Here for writing

It has been quite a while since I had the luxury to sit in front of my laptop, opening the blogger page and tapping the keys to see my thoughts unfold into words. And it is such a gratifying feeling to be able to do this - without any agenda, without any expectations of what will flow out or whether it will be interesting or boring or relevant or irrelevant. Just the simple act of being able to articulating the thoughts is a reward unto itself. The recent events in my life has made me understand the magic that each moment holds. Whatever maybe the external situation, no matter the grief, frustration, anger etc etc, if I pause for a moment, there is pure magic waiting in that moment.  The beauty of this life is its uncertainty. Anything can happen to anyone at anytime. Yet, here we are, planning and securing our future. No doubt it is essential, but in all the doing, to loose sight of just being is the biggest tragedy!  It is so profound to experience every moment in its entire...

Mornings are my most productive times. Am not talking about pre-dawn times when everyone is still asleep. No no.... I am mostly leading a yoga session during those times. Am talking about the comfortable 7-7.30 am types when we wake up without the aid of the alarm. The body and mind refreshed by sleeping as long as it needs, but not so long that half the day is already gone. On such days, especially like this Sunday morning, when I am not already pulled in so many directions and not constantly checking the clock, I like to indulge. But the problem with indulging is, I have too many favourite things to indulge :) I Start with all enthusiasm...brewing a hot strong sweet coffee and opening the Sunday express. As I am half way through the coffee, my mind stops paying attention to the sweet aromatic warmth sliding into my soul and starts jumping... "Oh how lovely it will be to do some yoga now...maybe I should do my journaling now and digest some of what I have been feeling / going thr...

I rarely engage in social media. My feed is mostly full of quotes and pictures of the Masters, yoga videos and cat/dog other animal videos. The posts that I put up will either be related to yoga / vedanta / special needs. To preserve my own sanity, I have unfollowed people who post either extreme left or extreme right posts, posts that glorify / demean religion or caste etc.  One cannot deny that social media has tremendous power in shaping people's opinion, give a glimpse of lived experiences of those whom we otherwise may not come across in real life, provide a platform for everyone to voice their side of the story, raise awareness of issues that are not spotlighted by main stream media etc. It is a wonderful tool, a great boon to connect people across the world, it can broaden our horizons...basically it has unlimited power. And we all know that it is a double edged sword. I am not going to get into the pros and cons of social media.  Instead, I would like...

Leaving aside the social, economic, environmental, political and all other aspects of this Covid-19 pandemic, I just want to dwell and delve within for a moment. We can distract ourselves by looking at the screen of our smart phones and computers and other devices for only so long. With all other avenues of distraction out of our reach, there is no choice but to face the monsters within.  The monster that I had to face was guilt. The irony here is, I didn't even know that guilt monster was actually lurking in my sub conscious, waiting to surface up unawares, grab me by my throat and drag me under...choking me in its vicious grip. The reason it caught me unaware was that it has always disguised itself under various names and forms -the urge to be productive, to be constantly engaged in action, to be useful, to be successful, to excel in all that I do, to confirm to expectations of living a certain way, ticking off milestones, earning a certain amount of money, the ...

The last post ended with questions. "Who's fault is it that this world now has so many corporate zombies? People who hate their job and live weekend to weekend because they have a family to feed, emis to pay, things to buy and places to go? Where lies the solution for people who cannot afford to stop dead in their tracks and rechart the course of their life?" Well, I don't have an answer that may be applicable to all, as again, one size does not fit all. But there are some indicators, which I hope may help in the thought process of how to find lasting peace and happiness, especially if you are stuck to a job you don't like - like how I was a year back. 1. Do a pros and cons analysis Quitting a job may not be an answer for everyone . To see if this is for you, make a list of things that you hate in your job and a list of things that you are able to do because o your job. For example, for me, the biggest thing that I was able to do because of my job ...

It has been exactly a year since I quit my corporate job. And first things first -that does not make me a quitter. All through my 28 years of life, I have been made to believe that life follows a single course and as if to reinforce this, everyone around me was taking the same course. School, under graduation, then a post graduation or a job, buy a house / car, get married, have kids, work, work, work, then go on vacations now and then, grow old and then die. The life in between is peppered with all sorts of emotions and dramas and love and hate and gossip and expectations and gratifications and disappointments and whatnots. Well, I also embarked on the same course -school, under graduation in engineering, because only an engineering degree has job value and no one who does a BA Lit, or BA History or Journalism gets a well paying job, then a post graduation because I am not an engineer material and I wanted to escape working in an IT firm, got a job offer in a MNC bank, got m...