Magic Moments

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”  ―  Edgar Degas 1. Andretta, Himachal Pradesh-      Andretta Pottery and Crafts Society is the meeting place for artists and hobbyists who sign up for courses, spend their holidays amidst art and make sure to return every year. The place has home-stays, hotels and rent-ins for visitors. Today 3-week long residential courses are organised there to teach world-class pottery to serious students. Andretta came into existence when a young Irish woman named Norah Richards arrived there on horseback sometime in 1920s, made herself a mud house, and invited Punjabi Theatre amateurs and professionals to perform plays there. Despite its remote location, it saw a steadily growing influx of serious theatre artists, painters, ceramists and potters over the years. Norah established a school of drama too. Famous sculptors and poets settled there for the artistic environment that it offered. The...

8.  Bride of the Century  - A conglomerate family is under a curse for a hundred years that the first bride of the eldest son would always die. There are power struggles, conspiracies, doppelgangers and search for sincere love. Though the theme seems a bit cliche the plotline is interesting. 7. Prosecutor Princess - The plot is about law and crime and the happening lives of prosecutors. The lead actress has good acting skills and there is an equivalent proportion of romantic comedy, suspense and drama twists. 6.  Shining Inheritance  - This tale is marked by tragedy, teary eyes, and sadness. Eun Seong's father dies in a construction accident and her younger brother goes missing. She has to fend for herself while searching for her brother. Destiny happens and she inherits a vast fortune from an old woman whom she had helped in need. There is love, lost and found tale, and making one's life upon one's own terms. A very good watch. 5. ...

Pixabay.com I had participated in the #AToZChallenge in 2015 . I had blogged about 26 fictional characters I loved. They were my favorite ones whom I adored in movies, drama series, and novels. In 2016 things became too hectic for me and I couldn’t participate. But I did miss so much fun. I tried to compensate the experience by participating in the UltimateBloggingChallenge in October 2016. But there’s nothing like blogging with a theme and that too alphabetically. Now until today morning, after trying to come up with a theme, trying to plan a bit for April, I had almost given up on this happening event for the year 2017. I had almost decided not to take part. But, where there’s a will, there’s a way , and here I am jotting up words, making out sentences for the April AToZChallenge Theme Reveal post. Anyone who has been following my posts here must be aware what a huge self-professed fan I am of Korean Drama Series . I have done a couple of blog posts here at Magic Moments ...

The festive season has come and the excitement is palpable. The streets are beautifully decorated with colorful lights and images for the Pujas. The thematic  pandals  are almost ready and the beautiful idols of the goddess are done. Entire city is lighted in the evenings and throbbing with the festive fervor. The shopping spree of the netizens is in full spree and season sales in malls is on the go. Everyone is dressed up for the occasion and ready to start the fun. Corporates have colorful dress code this week for employees to add on to the team spirit and  puja s’ cheer. We too had a similar color themed dress code for this entire week. It was interesting. I would get up in the morning and search for any yellow, green or blue colored outfit to wear for the respective day. We friends would then click selfies during lunch hour and have a good long photo shoot. It was fun. We felt pampered. There was a variety of sweet stalls in the food court area- lip sm...

There is something addictive in grooving to your favorite music. It feels liberating to shake your head to the beats and swirl to the tunes. It feels awesome, kind of magical, to be able to move and tap and watch yourself perform the steps in the mirror while the loudspeakers produce tangible vibrations in the background. It’s the one thing that has kept me engaged this week. I find myself doing those unwarranted random jerky head shakes quite unconsciously while travelling to home in the evening in an auto. And then soon check if anyone’s noticed me, upon realization. It has become my crazy pleasure to surprise myself. I remember when travelling with friends, we used to listen to a few of these songs and singing out loud in the car. We would make funny faces and funny mimics of the voices. It was hilarious and fun. Cheap thrills! We would jiggle and waggle to the Zing Zing Zingat – a Marathi song that has found quite an audience even outside Maharashtra. I have ...

Am I on the right path? Am I doing whatever I was born for? Am I working towards my role on earth? Am I the only one with these questions, or does anyone else out there thinks so too? We don’t have a predestined path. We don’t have a destiny or fate or providence governing our life. We carve our own path. Am I carving it right? How do I carve it right? Am I meant to be here, where I currently am? These questions torment me many times a day. I read quotes to uplift my mood; blogs to feel inspired and motivated once again; and continue with my day. So today, in my post, I share some of the best quotations, sayings and thoughts that helped me out some day. These are potent enough to help you too. I don’t really get my answers from these, but they do provide me with momentary relief. I understand that one cannot know about the intricacies of life without living it. So I need to go on living it in my best possible way. “I have been finding treasures in places I did not wan...

  Book Blurb: “ A stunning novel in the tradition of the highly acclaimed "The Alchemist, " this is Coelho's daring retelling of the prophet Elijah. During the chaos of the ninth century B.C., Jezebel, wife to Israel's ruler, orders the execution of all prophets who refuse to worship the pagan god Baal. The young prophet Elijah, commanded by an angel of God to flee Israel, seeks safety in the land of Zarephath, where he unexpectedly finds true love with a young widow. But this new-found rapture is to be cut short, and Elijah sees all of his hopes and dreams irrevocably erased. What follows is sure to be viewed as Coelho's literary milestone: the quietly moving account of a man touched by the hand of God who must triumph over his frustrations in a soul-shattering trial of faith. Inspired by a circumstance that forever altered Coelho's own life, "The Fifth Mountain" is a testament to the truth that tragedy in life should not be considered ...

I started this blog in 2009 after we shifted to Bhubaneswar from Keonjhar, just a day after my matriculation exam. It was this first time I experienced the pain of going away from friends and all things familiar. It was the first time I dreaded making new friends, in a new school, in a more advanced town than I was ever used to. It was the first time I experienced 'Change' on such a large scale. All this and more had started taking its toll on my mind. It was then that I started this blog with the sole purpose of writing poems. If you check my oldest posts, they are all poems. I didn't know how to construct a prose. I didn't have any context either. I would express my solitude and imagination through poetry for the first two years. Then I started reading a lot of novels and fictional pieces. So then started book reviews, as I discovered the magic of books all around me. Then came in movies which bowled me over and I started jotting down my thoughts and altering...