October

October. 2025.

Heavens to Betsy! 

Had that been a fast forward or what! As I sit here having not even an iota of clue about where this blogpost is going to lead me to, I do sit a little longer than required or desired, staring at the opening of this entry.

October 2025

When I scroll through my anonymous instagram account, using it to follow pages pertaining to my work, study and interests, I do find myself spiraling into what I call as a bottomless pit, doomscrolling through reels and reels of content far beyond my areas of interests. And off late, I am making a conscious realization of how I kill a good hour and a half in the so-called unwinding in my 'my time' that I earn for myself after a long day. All this happens while my tired eyes get moist and the book that I'd been trying to finish for forever lies carelessly on my night stand and then I keep saying to myself - "But ofcourse I can't blog, nor can I read. I don't have 48 hours in a day, do I?"

So how much of this "I am busy" really makes sense to the average human? I start to ponder. 

In my younger days, I heard someone say that if we aren't doing something, we don't want to do it! - This tidbit of wisdom kind of stayed with me and mocks me every time I use the pretext of 'I am busy' to ward off things I don't need to do. Reminds me of the Parkinson's law -

 "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion" 

They say that the things we love as children stay with us. For me, both writing and art continue to stay as a very integral part of who I am albeit in the background, and the "I am busy" card is played. I stare in disbelief at the calendar flipping to the 10th month of the 25th year in what feels like a brand spanking century that debuted just a few days ago on the horizon. 

October, the month of Trick or Treat. Jack O lanterns make their cameo in nooks and crannies of the departmental stores and on porches alike. The wind turns crisp and damp, announcing the arrival of shorter days and chiller evenings. The Year feels like it is rushing to wrap up and I still play my outdated card - blaming it on the busy, the block and the burnt out. One way or another, I dodge the tasks that aren't a mandate and I make feeble and pathetic attempts to undo the same.

I swear I swore to write everyday in September and the first few went by like expected and I blink and I land in October.

Another wise Man I extensively read and follow once said, approach Life with an urgency to get things done. I nodded vehemently in agreement only to time and again pull out the "I am busy" card. 

As I also swore to sleep early among the other things that I swore I would do, so here I abrupt stop this silly post

But atleast I didn't shove the attempt under the carpet saying to myself that " I am busy"

:)

 Photo by Teresa Howes: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-bear-plush-toy-on-bed-860882/

This and That

Fall is beautiful. I mean the season 'Fall' just in case the negative connotation hit you first. Fall gives the creeps and the relief all the same to anyone averse to clutter. All trees put on this color show to begin with and burst into the warm half of the color wheel and then they wither and become like fritters and fall to the ground - the road, the lawn, the walkway, the rooftop gutter - no surface is spared! The leaves are ubiquitous. Suddenly drab brown, crisp leaves are spread like confetti all over. 

ASMR loving humans would have a field day walking on these pathways - leaves crushing under feet while emitting sounds akin to the ones that emerge when eating potato chips. After a point, they start to bother you. And it's elbow grease to blow them off one's lawn and scoop them into the green waste. But then, the trees stand bare. Everything starts to feel empty in a very relieving way- kind of like a newly built home yet to be furnished. The air dons the fall scents, rich and crisp like the new crop of apples and pumpkins that emerge in the neighborhood market. Fall feels like the fresh page in the journal providing ammunition to a brain devoid of a theme or motivation to write. There's only one thing that keeps the tap dance on the keyboard going....the inclination.

When you show up

You don't quite show up!

You take away, or do you?

Transitioning into 

The world famous

Most wonderful time of the year!

You have a split personality

Your temperatures fluctuating

Like the mood swings of a lady in her 40s.

Falling at your feet

I feign a verse

Don't laugh at my audacity!

Just join me in the allegory

While I sing your glory!

O Fall - my favorite season of all!

I am so glad to see you again.

Photo by 대정 김: https://www.pexels.com/photo/orange-trees-2734512/

Verse

It's funny 

How things zoom in 

When viewed with fondness -

Little details come to fore

Details that were there always!

But blurred in this masquerade

Where 'I' remain the axis.

What if the spotlight is set on 'U' instead?

Is there a name for this shift?

Poets and story tellers,

Painters and sculptors 

All seem to harp about this shift

In their own tongue!

Dodging words and donning symbols.

But the little fleck that I am, 

I muse on the kernels

That crush under your molars

And stain your lips a blood red!

Akin to the stains of this shift

That linger in my world, my word and view

Bleeding into the mundane

And making it rich with the hue of hope

Of catching a glimpse 

Perhaps of the love that you so deftly hide

Under the nonchalance.

