#KashmirDiaries: Srinagar in a day

When you drive down from the airport into Srinagar, one of the first things that strikes you is the army presence. After all, the state is regularly in the news for skirmishes between the army and militants. Kashmiris are quick to assure you “yeh yahaan nahin hota” (this doesn’t happen here). Indeed, skirmishes are often closer to the border or in areas that don’t get much {or any} tourist inflows.

Mughal garden Shalimar Bagh Sringar in a day

The main pavilion at Shalimar Bagh

Then you notice the houses and how they are constructed. Almost all the buildings have gently sloping roofs, and a lot of them – even the big houses – have tin roofs. Most houses are built on a base of stones, with liberal use of wood and tin – to better insulate them during Kashmir’s cold winters.Continue reading→

#MicroBlogMondays: Dealing with overwhelm

Have you ever felt like you’ve bitten off more than you can chew?

Work commitments. To-do lists. Hobby projects. Managing the house. Looking after a sick cat. Planning and preparing for exciting projects. And completely underestimating how long all of the different pieces might take.

to-do-overwhelm

And even when you set supposedly realistic goals for the day, you are unable to finish them. So what gives?Continue reading→

#KashmirDiaries: Romancing the Dal

When you think of Srinagar, you think of the Dal Lake.

And I think of Shashi Kapoor romancing Sharmila Tagore in Kashmir ki Kali. {Yes, yes, complete cliché, but it is what it is.} So it should be no surprise that a shikara ride was right up there on my have-to-do list. I was so eager to experience the romance of the shikara that I dragged the husband to the Dal almost as soon as we had checked in to our hotel.

Dal lake srinagar kashmir sunset shikara ride mughal garden gate

Sailing into the sunset

I had heard that the Dal Lake is dotted with shikaras selling everything from trinkets to chips and Coke, and that they start hounding you almost the minute you get into a boat. That was not what I wanted at all, and I was prepared to tell the boatman that in no uncertain terms. But when we reached the lake, I didn’t see any other shikaras floating around – how lucky was that?Continue reading→

#MondayMusings: Thoughts on the far-reaching social impact of the Trump Presidency

As a general rule, I don’t write about politics on the blog. No matter what my views may be and what arguments and debates I may have in real life or online, I keep all of that away from this space.

But the recent election results in the US have shaken me to the core. And though they have no direct bearing on me, there is no denying the wide-spread social impact of a Trump presidency.

I also think that the time is now ripe to have multiple conversations about righting wrongs – about inclusion and diversity, about the fact of a changing global order, changing race and cultural dynamics, and a shift in the old patriarchal systems and beliefs. And I believe this is a conversation that we need to have globally.
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On my art table: Soulful surrender

On my art table soulful surrender art journal spread art journal artist art journaling india

There’s a current of magic that flows through our life.

I’m not talking about the Harry Potter kind of magic. I’m talking about the magic that shows up in our life – through synchronicity. Which is simply being in the right place at the right time, meeting the right people at the right time, hearing a message or a piece of music at the right time.

It’s not necessarily earth shattering magic.

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#KashmirDiaries: The journey begins!

I’ve always wanted to visit Kashmir.

A typical Kashmiri house with sloping roofs

A typical Kashmiri house with its sloping roof

Growing up, I heard stories about Kahsmir’s legendary beauty from my mother and maasi, who had been there as children. I saw it pictured on the silver screen, as Bollywood stars played out their romances in shikaras on the Dal Lake and in the meadows and valleys of Kashmir.

Then militancy struck the valley in the 1990s and continued seemingly without end, and I wondered if I would ever be able to visit Kashmir. But after over a decade of strife, things have normalized somewhat and tourism has opened up once again. Though incidents do happen in the valley occasionally, they have never, to my knowledge, targeted tourists.Continue reading→

#MicroBlogMondays: Send my baby some love

Meet my boys – Loki {on the left} and Simba {on the right}. They’re almost five years old, which means they’ve been with us for over four and a half years. But it feels like we’ve had them forever.

Simba is our little ball of sunshine. He becomes Mr. Lapcat every time I try to work on the laptop {ok, most times} and literally demands his cuddle time. If we are doing anything when he wants his cuddles, he will push it out of our hands and firmly insert himselfoin our lap, demanding to be the center of attention.

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Gratitude thread for October

There’s a thread of gratitude that runs through my life.

Moments, big and small, that I’m grateful for. People and events that I give thanks for. They range from the small things I used to take for granted – a clean car thanks to the car cleaner who comes in early in the morning; a clean desk at work courtesy the office boys who stay back late to clean up our office space – to the larger events, like a month of good health for the husband and me after almost two months of illness.

As part of my evening ritual I spend some time journaling, which includes – on most days – a gratitude list. Over time, this simple activity has led to a tangible difference in the quality of my days. I find myself in a much more positive state of mind, and I’m able to weather the storms that come my way a little bit better.Continue reading→

#MicroblogMondays: I’m becoming a hermit!

Slowly but surely, I seem to be becoming a hermit.

The Hermit tarot card: I'm becoming a hermit

This is a cycle that repeats itself every couple of years. I start turning into this person who goes to work and runs back home and doesn’t want to step out again. I think of meeting friends, running errands, going shopping or walking, but it seems like too much to do. I’m happy pottering around the house – writing, painting, journaling, doing some inner work.

Sometimes I realize that it’s just the stress getting to me. In those cases, it’s rather easy for me to snap out of hermit mode. At other times, it takes me a while to realize what is happening.

Why, you ask? Because I am an introvert – and as an introvert, I love my solitude. Being around too many people for too long saps my energy, so I’m perfectly content with my hermit life.Continue reading→

#TheMindfulBreak: It’s a wrap!

As I gather together my photographs from the mindful break project to compile them into an ebook, I’m blown away by the many small moments that I took the time to consciously witness. I’m struck, also, by the pictures that I did not take.

I had planned and written out most of the content for the ebook last month, so I had a fair idea of the quotes I would be including and the mindful practices I would be sharing with my peeps. Somewhere, at the back of my mind, I had a little checklist of the kind of images I would need to illustrate these quotes and practices. Now, as I look through the photographs that I do have, I find – at best – two or three photographs that were on my mental checklist, which tells me that this project took on a life of its own. And that is just as it should be.

Some of the photographs on my Instagram account from the mindful break project Continue reading→