Black Lotus

I wonder what the point of a lot of things is; until I try to reflect on what the point of having a point is. My journey of reflections, conclusions and contemplations is not marked by checkpoints or milestones. I don't pick up the book where I left off. Owing to life's happenings I often forgo or even forget my progress. The spiritual path is often about rewinding, restarting, relearning or even undoing before you can redo things. I think back on all the things I've thought back on. All the times I think back on things from the past. What conclusions I reach, I wonder. Where are they now? What does it mean to have or not have them? If I will always be better tomorrow what's even the point of doing things today. And if I'll always make mistakes what's even the point in learning from them. To make better mistakes perhaps? Or the fact that we keep trying? Or does redemption lie in having walked the path further than the last visit? Even if The Path is infinite, th...

The year is 2011. I'm distraught, we had to (sneakily) come back to Hyderabad. Although all of our papers were always in place for some reason it felt a matter of shame to tell my 'friends' I wouldn't be returning back to school from summer vacation. So while everyone made plans for summer camps and whatnot, my family left everything behind to permanently shift back to Hyderabad. At that point, I suppose it was a big change for everyone. Dad had spent most of 3 decades in the gulf with nothing to show for it. And mom had to huddle in Hyderabad with 4 kids in tow. My eldest brother was in OU still pursuing his engineering, the second one newly taking Admission into KV, while I along with my younger sister would take admission into Azra Public School. Azra was the nearest CBSE school to my home where we could choose to forgo Telugu as our second language because my sister and I knew thanks to our earlier experience, we wouldn't be able to study Telugu for the life of ...

My dad has been a patient of chronic anxiety from the past two and a half decades while one of my cousins is autistic. Many people in my friends and family have dealt with serious psychological ailments, a few of them have even lost their loved ones to suicide and depression, as a direct result of maladjustment. Over time I kept witnessing the far-reaching impacts of Mental Health-related issues in our communities.  All of this prompted me to think of a way to live life. Growing up I read a lot of western and eastern Philosophy among other things which heavily influenced and helped shape my thinking. And I started with 'How good would it be if we had a universal benchmark of what a mentally healthy person should be like?' One thing lead to another until I finally started my journey into Psychology. I was a typical teenager with angst and anxiety growing up and have been in and out of counselling sessions throughout my intermediate. And all of that pushed me to take up Psycholog...

A Three-part Article on: Blog: Blogging and Bloggers  An Article on Articles  And other things...  Part 2. An Article on Articles  Article. ( noun )  a particular item or object.  a piece of writing included with others in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication.  What is an Article in the context of Blogging?  An Article is that part of a Blog which is meant to engage the readers and viewers. It is basically a post. Where a post is defined as;    Post. ( noun )  a piece of writing, image, or other items of content published online, typically on a blog or social media website or application.    Post. ( verb )  to display (a notice) in a public place.  Technically speaking an article is the written part of a post but it is used interchangeably with the term post, with one actually being considered as the part of another.  For your blog, an article could be the final stuff you post to your web page afte...

A Three-part Article on:  Blog: Blogging and Bloggers  An Article on Articles  And Other Things...  Part 1. Blog: Blogging and Bloggers  Blog. ( noun )  A regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.  Where, how and by who can a blog be used?  An hourly blog could be about an ongoing scientific/social experiment in which viewers would like to constantly be updated about the present situation. Another example could be a minute to minute break up of a live sports event.  A daily blog would be the most common type of blog seen on the internet, which could be used to inform viewers or subscribers about something specific on a daily basis. For example, Some blogs could be as simple as; ‘My daughter learnt a new word today’, ‘What did my pet do today’ etc or others could be more generic like ‘word of the day’ for a dictionary/vocabulary enhancing b...