Whispers from the Garden- III

Third Whisper: Circle of Life The first time I a spotted dove made a nest in the yellow trumpet tree, I was ecstatic.  It gave me great joy to know that my little patch of green was now a sanctuary for fellow earth being to bring forth her brood.  It felt like a sign that…

Whispers from the Garden- II

Second Whisper: No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden Although, the empty green patch was what called me home, I was impatient with the progress of the garden.  Now, that I had a brief taste of what a life with colours felt like, I wanted more of…

Days of Metta Travels #Day 22: Shine on you crazy diamond….

“We are travellers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.” Yesterday we lost a dear friend,…

Autumn is the second spring, when every leaf is a flower

Its that time of the year again when nature lets go to give space for the new. And this year too, I was part of a group with the joyful task of giving a creative form to this season’s lessons and blessings. Taking a leaf from (pun totally intended) last year’s book, we decided to…

31 Days of MettaTravels #Day 16: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

The first time I visited Kashmir, I was all of 11 years old and I could see why the songs equated its pine-scented air to “zanjeer” (chains) that bound your hearts and souls making it difficult to say goodbye. I remember the gondola rides over ski slopes in Gulmarg, the houseboat as it rocked us to sleep in the Dal Lake, the pony rides across meadows filled with millions of wildflowers, and of course the customary posing of pictures in the traditional Kashmiri dress.

31 Days of MettaTravels #Day 16: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

Picture:  I had heard stories of the beautiful valleys of Kashmir even before I had learned to read an atlas.  It was my father’s Shangri-La and I think he had lost and found himself there during his early trainee days.  I experienced Kashmir through his eyes and his stories, and also through Indian movies that…

31 Days of MettaTravels #Day15: Every little thing she does is magic

Hoi An, is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Vietnam. At night, the town turns into an enchanted forest under the canopy of thousands of paper lanterns and for most people, this Hoi An of nighttime is the one that steals their heart. I also fell under her spell the first evening I was there. It felt that all the fairies of the world had descended on Hoi An that evening, as they twinkled and twirled in their colorful paper robes.

31 Days of MettaTravels #Day13: We are after the same rainbow’s end, waiting round the bend

“Meteora” means ‘suspended in the air’ in Greek. High above the Meteora landscape in the central region of Greece, 60 monks and nuns live in fabled monasteries perched on the edge of sandstone peaks. According to one legend, these rocks were dropped from heaven, as they seem to have risen from nowhere. The hermits who…

31 Days of MettaTravels #Day12: Do the walk of life…

Picture: Last week was my love affair with the mountains and greens, and this week was more about the blues of the seas and the play of light and color, as the sunset on the horizon. This picture is from another such sunset on the Wild Atlantic Ocean in Ireland. Here, the ocean seems deceptively…

31 Days of MettaTravels #Day 11: Sound of Silence

It was my first day in Greece, and I was in the Greek island of Gods, Thera or Santorini. In ancient times it was known as “the Kalliste’ or the “most beautiful of all”. After a day of exploring the island from north to south, I couldn’t agree more. She not only walked in beauty,…