The Mirror Thing

"These are the three main diseases of this country, sir: typhoid, cholera and election fever"                            -Arvind Adiga, The White Tiger. Elections are overhead and campaigns are in full swing. They say that in India people don't cast their vote but vote their caste. Unfortunately that is true and it's high time it should be looked into. Caste, creed, race and religion should not become a part of political agenda. Further on if we observe the political history then we can see- in India, which have multi party system, majority tends to vote for a particular political party or coaliation group frequently which is not healthy for the nation while western countries like USA, which have two party system, tends be to quite instable in chosing the head of the government and that results in check and balance of power. As voting citizens of India it is our responsibility to make sure that the authority ...

It's beautiful how time changes and with it, life changes too. It feels just like yesterday when I first wore a saree, it was my nani's and I was four at that time. I feels like yesterday when I first saw my new born sister. It feels like yesterday when I used to collect firangipani flowers from the damp grass, first thing in the morning. It feels like yesterday when I met my friend on the play ground of my school and it funny how I hated her in that moment but ended up making the best memories with her. It feels like yesterday when I got my periods. It feels like yesterday when everyone got stuck in lockdown. It feels like yesterday when I first had a crush. It feels like yesterday when I changed my address. It feels like yesterday...

It's my birthday today and I am sick. I am lying down on the couch in my oldest T-shirt and eating away obscene amount of chocalate, that my mother's colleague gifted me on my birthday. And while I am having the most unconventional 18th birthday ever, I am reminded that I am an adult now and through my years on earth I have learned a lot. So here's the list of the 18 things I learned in 18 years. Be friendly with everyone but friends with choosen one, afterall the company matters. It's okay to be selfish sometimes. There's no harm in prioritising yourself. Keep a little portion of life exclusively just to yourself.  It's okay to break some ties before they break you. There is nothing wrong in being nerdy, geeky and old school. Own you choices proudly, they distinguish you. It's okay not to care sometimes or to care way too much.  You must grow at every chance you get. Your growth is what matters at the end. It's okay to feel a litttle jealous sometimes. ...

  Today I went to my dadi's place and she offered me some mangoes and out of courtesy, I refused twice before she fed me herself, afterall how long one can refuse the mangoes? And while I was relishing the sweetness of the fruit, she nostalgically told me an 'Aam' incident from my childhood. Once when I was quite young, my dadi took me to her friend's place and her friend, a kind old lady, pulled up a donzen of mangoes soaked in a bucket of water. One by one she cut the fruit and put them in a huge tray before us and while both the friends were talking I inhaled all the mangoes. After some time when my grandmother realised this, she became red in anger and embarrassment but the other lady laughed out loud saying that I ate mangoes of almost double of my weight. That day my dadi was mad at me and my stomach was upset.  And now after all those years when my dadi have put some sense in my head, she still miss those days when I was a little girl in cropped hair eating away ...

Today I am done with my 150th book and I know there are much more I have to read.Stories had never failed to awe me and books had never failed to capture my imagination. It's like having someone when you are alone in a crowd, someone to hold your hand through the toughest of the times, someone you can blindly trust with your fears and someone who assures you that even sadest of the stories have happy endings.  One of the best things that can ever happen in my life is that I opened the world of books where I can live thousands of lives in a lifetime, I can be whoever I want and go wherever I want to.  Cheers to the hobby that has become as essential as breathing and to the writers who have become immortal with their stories.  Now shoo! lemme read.

Bloom like these purple beauties.  

"Ove had never been asked how he lived before he met her, but if anyone had asked him, he would have answered that he didn't."      -AManCalledOve "Men become what they are because of what they do. Not what they say"                            -AManCalledOve "Only a swine thinks size and strenght are the same thing"            -AManCalledOve I can't stress enough how good this book is! The book is funny, sarcastic, sad, romantic, gripping and much more. You'll end up laughing and crying at the same time. One of the best books I have read in a long time. A man called ove have an opinion on everyone whether it may be a jogger, "either they walk too fast or they run slowly, that's what joggers do ." or someone tall "Ove feels an instinctive scepticism towards all people taller than one eighty-five; the blood can't quite make it all the way to the brain" But he did not fail t...

Doing Dominos on Dining table with the folks.  

 Hitting the roads with a good book, a smooth highway and a ray of sun:)

  My summer afternoon is going well. How's yours?

 

I am not at all a morning person. Although I do wake up quite early but that's because of college timings. Anyway, almost all of my mornings are same -I wake up with a nest of hair on my head and the duvet half way down from the bed. I can never be nice with the person who crosses my path in the morning. I am moody, cranky and grumpy like a lost child who puts his right foot in left slipper. I gather my scrunchie and water bottle from somewhere or the other and proceeds to open the curtains and windows to let the cool breeze in when the bright warm sun rays hit my eyes telling me how late am I in waking up. My mind would still be loading itself up and I had no effing idea about why I am on this earth? Also, I really hate it when people say good morning first thing in the morning like how can a morning be good? or why the hell your morning is good? Well after all this I walk from dimmed yellow lights and golden rays into the living room which is usually filled with action (perks of ...

