Pensha

This was written for the "point of view" --- Last week was “catching up time” with old friends. Some of us are already mothers were discussing the pros and cons of raising kids, taking the second chance and sabbatical from work. During the talks, we learnt that two more friends were blessed with daughters. We cheered at the thought of the newest addition to our tribe. Clap, clap! Someone joked if He had his finger pressed on the button for “girls,” (like the TV commercial), because suddenly all we knew were proud, beaming parents of chubby, cute, pink faced baby girls. While others were chatting and laughing about “girl power,” I remember a spine-chilling conversation I had with another friend. This friend had always dreamt of having lots of kids. So it was no surprise that she took the second chance after her first daughter turned three. This time around her family members wanted the “perfect family” -- husband, wife, one son and his sister. A second girl child didn't f...

I wrote this review for the Sunday supplement. --- Tender Hooks By: Moni Mohsin Pages: 250 Publisher: Random House India Price: Rs 199 The first few lines of the book made me crack up: “You know Jonkers, na? Oho baba, what's happened to you? Everything you are forgetting. I think so you must have got sterile dementia. Like poor old Uncle Cock-up.” Still chuckling I start reading again to giggle at few more gems and malapropisms: “I put on green contacts (blue is so past it) and my new Tom Fort red lipstick and now I am just looking like Angelina Jolly. But like her healthier, just slightly older sister. I know I shouldn't do my own praise, but facts are facts, no? Pity Janoo isn't Brad Pitts. But you can't have everything in life as Mother Rosario used to say at my convent school.” Full of wit, wickedness and malapropisms, Tender Hooks continues from where The Diary of Social Butterfly left off. You get a hint of what is there in the chapter from the introductory ...

This appeared in She on April 1.   -- I met a friend last month and amidst giggles and girly chat, she revealed that she had got in touch with an old crush from college. They chatted on the Net and even planned to meet when her ex-flame would come down from the US in the Christmas break. The naughtiness was good for her. She radiated fun and happiness and her eyes sparkled. However, her happiness dimmed a bit when I asked if her hubby knew about this reunion. “No... I haven’t told him as yet. Frankly speaking, there’s nothing to tell... it’s on a platonic level. My husband won’t mind, but I don’t want to talk about it now. It’s my harmless little secret,” she insisted.   How many of you would say that you’ve never told a lie? We are not talking about serious lies, but harmless lies or half truths that you may ocassionally indulge in. Women, like men, do lie and sometimes the smart, pretty girl does get away with a ‘big’ lie just by doing the sad puppy face or batting her e...