Heart to Heart

                                                            The monster called loneliness                                     Loneliness is an insidious fiend. A hydra-headed   monster, it quietly sneaks in unawares, sets up camp inside the private, pristine spaces of your mind/consciousness and then takes full control à la wily China in eastern Ladhakh; ... or, biologically speaking, the invisible but ubiquitous virus -   Corona, Pox or Flue - that catches us off guard. Some types are identifiable and familiar. For instance the gnawing loneliness that haunts us when a loved one departs to the Great Unknown Beyond. Worse, if it is premature and unexpected caused either by ailment or accident. After the initial shock and numbness, as the sense of loss sinks in, one has to contend with the walls that whisper; the old belongings of the departed acquire tooth and claw of sorrow and inflict pain; and the memories hum and buzz day in and day out in the steamy brew being stirred up by this

  About friends, friendships and patriarchy                    “…It takes only one friend … to work miracles.”                                                                                                - Henry Miller                                                                                                 World would indeed be a black hole of gloom but for the balmy sunshine of friends who, we know, come in myriad avatars. I enlist a few. Some are langotia yaars and hum pyalas, the bosom friends as we say. Before them we let our hair down and open our hearts inside out without shame or blush; pour out our deepest secrets, share our highs and lows and smiles and tears. They stand by you through thick and thin and their friendship is a balm that soothes the nerve, unknots the heart, elates and elevates the soul. Some friends are intellectual, enlightened types whose torch of knowledge and erudition removes the cobwebs of ignorance from your minds. A conversation with th