Recent discoveries on YouTube

Two songs I can't stop enjoying since I found them by randomly clicking on YouTube recommendations.

Mungo Jerry's "In The Summertime"


And Stealers Wheel's "Stuck In The Middle With You"

The 42-year-old orphan

The presence of parents - no matter how old you are or how troubled your relationship with them - is a comfort and a reassurance you realise only in their absence. The subconscious knows you still have them as last call of hope when things go wrong; it knows from memory you will find in them the emotional support you seek. It also knows without them, you are on your own.

I'm nearly 42 and I feel orphaned. I can only imagine what a young person goes through when they lose their parents.

RIP, Dad

I lost my Dad on Sunday. We were never really close. When I was growing up, our conversations were usually functional. His "Do this" versus my "I want". He was a strict - sometimes stupidly so - disciplinarian, who didn't see any cruelty in giving a college-going son a rupee a day for pocket money. Still, he was a man I respected and admired, mainly because of his insistence on doing the right thing. That respect came crashing down, however, when I discovered that he was just a man of straw, not the honest principled man I thought he was. And the conversations ceased between us, even the functional ones. His ego didn't allow him to acknowledge his mistakes and make amends.

He was not a bad man. Neither a bad father. I didn't have an unhappy childhood. But when I try and think back of happy moments spent together - just he and I - no memories come rushing back.

We never made our peace, Dad. Perhaps, I never will. But you rest in peace, Dad, rest in peace.