2025: The Year I Fell In Love

Featured, Mental Health

I have hardly been writing here. But for some good reasons. I have the love of my life keeping me busy. Last year, I went to a rescue center in Bangalore. I had already told the rescue center head about my preferences: A dog that doesn’t jump around too much. Is calming. Preferably a Labrador, […]

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An Offering Of Love

Featured, Mental Health

In a year of miserable downers, here’s something to rejoice over. So many stories. So many writers sharing the shards of their lives. Slivers that bled. Scars that never healed. Bruises colored purple. And through it all, showing through the act of writing their story that the shards, slivers, scars, and bruises aren’t what define […]

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The Magic Of Books And Notes

Everyday, Featured, Mental Health, Reading

One thing you may not know about me is that I once co-authored a book published by an independent Australian publisher. That book, Worlds Apart, wasn’t a book I set out to write. It was a series of letters that I sent to a German friend I had never met. I came across her blog […]

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A Confession


Musings

I have this confession to make. I have become addicted. Everyday I dream of its seductive fragrance. I wake up wanting to get my fix as soon as possible. Not a day goes by without having it. I am not talking of a drug. It’s this “hate me or love me” spice called hua jiao […]

June 10, 2011

Quiet Days Drifting By


Everyday

It’s been a while since I updated this blog. It’s been a quiet week relatively, although it doesn’t necessarily mean free days! Last Friday, it was fun meeting up with Silk in this coffee-house near the university called High Connections. The ambiance was cozy and comfortable. Spread over three floors, all laid out in wood, […]

June 4, 2011

A Quiet Week


Musings

Relatively. From wanting to update this blog everyday, I am now slipping to updating it just once a week. Sigh. Last Saturday, Ju-Jintsu, a South Korean woman in my class invited all of us for dinner. It was around 5PM when we met. Before that, Yoke had come along with us to this wonderful little […]

May 27, 2011

Cherry Picking and Silk


Everyday

Last Saturday, Yoke called us to go “cherry picking, drink tea and play mahjong.” Are there better ways to spend a Saturday? Since I couldn’t think of any, we agreed. It was around 10AM when he came knocking on the door. The day was gloomy with a forecast of rain and we were wondering if […]

May 22, 2011

Tough Week


Musings

That’s a pretty simple title for this post. Sometimes you run out of words, and then you just feel that who needs words anyway? It’s been almost three months since I first arrived here. It’s been an emotional ride most of the time. I came here looking to regain my faith in people, and China […]

May 20, 2011

Hara Bhara Kebabs


Everyday

Fu Julie has this wonderful streak in her – an innate kindness that is at once heartwarming and life affirming. Having known that Birdy won’t be in Chengdu for her birthday, she invited us, and the whole class along to celebrate Dofu Pi-Eater’s birthday the next weekend we were in town. I couldn’t bear the […]

May 14, 2011

Last Day in Xuchang


Everyday

I am so far behind in my posts. Blame it on the non-stop tests here. Monday in Xuchang dawned hazy, cloudy and drizzling. Zhang You’s unbelievable kindness was still lingering on my mind. It was around 7:30AM when the phone rang, and the receptionist at the hotel announced that Lynn was waiting. Lynn was one […]

May 12, 2011

Unreal Part 3


Everyday

It’s just a short taxi ride. We stop before a hotel I have never been to before in Xuchang. We enter, and I can see the “live display” in front. The place is buzzing. In case you are wondering with your dirty mind what the live display is, rest it. Just poor little frogs, eels […]

May 9, 2011