For the restless spirit!

Yesterday I went to attend my daughter's prize distribution in her school - something that came back into our lives after a 6 year lull - and I came back more enriched.... Ofcourse, I was extremely happy to see my daughter fight her way back to the top; more so for what it indicated to me - that she is, like me, a fighter! God bless her and always keep that fire raging in her.... But my biggest take away from this event was actually another little princess from the same school, a recipient of another much more deserving award. A young daughter, Vaishnavi Gopal, who has indeed proved to me once again that you can conquer the world with a "can-do" attitude .... seeing her smiling on stage in her wheelchair, taught me something again.... But before that, I urge you to read her story through the link below: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/inside.asp?section=educationnation&xfile=/data/educationnation/2014/May/educationnation_May25.xml My daughter told me abo...

Yesterday I spent a large part of my day with myself .....I do that a lot these days! Reading, listening, reflecting ..... connects me to my soul, I guess and brings about a kind of peace of mind. Yesterday, I also did 2 other things that led to this post -  I watched again the recent Hindi movie, Queen I watched a cultural program narrating the story of Draupadi Both led me to think long and deep about the 2 central characters - both women. Rani or "Queen" - starts off as a woman you would pass by on the streets of Delhi and not even notice her at all. A non-entity almost, whose life was shaped by everyone around her. And then there is her poignant journey wherein Rani discovers the "queen" in herself, where she blossoms into a person that learns to walk with pride that shines through, to hold her head high with newly acquired dignity...  Draupadi - my favorite character in Mahabharata, the woman who was born from Fire, lived a fiery life as a Que...

In Life, things often don't turn out the way we'd want them to .... in our relationships, at work, in our investments, etc.  We often call these as our "mistakes" - and they have an impact, big or small.  And I believe, we can "chose" how to react to them. Agreed, not all mistakes can be "corrected" but I think every such situation presents us with options to make it better - we always have a choice. Today, I spoke to 2 very close friends about what they called as mistakes in their lives - ones that had a lot of impact on their current being..... and both seemed to be burdened, pulled down by these decisions that they had once made with the best of intentions. It made me think.  To me, it sounded like they were both carrying an albatross ...it saddened me. (For those that do not understand this reference to the albatross, please look up the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel T. Coleridge) And I realised that I simply can...

Let's just say, the last few weeks have not been my best....things, as often happens in this journey we call Life, weighed me down a lot more than usual....and I struggled a bit to shake it all off... I am sure we all have these moments ...when something, and you can't always pinpoint what, tends to just bring you down and you feel like cuddling up, whining a lot, spending time with someone who understands your myriad of moods and yet stands by you, holds your hands....and lo and behold, it's gone and the sun shines again!!!  We all have them, right?  The problem is some of us don't always have an option to cry out, to vent....because Life goes on, waiting for none of your complaints and takes you with it - willingly or forcibly. Moreover, because you are not a person known to complain, people rarely stop to ask - not because they don't care, but possibly because we have set expectations... At times like this, I look inward .. to help me out, to help me up ...

I have traveled a fair bit in my life ... And yet "home" for me always was this city I was born in... Kolkata. The City of Joy.  I always was, and still am, fiercely protective of this unique place on earth - with it's own character, charm, challenges... There really aren't too many places around the globe that could compare to this city caught between not 2, but many different worlds!  I am currently in Kolkata, but this time when I came here from my adopted city, somehow I didn't feel excited at all - I put it down to the fact that I was traveling first time since my mom passed away and would be dealing with issues caused by her demise that possibly was saddening....  But now that I have spent a good 12 days here - and in fact, am ready to travel back to where I live, the feeling has not changed and has, in fact, got worse....  I feel my "roots" are slightly losing grip... And it's not a nice feeling at all. Maybe it's because of my personal ci...