Step Into My Shoes..

I used to doodle in school. A lot. Even when I was in my college, I used to draw pretty flowers on the corners of my handouts. I didn't know what I meant to accomplish but they used to give me satisfaction and even happiness. In school I used to be praised for my ability to fill in charts of paper after charts of paper with drawings and colors and pretty words to decorate the classroom. As far as I remember I used to carry the weight of all the class decoration competitions in all those years. I have even won some "art" competitions in my life. And I used to harbor a dream of becoming an "artist", which later turned into a desire to at least learn oil painting at some point in my life. These days I hardly lift a pen to draw anything. I hate even writing. On paper. Why did I stop? I guess I got "put to my place" when I saw other real artists and their amazing arts. When I was growing up, there was no real competition. I used to enjoy draw...

What is happiness? One word, millions of interpretations, billions of feelings. Is it even describable? I thought about describing it but failed at it. I opened up the dictionary and all it gave me was synonyms - joy, contentment, pleasure.  So I decided, happiness can't be described. It can only be felt.  And the weird thing about this funny little thing called happiness is that it comes with an expiry date. Happiness doesn't last forever. It has to be renewed as if it were a library book and as much as we like it, we alone can not control that. We need help. Sometimes, help comes in a form of a person, a touch, a smile, an animal, a plant, a place, an accomplishment, a victory, food, a book, a meme, another feeling.  Most of the times happiness isn't pure. It almost always comes laced with other emotions. Pride, remorse, fear, shame, redemption, desire, hope. There is no such thing as an unadulterated happiness. At least for most, there isn't. Happiness ...

I remember a time when I was in my late teens; I had a huge crush on this guy. And as things turned out so did this other girl from my class. Even then, I knew that my crush had just been nothing but childish. I didn’t really want the guy to be my boyfriend or anything. And neither, I recall, did this other girl. It was a battle for attention. I didn’t want this girl to be my enemy. There were no cat-fights, no discord; just a private psychological war. A small tug here, a little push there and copious amount of joy at tiniest victories - [he flirted back, he smiled at the hallway, he gave a ride in his bike] I remember a time when I felt enough was enough. It was beginning to be a little too much. Our childish games were lengthening for no good. I was tired of disliking this girl for liking something I liked but didn’t really want. I remember wondering if it was possible for everyone to be happy. Could we all walk away with something and that something not being disappointment a...

Disclaimer :  I am not an expert, just an enthusiast. Roughly a year and a half ago, I bought my first plant – a Lucky Bamboo . It seemed like a safe bet. And so it proved for a long time…a year and a month, to be precise. Not long after that, I braved another buy – a Peace Lily this time. It didn’t have a flower bud yet, but I was adamant I would be able to bring it to flower in time. It still hasn’t. Then a friend of mine gifted me my first Devil’s Ivy – a ‘propagation’. She took root fairly quickly. I was proud of the way she was growing so well. She grew 5 leaves so fast, and then suddenly she was losing all of her original leaves and she wouldn’t grow much further. My Lucky Bamboo My Devil's Ivy and her original leaves The new leaves on my Ivy Then I brought home a couple of succulents – a Jelly Bean and a Sedum Spathulifolium. Back then I used to live in this igloo of a house, so I managed to kill my precious Jelly Bean for the lack of sunlight. T...

"When was the last time I finished a book, I ask myself. If I don't check my goodreads account, I don't really remember. I know the last book I finished reading is "Anne of the Island". This I know because, being the narcissist that I am, I check my facebook profile one too many times and it's just there for me to not-remember. I know many people in my life know or remember me as that "bookworm". I am currently 'reading' "Long Way Down" and I think I begun reading it quite a while ago. It's not a bad book. Indeed it is a rather interesting one, one that the two-years-ago or really, one-year-ago me would have devoured in the matter of days. And then before this one and after Anne, I tried my hands on two books. I put them down, never to read again." I started working on this piece of blog probably in January (that is the time frame I have set for "Long Way Down" in my goodreads account) and then I just de...

Do you like to make every moment count? I know everybody wants to. (But on a second thought, most people don't even think about the moments, let alone going ahead and making efforts to make them count.) I'd like to think I do. But sometimes seeing the way I spend my "moments", I wonder if that is true at all.  I just got back from a party. It was a Christmas party from work. I had not bothered going last year and until about 2 days ago, I wasn't going to attend this time either. But of late, I have been in a habit of changing my mind about too many things. so despite many obstacles, I ended up going after all. Although I admit I did not "enjoy" myself like the people around me so obviously did, I had my own thing going on. I have read somewhere that, "No experience is a waste of time; If it doesn't give you what you want, it teaches you what you don't want." So, while people were busy merrymaking, I was busy realising...

Last night as I lay down poring over the pages under the bright orangey lamp light, I was being nibbled by a feeling that the day had gone to waste. The day had been glorious. The sun was out and the sky had shone like new furniture. I was up early, too early for a day without work and classes. I had begun the day with the book. Like, I was up and had started reading without even getting up. After two hours of reading, I had been up and working out. For someone who is a huge fan of sunny days, whenever the morning graces with a bright sunlight, it is an open invitation for going out. And yet for someone who is also a big fan of reading, staying home and having a good read of a good book is equally tempting. I did go out for breakfast, and although I spent some time looking for places I could go, none fit the shoes of convenience. So I ended up laying down on my bed with sun pouring through the window, bright and warm, and reading. And I didn't just read. I lived three liv...

