Category Archives: A Father’s Diary

Spare the Rod…Or Go to Jail?

So many jokes! “Families are canceling their trips to Scandinavia…because they sometimes smack their kids on their bottoms and don’t want to get arrested.” So much indignation! “We Indians know to handle relationships at the highest level unlike Westerners who have no concept of family. How dare the Norwegians teach us how to raise our […]

December 7, 2012 – 2:26 pm | By Bhavin Jankharia | Posted in A Father's Diary, Mumbai Mirror Column | Comments (14)

A Week of Roller-Coaster Emotions, Changes and Closure

What a roller-coaster week this has been! The biggest story obviously was Balasaheb Thackeray’s on-off death. From the time I started understanding things as a kid, the Sena and he have been part of our lives, sometimes central, most times peripheral, responsible for changing Bombay and its residents, for good or for bad. Interestingly, just […]

November 23, 2012 – 11:33 pm | By Bhavin Jankharia | Posted in A Father's Diary, Films, General, Mumbai Mirror Column | Comments (12)

Holidays Sans-Children, Sans-Friends

In this week of Jab Tak Hain Jaan, Son of Sardar and Ek Tiger Bimaar, it is good to be out of the city and in the Himalayas. I love my kids. They are generally obedient, fun to be with and at an age where they can take reasonable care of themselves. Holidays with them […]

November 16, 2012 – 1:06 pm | By Bhavin Jankharia | Posted in A Father's Diary, General, Mumbai Mirror Column | Comments (15)

The “Penguin Law” Holds

Here’s a new one for the school rule-book: “If you want parents during the Annual School production to stay till the very end and not leave once their child’s part is done, you must put on a musical with penguins and make sure that each child wears a penguin mask”. Each year, a gaggle of […]

February 14, 2009 – 9:02 am | By admin | Posted in A Father's Diary, Matunga, Mumbai Mirror Column, School - Don Bosco | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

The Screams of Rock On

Exactly 2.51 minutes into the album version of “Pichle saat dinon mein”, which starts with “Meri laundry ka ek bill”, Farhan Akhtar, in typical rock-star fashion, screams out the word “roya” at the end of the line “kabhi khud pein hasa main aur kabhi khud pe roya”. My twins know exactly when that scream will […]

February 7, 2009 – 4:33 am | By admin | Posted in A Father's Diary, Mumbai Mirror Column | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Open-Air Haikus

“Simple soft leaves And branches holding them Hey, don’t pluck them” This is a haiku that my 8-year old daughter wrote, with help from her guide (thanks Anita), under a large tree, in one of the “Five Gardens”. When I was 8-years old, I didn

January 24, 2009 – 9:31 am | By admin | Posted in A Father's Diary, Matunga, Mumbai Mirror Column | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Flash from an SLR past

This was published in today’s Mumbai Mirror. Last Sunday, we suddenly realized that the one-year old, passport-sized photos of our fast-growing, six-years old twins, would not do for some visas that we were applying for. They already look different. So, just before our biweekly Sunday Udipi ritual, we trooped to Foto Circle, which we have […]

April 16, 2006 – 6:26 pm | By admin | Posted in A Father's Diary, Matunga, Mumbai Mirror Column | Comments (0)

Ganpati Hopping

This is my new piece for Mumbai Mirror, that appeared today. Saturday before last, we made a big mistake. We decided to take the kids out for Ganpati darshan, and unfortunately, we started first with the GSB Ganpati at the Cosmopolitan grounds. It was like starting an Agatha Christie book from the last page

September 19, 2005 – 5:39 pm | By admin | Posted in A Father's Diary, Matunga, Mumbai Mirror Column | Comments (4)

Kids Find The Darndest Thing Funny…About “24” and Time Bomb 9/11

We are great fans of “24” and have already seen Seasons 1-3 on DVD, not wanting to wait till the show aired in India. In fact, my season 4 DVD set has just been posted by Amazon UK to my sister’s place in London and I should probably get it by next week. “24” airs […]

August 6, 2005 – 6:23 pm | By admin | Posted in A Father's Diary | Comments (0)