glimpse: LIFE LOTTERY | Since I took this picture in Chennai’s V-House Triplicane Slum, I’ve looked at it many times. For long moments I stared at it and had the hardest time writing a caption. There is so much I would like to say, but I’m choking. However, if I let the image just speak for itself, it might be misinterpreted. The viewer might toss these kids in a cliché-box in a far and easily forgettable mind-corner. These children are poor, but they are not “pity-poor.” They oughtn’t to be thought of as “aww these poor kids.” It doesn’t do their strength and bravery and grace any justice. It denies them the agency to make the best of a hard lot. They have lives. They play, they laugh. Probably more than their digitally-consumed cousins in the West. Having less is not the problem here; but, having so little that food, shelter, hygiene, healthcare and education are daily struggles is an injustice considering how easily they are accessible to others. Pity doesn’t help these kids. Awareness and action does. There is little merit in most of us being where we are and a false sense of entitlement keeps us from redistributing resources and opportunities in this world more evenly, from us, the life lottery winners, to these kids, the runner ups.

glimpse: FLYING BY | With his ingenious equations, Einstein taught us that time is relative in this universe. Thankfully, he also pointed out how it ticks in our humble human dimension: flying by in joyful moments, slowing down when we can’t wait for it to pass. And there is another dimension to this ironic dilemma we are all familiar with: being young, time is slow and blocking our way to the perks of adulthood; but once we’re there, it passes us by to never be caught up with again, moving faster with every year. Of course it doesn’t really, but it really does. Time appears to have a twisted sense of humor, quite literally, and it never seems on our side. But maybe time was never the traitor here; after all, Einstein’s equations state that the actual physics-relativity is unnoticeable in our tiny world, where every simple watch renders time absolute. But wait a minute – I think I know who’s to blame when we ask: “where has the time gone?” It’s  r o u t i n e  that carried it away. Time might be hard to grasp, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to follow this logic: the more one day resembles the other, the less they are distinguishable in hindsight. Without event-anchors to hold on to, tracing back our steps becomes a blur and time will shrink in retrospect. Pack more memorable life into your life, just like you did as a child, and you will know where time has gone.

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Chennai

Delhi / Indian Liberalism: Differently Abled & Open to All Religions

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Goa / Throw a Rock, Hit an Expat on a Scooter: Foreigner Meccas

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Kerala / Life by the Water

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Rajasthan / Holy Dumpster Cow

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Tamil Nadu / The Importance of Education & the Happy Homeless

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Uttar Pradesh / Taj It or Not

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