Magic Moments

I felt satisfied with certain posts this month and didn’t like certain poor ones. The ones that managed to make me happy were those written from the heart, soulfully, without any pretensions. I learned I needed to write intimately and as personally as possible to feel satisfied at the end of the day. I needed to bare my heart out for it to work. To make that vulnerability breathe! I also learned to be more mindful of things around me and write about them. It really made me feel full of life.  I learned I needed to choose the topics from my own niche while slowing trying to grow that niche. I learned reading blog posts can be an idea gathering process too. I can read as many blogs and comment on most of them while building my own voice. It takes time to have that own genuine opinion, perspective, and feel of things, and it’s perfectly fine. It’s the first time I took part in such a daily blogging marathon, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was my first time in #TheUlti...

It is said that if you write it down, you get the motivation to do it. It has always proved to be right in my life. When I read the old journals I find many wishlists jotted down- half of it already fulfilled. The subconscious mind registers the attempts and leads you to find the right opportunities to realize your dreams. So here's my recent wishlist. I do have many: I want to watch an opera. Visit the theatre. Learn a new language perfectly to be able to read books in that language. I want to travel a lot. I also want to be able to travel alone. Cherry blossoms in Japan- the first thing that comes to my mind right now. I want to read a lot. Read all the books in my wishlist. Currently, to name a few- Shame by Salman Rushdie, The Ghost Bride , Empress Orchid, Sita's Sister, A thousand splendid suns, Love in the time of Cholera, etc. etc. I want to take many mini courses. On Art Journaling, clay modeling, pottery, creative writing, novel writing...

“Odd, how life makes twists and turns. I never would have guessed that I’d end up where I am now, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I wouldn’t trade this path I’m on for the whole solar system, for that matter. If I’ve learned anything these last several months, it’s that sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take.”  ―  Angela N. Blount ,  Once Upon an Ever After Detours are a longer or roundabout way to reach the destination. Taking a detour can be a choice or a compulsion. Road construction or blockage of the paths leading to the place leave no choice but to take a detour. You don’t know what this path would bring. You don’t know if you’ll enjoy it or not. You just know the end point that is fixed. Are you apprehensive of detours? Do you like them? I have two experiences of beautiful detours. We were traveling to the Rohtang Pass which is about 50 km from Manali, at about 4 am in the morning. The roads were damp but...

'The Fastest Way to Success isn't what you Think'  reassured me that it's okay not to be 'faster, better and stronger' always. It's okay to be behind- as long as you are better than you were yesterday. It is fine to fail and accept it. You need to keep trying, and that is a creative and successful life. I got to know that Finland has a day for failure celebrated on 13th of October. Such an awesome endeavor to celebrate our mistakes, shortcomings, drawbacks, vulnerabilities, mistakes, awkward fails and all those embarrassing losses. I wish we would celebrate this day too, just to remind ourselves to feel the importance of these things in our lives. Journaling has been a subject very close to my heart. I have been keeping a diary jotting down my thoughts for about fifteen years. Now my blog records half of my thoughts, experiences, and emotions. So reading this article made me smile wide. My Therapy. My best listener. My best companion. I also discovere...

#thinkingOfAPlot #fiction Mourning Castle was a hub of learning for girls of all region, religion, culture, caste and class. Ladies from around the world came here to learn art, culture, music, instrument and other vocational courses. Even royalties from different nations graced this humble institution with their presence. Some learned the Japanese tea ceremony and calligraphy; some opted for Indian garba dance and leaf painting- patta chitra; and some others learned the various languages and dance forms from around the world. Every new art once discovered was immediately included in the institution’s agenda. Other than this it was a coveted place for its fun and frolic, secret beauty enhancing rituals and for the most beautiful lady hosts. Mourning Castle got its name from the waterfall nearby, the Mourning Fall. After the demise of the good old king, the castle was converted to an institution. An invitation was sent to the world’s eligible ladies to learn and add to the...

Zeenat Mahal takes care of human emotions and it's intricacies in a relationship so well. We are a complex jumble of paradox. We can love and manage to hate at the same time. We can harbour a protective instinct and a deep sence of resentment for the same person. We do lash out at someone we love the most. Human beings are unsolved puzzles, every mind and heart works in a different frequency. Zoella had her eyes for Fardeen, her best friend's brother, since she was ten. Fardeen hadn't even cared to spare a glance her way, in return for her decades of adoration. He had lived his life being the haughty, arrogantly dashing young man, with his arms around the waist of his gorgeous girlfriend. But with a tragic turn of events his dreamlike lifestyle came crashing down. A life-threatening accident permanently scarred half of his face. All that was left was melted skin and burned eyebrows. He was depressed and hopeless. His girlfriend broke off the engagement. He had to ma...

