I spent years arguing with parents not to come to airport to pick me up every time I went home. "What's the need? Why waste money? Why take trouble?" My mum would pack food in a tiffin box she would insist I eat in cab on way home after forbidding me to buy "250rs plane sandwich" Every visit it was the same irritating drill. "Seriously I live alone in Delhi, I can surely take a cab from airport and come home?" It got to a point where I'd be vague about the exact time of landing. They were still in their 50s and 60s. They'd not listen. They'd leave two

My elderly and unwell parents are facing unbelievable mental, financial and physical harassment from @careinsuranceIN to whom they pay high annual premium since 2023. My mother, insured under Care, was hospitalised at Fortis with severe breathing problems on 20 January on urgent advice of doctor for 3 days. The hospital is saying they submitted all medical documents Care asked for and on 22nd Jan, just before her discharge, my father got a pdf letter via Whatsapp - no formal email - that our claim was rejected as a "fraudulent claim".

A few days ago, I was at a metro station with a friend and on the stairs this baby (barely 2 years old) came up to us out of nowhere, tugged at my dress, grinned & babbled something. The girl had barely learnt to speak. We looked around to see why she is alone, no parent in sight we couldn't understand what she was saying when we asked her repeatedly where her mother was. She wasn't selling anything, just a baby roaming the platforms alone, engaging with strangers. For the 15 minutes we were there all the worst scenarios went through my head. Started

I don't think people elsewhere fully grasp what's happening in NCR and just how hot it is. At 7am, the tap water is boiling hot. The sun hurts the eye. There's no night time anymore. For 24 hours the temperature feels above 40C. Which means during night the water is as hot every surface is hot to touch. The human body can't endure a heatwave this nonstop without respite. ACs running nonstop, but rooms are barely cool, house plants are dying - you have to water them with boiling hot water. Struggling to breathe in the thick scalding air

I see the people predictably excusing the rapists of the foreign woman biker. "Everyone knows India is not safe, why did she not take precaution?" A few years ago in an argument with baba. He was reasoning "since you can't change mentality of men and the country in a day what is the need for women to step out at night by themselves?" I said, "you or ma might fall ill at 11pm and since I'm the only caregiver, I might have to step out to rush you to a hospital. Should I be molested for it and was asking for it?"

My father's simplicity is legendary. But today I was stumped. 20 years ago I bought a thin flannel jacket for Rs 150 or so in Sarojini. In a couple of years as I made slightly better salary, I bought better clothes and left that jacket at home. Today my parents sent me pics of a river outing they went with some of their friends and my father is wearing that jacket over an old check shirt. I didn't even know that jacket existed after 20 years or that he takes it out every winter and wears it. I have begged him to let me buy better clothes but his

Elon's trying to protect the Twitter Blue folks from mockery by making legacy verified accounts ambiguous instead of taking the blue tick off? What on earth is this @TwitterBlue? I have not paid for the blue tick 🤣🤣 The more hilarious thing is I just checked a couple of trollish handles I know are subscribers of Twitter Blue - they have the same status "either legacy verified or subscribed to Twitter Blue" lol

🧵At the age of 13 or 14, my parents and I suddenly found ourselves homeless overnight, penniless, abandoned by family. A kind-hearted relative let us stay in their home till I passed my boards. That day on, I promised to never let my parents face that humiliation again. The year I got my first job, I got a loan of Rs 7 lakh and bought my parents a very tiny flat in Kolkata. The first home they called their own, to live with dignity and free of fear. I spent the next 10 years paying off the loan, saving

🧵 Cute story time: Was walking back from the gym, saw these two pint-sized boys (4-5 years old) in white karate costume rolling on the grass, locked in a cartoonish fist fight. I ran up and separated the two mini martial artists and asked them why they are fighting. The tinier one (mind you both are barely 3.5 feet tall) said in a discernible lisp "isne mera tooth guma dia". Hooboy. Hold up. Kya gira diya? To which the other criminal pipes up indignantly "nai aunty mayne kuch ni kia". Turns out the former had just lost a milk tooth & was carrying it