Built by the British in 1895, across the river Periyar, it was supposed to last a 50 years, according to its engineer, it has today, far lived its life span. Man’s greed has made the dam last beyond 100 years. After India‘s Independence, all those pre-independence pacts have been made defunct, this one, somehow still continues to hold forth causing dispute between two states… (As a matter of fact, the pact was renewed in 1970, between Tamil Nadu and Kerala whereby operation of the dam was bestowed on Tamil Nadu). As of now, Kerala wants a cancellation of the instant pact.

Earlier that year, I travelled alone for the first time fromIrelandtoSouth Korea. I stood in the airport bookshop, looking for some book to keep me company.

One story that is missing in that book is the story of Hamirsar. The artificial lake that forms the heart of Bhuj and reason for its existence.

Take a look through the years of the beauty pageants, be they city-centric, state-centric, nation-centric or world-centric – all of them seem to endorse the view that tall, slim and good-looking women define beauty. What about the rest of the women? Aren’t short, stout, plump and natural looking women, not beautiful?

We all have been scared of getting caught and more terrified of discovering the truth about someone else.
So why then,do we lie? Why do we manipulate things that should be portrayed just the way they are? Well, we are human and no we don’t really err when we say or do something dishonest, we simply try to people-please because that is the unabridged deal of existence as we all want to feel accepted.

Girls can say really stupid things you know. The things you can’t even imagine. For example “I can’t walk with these shoes!” Have you ever heard that?

I felt like asking “Why did you buy this shoe, which when wearing you can’t put one of your legs in front of another?” But I didn’t and I know that won’t be appreciated. It was a blind date for god’s sake.

Rewinding it few years back where arranged marriages were thought to be uncool. Love marriages were the latest trend.[D2] People thought that people who never fell in love or individuals who were dominated by their families usually went for arranged marriages. So, now the trend seems to have moved back from this ideology.

Surprisingly, I agree with the above definition. I say surprisingly because as a Gemini, it takes a lot for me to actually go ahead and agree with anyone or anything. This could have something to do with the insanely strong streak of stubbornness that is within all Gemini’s or our inability to decide anything till such time that the ‘train’ is just about to hit us.

You had given me a blue silk stole

Last summer.

Remember?

I still have it with me.

I really feel apologetic for delaying my column-writing for weeks together. But what else could I do? I was occupied with “day-dreaming”. Sounds stupid,right? Well, yes, it is…but only seemingly.