It’s a bliss, I tell you. A must do when you hit the 40s. Heaven compared to the night’s sleep. A lovely rest time till we wake up for a strong cup of evening tea.

The way to nap is what I enjoy the most – find a recliner (bed/cot definitely not recommended), hold on to a news article that you started reading or a book you are reading. Your eye and brain rapidly co=ordinates in the beginning, you manage to read a page or a few paras – one, two, wait two again (last lines appear blurry), you get to three (words disappear) – drowsing slowly descends.

You can fight it for a few minutes – but sleep finally wins. Then just close your eyes, loosen your body and let things fall around – books/newspapers, let out a deep sigh and plunge zzzzzzz.

Have a good nap.

As we grow older there is a need to engage in activities that involve hand and mind co-ordination. Craft work is one such task. Sewing, embroidery, crochet making, band making, cross-stitching – these are few I have found people drifting to. This bug has caught me too. I make bands. I use my feet, my fingers and my mind. A simple, effective way of de-stressing myself. The intricate patterns that design, the knots that I pull and the scissoring that I do helps me oblivious of the world around me. It silences my mind and makes me feel more active and energized. Sometimes, I feel more feminine, I guess that’s a bonus.

when scrolling through the social media we come across short films/pocket films. Quite often, these videos range from 4min – 25 min. Most of them are preachy or address a social issue. Some of them are about awareness generation, some about the people and their struggles, some portray the stories of characters from marginalized sections of the society and some are down right emotional. All of them do carry a message.

Though the content or technicality of making these mini-video’s within a shoe – string budget is not so great, the fact remains that it provides employment opportunity – direct and indirect – to a handful of budding artists and technicians. And, the regional pocket films are meant for a certain section of the audience and it reaches them.

Movies- in a mini- sized – are a good form of entertainment, no doubt and an effective way to discover good and new talent.

The unfounded fear of any single mother is ‘what do I do when my young man/woman flies away from the nest?’ They have to one day. They have to – they need their identities, they need to find themselves, establish their values, their ideologies.

The questions that moms are left with is – what am I do to when he flies away? What do I look forward to? How do I fulfil the void he/she will leave behind? There are no answers to this question – no tailor made solutions. I guess, we figure that out when we come to it eventually,

why worry now?

catch-up with our long lost friend, wake up late, laze around, travel solo, visit museums, art galleries, volunteer – with plenty of options these days – slowing down and enjoying the emptiness in our life and in our heads – is definitely a bliss.

I wanted to quit my full time teaching job and switch to travelling. I wanted to travel leisurely, become a travevlogger, make insta reels on my travel – the same dream like the most of us have.

The more I dug into my fantasy – the more I relished it. The fantasies got bigger and bigger – staying in a villa in an isolated place with good amenities, three meals a day, a beach/lake to walk to, lie down listening to the waves, watch the fishermen till the sun goes down. Ah! what a pleasure would it be.

But then life has its own plans. It drew me back where I belong to – teaching. Somewhere, the voice inside me said – See, I have been telling you all along – didn’t I?

Yes, You did and I had to admit, the voice was right. Be a leisure traveller : said the voice. And, it was not wrong. Travel, explore, meet new people and learn during your day offs from school.

So, back to being what I am and being a leisure traveller. Most of us are – travelling when the work is light, checking out new unchartered places, relaxed, lazy lunches on the beach. A leisure travel. That’s something I should just continue doing.

This is the famous Assembly Hall at Rajghat Benaras. This is the place were J Krishnamurti used to share his thoughts with the public.  Benaras is famous for Ganges and for the ghat. Apart from these two, the Assembly Hall of Krishnamurti Foundation of India is a must visit place.

This assembly hall lies nestled close to the Ganges. This imposing hall is warm both inside and outside. The high ceiling, giant windows, multiple doorways – big and wide with spacious and airy halls are a sight to behold.

The moment you step inside peace sets in. Silence envelopes you.

A quiet place to find one’s thoughts.

I sauntered into the lawn and over the fence I saw – a neat seating arrangement with a small table displaying art work with man-made flowers around it. It felt warm on a nice cool evening. The hand-made flowers dancing gently to the tune of the breeze, and the setting sun paying its last graces. The lawn was inviting – to lie and roll.

I stood at the fence wondering – who sat there? Were all the seats occupied? Or some empty? What were they discussing – anything important or something light?

Was the meeting a continuation of a previous unfinished business? Did they pick the discussion from where they left earlier? Or will it continue into the next meeting?

Did they have tea or tea with biscuits? How were they dressed – sweaters or mufflers? Did the Sun shine bright – that they had to remove it?

How long were they there? Where did they all go now? Did they leave together? or one at a time?

Phew! So many questions. I felt like John Keats – the poet who wrote ‘The ode of the Grecian Urn’ and mused at the pictures on the urn – wondering why the citadel was empty?

Certain arrangements are intriguing – the simpler the arrangement is, the intriguing it is. Loud arrangements blind our senses, mundane ones leave us surprised.

I captured them in my camera for keepsake and in my mind for posterity. Why? For, I am wondering and I will always be left wondering: where was I when this meeting happened?

What makes a doorway interesting? The size, the shape, the architecture, the design, the materials that make it?  Probably all! no idea.

I have always felt doorways are a distinct feature of a home or a room. Inside-out, outside – in: it gives us a perspective of what we are getting into or getting out of. It can be viewed at different angles, we can lean on it, look out of it, look through it – from a distance, close by, from a sitting position, lying position. The doorway remains the same – the view it shows us or what we see through it tends to differ.

Doorways has its own personalities, just as a house. The good old houses have doorways that are split into two parts – the upper part and the bottom one. The bottom one is kept latched from the inside and upper door is left open. Such doorways are found in villages of India. That was a unique design, wherein we could sit on a rocky chair on a warm sultry afternoon and look at a few bussing vehicles and sauntering cows and goats.

I was lucky to find one such doorway – doorway of my hotel room which opened to the lake – a magical doorway is how I like to remember. A doorway that told me that beyond my limitations (rather, What I think are my limitations) there exists unchartered territory to be explored. The doorway not to just lounge around it but to cross, to cross and see, explore and decide – decide to take a voyage – irrespective of you succeeding or winning.