An Ode To Joy

Featured

There are many faces to joy. Here’s one of mine: Books. I am not the Bangalorean who roams pubs. I am the Bangalorean who haunts bookshops. We may not have the halo of Kolkata or the sweeping sprawl of Delhi, but we do have our own Street of Books. Church Street, it’s called, so named […]

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My Love Affair With Books

Featured, Reading

I don’t remember the exact time in my life. That time I first picked up a book. Smelled the pages, inhaled the story, and fell in love. I must have been 5. I have never stopped loving since then. Books have been the companions who I know will never abandon me. I can trust books – waiting patiently for me, accepting my flaws because they judge you not. You […]

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To Choose To Live

Featured, Musings

Let me tell you a story. A travel story. In 2003, I was teaching Spoken English in a tiny city called Lianyungang, China.  It was the first time I was in a foreign country. Living by myself. Teaching a language I wasn’t confident speaking. And had narrowly escaped the confines of a Chinese prison. (A story […]

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Feel Your Feelings


Everyday, Mental Health, Musings

“How are you feeling today?” This is probably the most difficult question you can ask me. When I first started therapy about 1.5 years ago, my therapist would ask me this question first, and I would freeze. I didn’t know the ‘correct’ answer. Do you actually respond with what you feel? Because we have been […]

June 2, 2023

The Angels In Our Life


Musings, Reading

Where would I be without literature? In 2000, I applied for a Master’s in Mass Communication from Bangalore University. I had graduated in Psychology and Journalism and thought that journalism was my ‘career’ path. We didn’t have career counselors then. My family didn’t really care what I did. π—œ didn’t care what I did. I […]

May 15, 2023

The Power Of Listening From A Rabbit


Mental Health, Musings, Reading

“I just want to be heard!” This is me during most of my therapy sessions. All my life, I have craved this feeling of being held in silence and understanding. My closest friend in life, Travelling Birdy, and I have a long friendship of almost 20 years. Like any other relationship, we have grown and […]

April 28, 2023

Meeting Oscar Wilde


Musings, Reading, Travel

My best date ever. 🌹 I have been in love with Oscar Wilde since I read ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray.’ I love the writer’s wit, humor, and brevity that still brims with soul. The novel was considered vulgar for its homosexual overtones and was banned. Wilde anticipated this already with a classic quote from […]

April 18, 2023

The Bittersweet Run


Everyday, Musings, Running

I wasn’t in the mood for a run today. πŸƒβ€β™€οΈ I wanted to curl up with a book, a cup of coffee and not get out of bed at all. Yet, I did run. Because there were birds 🐦 calling out to me. A warm summery morning inviting me. 🌳Trees beckoning. Grass winking. So, I […]

April 16, 2023

Sashaying With Sushi


Everyday, Mental Health, Musings

Many years ago, in 2016, I went on a solo trip to Japan.  The country was everything I had imagined it to be – a bustle of contradictions and sweeping contrasts.  It was also, expectedly, expensive. And being a vegetarian in Japan was even more expensive. There were two ways I could get vegetarian food […]

April 15, 2023

New Beginnings


Everyday, Musings, Travel

Today marks a confluence of New Years.  I love celebrating New Year’s. There was a time in my life when I made it a point to celebrate the New Year in a different country every year. I have seen the New Year ushered in Wadi Rum, Jordan, with a singing bedouin who proposed marriage to […]

April 13, 2023

To Be Slow, My Friend


Musings, Travel

The last few days have been trying for me as I watched the light of my life – my mother – hospitalized yet again. It scares me to see her like this, and my heart is restless.  As always, I turn to what gives me the most succor: words and, through them, memories. And this […]

April 12, 2023