The Infernal Diurnal Journal

 Recovering from a combination of a strange bug- perhaps a covid variant- as well as a rocking 31st night party at our place. The backyard now looks quite inviting-seeing as the swimming pool is ready. Something about the silent shimmer of aqua that enhances with gusto any shady haunt. The back yard has a sail shade partly covering it and so it feels nice to sit there with the water view in the rear. We had initially called around 5 families- many also showed up with their big kids who were generally in Dubai for the winter break from universities in the US, Canada and the UK. Initially the crowd was a bit quiet- and also not everyone knew each other so there was bit of searching and seeking going on. The bar was open , the music was in the background coming through my portable Bose speakers. I had put my "liked Songs" on shuffle- so one can imagine what that soundtrack sounded like. Pretty vague to the average listener. But it was background anyway, Eventually we went inside...

 At the beginning of 2022, while still in the Philippines, by myself and pondering over the future, I came up with the notion that one of the areas where I have clearly underachieved- and by no external measure- just by my own output - or lack thereof, was my writing. I have been informed sufficiently and quite early on about the fact that I can write a bit. I will go into the tell -tale signs of this and the reader can be the judge. My first published work was an essay in the school magazine at the Indian School in Bahrain. It was a few lines describing my collection of cars in Bahrain with detail on the various brands.- with the punchline that these were only toy cars.-seeing I was in Standard 2- so must have been all of 7 years old. It was nothing great- just about qualified as cute. But perhaps I am too harsh on myself. Thereafter I got some validation many years later when I was in year 10 - 12 in school in Jamshedpur. During this period, we had a lot of inter-school festivals...