Five Things That Made Me Happy In April

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Wildflowers by the loneliest trail
What are the key ingredients of happiness? For ages, wise people are seeking the perfect answer. I feel happy when season changes. When winter welcomes spring, and spring fades to the sunshine of summer.  It’s the change that keeps us going, going to places, phases, and sometimes makes our muscles to time-travel. Continue reading “Five Things That Made Me Happy In April” →

Five Things That Made Me Happy In March

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Petal rains on the doorway
It’s raining a lot in California. And with rain and then blooming flowers in cold sunshine, March seemed like the longest yet the happiest month after two foggy months. I have decided to write five happy things from every month this year, so that even the long months don’t look dead afterward. Someone said, happiness is a journey not a destination. I must have paused at every turnout to note down these stories from life. Continue reading “Five Things That Made Me Happy In March” →

Love has a sound

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valentines-day

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering. ― The History of Love

Motherhood is not always a happy ride. I say that and add, ” But I accept it with a big bear hug.”

I hug my daughter often, more often than my mother did. In my very Indian childhood of 90’s, love didn’t always come to me in words or in much hugs and kisses. Love came in a platter, in different shapes and pre-cut slices. Most frequently love came in large portion of Sunday chicken curry, a ritual I loved in the household. If I fared well in tests or in some life-altering phases, my mother would shower me with two chicken leg pieces with extra creamy curry. If I scored a hundred in maths test, she would rush to her temple to shower God with gratitude and sing a silent prayer for my future. Continue reading “Love has a sound” →

Same journey, new shoes

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samejourneynewshoes

January doesn’t amble, stroll, or linger. January strides, with pride and such motion that I fear of reaching the year end in a blink.

For several years, I lived a resolution free January- my January mornings were mostly cautious, looking at Facebook feeds of other people who wanted to try new things, amend new lifestyle in the first week of January. In two weeks everything fades.  Every. Single. Year. A new year starts looking like every other year- sometimes breezy, sometimes anxious, sometimes in melancholy. There is no romance or performance to these first week resolutions, but there is a real intimacy. In a year after a daunting, enormous, and never ending 2016, it is striking, even comforting, that you can always try for a change. Continue reading “Same journey, new shoes” →