As we wander, we wonder
Within the past two years, I’ve lost two important women in my life through sudden death and terminal illness respectively. Both of my losses are very much a loss of sisterhood. The kind of bond that will stay on my skin till the day I die, a love that redefines. As they say, love is the […]
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What Connects and Disconnects Us Nurturing the inner journey I often reflect on the different qualities of friendships because these channels of connection have played such an evolutionary role in my life. In many ways I feel I have been profoundly lucky – I’ve always had the good fortune to lock lives with incredible souls. […]
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The Past Century Every generation will carry with it the best and the worst of times and it is comforting to feel nostalgic about a certain period of the past which we undoubtedly now hail as glorious and innocent. I was an adolescent of the 90’s and while the conversation then was very much about […]
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A re-orientation I’m a tad cynical about annual resolutions. Quite a few goals set out in previous years haven’t been achieved in the shape I longed for so I arrived into this new year with more questions than answers. Do I repeat previous years goals that have been unfulfilled in an undying never-give-up-spirit and give […]
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How, When and What When first experiencing a big loss, such as the death of a loved one, a few questions about the unbearable weight of the pain emerges. How will I ‘get over it’? When will I get over it? What do I do with this pain? Here’s my take on these concerns based […]
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Resolving existential crisis’ through Pinterest This is ultimately, not a reflection piece but a rudimentary post on Pinterest quotes that sounds wise and poetic though I’ve never read or studied the full works of Gibran and Rumi to have any true insight of their passions. Pinterest is my short-cut to anxiety. When pre-occupied with all that […]
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A Deeper Shade of Love In my youth, the concept of love was strongly linked with joy and happiness. When it came in the shape of romantic love the idea was finding someone you had a strong connection with and attraction for. When it came to platonic love the idea was sustaining friendships with those […]
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Contemporary Employment I had fantasised about being able to work from home for over five years and after so many missed opportunities, finally managed to secure a home-based project for 2018. This was my dream come true (obviously shows how limited my ambitions are) and I can’t deny that it has been a wonderful one. […]
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The perpetual foreigner Since I was about 15, I haven’t lived in any one place with enduring permanence. The pattern has been something like 8 years out, 4 years in, 1 year out, 1 year in, 7 years out, 1 year in – all interspersed with short breaks ‘in’ of course. But essentially, a […]
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Patterns of Division Quite often, I experience life as a voyeur, peeking into various worlds that seemed to operate with a flawless but elusive algorithm and one that ultimately did not need me. It was only when I embraced the fact that existing in the margins was going to be my algorithm, did I finally […]
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Tribes we curate Throughout the years I have met and loved (platonically) an assortment of figures. There are those whose intellectual honesty engages me, some whose spiritual wisdom inspires me, and others whose overall life aspirations bears chemistry with mine (a desire for a more equal world, to be apart of a society without discrimination […]
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Getting to know Steve McCurry I was late to the McCurry party. Of course, in some seldom visited corridor in my subconscious, the face of the Afghan Girl had lodged herself within it given how she so profoundly reverberated within popular culture. But I didn’t know further about the insanely famous and culture defining photographer […]
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Paris or London? “Do you still prefer Paris to London?” My Parisian friend queried, with a touch of surprise perhaps, after I shared with her my best snapshots of the latter city. “Well Paris is like the mysterious new love whom I still haven’t fully understood and I want to keep discovering this promising relationship. […]
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Since January 2017, when the sensationalism of the USA’s new government started to gain traction, I’ve been stuck on her political news (I give my serenade on my favourite interviews/ speeches/ congressional hearings here). On the one hand, I think it appeals to the gossipy, ‘low-IQ’ (as I would probably be labeled), emotive and self-righteous […]
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When the notion of this blog first gestated in my mind, I had a vague hope to curate the testimonies of significant figures that crossed my world, and share it with others as a way to communicate the essence of a meaningful life. I start with Perrine LeClerc, whose dedication to refugee protection with the […]
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I’ve come to an age where it’s possible to have meaningful friendships lasting 2 decades. And this September it did get me thinking about those friends that made it past the 20 year line. And when I say ‘made it’ I don’t mean a Facebook Like once in a month, but rather the ability to […]
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There are some words and sayings which seems to perfectly describe what you never even knew you felt. In this scenario, the sentiment precedes the words. You already experienced it inside, and the word or quote declares it out loud. And then there are the quotes that resonates with your aspirations and guides your evolution. […]
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This extract is based largely on a few true stories, with some details amended to protect privacies. It is written with the objective of reflecting the reality for millions of people in this world, and not to focus on any one single individual. It was shared with me by a beautiful soul from the Jasmine […]
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“The blood of women, children and old people shall not stain your victory. Do not destroy a palm tree, nor burn houses and cornfields with fire, and do not cut any fruitful tree.” The First Caliph, Abu Bakr (Dieter Fleck, The Handbook of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, p. 14.) […]
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For almost a decade, I used to live within and breathe the soul of London. Today, it seems clear that she is beautiful only as a memory of an unfinished self. Lost, ambitious, capitalistic and incapable of true empathy. It’s sort of how I would describe myself as a teenager, and sort of how I […]
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Escaping the Bubble Recently I realised I was living in a bubble. I was offended by my own self-realisation when I discovered this, as I’d gotten so used to proudly defining my identity as one who had seen and been with global extremes but that was ultimately an exercise of conceited self delusion. My daily life, […]
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Alora.We’ve gone through the whole reel now really. Delhi was the First Love, Ankara the Big Love, Bangkok the Convenient Rebound and Jakarta was pretty much The One You Marry. Many say this is what happens in the trajectory of those who sailed around the world only to realize that her heart lay deep with […]
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The United States of America has always been a polarising world player and millions argue that her foreign policy has been so duplicitous, self-serving and deeply destructive to millions of those who lay behind ‘enemy’ lines or was an inconvenient collateral damage to their pursuit for more power and control. There is also popular anger […]
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While Delhi was my First Love, and Ankara was my Big Love, I pretty much define Bangkok as a Convenient Rebound. I can’t say I love Bangkok but I have become familiar with her and she was a convenient duty station. That’s not to say that it is not a fabulous place to live in, […]
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This extract is based loosely on a few true stories, with some details embellished and amended to protect privacies. It is written with the objective of reflecting the reality for millions of people in this world, and not to focus on any one single individual. ‘His face explained his fatigue with life. There was not […]
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This extract is based loosely on a few true stories, with some details embellished and amended to protect privacies. It is written with the objective of reflecting the reality for millions of people in this world, and not to focus on any one single individual. ‘She was articulate and spoke an educated style of English. […]
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I’ve often told my close friends that while Delhi was my First Love, Ankara was my Big Love. In the past year or so, I have managed to quell my hunger for this place somehow better than I had since I last left the country in November 2013. I think part of it was because […]
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Looking for The Higher Self 