Magic Moments

In an alternate life, I could have been hosting people in my own homestay on a mountain top, overlooking a beautiful valley, and cooking up delicious meals, conjuring aromas of the land. Mornings would have me frolicking around in the garden, collecting home grown veggies, plucking flowers for the vases and picking juicy fruits for light consumption. Afternoons before lunch would be a jostle of pots and pans. Lunches would be an amalgamation of conversations in various tongues, licking of fingers, and petting the four-legged creatures in need of love. Post lunch a lull would spread in the property, with some preferring a nap, some getting lazy over the terrace basking in the sun, some retreating to the backyard with a book, and the last few getting busy with making pickles. Evenings would mean unlimited servings of tea and coffee, as per preferences, and collecting firewood together. And nights, ah sweet dear cozy nights, would mean cuddling and blankets and deep sleep and satisfactio…

I have always been the one to leave first. Be it luck or circumstance, it has always been this way. Some of the times it has been my decision to venture out of my comfort zone first before all my peers decide to do the same and I am left behind, alone in the old world. The decisions are out of fear of being left alone, most of the times. Or is it self-preservation instead? 

I am a person who takes time to adapt, make new friends, get accustomed to new surroundings- an unlikely one to leave first- yet I do. You might think me selfish, but I am just afraid, and I decide to take care of myself first. Some might see this as a major risk-taking attitude, but I mostly see it as fleeing before the 'desertion' hits me instead. Now that's a strong word indeed. I am always in search of safe ground, always so insecure and calculating my moves lest I end up being alone on the island.
Paranoiac. Several things bother me at once. What if my peers get on with their lives leaving me behi…

I started this blog in 2009 after we shifted to Bhubaneswar from Keonjhar, just a day after my matriculation exam. It was this first time I experienced the pain of going away from friends and all things familiar. It was the first time I dreaded making new friends, in a new school, in a more advanced town than I was ever used to. It was the first time I experienced 'Change' on such a large scale. All this and more had started taking its toll on my mind.

It was then that I started this blog with the sole purpose of writing poems. If you check my oldest posts, they are all poems. I didn't know how to construct a prose. I didn't have any context either. I would express my solitude and imagination through poetry for the first two years.

Then I started reading a lot of novels and fictional pieces. So then started book reviews, as I discovered the magic of books all around me. Then came in movies which bowled me over and I started jotting down my thoughts and altering perspe…

‘Laputa, Castle in the Sky’ is an animated film made in Japan in 1986 by director Hayao Miyazaki. The story too is scripted by the director himself. The idea for this children’s movie is derived from the book ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. The name Laputa was first used by Jonathan Swift in this book to describe a fictional flying island. The inhabitants of Laputa had vast knowledge in areas of mathematics, astrology, astronomy, science and technology. They used the properties of magnetic levitation to make the island float in the clouds. Here also it is no different, except, just that the civilization no longer exists there and the land is guarded, protected and taken care of by a robot.

The film starts with a little girl Sheeta trying to escape air pirates and the people holding her captive in an airship. She accidentally falls from the plane, but the mysterious turquoise colored crystal necklace begins to glow and makes her descend slowly floating in the air, thus saving her. She lands sense…

It is human nature to dwell in the past, worry about the future and forget all about the present. I still miss the days spent in Hyderabad. I miss the study schedules, eating out, street shopping, and the city tours. I miss the roads, the townships and the metros. But I clearly remember that I just wanted the days to pass quickly so that I could return home, while I was there. And today I miss the view from the terrace of the ladies hostel we stayed in, the floral decorations with chalk, colors and flowers, the flower market, the abundance of curd during lunch hours, the constant ‘amma’ recitals by our wardens and so much more.


One of the highlights of the hostel life in Hyderabad at Sri Kamali was queuing up for tea, puri and dosa during breakfast time, and then hurrying to secure a chair the very next moment. And conversations and complaints flowed unhindered during these hours in many languages at once- the most prominent ones being Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and English.…

Odia is my mother tongue but I had never really focussed on Odia novels, given that I love reading. Of late I realised that I should explore the culture and language of my native land, and see for myself whether it suits my reading sensibilities. I read “Jagyaseni” by Pratibha Ray a few years back, over a span of several months. It is a retelling of Mahabharata from Draupadi’s perspective, which brings about her inner turmoils, confusions, decisions, desires and dreams, really well. It was the first Odia novel I ever read. Three days back, I completed reading my second novel in Odia, coincidentally it is by the same author. “Punyatoya” - literally it means the river, or ‘as pure as the river’. It is also the name of a revered river in Indian mythology.
The book has been translated into Hindi with the same title, with the tagline “the story of a village girl Meghi”. Other translated versions are in Marathi and Malayalam.
The story follows a young girl named Barsha, dearly called Meghi at…

As we drove through the country road with trees, hills and valleys on either side, I thought back to our trip that we were just returning from. The dusky hue of the sky, distant mountains, the neverending farmlands, the constant greenery and occasional sight of a vehicle or some villagers with their cattle returning from the farms and a slow song in the background provided a perfect atmosphere for my reverie. 

Our first stop was a deer park having barking deer and a small stream flowing under a small bridge over the rocks. Then, we stopped at Taptapani, a small temple with a hot water spring where the tourists are to wash their feet and hands. The temple itself was not much of an attraction but the sceneries surrounding it were absolutely breathtaking. A path of stone covered with moss overlooking a stream of water gushing down the steps, a stone bridge to cross the stream and trees stretching as far as the eyes could see - simply a beautiful sight for the eyes to behold.

The night has …