Lifestyle

My darling, Some time ago you and I had a crazy idea that it could be the two of us against the world. In our naiveté we thought we had a connection previously unknown to any other human couple. We, in our love, became a superior being that transcended the “you” and the “I.” We agreed that Pablo Neruda’s Sonnet XVII was written about us. Of course, between then and now, life has happened, just as it happens for all couples. Our days are busy with children and meetings and work and parents and meals and errands and sick cats and lost keys, and sometimes in the routine of chaos we can say, “How are you? How was your day?” And I say, “Fine. Yours?” Sometimes that is true, it was fine. Sometimes I say, “Really rough.” Sometimes I say, “It was a crazy day.” Sometimes I say, “I...

Dear Mr. M L Sharma I am a 24 year old girl working in Bangalore. I work in an industry that has very tedious schedules and erratic timelines. I work for at least 10 hours a day and I love my family back home. If I don’t live up to my job and be pretty damn good at it, I will not be able to feed people whose lives are dependent on me. When you were 21, did you have bills to pay? Mouths to feed? Well, I did. And I could only do it because the job, that I have. I say it every day and I say it again today, I love my job. I have spent 5 days back to back in office wearing the same underwear. I have stayed outside at venue set ups all through the night, be it in a mainstream city, The Rann of Kachchh, or a far off interior village in Rajasthan or even in the gorgeous Dal Lake. The people...

Dear Rosie, I am writing to you with the hope that you will reflect upon the statements you have made since becoming the Australian of the Year and in doing so reconsider your approach to the issue of Family Violence. You have endured the unimaginable — every parent’s worst nightmare and for that you have my deepest empathy and heartfelt compassion. However, the suffering and grief you experienced and no doubt continue to experience should never be used as a shield to ward off criticism or questions about the position you have chosen to support. Once anyone chooses to be a public figure and uses their status to promote ideas I find highly dangerous and offensive and which have a direct impact upon the lives of many people then their personal experiences cannot be used to hinder/...

Dear Antidisestablishmentarianism, Oh come on. You’re not a word, you’re an event. How can you be so concerned with your own very particular meaning? How can a word that looks like you mean anything but ‘Look at me’? Look at you — those mutually negating prefixes. Why not cut them loose and spare us the syllables? Look at your suffixes, shuffling stiffly into place like men arranging themselves for a group photo. You’re like the uncle who thinks he’s charismatic but is just drunk. You’re like the unreconstructed sentimentalist neighbor who, Christmas after Christmas, goes too far with the lights. Ten years from now, seeing the Polaroids, will you be proud of that outfit? You’re like a plate of toothpaste. Or perhaps you haven’t gone far enough. Why not "...