About SM

I pen under the name of SoulMuser (SM). This is not really a website as much as it is a journal. An open journal.

I am a wandering gypsy. I love exploring the offbeat, the unheard, and the quiet chaos.

Work: I am the co-founder of LifeWordsmith Content Services and MyndStories, India’s first content-led mental health platform. Trippin Traveller, my travel startup, is currently under renovation. I am a writer who co-authored a memoir ‘Worlds Apart’ with Dorothee Lang, and my first novel, a YA novel of young love called ‘The Star Whisperer’ will be published sometime. I host the MyndStories Minis podcast, where I talk to people about their lives, the stories they carry, and the meaning they bring.

After a horror 2021, I have dedicated the rest of my professional life to making a difference in our minds. I am a proud feminist and a featured Gender writer for Deccan Herald. 

Fitness: I love working out. Running is my breathing. Boxing is my stress reliever. But fitness is not just about working out. It’s a state of mind. I meditate.  I ruminate. I procrastinate. I tried 10 days of a Vipassana retreat and came back incredibly healed.  I follow the Wim Hof breathing technique. I read a lot of books on mental health. I walked the Camino de Santiago for 800 km in search of faith and myself.  And did I say I love reading? Books, books, and books – magic. I am in awe of writing – and writers.

Feelings: Over the past few years, this blog has evolved from its ramblings. I use this space to write about the things in my head that are nameless, brimming with the echoes of 100 unsaid moments. I write about feelings. About emotions. About people who move me and those who devastate me. Hasn’t that happened to us all? This is my story.

Come in, make yourself at home, and ask me a question or two about life. If you still didn’t get enough about me after reading this rambling note, this post might give you some more insights into my self.

I love hearing from you, and I am grateful to you that you made it here. You are part of the light I see in this world.

18 Replies to “About SM”

  2. Kudos on the piece in the DH. Shorter than most ‘short’ stories and non-fictional (perhaps?), but still a worthy winner. Well done!

    PS: I placed 3rd some years ago
    PPS: your ‘contacts’ option won’t work, hence leaving a comment here 🙂

    1. Thank you Aditya. I wish I could write more, grin, but there was a word limit to that contest. Thank you so much for reading.

  3. Hello mam! Just loved your article which has appeared in today’s Sunday Herald. It’s so true and naturalistic. Congratulations for winning the first prize….

  4. Hi Smitha.
    Loved your piece which appeared in today’s deccan herald.
    Yes age is a number after all but as one progresses through life one does get bogged down by these numbers – in the mind at least!! 🙂

    1. Dear Radhika,
      Thank you so much for reading that short story. I am overwhelmed by the response to it, to be honest. Age is just a number. But age is also a number, is it not? And what if we think it’s a beautiful number instead of dismissing it as just a number? Thoughts?

  5. Dear madam

    your memoir published in sunday herald dated 5/8/2018 beautifully encapsulates the anguish caused by “incessant siren of ticking moments” triggered by the very presence of crutch,how old age is defined,how mind sways with what one repeatedly says and how body follows the mind : “one becomes sick when one says you are sick “.

    and have questions

    in paragraph “i hate stick i hate its smuggnes…….” you seem to eulogize time because it is a committed lover and time wont let us go but you excecrate the effect of time,walking stick but why??? do i see dichotomy there or have i misunderstood it please help

    why dint you dwell much on philosophy of time but stopped with drama caused by it .is it how you wanted to write???

    last line unravels beautifully the transitory nature of old age, in all loved your writing

    thanks

    Nishanth D K

    1. Dear Nishanth,
      Thank you for your deep insights into what I wrote. I confess even I haven’t read it with as much of a keen eye as you have. Time does come with its own contradiction, does it not? We think we have too much of time, so we waste it. Or we think we have too less of it, and we waste that too. Smile. There is a dichotomy here. As for the philosophy of time, I didn’t really think of it- would a blog post on it be good? 🙂 Thank you for all your words and taking the time to comment. It means a lot to me.
      SM

  6. Hi Smitha, Thanks for your reply. My granny’s place was next to Bhavana’s place. Bhavana and I were of same age. Your sister was my aunts’ friend. If you can recollect Amba-Indu? They were my aunts 🙂

    1. Ah! I do remember Amba-Indu! I met Amba just this year after all these years. Are you in touch with Bhavana? Such a funny world. Please do message me on +917899603009 (That’s my work phone, which is on display on my travel website. I will share my personal phone number to you once you What’s App me there). I look forward to connecting. 🙂

  7. Hey there! I’m not sure if you remember me! I chanced upon this blog somewhere on the net and learnt we know each other. My granny’s house was just opposite your place in Jayanagar when we were kids. I am Madhavi. Well, it’s kind of awkward but hilarious still to realise how small world is! Read through some of your posts and they are simply splendid. I’m in awe of how simple and yet how intricately you can put across your perspective! Nice to have known you! Keep writing. Wishing all good luck! 🙂

    1. Hi Madhavi. It always amazes me how this blog seems to find me some amazing connections. When you say opposite my house, which one was it? I remember my neighbors..but struggling to recollect which one was yours. So beautiful! Thank you very much for your kind words on my writing – I make zero effort to publicize this blog, I don’t even add Meta Tags or keywords. I write to clear my own head, and yet, it is bringing me such a wonderful web of interconnectedness. I would love to know more about how we were connected as kids.

  10. Soul Muser your the most fantastic and extraordinary person 🙂
    I guess few things start at places where it ends.
    Hope to see you sooon 🙂

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