Stan Scribbles

~ Kavya Manonmani Did you wake to the 5 am “to study” alarm? Did you run to the hostel bathroom to keep your bucket reserve at 6:30? Did you realize again that the iron was underheated because you forgot to swap it with the mobile charger at the socket? I know you blasted your ears with rock music all that while. Did you tell your roommates bye before leaving? Or did you leave the room last? Oh wait, you didn’t check the mirror. Did you reach the mess before 8:30? You didn’t eat again? You sleepwalked even though you were 10 minutes late for attendance, no? Do you know the topic of the anatomy lecture? Did the professor call you up again to answer because you were depicting the different stages of sleep? Did you bunk the 11 am class? Oh, you finally ate lunch! You are just going to scroll Instagram after 4 pm again, no? Damn. Calm. I woke up at 5:15. I did keep my bucket at the bathroom, but only at 7. And now I have been waiting for half an hour. I did begin to iron without realizing ...

~ Kook kannan It is no news that love marriages are becoming increasingly common in India. According to a report by WeddingWire India, arranged marriages have seen a 24% drop from 2020. But I have observed that, amusingly, more and more younger   siblings are getting permission, sometimes even encouragement, to opt for love marriages. All at the expense of their elder   siblings. I’m seeing this with a lot of my friends and family. Younger siblings whose parents had been historically very harsh about the love affairs of their children, who had even broken up their previous relationships creating so much drama, have suddenly loosened up and announced, " If you’re in a relationship or anything, go ahead. We got no objections." So, what happened? Logistics happened. They started looking for brides or grooms for their elder siblings. And they realized how hard it is to  arrange  a marriage in the modern world. Sure, their daughter might say ‘no’ to any guy they dis...