RAJI WRITES

Grab your cup of tea, glass of wine, handkerchief, tissues if you are up for this sentimental post. All set? Here we go. One summer afternoon, a month and a half ago, I took Shafali to the airport. Who is Shafali? you ask; I’ll tell you shortly. Which airport, you ask next? San Francisco International. Where was she going? (Full of questions, aren't you?!) She flew off to Germany, to start a new chapter in her life. A new job. And as I drove back home, minus Shafali and

Plaid pale pants Puffy black jacket Short stylish black hair (Shorter than I remember) Those deepset black eyes as bright and piercingly intelligent As they were 29 years ago. (Were they moist off and on When we started talking After a long, warm hug? So much has happened Over these long years. Where to begin?) From the sofa at Park Central We rose Cut across Yerba Buena Lane over to Amber. “Will you be done by 7?” the male host asked, a little harried. We acquiesce

Eating rose petals? That concept is not as strange to me as it might be to some others. When I was a child, I remember wandering in the garden with my favorite uncle. He loved fragrances – fragrant flowers, perfumed soaps, colognes, fragrances. I watched him as he tilted his head down towards a rose and inhaled deeply, closing his eyes in deep enjoyment. Then, he plucked a few petals off a rose and to my great surprise, started eating them! I stared at him, speechless. “Try

The past few weeks have brought jolting news of deaths by suicide, of fashion designer Kate Spade, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and others less well-known. Like many others, I reflected on their lives and their deaths, and the despair that led them to take their lives. I lamented the deaths of despair that a person can sink into, so deep that they feel the pain is unceasing and cannot be overcome, that the only way to end the pain is to end their lives. "But they were so

It happens every time I see A woman with wavy blond Hair to her shoulders, her stride Confident, brisk. I think , Helen, of you. I remember The embroidered shoes you bought In India on your tiger tour “for a steal” The 3 pairs of shoes you bought “on sale” in Maiden Lane saving more than I would spend on shoes in 3 years. I remember Your superb intellect, your scientific integrity uncompromising Your caustic pronouncements, from railing at big pharma for the blockbuster drug