Songs of the not-so innocent

When I started writing here in 2007, it was to journal my experiences. Moving abroad for further studies, it now feels like every day delivered a fresh discovery or epiphany. From bedbugs to roommates, cooking to washing up, finding a job to coursework, those were interesting times, rich in material. On slow days, there were a shed-load of opinions to hold forth on. I was in my early 20s after all. Life has taken many strange twists and turns since that first post. The strangest of them all is the diversion called COVID-19. Whether it remains a one-way road with occasional shoulders remains to be seen. Being remarkably resourceful apes, we cope as best we can. The virus does not seem to be our asteroid, but there's no way to know for sure.  In any case, experiences or adventures, pleasant or otherwise, were always thin on my ground. Now, they are practically extinct which means this blog is gasping for air. Never one for erudite arguments, well-constructed write-ups, literature ...

Saturday, 21 st March 2020, 10:30 am: I packed 2 haversacks, wiped down the kitchen, hung some washed clothes on the line, closed all the windows, switched off the gas main and the internet and took one final look around the house in Mumbai. The saxophone case stood upright in a corner of the room. “Take it next week ” I remember thinking. Still without a mask and covering my face with a handkerchief, I entered a largely empty train. I distinctly recall tensing up when a person sitting opposite me coughed slightly, but made no effort to find another seat. Dadar was quiet, too quiet for a Saturday and one reason for this was the fact that interstate MSRTC bus services had been suspended the previous day. As always, I’d had no idea and my timing remained exemplary. The Mumbai-Pune taxi rank was empty, every last moth-eaten, rust bucket of a car on its way out of the city by then. Having no choice, I negotiated the fare for the last seat in an Indica. 20 minutes later, the ...

Yesterday, I watched Amazon's All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur - a sports documentary that gives us more than a glimpse of life within a Premier League Club and I have to admit that it is a much needed project*. 99% of fans, me included, hold opinions on teams we follow, don't follow, football in general and let rip every chance we get. Our views have been shaped by what we see, i.e. the performances and results, and what we read, i.e. media stories. All or Nothing blows most of what we think we know out of the water.  Let me get this out of the way - sure, the documentary has been 'edited' but that's only to be expected, considering anything you watch, barring live videos, is chopped and changed to fit within a flow. Even so, there's a lot to understand. From the impact of player injuries (Kane, Son) to the complicated, dog-eat-dog world of the transfer market (Eriksen, Bergwijn), there were a number of interesting revelations for the person on the street. An...