kaapimusings

           Grandparents. There are many emotions and memories this word or combination of words evoke. But mostly the association is with warmth, care, indulgence, great food and innumerable stories. My brother and I had the good fortune of having both sets of our grandparents around till 2013. I spent the first ten years of my life in a joint family with my paternal grandparents and as the only granddaughter, I was my Ajoba's pet. We visited my mother's parents only once a year since during the summer vacations but the time we spent with them was precious. My Dada (maternal grandfather)was an extremely intelligent and well-read man and he used to keep his two pesky grandchildren occupied with stories of Mirza the magician, a man and his adventures he made up on an everyday basis. I understand now that this was also to make sure my mother could perhaps take a shower or eat her breakfast in peace. My grandfathers were both adventurou...

Dear Aadu, Next week will mark a year since I lost what I thought was going to be my dream job. Over the past six years in Singapore, I have struggled immensely to find and keep jobs, and after a long period of struggle, I thought that this was finally going to be the pot of ‘honey’ at the end of a rather dark tunnel. After all, it was a writing job, it was a small expat company, my colleagues were mostly women and mothers who were open to working with some flexibility. But unfortunately, about five weeks after I went through two rounds of interviews and one written test, I was told that I wasn’t good enough, and had to leave. I am aware of my shortcomings. It was a completely new environment, I was returning after a long maternity break and perhaps it took me longer than allowed to settle in. I was overwhelmed with the work, the new technology; I made typos and spelling mistakes, but never missed a deadline. Ironically, just when I was doing things right I was told that ...