The ultimate New Year gift guide

Thoughtful and quirky gifts and experiences that support small, sustainable businesses

Ultimate new year gift guide supporting small sustainable businesses

With the end of the year fast approaching, it’s time to start planning your Christmas and New Year gifts! Be it for Secret Santa at work, stocking stuffers for family, or thoughtful gifts for close friends, choosing the right gift makes all the difference. And if you’re like me, worried about stepping outdoors due to a pesky new virus variant, why not try shopping from the comfort of your home?

You don’t have to buy boring, unimaginative gifts either. Instead, I’ve put together some thoughtful, quirky, whimsical gift ideas, all of which also support small, sustainable businesses. In my book, that’s always a win!

Continue reading→

Small acts of kindness: Support a women’s sewing circle

Ever so often, when I write out a cheque to NGOs like WWF or Cry, I wonder about the smaller NGOs that are doing excellent work but that I know nothing about. Rather than supporting these larger, globally established NGOs, I prefer to support smaller organizations that are doing excellent work in their areas. The problem, especially in a country like India, is in finding NGOs that do genuine work.

One of the NGOs we support every year is Asha Bhavan, which is doing excellent work to rehabilitate drug addicts. Recently, I learnt of another NGO – Project Why – from my friends Damyanti and Ishieta. Project Why was started by Anouradha Bakshi in 2000 with 40 slum children who wanted to learn spoken English and a handful of volunteers. It slowly expanded to include women’s empowerment initiatives, so the slum dwellers could support themselves and their children. Since 2007, over a 1,000 women have been trained at the women’s center sewing circle, including Renu, the sewing teacher.Continue reading→

Introducing the #Writeaholics!

Blogging is a solitary activity. It’s you, alone behind a screen, sharing your thoughts and dreams, your art and travels, your loves and hates, so many little glimpses into your life. Sometimes it can feel a bit lonely out there, adrift in a sea of a billion blogs all writing about a billion different things. You wonder if your voice is getting drowned, if anyone is listening, if any of this even makes a difference.

This is where the power of community comes in for a blogger.

For me, it came in the form of Blogchatter, through whom I found a lot of friends, numerous bloggers whose work I admire, and a number who inspire me to do better.

And now, seven of us have come together to blog better and stronger!Continue reading→

#InstaTales 2: Stardust and Light

We are all made of stardust and light. Of magic and infinite possibilities. The spark is within us all – we just have to learn to tune in to it, to follow the call of our heart, heed the advice of our soul. We hear it in the quiet whispers, in the fizz of joy that runs through our veins, through the lightbulb that goes on in our heart when we are doing what we love.

Continue reading→

#InstaTales 1: The gathering house

Welcome to Insta-tales! A new series where I will use one of my original photographs or digital composites as a starting point to weave together a story, a life lesson, or an anecdote. Hope you enjoy today’s offering – a short story! {It’s my first attempt at fiction, so please be kind!}

The gathering house

I wiped my dusty hands across my brow and took a final look around the attic. Everything had been sorted out – five huge garbage bags of thrash were piled up at the backdoor, two cartons were earmarked for charity, and five shoe boxes of treasured memories lay at the foot of my bed. As I was about to turn off the light, something glinted at the corner of my vision. On closer inspection, I noticed a small, dusty box with gilded edges that I had never seen before. I picked it up and made my way to the bedroom.

Continue reading→

My Favorite Things: New Year Gifts

It’s almost the end of the year, y’all! And the end of the year means that its time for New Year Gifts! So, without further ado, let me present to you some jaw-droppingly awesome gifts for your literary friends.

You know how those literary types (me included) love to say “so many books, so little time”? Well, how about gifting them this gorgeous pendant that immortalizes the refrain.

so_many_books_pendant

Continue reading→

I Stand With Peshawar…And With Humanity

Sometimes I think there is no hope for this world. We are the generation that will watch as people and nations are ripped apart in the name of religion. We are the generation that will, with our own two hands and our hate filled hearts, bring about an apocalypse.

And then I see people quietly standing in solidarity, willing to offer support to the oppressed and those in pain, and I feel hope. But it often gets crushed.

Continue reading→

{V} V for Victory

As I was curled up on the sofa engrossed in a book, I suddenly heard Pepo grumbling deep in her throat. Looking up, I saw her sitting on the window, absolutely alert, looking like she was ready to strike something. Curiousity spiked, I uncurled from the sofa and walked over to see what had her hackles raised. Out on the balcony, oblivious to the threatening cat behind a closed window, were these birds, strutting around, preening and grooming themselves. I grabbed Pepo and put her into another room, ran for my camera (the Sony H5) and fired off a few quick shots. This one is my favorite from that afternoon.

PS: No animals were harmed during the course of this photo shoot. Pepo is a house cat; she isn’t allowed outdoors unsupervised.

PPS: Pepo was my first cat; she died last January. This is a post from my photoblog, which I plan to discontinue due to lack of time. I will be transitioning all those posts and doing more photography-related posts right here.