Siddhi Bhosale

Top: Sudha Murthy Middle: Shobha Dey Bottom: Kiran Desai Mornings in train start not when the sun rises but when the tea sellers ring the alarm of ‘chai garam chai’ and that is when you know it’s morning. But I was on the lower berth, and one has to keep lying until the person on the middle berth wakes up and takes it down to sit comfortably. But the girl talked with her mother late into the night and then fought with the bald uncle, too, so she was definitely not going to wake up early. I got freshened up, the train had stopped at Vadodara station, and I was reminded of my time here when I was in class 6th and Kamal Aaji had hosted us ( Gujrat blog ). The air was cold, and a shiver passed through me. I came inside. The bald uncle was sitting crouched because his son was also not up. Then I had a chai, the railway tea, which is more on the sweeter side, it is almost like a basundi chai. I had the morning tea while reading ‘Dollar Bahu’ by Sudha Murthy (Little did I know I was actually...

I still remember that it was the monsoon season, and there was a poem recitation competition for the 1st standard in our school. The topic was ‘Rain’, and my parents, being wordsmiths, Mumma came up with the hook line of ‘Rain, rain everywhere, green grass everywhere…’ and Pappa filled the gaps to match the rhyme. Mumma made the props; she made cardboard clouds and attached ribbons of different colours, as if rain was falling from the clouds, and those clouds were tied to my hands, which I moved while reciting the poem. That poem won me 1st prize for three consecutive years in school, because of its originality and creativity, which my parents planted in the poem! Performance at my Playschool. I remember writing my first poem, it was a slow Sunday afternoon of 2nd February 2014. Everyone at home was taking their afternoon nap, and I had set up my study table (foldable then) in the balcony of my room at Bhagyalaxmi (the name of our house then), I was probably done with all the homework ...