My Love Affair With Books

Featured, Reading

I don’t remember the exact time in my life. That time I first picked up a book. Smelled the pages, inhaled the story, and fell in love. I must have been 5. I have never stopped loving since then. Books have been the companions who I know will never abandon me. I can trust books – waiting patiently for me, accepting my flaws because they judge you not. You […]

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Knowing When To Let Go

Everyday, Featured

There are many things that the last three years have taught me. But nothing has been more profound a lesson than the art of letting go. Of learning that sometimes some people will always be rotten apples. Picture this. I log in to the MyndStories official Twitter account. It’s a rather abandoned account, as Twitter […]

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To Choose To Live

Featured, Musings

Let me tell you a story. A travel story. In 2003, I was teaching Spoken English in a tiny city called Lianyungang, China.  It was the first time I was in a foreign country. Living by myself. Teaching a language I wasn’t confident speaking. And had narrowly escaped the confines of a Chinese prison. (A story […]

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Peeking Into A Writer’s Life


Musings

Who remembers Malgudi Days? Right from the time I remember watching ‘Malgudi Days’ on Doordarshan as a kid, I have been drawn to RK Narayan’s world. It’s a world of humor, witty observations, and philosophical ruminations on life, and one that holds our humanity in the deepest compassion. There’s no better pilgrimage for a writer […]

February 10, 2023

The Joy Of Proxy Sites


Everyday

Have you ever used a proxy site? I remember having vaguely used those many years ago. For reasons I can no longer remember. Perhaps, it was to access a blocked URL. These days, we have proxy lives. We present a facade on social media – that’s our proxy ego. One that is carefully curated to […]

February 2, 2023

When A Picture Isn’t About The Picture


Musings

When a picture tells nothing… This is a picture of me with the founder of Reebok, Joe Foster. If I were wise and in my early 20s, masquerading as a freelance writer with a dreamy number of followers on LinkedIn, I might make this the main story. But since I am neither wise nor a […]

January 27, 2023

Running The Finish Line


Everyday

Sometimes, running isn’t about the run at all.  I spent the first Sunday of January running 42km in the bone-crunching humidity of Chennai. I sailed through the beginning, thought I was a rockstar in the middle, and crumbled in desperation at the end, wondering how I would ever reach the finish line.  You see…a perfect […]

January 18, 2023

The Joy Of Play


Everyday, Musings

Whenever I work from home, I work from a room that looks out to a basketball court, coconut trees, a meandering pathway, and slumbering green grass. This is not as idyllic as it sounds. The basketball court is often raucous, the dribbling making me feel like someone is thumping my head relentlessly, again and again. […]

January 15, 2023

Float On


Musings

“And we’ll all float on, okay.” In 2004, Modest Mouse, an American rock band, released a song titled ‘Float On.’ The lead singer, Isaac Brock, said it was written because he was “fed up with how bad shit had been going, and how dark everything was, with bad news coming from everywhere.” I hadn’t heard […]

December 31, 2022

To Happy Yourself


Mental Health, Musings

It was a blue sky in Bangalore. The sort of blue that seems to be washed in some painter’s pristine dye. Painted without a blemish. I stared at this sky for some time from my desk before giving in to the temptation. I walked out with a book, out where the blue enveloped me. I […]

December 23, 2022

The Stalk


Everyday

You can stalk my site. 108 pageviews In one session. Dec 14th. Time: 2pm onward. You spend more time on the pages where I mentioned everything I had gone through, trying to find ways to damn me. You won’t succeed. You read on and on. A relentless read of all pages. Pages 2. Pages 3. […]

December 21, 2022

Sending You Hope


Everyday

“I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being” — Hafez (via Deeyah Khan) And Bangalore decided to show me today. I ran to the tunes of this unexpectedly foggy morning today. Coconut trees wrapped in dew. Skies shrouded in a pale light. It […]

October 5, 2022