A humming word

  Dear Reader, You don’t know me, nor do I know you. But let me tell you where I come from. I come from a land of emotions. I am in my thirties and I run on emotions. My parents are in their late fifties and they ran on obedience and emotions. My late grandparents ran on roles and obedience and emotions. And it continues. Also, we are emotional about the things we care. Be it painting or coding. We treat our work as life, at times. Somewhere the work and life gets too intermingled to even have a balance. And, writing helps. It helps the emotional fool within us to navigate the path of life, often guided my numbers and hours. Our emotions don't know numbers. But writing about it is a sign post for our hours and days. We are not machines to be guided by the northern lights of numbers. We are human to be nurtured by art. But can we organize that? We can try!  In 2007, I started writing poetry, in August, when our city Hyderabad, known for harmony, suddenly became the epicen...

Often the deepest friendships are formed when you are a child. But busting myths is the right of every individual. And, we have done it too.  Met at a workshop, Divya Murarka, is a friend and a sister, now. Over the past two years I have learnt to understand her and myself, through her.  She befriended me at a very different stage in my life. In 2019, I returned to India from the US to take up a job and pursue life again and that's when I met Divya at British Library. A starry-eyed woman with a manuscript written for parents and a hope that the MS document would turn into a book with a beautiful cover and a spine. It was February 2019. While I promised to edit it, I was still unsure.  Her confidence stirred into me and I began editing on my way to work, every day. I found beauty, honesty, truth and more importantly, a purpose in her writing. While the book, like Hyderabadi Haleem, was taking its own sweet time, Divya and I met for Sphagetti, Coffee, chai and spoke about a...

Writer's fest Definition: an exhibition of art and artists of the written word where pearls of wisdom are strewn into discussions and panels. Women's Writer's Fest - First edition- was a fest focussing on women literature and feminism. Not the feminazi kind but the kind which is elegant and strong. The free for all event was hosted Ficci Flo and Shepeople.Tv at The Park, Somajiguda from 11 am to 4:30 pm, today. Albeit it stretched to an hour and a half, people were not complaining. I attended the session from 2 pm onwards. The fest was an amalgam of strength, simplicity, style, and panache. The physical strength was the session by Mickey Mehta, who hosted the session "Reverse your Universe" spoke about the myths about healthy eating. Should we really eat six eggs a day? Is industrialized milk really healthy? He is a solo-prenuer and his marketing skills prove that. His focus on fruit and vegetables than powders and pills was refreshing. Volga's session...

We collect dirt, dust, and grime, not only on our bodies but also on our souls. In the glittering images and persona of Facebook and Instagram, we don't share the innermost thoughts but what if there was an avenue to do that. And that's what Sammy Sahni and Uzma Hyder facilitated at the office of Pause for Perspective. Tucked in a lane in Begumpet, the office of Pause of Perspective is a retreat for the soul. One can grab a book and read there or attend a Slow Down Saturday workshop to reconnect with yourself, among the other activities that they conduct. In a mileu of chirping birds, dragonflies, the scent of fresh air in a balcony, we sat on the floor, in an hexagonal shape and our connecting points were Sammy and Uzma, Ruhi of Pause for Perspective. Sammy read poems from her latest book, Iridiscence, and each piece was followed by discussions on what we felt. The motley of crowd from a yoga teacher to a student to psychologists, gave us fresh perspectives. I parti...