Ask me how my life is, and without blinking my eyes, I'll tell you my life is beautiful. God knows my life is not the easiest and I am not the happiest person you'll ever meet. It's just that I like to keep it simple and choose to say my life is worth more than anything in the world. So this young and pretty actress committed suicide recently. It was a waste of a beautiful life. I will not go and judge her, saying how she could just put an end to her life when there are people in the world living with much less than what she had. She must have had her own reasons, and since she has already gone and taken her life, there is nothing we can do about it. Talking about the cons of suicide will not change anything about this news and I do not intend to do any of that. What I do intend to do is remind myself and you that life is a gift that we are given without the guarantee of being born again. Everyone has their own problems, some are given more than the othe...

I have been absent from blogging for a while now. Sadly, I cannot find the time for it. I have signed in today to post, not mine but, a guest’s article on how life should be simple and thus beautiful.  Enjoy! The world of today is always competing on getting new, sophisticated and much more advanced things in the market so that it can dazzle everyone. Everyday some big company makes new machinery, new designed cars, high-tech cell phones that have never been thought of before. What I mean is people are so addicted to upgraded technology. The whole world shrinks in a device that fits in our palm.  We can keep in touch with almost everybody around every corner of globe in just a split of second. That’s how advance our world has become. But when you think about it, the world is also getting more complicated simultaneously. Back in my school days, cell phones, laptops and cables weren't even introduced. We h...

Location: Just somewhere on the road. Scenario: I am upset for some reason that cannot really be expressed in such a public manner. Story: I am walking, at first in a hasty manner, away from the source of my distress, and then slowly because I am drained emotionally and my body cannot stand the physical exertion. I keep my eyes down. Generally when I am upset, I try to look where I am going since I cannot really risk tripping over something and falling flat on my arse or worse, my face in public. I know that will cause more agony to me. So I am just walking randomly on the road avoiding public eyes, but then I have to look up to see which direction I am headed for. That’s when I see her; an acquaintance really, a friend of a friend. Not much of a pretty face but today she is glowing. I wonder how she could look so stunning all of a sudden today. Then I notice her smile. She is looking so pretty because she is smiling so broadly like she is never going to be able to, ever...

Antakshari – the game of songs. This is a colourful game that reminds me of my childhood more than any other game does. Those years in school spent playing sing-songs, competing with your friends in showing who-knows-more or rather who can remember most from the song reservoir. We used to do this almost every day and that too with the same bunch of people. I am not much of a singer but this game hardly requires you to have at that great voice anyways. As far as I can remember, we used to be quite competitive in this. However, since we would do this in recess or mostly in our way back home after school, there would seldom be a winner. There wouldn’t be enough time to crown the victorious or most of the time; we would just let the game go, leaving our competitiveness along the way. Gone are those school days now. We still like to indulge in this game sometimes, however all of us have either run out of time or simply grown out of the youthfulness to involve ourselves in the frivo...

Year 2003, "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix" book released. Year 2003, I started reading "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"; my very first from the series. It was just another book for me, and since I had fallen into a habit of taking a book to wherever I went, I took it to school. I used to read it on the way, during classes and between them too. What I could ever have understood reading from the 3rd part of the series, I don't remember. We had one big library but it had one issue each of the 5 books. I had to wait forever for the first one. And yet, I managed to read all of them at least 3 times. Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus, (   Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon  ) Those were magical days...of wishing there really was Hogwarts so that we could get on to Jacobite at the beginning of a school session, of drawing Hogwarts emblem wherever I could find an empty space, of making a scrapbook full of Harry Potter news clips, of...

I'm not a big fan of short stories, and I can count the number of stories-collection that I've read in my life. However, there is one book that I do read time and again. It is "Chicken Soup" for the romantic soul. Now, I am definitely not the romantic type of a person but it is fun to read about the romantics sometimes. Here is a story that is my all-time favorite. It is short and very sweet. I can't help but smile when I read it every time. "It was a Friday morning, and a young businessman finally decided to ask his boss for a raise. Before leaving for work he told his wife what he was about to do. All day long he felt nervous and apprehensive. Finally, in the late afternoon, he summoned the courage to approach his employer, and to the businessman's delight, the boss agreed to the raise. The elated husband arrived home to a beautiful table set with their best china and lighted candles. Smelling the aroma of a festive meal, he figured that so...

Because it will give you courage. Because it will give you strength to move on. Because crying and giving up has never done anyone any good. Because it will lift the spirits of your loved ones. Because you look ugly when you look sad. Because it is an antidote to misery. Because it is a way to be thankful you're alive. Because it is the best way to greet the day ahead. Because it is also the best way to say goodbye to a day. Because it has the power to make someone's day. Because it can wash away your pain faster than you think. Because it looks more beautiful on you than the most expensive of clothes. Because "it is the best way to get away with trouble even if it’s a fake one" Because it is contagious and the world will smile right back at you. Because "it is the way the soul says hello" Because everything will be alright. Because life is worth it. Because YOU  are worth it.

"When nothing is sure, everything is possible."~ Margaret Drabble Let me start off by quoting one of my favorite writers, Jodi Picoult who in her book " Handle with Care " said, “I wondered about the explorers who'd sailed their ships to the end of the world. How terrified they must have been when they risked falling over the edge; how amazed to discover, instead, places they had seen only in their dreams. ” How many times have we lost our way, how many times have we caught ourselves in dilemma, how many times have we taken decisions on the spur of the moment, how many times have the decisions proven faulty and how many times have we regretted any of our choices. I'd say countless. Against all belief, I say that life is long. Sure, it seems to pass at the speed of light, but if only we learnt to live one moment at a time, it is a long life that we have all been granted with. That being said, I'd also like to agree that the length of our lives is...