It's strange how a cup of tea can forge bonds and improve relationships.  I had found it hard to digest that the Odia household needed a girl to learn to make that proper, well shimmered, and optimally flavoured cup of tea. It was considered one of the mandatory talents every girl should possess. But my own love for the steaming hot tea pot grew with time and today I love making it. I love the adrak chai, the pepper powder wala chai, the masala chai, etc. Etc. I love the fragrance of tea, the wellness quotient, the look and the taste. Green tea is good too. Organic tea though is the least palatable. My favourite is the assam tea. It's dark red and has an awesome scent. It overwhelms the senses. I am extremely fascinated by teas and tea leaves varieties these days. I want to try all types of teas and the combinations that are popular in the market like rose tea, Chrysanthemum tea, raspberry and etc etc. I fancy buying so many varieties every day from the Amazon website...

My mornings begin at 6.30 am. It's rarely later than that. I feel as if half of my day has passed if I wake up late, so I try to get up early. Moreover it is the quietest time. I try to do a bit of meditation or Pranayam, and then write or study with a cup of tea or Horlicks. I am a firm believer in early to bed and early to rise. So my day ends at about 10:30 pm. After that I can stay awake only on special occasions like a family or friends get together or a trip.  I read almost every day. I am reading two novels right now- She loves me, He loves me not by Zeenat Mahal and It's all in the planets by Preeti Shenoy.  I love watching short and sweet tele series, mini series, and short award winning films. I like watching different ads too in YouTube, as I rarely watch TV to be able to view those. I like watching trailers of movies of different languages- this is something I usually do.  I love watching Korean series, and would promote those with all my heart. I t...

Dear S, It's been long since I sat down to write a letter to you. I love writing long never ending string of words that could fill tens of pages. Hope this one too will be as myself and the mirror of my thoughts as I intend them to be. Hope you will read with as much enthusiasm and love as you always have. Hope this thing will never change about us. I have downloaded a writing app from Google play store in my MotoG where I am typing this now. I am in office and am bored. Just me in my solitude. No, I don't have much work to do today, if you wonder. It's tough to get through a phase of free hours suddenly after months of hectic unending work. So I chose to write to you after having exhausted all my options of reading, browsing and studying. I look forward to having coffee with you some day, or tea if you prefer that. Or we could take an evening stroll around your colony as we always did in the past, and talk and talk endlessly for hours. Topics would flow in and ...

The movie overwhelmed me. I realize I have been using the word 'overwhelmed' for about everything that gives me goosebumps and leaves an imprint. I need to work on that. But it does that exactly. Overwhelm me. Fills me with such a storm of emotions, the amalgamation of so many kinds of them, that I cannot contain them within myself. It bursts out of me through tears. Tears that do not state happiness or sadness, just the state of being overwhelmed. I wish I knew the word for it. It burst out again afterward in quiet recollection of the entire experience, in tranquil solitude, through the words I wrote. What touched me most was the visual appeal; the earthly music that slowly reached its own crescendo, and fueled that burst I talked of; the subtle interpretation of love, relationships, and life through poetry; and that factor I still can't seem to point out. It is a surreal portrayal of the city of Benaras as a lady love. It's a pseudo-reality, almost magica...

dramacrazy.com It is a South Korean drama series of 16 episodes based on a novel of the same title published in 2011. The fact that it has four male leads and one female lead makes it comparable to the likes of ‘Boys Over Flowers’ and ‘Heirs’. The drama is about four differently passionate young people, probable heirs to a conglomerate family of business men, who happen to live together in the Sky House but don’t get well with one another. Eun Ha-won, the Cinderella here, gets to stay with them in Sky House following certain rules set by the Chairman, working on missions to get these guys together as one family. The characters are deep, emotional at the core. One is a kind hearted arrogant rebel, another a flamboyant playboy carrying deep wounds, another a gentle top singer-songwriter, and yet another a seemingly stoic yet sentimental bodyguard. The female lead is no damsel in distress, but she lets herself be protected by those who love her. I like the way they are decon...

It has been a year since I got posted in my hometown Bhubaneswar. A year since I left the Mysore campus and the hostel. Miss those days. We were trainees then. Four months of rigorous hard-work, fun and frolic, making of new friendships and discovering a new way of life away from home. It was the first time I had ever been to the hostel. My schooling and college was done in my hometown, so I could live with my family while studying. I haven't tasted much of the freedom that comes with hostel life. When we were posted in Bhubaneswar, it was just a few of us, not all. Some of my best friends, including my roommate had to stay in Mysore for another month. It felt lonely in the new surroundings at first. I had no project for the first week and the lack of work felt horrible. It was boredom and an idle mind that gave me an almost depression. And over the top the new people everywhere. Some friends remained close in this phase, and some didn't. It was a turning point. I used to go...

In real life the person’s appearance matters- you see the person physically and it’s the appearance that you first take note of. In reading a novel it is not so- the descriptions of the appearance don’t matter as much as the thoughts, the emotions and the core sentiments of the character. It is this that makes you root for the character. You see the person in the book with a new set of eyes- the ones that empathize more and are closer to your soul. How wonderful reality would be if we cared enough to see through those eyes that are perhaps often reserved for reading! It is true that reading increases empathy in individuals. It enhances the power of those eyes that are hidden somewhere within your own consciousness. It makes you observe, not just see the surface. You learn to see the beauty in the fragility of human beings, in unevenness and imperfection. You see meaning in dents, flaws and shades of grey. You witness such beautiful minds who know not their own worth. You encounte...