Or Perhaps of you - in the carefully arranged array

Of countless seeds 

Crushing under my molars

Flooding me with this venom like elixir.

Alas, The way I seem to make the biggest fetish

Out of pain.

Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV: https://www.pexels.com

Peas, Peace , Piece

I didn't know where green peas came from. My earliest memory of them was a box of dried bead like structures, colored in a washed off green. And when my mom used to soak them over night and use them together with cauliflower and freshly grated coconut, I was enthralled both by the lush green color they donned upon soaking and the taste they lent to the delicately flavored side dish. In the present day, that dish overrides anything else that can be done with cauliflower or green peas  - period!

And upon migrating to the new land, I discovered this vegetable  whose florets looked like mini trees. I was leery of tasting them the first time around and even over cooked them not knowing how little of heat they take to be steamed - Yes, Broccoli happens to be my favorite vegetable, and guess what? it is the love child of cauliflower and green peas. 

In a vegetarian palette, the peas are a very integral part - kind of like the supporting cast in a film. They add so much but they don't get the due credit that's usually claimed by the stars of the show. So when "green peas" become the topic of writing, it does take a little thinking out of the box. But come to think of it, doesn't everything around us, no matter how small or how insignificant,has a story to tell and could become the protagonist if the spotlight is focused on it?

There's this thing said by a very celebrated poet in my native language that goes - "nothing is disqualified for poetry". Make me ponder about how I time and again harp about the significance of every person, every thing and every existence around us. Nothing is neither too big nor too small - reminds me of how making bees extinct from the world could make the humans extinct in tow.

I kind of breath a sigh of relief concluding on two things - the give aways! Firstly - When we put the time and thought into anything - it becomes something - like this blog post out here and secondly, a topic should be attempted, without examining it for how big the attempt could be. And this is exactly what I was trying to teach my ten year old when the topic of the daily writing "green peas" given by the mom that was perhaps dropped on her head when she was a baby, several times to end!

Oh and that Chinese fried rice I eat at Henry's Hunan - they make plain old rice taste like the yummiest food on earth, just by sautéing  it in a fistful of green peas. 

And one day, I'll write about rice and I'll be compelled to not describe  it as 'plain' or 'old'

:)

 Photo by SAURABH WASAIKAR: https://www.pexels.com

View

The brew

That penetrates into the breeze

Of the little house,

(not on the Prairie)

(Though one wishes it is!)

Fill the air with aroma

And the being with life.

The vine ripe roma tomatoes

Dangle on the bush

Much like illuminations

Greeting through the french window 

(This isn't the view of the Acropolis)

(But feels as magnificent)

Feet up, hair down

Wee thoughts like wisps

Lingering around

Roses in many hues

A few days old, 

Huddled in the ceramic teapot

Donning signs of aging 

With such grace!

Stacks of books,

Sink of dishes to be done

A plush throw that lazes about

Carelessly on the couch.

Frayed ends of the living room carpet

With dander that needs to be vacuumed.

And a to-do task

Ticked off from the unending list

By the virtue of this

Vista point

Of a significantly small life.

 Photo by NourAlhoda Al: https://www.pexels.com

Consider

I suffer from this strange condition - I call it 'choice paralysis' and I wonder/assume at the same time as to how many others among us suffer from something similar. I log into my OTT services and spend half the time of a feature presentation (no exaggeration here) to find the feature presentation I wish to watch, and more often than not, my free time is up and I abandon the thought of watching. Same goes with most other recreational things I do.

For instance I browse through hundreds of pictures to find that one pic that would be a perfect tag along to my blog post and I spend more time than I allocate to blog. On a digress, come to think, why is the picture even necessary right? - Oh may be because we have increasingly become a visual species. We need a pic in tow for everything we speak or say (remembering how I used to click pics of my dish to share it on my iMessage along with the conversation about what's cooking in the kitchen.

Digress over, and back to the condition I suffer from. So during my childhood in the 80s - we used to cluelessly wait for that one feature film on Saturdays, clamor around our modest TVs and consume it with great enthusiasm. Everything followed the circadian rhythm, including the TV sets wherein programs bid adieu no later than 11pm. And then as I progressed into my teens, the channels, the choices, the 24x7x365s made their advent. Do I recollect spending 30 mts choosing a book to read? No. The local library had a shelf of books and I used to grab the one that I didn't read yet and finding that one was a gratification in itself!

