Tag: #inspiring
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Amma’s Angels
6th April 2026. It was the 13th day after my mother’s passing. We had finished a beautiful and soulful set of rituals to remember her by and celebrate the life she led for 86 years, caring for her family, and all who came in touch with her. This was followed…
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The Year My Family And Friends Wrote Me Off
Before you judge my family and friends, I promise you they did exactly what I needed this year! Some background first… I started 2024 with a view to self-discovery, leading to self-development and new challenges and opportunities. I took a sabbatical, signed up for an MBA which was due to…
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If Not Now, When? Embracing Academic Challenges
Last year when I took a short break from working life, and began to take stock of life and what I wanted from it, a long-lost dream resurfaced from my memory. I always wanted to pursue an MBA degree. But I worked shifts for the most of my career in…
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Our Two Appas
Every year on 19th April, the day my father passed away back in 2009, I slow down, centre myself, focus on my Appa and in minutes, a story weaves itself from my subsconcious to my conscious mind, to the fingers flying on my keyboard and to a post much like…
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The Art of Decluttering
I look around the house, feeling a little defeated. There are times in our life when dusty shelves and strewn clothes take a back seat over other priorities. This is one of those times. It doesn’t stop me from judging myself though. A lifetime of conditioning to keep a spic-and-span…
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Covimusings – Four Years Later
When I looked at the date today, it struck me that it was four years almost to the exact week when the country I live in went into lockdown, along with many other countries in the world. What followed was a period of fear, uncertainty, loss and grief. It was…
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Celebrating Donors – Gayatri’s Journey to Recovery
On New Year’s Eve last year I wrote about how life came full circle for me and I experienced the privilege of taking care of a kidney donor, my sister-in-law Gayatri. It has been nearly four months since the kidney transplant took place and by the grace of God, both…
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Before There Were Hacks, There Was Jugaad!
Long before social networking arrived on the scene, long before videos were made of what to do with plastic bottles or straws or paper clips or old tyres, long before the word “hack” was coined by the rest of the world, there was Jugaad. So what exactly is Jugaad? It’s…
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Bai The Way
1970s – A bustling Mumbai with immigrants pouring in from all states, eager to make a living, maybe more. Dreams, hopes, ambitions soar high. While husbands busy themselves with work and prospective business opportunities, wives busy themselves with housework, bringing up the children. It was very rare those days to…
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Messages From The Universe
I’ve always believed in the concept of The Universe and its power, influence and benevolence over all living things on this beautiful home we call Earth. We each identify with this concept in different ways. Some of us align ourselves with nature and it’s wonders. Yet others find this same…
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mykidneybeans turns seven
Regular readers of my blog would probably recall my annual self-imposed ritual to turn to my friend Yosvon’s photo blog and pick one of his amazing clicks based on whichever one inspires me and fits the theme of the year best. There are years where the theme comes to me…
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An Artist and a Workaholic Meet at a Bar
She rushed in with the weight of a hundred worlds on her head. Even as she walked into the bar to meet a long-lost friend, her mind was miles away in front of her work laptop, trying to recall if she’d sent out that super urgent email as well as…
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The Guilt Trip
My spice rack. A creative idea that came years ago. A vision brought to life thanks to my husband. It has travelled with me since the last couple of decades across houses. There’s never been a guest or family member who has visited us and not marveled at the tiny…
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Protect, Respect, Honour, Love
Once a year in the Hindu tradition, brothers and sisters celebrate their relationship and reaffirm what they mean to each other with the festival of Raksha Bandhan – literally translated to the bond of protection. A ceremonial thread that the sister ties on her brother’s wrist seals this deal. The…
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How Amma Named Her Recipes
It’s a long holiday weekend of five days. Me, my husband, our nephew and a good friend have spent the last couple of days on long drives in the day, late nights of song and conversations, and a lot of food indulgence along the way. By the third day everyone…
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Fourteen Years Without Appa
My Appa passed away on April 19th, 2009 Till date, it is hard for me to say or type these words. I think all of us expect parents to remain eternally alive. No matter what the level of closeness, affection or interaction we have with our parents, there is always…
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My Stoic Amma
Over the years of my writing journey I have written a lot about my Appa. His life and philosophy are the foundations on which I built my life and the way I choose to live it. The unexpected side effect of having a larger than life father is only dawning…
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When I Wrote Letters to Appa
Today is Appa’s 85th birth anniversary. Thirteen years ago, he left us after a valiant battle with cancer. Towards the end of that same year, I began to put my thoughts around this phase of his life in the form of a book. It was very painful to write but…
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My Worst Enemy
She is a killjoySure to whisper doubts in my earWhen happiness makes an appearance She is a villianWaiting to throw a spanner in the worksWhenever I feel confident and ready for a challenge She is a saboteurWho fuels my weaknessesAnd makes me derail my own efforts at improvement She is…
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mykidneybeans Turns Five!
The past year has not been kind to any of us. While things are slowly looking up, we’ve been through a lot of grief, defeat, loss and hardships to get there. I often find myself thinking, if this past year hasn’t changed us for the better, nothing will. It has…