elevation to some sort of elder continues apace as I was asked to help out with a friend’s troubled marriage. A difficult business, as I could see quite clearly where the backgrounds and assumptions of both parties interacted and caused blindness and resentment. I don’t think I was much help, but it still took […]

Kya dekhein

I was saddened, no, enraged, by a podcast which claims to be about Urdu poetry and which I had really been excited about. The first episode I listened to was about Faiz’s Hum dekhein gey, which I translated a few months ago when it was used in the Kashmir protests. It’s being used in protests […]