Word of the Year 2021 & My Lessons from 2020

Word of the Year 2021 & My Lessons from 2020

What a year 2020 has been? Did anyone imagine how the year would unfold before us when we were sending out the happy new year greetings at the beginning of the year! I didn’t, and I am sure, none of us had ever imagined living through a pandemic and the lockdown restrictions we all have been through this year. Despite everything the world has gone through this year, when I reflected my journey through the year, I realised the year 2020 has not been that bad a year for me personally. There were several inconveniences, but nothing untoward and that I believe is itself a blessing.

Floral Mandala ~ Putting Ideas to Practice ~ Not So Wordless Wednesday

Spending time mindfully on social media needs a lot of discipline. Do you agree?

How many of you have saved ideas about things on Pinterest and never got around to rechecking them?

I tell you there was a time when I would save ideas about all sort of cake recipes, icing, decorations, etc., that my Pinterest feed would be so full of the sugary cakes. Then came different phases when I would look up words, quotes, parenting, kid's activities, and most recently, art ideas. I think of all the ideas I have saved there, only a tiny part of it has been actually put to any use. A visual platform like Pinterest is so full of exciting ideas that it is so easy to get lost, and if you are not disciplined enough, you could end up wasting some productive hours. If you are wondering why I am in this rant mode, well, because I have been there and have eventually learnt to use the platform mindfully.

When You Change The Way You Look at Things, the Things You Look at Change #MondayMusings

I have been meaning to write a post about living in the pandemic times since long. In fact, this post was lying half-written in my drafts for over a month now. The thing is when you are leading a quarantine life, things seem to move rather slowly (at least so has the case been with me). It has been more than 5 months since our normal lives were replaced by the lockdown/quarantine life. While we are living safe and sound (*conditions apply) within the comforts of our homes, but life is not the same as before. Like most of us, I prepped myself mentally with the mantra - this too shall pass and for the most part, I like to believe that I did fine. There were some days in between when despair and anxiety would take hold and I would step back and just breathe and let things be.

20 Years Ago #WordsMatter

20 Years Ago #WordsMatter 

20 Years ago I had passed my 10th board exams and had chosen 'Science' as my preferred stream of further studies. When I think about myself then, I realize how serious I was about life. There was zeal and a desire to do something. I was a sincere and hardworking student and academically I did pretty decently for myself. But did life turn out to be the way I envisioned during those days? Well, not very much. There have been detours and curveballs along the way and I believe I am where I am meant to be (maybe), but not where I thought I would be.

Come to think about it, I think most of us given a chance to go back in life would want to do certain things differently; certain things that might even change the course of our lives. At some point or the other, we have all said if only I had that chance, if only I had this opportunity earlier if only this and if only that. The list can be unending.

When It Rains #WordsMatter

When it rains… 

I crave for a plateful of freshly fried onion bhajis and a cup of strong adrakh-wali chai. And as I write this, the memories of many rain-soaked evenings spent with friends in Pune indulging in these small pleasures of life come to my mind.

I love rains. I always have. I love the freshness and moisture it brings to the air. I love how everything green starts looking lush after the rains. I grew up in Assam, so I have always experienced the rains of the torrential kind – not for a few minutes on some days - but for hours, for days on - like the sky would pour incessantly – relentlessly. As a kid, I would listen to the pitter-patter of the raindrops falling mercilessly on the slanted tiled roof of our house, in some rhythm of its own. just by the sound of it, it was easy to know when the intensity of the downpour increased and when it stopped.