Author - Jui Purohit.

My maid is on leave. What? The title seems confusing? Are you saying I'm translating the phrase in a wrong manner? Absolutely not. The maids of honour are necessary to a bride for a wedding, ain't maids equally important for us ladies in our homes? You call her a house help, you call her didi, tai, maushi, bhabhi etc, etc. doesn't that mean you have some kind of relationship with her? The way you call your other relations by names, kaka, kaki or bhaiyya, maasi and so on and so forth. Why are we trying to initiate a relationship with a woman, working at our place? Why don't we call our subordinates at work, with same names? Why don't we call our bosses, uncles or aunties? Well, this house help is no doubt working for us for money, but she's making our life extremely easy. We don't have to do the tedious job of sweeping the entire house and wiping it clean. We don't have to wash our clothes or utensils daily. We don't have to carry on the laborious and...

  I love this cheese!", I announced, standing at the cheese stall, in Savona, Northern Italian region. I fell in love with cheese and the young lad fell in love with me! " Hi! I am Christopher, Christopher Colombus. I run this stall along with my father ", he said. I smiled and in a reticent tone, replied with a "Hi!".  I kept visiting his stall and there began our love story. He used to often tell me how he always wanted to travel the world. He loved exploring places. His fairy tale-ish dreams made me fall for him, even more. One day Christopher came to me and said, "I got a job as a business agent, am going to England and Ireland ". I was thrilled to know that he is travelling these far off places. I so wanted to join him on his voyage. But we decided to wait. He said he would come back and we should get married. He finished his work in England and Ireland. He came back but met me once to just tell me he's travelling again, this time it's Po...

   "Buy us Robux (currency in an online game - Roblox), mumma please, mumma please!", were the continuous chants of my sons. A teenager and a 9 year old, both of them love gaming. But the screen addiction makes me vexed. I am absolutely against playing online games and wasting childhood behind the monstrous screens. I kept ignoring their pleads. We finished dinner. Boys went to sleep in their room. And it started raining cats and dogs. Mr. Husband and me got worried, as there's always a waterlogging problem in our area. We live close to the creek, that makes it worse. Mr. Husband and me kept checking the water levels on the road, through our window. It was already 1A.M. The water levels kept rising. We shifted our important bags, some kitchen stuff and TV to our 1st floor. And eventually tired, went to sleep by 2. "Hush! It's Sunday tomorrow (already it was yet), I can get up late", I thought and switched off the alarm. When I woke up, it was already 9 A.M. ...

"Lets adopt a baby", said Harish. But Vinodini was adamant. She wanted her own baby. They had been to several gynaecologists in the town and around. But all said the same thing. There was fertility problem with Vinodini. Vinodini, an otherwise cheerful woman, was good at cooking and managing her household properly. She was a fabulous kathak dancer. She had batches full of students, learning kathak, everyday. She used to be happy to see these cute girls dance and chatter. Atleast for sometime, her house would fill with those adorable smiles. Harish was an architect. He owned the firm, 'Happy Habitation'. His clients always went back contented. They said "Koi ghar banaye to Harish bhai jaisa, ghar, sirf ghar nahi, swarga lagta hai!".  But he was unable to complete his own family and make his own Ghar -a heav en. Relatives had started discussing and making a fuss. "It's been 10 years now. What are they waiting for?"..."Arey Harish mei koi kam...

 Ravi was now a successful man, doing great in a foreign land. Fighting odds he had earned his position in this big company. He had always been a hard working man. Aisha came to his cabin, to give him a gentle reminder of today's meeting. "Don't forget the Analysis and Market trend reports, the blue and black files. The black one, yesterday in a hurry, I slid it into your fourth drawer", she said and left. "Fourth drawer?", Ravi exclaimed. He hadn't touched the drawer since then. Since he had placed 'that letter' in it. He hesitantly opened the drawer. Took out the black file. He was about to slide the drawer back, but unwillingly, his eyes fell on the letter. The letter which lay untouched, there, its creases marked  by dust. He picked up the letter, brushed away the dust. It was as it is, stamped received, unopened. To,  Ravi kumar, 3682, Taylor street, New Rochelle, New York - 10801. USA. He turned the letter, From, Mithiladevi kumar, 1st floo...

  "Uthale re Deva! Mujhe nahi, isey!"...said his ajoba to Ajay. Ajay, his  college going grandson, had just returned from salon. He had shaved off his mustache. Ajoba didn't like this new version of Ajay. He kept saying things to Ajay. Finally Ajay got frustrated and said, "Thappad se darr nahi lagta Ajoba, apki badbad se lagta hai!". Ajay and his Ajoba had a jovial relation. Ajay's working parents were always busy with their jobs. Aaji had left this world, when Ajay was very small. So, his buddy home, was Ajoba. They both loved to watch movies together. And later would converse using the movie dialogues. They had a fun relationship! Ajoba earnestly said, "Bade bade deshonmei sirf chhoti chhoti baatein nahi hoti, Ajay!, Are you free? Let's have some tea and will tell you my love story". Ajay gladly said, "Neki aur pooch pooch!". Ajoba filled the milk pan with 2 cups of water and put it to boil. Ajay kept the sugar and tea dabbas ready...

  The 7 wonders of the world... I wonder why 'Woman' isn't included in it? They say a woman's brain is complicated...they say her emotions are complicated.. yeah, true! But there could be N number of reasons for this! During the 'Early human Era' things were simple. Man was assigned the duty of hunting, while woman had to do the cooking, period. Then...She also had to give birth to children. She also had to raise them, look after them. See now, one is assigned with a specific duty and just a single one. While the other has to do all that remains to do. So now this other person starts multitasking! And here things start getting complicated. When you have so much to do, you have a lot of things going on in your mind, at a time. Your body is doing some work but may be your mind is preoccupied with something other, that has to be done too! You also attach your emotions to all this work. Specially, if its related to your family. Even after slogging for everybody, at ...