Contemplations and Ruminations

(November 10th 2020) I thought I’d jot this down here, a defining fact of the year 2020 before I forget it with the vagaries of time. It’s November now and about three months back, in July, I lost my sense of smell after a mild bout of fever. I have no idea what I (and a few family members) contacted, but we were all down with mild fever that developed into severe cold and cough for the others, but for me there was no cold or cough or even a sniffle, just a complete and abrupt loss of smell. It was disconcerting initially, everybody was scared and they were talking about testing and I vehemently refused cause I wasn’t unduly sick. It’s a given (atleast for me) that hospitals can cause more harm than good if one runs to them for every small ailment or sickness that the body can easily handle. Of course, my fever had gone by then, only the sudden loss of smell was worrying. And I read that such incidents are quite common and one need not panic and run to hospitals that are already ov...

There’s a beautiful song called Christmas in Heaven , where Scotty McCreery, the singer, wonders how a loved one who has passed away is celebrating Christmas. Scotty sings: Are you kneeling with shepherds before Him now?  Can you reach out and touch His face? Are you part of that glorious Holy Night? I wonder what Christmas in Heaven is like. We’ve all lost loved ones, and the memories will always remain, but how are we going to remember the ones who died (and those who remain traumatised) due to the deep malaise that infects society. Rape is the sort of horror that cannot be put into words because words do not exist to describe what Aruna Shanbaug, Jyoti Singh, Asifa, Priyanka Reddy, the Unnao case survivor and countless others went through. As we prepare to welcome the new born Christ into our homes, let us first examine our hearts and find out where the sickness lies. We live in a society, and the family is the basic building block of any society. The first seven y...

This picture was taken circa 1990 when the mountain gods (the western ghats) with their gentle song were all we could see everywhere we looked. Check out the mud bound road and the half-saree clad higher secondary students (akkas then)... life was amazing here, it took me years to realise that. Here I am at one of the mountains thirty years later, just soaking in nature and contemplating how far I've come from that little girl who hated this village and couldn't wait to leave. Life always surprises you in the most beautiful of ways when you learn to go with the flow. You may not get the view you were hoping for, but you will be rendered speechless by the view that awaits you, it will be something you never thought could exist and yet here you are... reveling at how the universe has always got your back.   This is one of the pristine beaches back home... the sun on one side, moon on the other.  I sit here typing all this as the rains fall outside while I sip on warm...

So this happened...      I presented and defended my doctoral thesis titled "An Exploration into the Resilience of the Human Soul and Evolution of the Human Self: A Study of Select Autobiographies of Artists and Statesmen"  at the university and I can't believe it's over. It's actually... overwhelming to think of how I got into it in the first place. I had to quit my job cause I was in and out of the hospital, those were the dark years as I call them. I wanted something to do, and since I'm in the habit of devouring books, I thought why not get a Ph.D. in it. So started foraging for a university, a guide and after all that fell in place, the topic had to be decided. I remember Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt was quite fascinating in its various aspects and I thought why not work on such real-life stories that make you feel... that pull at your heartstrings. So got together with my guide and her guide who is a colossal giant in this field and we discu...

NEVER stop doing your pushups, that is one exercise which gives you upper body strength. Never not love, that means when you feel and do things with love, you're making life beautiful for you and everyone around you. Know that life is good, you may not understand or even figure out what you're supposed to do or be, but with good intentions and the air of positivity surrounding you, life will always be good even when it is troublesome. Eat healthy, you'll feel good in your gut... but don't go overboard with the diet. Over time you'll tend to figure out what suits you, don't define yourself to any diet, it beats the purpose of sharing/breaking of food with family and friends. Read, always read and gather words, you like them. Read the good stuff that makes you gasp in wonder and happy to be alive. Always spend time with children, nothing purer on earth. Learn not to hear things that serve nobody, the acrid bitterness and negativity that builds up in people ca...

The Last Girl (2017) by a Yezidi survivor, Nadia Murad, is filled with the bone-chilling sort of evil that the ISIS is synonymous with. Nadia poignantly captures the plight of her Yazidi village, Kocho, as the threat of ISIS looms large in the distance before becoming a reality. As with the Holocaust, no one really anticipates the amount or intensity of evil that could reside in the indoctrinated hearts of men. Otherwise, nobody would willingly stay back in their towns or villages waiting for the genocide of their race. One of Nadia’s brother’s, Hezni, did try to go Germany, by crossing the northern Iraqi border on foot into Turkey, from where they (the brother and a few others) made their way to Istanbul, then paid a smuggler to take them into Greece. But they were discovered and had to spend a horrible time in prison. So, the fact is people did try to leave, but like Nadia explains, it isn’t easy to leave the only place one has ever known. I still think that being forced to ...

After our previous day in Jaun , we slept in the next day. Woke up late and made rice and dal for lunch, and after that Vinod dropped us off in Bouchet on his way to work. We, me and Nam, took a train to Gare Cornavin, went to the tpg office and asked whether we could go to Coppet (a small little town on the outskirts of Geneva) with the Geneva day ticket. The tpg guy, very kindly changed our Geneva tickets which are about 11 swiss francs to 13.20 swiss francs so that we could travel to Coppet. Walked to the Castle We didn't go inside... Just walked around taking pictures The castle ground with uneven rocks...  The tree lined avenue opposite the castle The best part about the castle....  Paterns We loved walking under the shadows of this tree lined path The lake in the distance My sister... Me A peaceful place to rest under the trees The lake... The water jet of Geneva is seen in the distance We just walked aro...