 

Today sitting on the grass, soaking up the sun, together we had exceptional fun. Letting the words flow without any filter, on a bright sunny day of this winter. To be with them, it's so easy, we rarely talk 'cause were are busy. But when we do we never stop, getting in a bubble that none can pop.                                         -  Avani..

 

There is some beauty in sitting on the floor, crossing the legs and opening the old letters and greeting cards. And revisiting the golden old days of letters and inks. The days when the message as well as the messenger were equally important.  I don't know how the people at that time were pouring their whole heart in few words and sealing them with the fragile stamps. Now a days, even the long chain of text with 'end-to-end encryption' can't hold a piece of emotion. Anyway, before you think I am some oldie who loves to lecture on the 'good old days', let me tell you I am not. Infact these are my mother's beloved belongings, one which she still proudly flaunts to my generation. Let me tell you something, in 2021 during lockdown, I wrote three letters and posted them to my cousins. Well they already were expecting the above mentioned letters but still I want to feel the experience of writing letters, folding them nicely, putting them in envelope, writing the a...

 

I had read this thought somewhere and it resonates through me. Today I would like to start with this thought. Sometimes we are so much running after those 'life altering' huge things that we never look over those little 'breath taking' moments. So I just thought that why not write or rather type, one of the breath taking moments from my life. I still remember the first time I saw the mighty mountains for the first time. It was one of it's own kind of experience, totally breath taking. My first trip to mountains was when I was in 3rd grade. Whole of my family went to nanital on bus. It was an overnight journey and around 5 in the morning just when the dawn was breaking through the twilight hour, my father woke me up and pointed towards the mountain ranges through the window. And that was it. It was love at first sight! I know I have rest of my life for many more breath taking moments and I wish the same for you too. One thing that I figured out is that, sometimes we ...

 

What a book!

 MUSIC + BOOK + COFFEE = PERFECT MONSOON❤️

Today, I learned that we generally like to voice our opinion and express ourself but I guess it's more important to know when to save our opinion. We take pressure from outside and spring it back while we should aborb it sometimes. Nope! I'm not saying pressurize and hurt yourselves, what I mean is that nothing should affect us and our surronding. I know it's easy said than done, afterall I was doing exactly opposite till now but recent events taught me that the world won't survive if we ooze out the hatered we get. The world don't remember the person who spread the venom instead it remembers the one who drinks it.

It's absolutely wonderful that how rains changes everything, inside-out.  Thundering clouds, hazy windows and pouring water from heaven is world's best medecine for soul. It's 7:00 p.m. and clouds had took over the sky even before the sun sets. Ed sheeran filling the silence of the room while thunder punctuating the lyrics.  

There are days when a lot happens around me. Sometimes I can't even make out the promblems let along find their solutions. I love being busy, having a long to-do list but at many times there arise situations where I can't do anything and I freak out. Everyone and everything annoys me, I get defensive and overthink a lot and the wrost thing is, I end up with stress outbreaks on my face. To come out of such situation or at least not making myself that much miserable, here are the few ideas that I found really helpful. Make a list  - It might sound a little nerdy but trust me, try once. Write down your promblems, your concerns and make a list of pros-cons and the wrost case senario. This exercise will help to form a clear picture of the situation. It's like having the map of maze, though you're still in middle of it but atleast now you know how your surrounding looks like. Meet people -  When I say people, it does not means family and friends but the strangers or your coll...

  by Lord Byron

Made this lamp from jute and fixed it with glue-gun. Added fairy lights around mirror and taped these beautiful butterflies.

 

The Zoya factor by Anuja Chauhan   

 

Oh God this guilt is killing me. Argh!!!!! Why I did I opened my mouth.

❤️

My baby  

When   dimple met rishi by Sandhya Menon (4.0) If you need a dose of some lighthearted love story of Indian American teenagers then this is what you are looking for. Ms.Menon has presented a different notion to the arrange match. And the best thing is there are two more standalone novels and two novelas to succeed it!  Contain  - Tech wizards, coding, sketching, Nosy Indian parents, ambitious daughter, perfect son of millionaire and cold coffee. 10 blind dates by Ashley Elston (3.0) A perfect companion for christmas holidays. This easy read will take you to the lanes of your high school days and breakups. Though Elston has presented a huge family, it's easy to track the story and the characters, besides the messy and crazy lives of this non-manageable kin.  Contain  - Huge family, cousins, togetherness and many blind dates. The knockout by Sajni Patel (4.5) Perfect story of an imperfect teenager. Brown girl in states, not so good financial status, losing friends...