I want to travel to Istanbul and witness the amalgamation of cultures of two religions. I want to travel to Japan and live in their histories. I want to travel to China and understand their tales, myths, and legends. I want to visit Bhutan and learn about the Buddhist way of life and happiness quotient there. I want to see the Nazca lines. I want to see the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I want to experience the peaceful and soulful Balinese culture in Bali. I want to travel to Florence and see for myself the beauty described in novels. I want to visit Jordan and witness the enormous creations, the red sand, the canyons and feel the wonder. I am not able to stay still, sit at one place without wondering and searching the details of these places. I have been searching for places that require no Visa for Indian citizens and the list is awesome. I also searched for those places that provided Visa on arrival. I think this is the first time I am feeling wanderlust at this scal...

‘The Beauty Inside’ is a 2015 South Korean movie based on a book named ‘Every Day’ by David Levithan. It’s a romantic comedy but talks at large of living a life of transition, alteration and inevitable change. It is a story of a man who wakes up every day in a different body. Some mornings he is a handsome young man; sometimes an old middle aged person with arthritis and poor vision and sometimes a woman. He wakes up as a child or a girl or a bald headed obese man at times. But no face or body ever repeats itself. He has to adjust to this 24 hour change that his entire system goes through. The story is how he becomes used to this change and finds love even in his unusual situation. The protagonist Woo-jin is a furniture designer.  The bodies he finds himself in, every morning, is regardless of age, gender or nationality. There are times he wakes up as a foreigner. He experienced this for the first time on his 18 th birthday, and his life was never the same. He withdre...

It’s a memoir on a language project that Jhumpa Lahiri takes up for about three years of her life. It’s about her deep and personal journey of learning Italian, trying to master the language, living in a self-imposed exile from her dominant language English by reading and writing solely in Italian. It might come across as a strange project, yet bold, brave and not more than a few can fathom to take so huge a risk while being on the peak of one’s literary career. This autobiography is her first, yet the truest, most vulnerable- about her joys and failures, about being a foreigner forever, about belonging not in a country or a culture but in the margins. It is about seeking comfort and solace in discomfort, seeking freedom in limitations. I loved this book. After almost a week of finishing reading it, I usually find myself opening a random page and re-reading it. I keep going back to the book. She says in one of the chapters, when she reads Italian, she feels like a gues...

Everything that starts comes to an end. The holidays have finally come to an end. The festivals are over. Our long trip with multiple stops has come to an end. Getting up early in the morning to start another journey has become a habit in this past week. How nice and exciting life would be, if we just traveled every day to new places! Every day would bring us to new roads and new destinations. We are already planning our next family get-together and our next outing. Hope it comes soon. Guess, I too have been bitten by the travel bug. I am also planning a trip to a nearby metro city with friends, but I’m not sure if it’ll culminate or not. Fingers crossed! My emails are flooded with travelogues nowadays. My Instagram follows include ‘ beautifulDestinations ’, ‘travelandleisure’, ‘forbestravelguide’, ‘tastingtable’ and many similar pages related to travel and food. The blogs I read these days are about the Balinese culture, the Bora Bora islands, the Buddhist Monasteries aro...

I thought to share a tiny bit of a short story that I was working on last April, but couldn't continue. I haven't found any more ideas or motivation to continue it yet. No dreams, no scenes flashing in my mind, no hints, no twists to introduce, nothing. I just know the start and end of the story, have it etched and well defined in my mind, but can't seem to take the characters from this end to that end. The journey intimidates me somehow. Hoping to get inspired by dear bloggers to complete this one, by this year. So here it is: I had a dream yesterday. A very weird one. I was climbing up the stairs, that kept on spiraling up, higher and higher, never ending. It was an uncanny feeling. I woke up with a start, my heart beating loud and clear. My roommate had switched off the fan, and I was already sweaty. I got up, switched it back on, had a glass of water and sat on my bed thinking what to do. Going back to sleep was impossible. I checked the time. It was 3:45...

#FridayReflections We went to our village in Ganjam district after the trip to Jirang Monastery. The roads had banyan and Peepal trees on the either side, offering beautiful views during the sunset. It took us a little more than two hours to reach the destination. I thoroughly enjoyed the long drive, listening to some soulful songs and eating boiled groundnuts in the backseat. We were going to the village after two years. My father was very eager, as it was where he spent most of his childhood and adolescence. We were excited too, as we were to meet a new member of the extended family- little baby Saanvi. You know it’s a festival when you hear the gongs in the temple from a mile away. You know you have reached the village when you have to press the horn twenty-a-times to cross a herd of cattle on the road. You know you are near the destination if you see monkeys on the trees and the terraces of the kutcha houses. You know you have finally reached if there are more than thr...