One Step Forward

2022 has been a year of self discovery for me. Some of the situations led me to introspect more about what I feel, how I react and what those reactions do to my mind and body. I read many books, spoke to many advisors, listened to a lot of motivational videos regarding tips and tricks to manage emotions.  Inevitably, Mediation, as a technique to manage emotions was always on the list. As meditation is one of the main techniques, I tried it out a few times and found it was incredibly difficult for me sit still and focus on my breathing. I used to try for 5 minutes and give up. Then next day, I would not try as the earlier day I had given up. But I what I continued to do is listen to ideas, read and talk to people. One fine day, I decided to give myself more time, a month, to fail at meditation. I decided it was ok that I felt like a utter failure n Day 1, Day 2 and even on Day 30. Something magical happened after this. The moment I allowed myself to fail, I started noticing that I w...

January, 2018 Dubai “You are a really good customer Ma’am”, he said to my friend. It was an unexpected comment from a taxi driver and we are both surprised. I asked him why he thought my friend was a good customer. He said, “Ma’am, some customers get very angry if I don’t know the exact location of their destination. They say, ‘what kind of a taxi driver are you? It’s your job to know where this location is.’ Sometimes they give names of stores inside malls and expect us to know exactly where it is. I don’t know the exact place your friend wants to go to, Ma’am, but when I told her that I don’t know, she said ‘it’s ok, we’ll figure it out once we are near there.’ That’s why I said it.” It struck a chord because I realized yet again that politeness and kindness can affect someone immensely in their everyday lives. We all know how we treat people is something they never tend to forget, and therefore is extremely important, but how often do we try to practice politeness and ki...

Social media & death Recently, sadly, one of my best friends (from primary school..who I was hardly in touch with now..but still remembered her to be my best friend) lost her life due to an illness. She had a beautiful life, with loving husband and amazing children.  She was one of the active ones in Facebook, who posted loads of pictures of her family, her whereabouts, so everyone knew what was going on in her life. Facebook served its purpose.. without actually speaking to her since grade 2, I knew about how she was doing.  I found out about her demise through Facebook, with a lot of people providing condolences on her page. It's been more than 3 months now, and I still visit her page and see a lot of comments from her friends even today. In some way, her Facebook page is serving to be a place where all these people who knew her can connect to her. Her husband posts pictures of their children, shares his thoughts on her page.  This makes me think,...

Yes, play the blame game. Blame the Madhesis, Tharus & the Pahadis Also blame the Indians and may be in some years, the Chinese Blame your neighbours and/or any clan you can find Yes, go ahead and blame all of these Perhaps blame the universe’s existence, the West & the East But know one thing.. It’s not them, it’s you. What matter is not what THEY are doing, but what’s not being done by YOU. To your people’s sufferings you are blind To the daily crisis & the endless lines Indeed, a lot of work’s done by your mind A lot of analysis goes into a clan’s find Do remember, when you point one finger towards someone, Rest point towards YOU High time we had some intellectual debate Super high time before it’s too late!!! Get on with it and do your job. Stop blaming, please stop. Message from a Nepali to Nepal's leaders  

1 November 2014 Just finished watching Anne of Green Gables ,  for the nth time..and it gets better everytime I watch it! This blog is long overdue. I am glad I am finally jotting it down.  So here it goes... I have read the book and seen the movie. I believe this is one of those rare cases when the movie is as beautiful and expressive as the book. I still remember the first time I saw the movie. I must have been 14 or 15 years old.  It was on "Hallmark" channel on a fine morning in Kathmandu. And something about the whole set up in Prince Edward Island inspried me that day. I saw life through Anne's eyes, got introduced to the old style of life, full of  eloquent speech and impeccable manners. It, in some ways, introduced  me to the beauty of prose and poems  and the beauty of imagination. It's a story about an orphan girl who's adopted by a brother and sister. They raise her well and they live happily ever after. The story can...