Fiction Addiction

alling these ‘Fieldwork Diaries’ while apt for a social media post personally seems a little disingenuous. I spent these weeks in McLeodganj meeting old friends and making new ones. Learning, reading, writing, making notes, and recording interviews. And while all of this is academically driven and hopefully will yield some ‘productive’ results, one cannot escape the weight of the situation, which…

When I had started this blog 6 years ago I used to write long form pieces about my life. By writing what I felt and putting it out there I found a way to cope. In a twist of fate and because of the fear of being found out by friends and family I deleted them.

However, things have now changed. We are all under a global pandemic, I am older and I’d like to think a bit wiser too. And I still…

“Things are sweeter when they’re lost.

I know–because once I wanted something and got it.

It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand”.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

I received this from a dear friend, one who in this digital age, is keeping lost traditions alive – the art of writing letters

As we try to return…

Stamped – Photo Story

One of those moments when your only window to the other side, becomes a mirror instead.

Waiting in line at the Post Office I found myself mesmerised by the postal counter windows calmly reflecting the chaos within these four walls, people fussing over packages, receipts and each other.

Some left with the joy of reconnecting and the anticipation of a response while others left a piece of…

Solace – Corona Diary

To cope with these uncertain times I remind myself of the beauty that nature bestows upon us. Of her spirit, her grace and her compassion. There are lessons here that we can all learn.

Be kind to one another… years from now you wouldn’t remember these trying times for their trials and tribulations but for the strength of essential and healthcare workers, the resilience of affected individuals…

Skin Stories – Self Portrait

Skin is the largest sensory organ that gives us the pleasure and pain, the harshness and softness of touch. Being in one’s skin is the metaphor used to refer to being comfortable as one’s self.

When I was 10 years old my uterus decided it was time to step into womanhood and my hormones went haywire. I put on a whole another person’s worth of weight in about 2 years time, you can imagine what…

From the Hearth to the Heart – Quarantine Vignettes

The smallest of moments are rendered magnificent if one has the patience to notice. The world we are living in today has forced us to take a pause, where we otherwise wouldn’t have.

Being bound by the four walls of this house has revealed grace in what would normally seem mundane and ordinary. What I find increasingly amusing these days are the little moments that usually would pass us by.

One of the many little things that I have always enjoyed are train journeys. Being born in a defence family meant that we were transferred every few years from one corner of the country to the other. And the only way for us to undertake those journeys was via the Railway System.

However, I have noticed that strangers aboard the coach together are all immersed in themselves. Now I am not one…

During an afternoon walk through Reckong Peo I came across this tender moment. The daughter-in-law was applying henna/mehendi to her mother-in-law’s hair for her upcoming birthday.

Reckong Peo, Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh, 2016

We talked for a while and they asked me eagerly about the intention behind the pictures I take. I told them I make pictures of what I find beautiful. When I then asked…

A Room Of One’s Own

A self portrait I made in 2014 as I was beginning to inhabit and hide within the four walls of my first ever hostel room, afraid of the world outside, afraid of stepping into the blinding and binding lights.

It was daunting at first to be alone with one’s thoughts having come from a busy household where it was easy to be distracted from oneself. I remember crying the first night I spent…

Being bound by the four walls of this house has revealed beauty in what seems mundane and ordinary. What I find increasingly amusing these days are the little moments that usually would pass us by, like the flames dancing on my gas stove during an electrical outage as twilight descends into the night .

As an introvert born into a plant loving family I have always preferred my company to…

When I was about 5 years old my Baba Ji (Grandfather) called me into his study and handed me a yellow coloured Tupperware tiffin. He was a lawyer and his office/study was filled with leather bound regal books. I remember as a child being amazed by the fact how one man could read so many volumes given how it took me weeks to finish just one book.

Sitting in his comfy office chair he watched me…

Some musings I wrote down inspired by a poem I read and the year that had gone by.

The Crunch Love is a Dog From Hell – 1977 ” too much too little

too fat too thin or nobody…. there is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock

people so tired mutilated either by love or no love… we are afraid.

our educational system tells us that we…