When I sit to blog, I have this influx of topics that hit me and I end up aborting the idea of blogging altogether before I choose one. It is a great deal of time drain, come to think of it and then I endlessly ponder about how I do not have time to do the things I love. So what is it that has gotten the likes of me into this condition? Is it the abundance of everything we have right here at our finger tips? Was life simpler and more enjoyable when moderation was the name of the game? Did we collectively shift the energy of the planet into an over consumption mode be it the things we use or the things we get to do?? I can't help but wonder about the rhetorical question. And what's the effect of all this on the quality of our life?

Today I chose the picture before doing my first scroll on the virtual album. Today I typed a title on the top of my head and got to writing without trying to make it some sort of a deep hitting masterpiece. Today I blogged in record time. Today I am trying to find prompt cures to the problems I seem to understand and ponder about.

And see? -  it isn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Photo by Marija Piliskic: https://www.pexels.com

Ponder

I'd have no clue how these words are going to shape shift as I type away - cause if you had known how many times I undid what I wrote, you might take away my blogger card! And as I keep at this, I wonder how the authors out there keep churning up volume after volume of books and get them to be bestsellers and motion pictures. 

I don't know where to place the blame for this stagnation of sorts. No, I wouldn't call this a block anymore - this is a full blown creative rut! I keep searching far and wide for the reasons to blame my stagnation now - instead of searching  for topics to blog about. Come to think of topics, it isn't as if I have a dearth of them. I had been making a list of things I wanted to ponder over. Given the fact that the last few months have been a rollercoaster of emotions, I do have a plethora of things to rave and rant about - but it could be the infamous female hormones that hijack my flow and launch me into a stupor. But excuses aren't a tender as of now, to flake out on the task so here I go blabbering away!

A part of this confidence to blabber perhaps comes from the comfort of talking to myself I guess. For all practical purposes, this space feels like an abandoned castle in the middle of the woods, that kids from nearby neighborhoods discover and make hubs out of! I swear I heard a friend (from Scotland) telling me that he and his brothers used to haunt the nearby abandoned castles and play away - I think some of those have become heritage sites lately!

And then, a gingerly caution creeps in. What if someone is going to stumble upon this place and find all these scribbles? I mean, imagine the horror - or may be don't imagine it! If we are to dance like no one is watching, why not write like no one is reading? Anyway, I don't think I have any hopes for privacy when a thought/ place/ product that crosses my mind manifests into my feed in a week or less. Privacy is a dinosaur. Extinct!!

So yeah, the diverse and intense few months I had in 25 so far did leave me with a whole clutter of thoughts to ponder upon, only if I found the peace to look through them and pick one at a time. And that's exactly what I am trying to do as I aimlessly type away.

To be continued....

Photo by Gül Işık: Pexels

Tribute

Her hair was lush

Falling like velvet curtains

Drawn to the sides of her face.

She was quiet but her presence was strong

Stealth strength - Her spirt!

She concealed such pain

Inside her radiant existence

She fought with time

And tamed it to her side.

Petite, pretty, and Prudent

Just as her name suggested!

She had the spirit of a warrior

And the grace of a saint.

She lived all in, drunk on life

Nothing limited her, nor confined her light!

Gentle and kind,

Armed with a shining smile

She lived to the fullest

Redefining limits, busting limitations,

Transforming the struggle

While juggling with fate.

Words would fail to grasp her soul

Nor would they reflect

Her essence in whole!

Like a dream she drifted

Lingering around in memories Profound.

Godspeed my friend. Soar high!

Spread your luster from above,

Until we meet again.

Photo by lil artsy: https://www.pexels.com

Unnamed

I meander about

In the grey caves

With a begging bowl

Unbeknownst of the folly

Or perhaps, acting knowingly unknown

Like we often do in the course of this frenzy

Called life!

I understand the drill

But go against the grain nevertheless

That's supposed to be the trope

To the billions wandering alongside

So lost in the mirage,

Chasing the illusion.

I ponder like I wander

In useless wordage

Insisting that I blindfold my eyes

And complain of the darkness,

For the solace that I find 

In the pity party of

Parading around like a pauper.

 

But underneath lies

A bottomless bowl 

 

In the depth of the eyes within -

Like unlocking the key 

To an undiscovered affluence.

For a fleck I am

In the stardust above

And I better shun my theatrics

And draw the curtains down on the drama.

I bow humbly before the cosmos

With joined palms

Seeking Grace

So I stay anchored in the nothingness

Of the Omniscient.

 

Re-Verse

 

Block is real somedays.

Blockbusters aren't in the offing

So off I go

Without blogging!

Photo by Melike - Pexels.

Kick in the rear

 

Upon logging into my blog recently, I realized I'd not been this way for a while now - and in the meantime , the earth took almost another rotation around the sun. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I'd shunned this thing - this space, this cocoon (insert shock and horror emoji) and I solemnly vowed to.... (I won't divulge what I vowed to do, lest I jinx it!)

