A Friend, Indeed!
The other day, someone spoke about offline friends and online friends—how she connects more deeply with offline ones. Yesterday, I made a brand new online friend. We spoke for the very first time, for more than an hour, something I realised only when it was time for me to pick my son up from therapy. […]
What’s in a Name!
“Baby name?” “Krishnan Srinivasan.” “You’re the mother, Ma’am?” “Yes.” “Your name?” “Gayatri Vathsan.” Pause. Whether the pause was because my surname is different from my son’s, or just unfamiliar, I don’t know. “Vasanthan,” wrote the nurse taking down my son’s case history. “Not Vasanthan, Vath-san,” I pronounced. “Watson,” she wrote. I gently took the pen […]
March in Bloom
March has begun in all its dry, baking heat in Bangalore, the kind that settles early in the day and lingers, pressing gently but persistently against skin and stone alike. Dry leaves drift down in no particular hurry, spinning lazily through the warm air before settling over roads and narrow lanes, forming a soft, uneven […]
Happy Pongal!
Today marks the sun’s northward movement after the winter solstice. Makara Sankranti, celebrated all over India—a time that marks fresh harvests, new beginnings, and a quiet turning inward towards spiritual awakening. At home, it is the one day in the entire year when milk boiling over is not a mistake. It is welcome. Instead of: […]
A Story, Undone
For 20 years, I believed H hated me. I had never met her. Had never spoken to her. And yet, because of circumstances, I believed this completely. And then, in the last week of 2024, I somehow found the courage to visit her. We drove from Bangalore to Chennai, bumping along a highway that seemed […]
The Void
The night is dark and tender, charcoal and purple, a quiet canvas stretched wide across the sky, where pinpricks of light twinkle and gleam in the black velvet expanse, distant and steady. The warm weight of a little head rests on my lap, growing heavier by the minute, surrendering slowly to sleep. Lashes droop and […]
The Gentle, Fierce Night
There’s something soft about the night, where the dark is like an embrace that tells you it’s all going to be fine, that gentles your pain and blunts the sharp edge of grief, not by taking it away, but by holding it just lightly enough that you can breathe again. The world recedes a little […]
What You Tell Yourself In the Dark
The parenting journey is full of sleepless nights and exhausting days; autism parenting, much more so. These sleepless nights, though, sometimes bring a kind of clarity that gets lost in the noise and rush of the day, when you are moving from one task to another, solving, managing, responding, without pause. Krishna has been merrily […]
Gratitude
After Krishna was diagnosed as autistic seven years ago, his school asked him to leave. It was a CBSE school. They were supposed to provide a shadow teacher to facilitate learning for children with special needs. A doctor from NIMHANS had given the school a letter clearly stating that Krishna could attend regular school at […]
Happy Father’s Day!
Yesterday was Father’s Day. Let me confess: I had no idea such a day existed. I didn’t check LinkedIn till night. Then someone mentioned it, and of course I had to Google it—the third Sunday of every June is Father’s Day. It passed quietly and unnoticed, like many fathers do. So this post is for […]
Motherhood
Let me tell you a mother’s story. Illiterate, underprivileged—and with such phenomenal grit and love that I am dumbfounded. Before the redoubtable Manjamma began working for me, I was looking for someone reliable and clean to help with the housework. Knock, knock. “Ma’am, namaskara! I heard you’re looking for a househelp. I’m Shashikala. I need […]
Autism or Virtual Autism?
“No, my son isn’t autistic,” a young mother said, her eyes filling. “He has virtual autism.” Krishna’s therapist shared that this happens quite frequently nowadays. I had to go and look up what “virtual autism” is supposed to be. Some experts use the term “virtual autism” to describe the potential for excessive screen time to […]