The AICUF Story!

  "Nandini, today is the thirteenth day of me telling you to clean out your room! Diwali is only two weeks away. You do know that the painters are coming tomorrow, don't you?"   "Mom, are you seriously counting the times you tell me to organise my room?"  "Yes, it is ammunition for our future arguments. Truly, Goddess Lakshmi will think twice before entering our house." Meanwhile, Mukti, my little sister, is running around the living room doing God knows what. She is all squeals and giggles; until she nearly trips over a stack of photo albums.  Seeing the labels - Diwali of 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2016, we call Mom over and sit on the bed excitedly. I open the 2006 album to a photo of me (aged 8), wearing a pink lehenga that I remember crying and begging for. Mom teases me, “Do you remember how you convinced us? You said that new clothes are a new beginning, that they bring good luck and joy, so if you don’t get this lehenga, you will be mise...

    The alarms ring. Everyone jolts into action. We never paused our work, but it is time to recommence our second job alongside the first one.   Mr. Subconscious Brain is all-powerful, but we have no qualms when he works us twenty-four by seven. Controls all our involuntary actions, and is like the archive mind everyone's so afraid of; while his brother, the younger Mr. Conscious sleeps before making us work at our second job.   I shrugged the clutches of sleep, and stuttered to work before the gossipping nerves get to me; everyone knows what I do for a living (pardon the pun), but I wonder if they truly know what my second job is.   Frankly, I run a hamster wheel. Carrots with the metaphorization of happiness have been cruelly dangled, and I've been ordered to run eternally after them, round the clock, whenever I'm awake - sometimes, if the mood strikes, even in the dreams.   The lungs greet me, and meticulously begin their day's work, coordinating with t...

  Halloween. When we usually think of it, it’s always dressing up as something or someone that is so well etched in our own memory. In India, especially in the more urban areas like Mumbai, it’s become more common to see Halloween themed parties, where people cosplay as different characters, whether fictional or non-fictional. Most of it can be down to the phenomenon of westernisation, or simply said, a fascination with the culture seen in the west.   As someone who himself celebrated Halloween parties with my friends, it is really fun, but I personally feel that there should be more acknowledging of the importance of Halloween as a whole. It is part of this run-up to All Saints Day on 1 st November and All Souls Day on 2 nd November, which both have major significance in Christian culture in general. On All Saints Day, we pray for the saints that have been ordained throughout the history of the church. It is this remembrance for what they have done for the betterment o...