A new year swings in! Happy New Year 2017
Happy New Year 2017. 2016 has been a heck of a year. I still remember the same time a year ago when I sat down to see a new dawn. It seemed to run in along with a lot of a promise and hope. And suddenly it is today and a brand new year is →
Roller Skates memories
She has got wheels to her feet now. She is learning to move forward with them. Roller Skates →
My experiments with Instagram
Picture stories have been the nerve centre of this website. It is in the long hard look at →
Of cows and independence day!
The little miss, as is her wont these days, has been shooting me a heap of questions. There is not a thing that passes the attention of her senses that just passes by without a question popping up. Be it an earthworm, a snail, a ridiculous honk from an autorickshaw, the neighbour’s loud movie screening, →
Thailand Diaries
The American author John Steinbeck wrote a line that left an indelible imprint on me. “People don’t take trips, trips take people”. After yet another trip, as I download my pictures, dust my shoes, clean up my suitcases and unpack my memory, how small the world is. How similar we are and yet how different. The →
The real poor
What does it mean to be poor? It is easy to describe poverty through the lens of money. Somehow that is the one definition that seems to stick across the spectrum. There are programs for alieviation of this wretched state. Governments are made and unmade on this topic. But what does it mean to be →
Happy Holi
When the giant bonfire lights up the night sky there are a few things that it does. It tells you that the bright days of summer are here. It tells you tomorrow is Holi. A day of colour and gaiety. It tells you that winter is over. And as the fire leaps to the sky →
Tom Sawyer moments
I have something called a Tom Sawyer moment. Amongst my childhood heroes, Tom Sawyer is one heck of a kick ass dude. His successes with Becky Thatcher aside, his ingenuity to get a group of friends whitewash the fence was jaw-dropping awesome as a kid. It remains jaw-dropping AWESOME as an adult with a paycheck. →
Pathways
The pathways aren’t often straight lines. Sometimes they are not clear. Many other times, they need to be created. The undergrowth to be cleared. Concrete and stone coming together to make a permanent path. At other times, what’s required is walking through the undergrowth. A few more walks for a few more days and the pathways →
Heres to a good day
Heres to a good day. I spotted this in London on a wet and rainy day. It reminded me that the choice to have a good day or otherwise remains with us. Viktor Frankl in his famous book “Man’s search for meaning” said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our →
Spinning the wheel – My reflections on blogging
A couple of years ago, I stood in Kathmandu’s famous Swayambunath temple. I stood transfixed, besotted by all it offered. Of particular interest was a stellar set of prayer wheels. They were exquisite and seemed to offer something deeper and more joyful than what was apparent. I watched in quiet awe as people came by →
The Pongal Magic
The birth of the Tamil month of ‘Thai’ occupies a special significance in my heart. For a farmer, ‘Thai’ is the tenth month in the Tamil calendar. The arrival of ‘Thai’ is celebrated with colour, splendour, nature, gratitude and of course, good food : Pongal, we call it. For a long while now, Pongal festivities in urban areas →
The Pink Pony
Days turn into nights. And nights lead to day. The repetitive patterns that lead to the next day, the next week, the next month and the next year form a beautiful facade that keeps in obscurity the years that speed by. Then the years reveal themselves. Sometimes the mirror tells the story. As a stray →