While I looked here and there for inspiration to kick start the continuity of the banter, I found this insight delivered right to my inbox.

"Work hard on what comes easily"

I did my usual skimming through the text and had to pause and do a slower reread.

"W o r k    h a r d    o n   w h a t   

c o m e s   e a s i l y"

Bingo! And my block was busted and how. A lot of things come easily to me lately and most of them don't seem to be of the pleasant kind. Ask any soul trapped in a mid-aged woman's body and you' get your earful of what I mean when I say I get a truck load of things that come easily to me. 

But then, my experience renders me this much wisdom - that the wise have a fetish for the subtle. They would never say anything explicitly when they can imply layers and layers of information in this sort of brevity (or elaboration) only the wise can think of. 

So, onto hither I come, to work hard on what comes easily. And yes, I took a detour from the laundry list of the easily attained woes my mind, body and spirit has been through of late, such as 'plantar fasciitis' for instance. When in the frenzy of packing numerous bags upon the completion of the very long summer vacation, I frantically walked across the length and breadth of my expansive stay that I developed an acute heel pain that now upgraded to the status of chronic. And who thought that there's a fancy name for this condition, whose mere sound makes me pause, sub vocalize and mispronounce the same? 

But I come back again to the 'what comes easily' part without getting too pessimistic and spiraling down the self pity hole. 

There are nicer things that come to me easily - like words for instance. I can write away into oblivion, all the things that I don't even properly form a thought framework of, when I begin to write. Expression comes very easily to me, especially when delivered in black n white. Hence I write away and call it a block buster - as in the buster of the writer's block! 

Work hard on what comes easily - we all are born with an innate prowess. Let's unravel it and rock on.

pic courtesy - Pixabay, Pexels 

Ponder

 

I didn't quiet process how much I love coffee. Or how taken for granted this beverage is for me. Kind of like how much I loved my aunt and how taken for granted her presence was in my life.

There was a magical time in my childhood - a honey tinted translucent trinket box - giving a peek at its contents. It was two tier, housing a collection of sparkly things. Mostly earrings and random bead necklaces. The bling lover was born then, looking at the box and what it held. Babattha owned it, like she owned me when she let me sort through her box and pick those sparkly dainty studs to wear. She was my subconscious fashion icon - the way she draped ethnic silks and modest cottons. Her two fabrics for life became mine as well and shaped my love for understated chic. Her love for sarees inspired mine in the process. 

The numerous 'Scholars English Grammar and composition ' books she sourced for me from her school supplier was a story of the legends. I somehow felt that this book was the only Bible every language student needed and wanted one for every kid I taught. She knew what I would ask for even before I did."Guess what? I sourced two more copies for you" she would exclaim in her enthusiastic voice, long after the books went out of publication.

Attha was petite and svelte. She was in my periphery since the day I could perceive the world around me and used to visit us so often, owing to the nature of her job and her husband's. As I grew up, she became my bestie. It helped that she taught high school English and used to animatedly talk about the Shakespeare drama she was teaching that year. We were very different on the surface. She was the poster child of extroversion. She had her phone buzzing like she worked in a call center and her friends list? Unending! She loved the outside and always found reasons to step out and explore the world - especially on shopping trips and periodically on travels.

She and I were very alike inwardly. She hooked me on to coffee and successfully  converted me to a caffeine junkie long after I had my first born. Our meetings were punctuated with copious amounts of filter coffee and endless conversations  about travel plans, handloom sarees and bygones memories of my childhood. I knew a lot about my baby and toddler years through her memories and accounts of me. 

Attha was known far and wide for one thing - her personality quirk to get things done on a war foot basis - she was borderline restless, buzzing around like a bee, always looking to wrap up the next thing on her to do list. She accelerated  almost everything she had to do. She couldn’t and wouldn’t sit still, not until the last few days of her miraculous existence.

Attha took my sister and me on our first real-time  vacation, to her illiidc  little town in a land far from home. She got me my first lipstick and a pair of ballet shoes and a royal blue middy skirt with a white mega sleeved top. My joy knew no bounds as I slipped into my cinderella shoes. She was always there for us and for her siblings. Her love for my dad is worth its own chapter in her biography. There were so many things I picked up from her - and I probably picked up her trait to love in my DNA that I am so proud to jointly share with her.

As I sit here and pour out my tribute, I realize how prominent her presence was in my life and how she had the unconditional motherly love for us. It is near impossible to think of one milestone in my life without her in the background.

She faded on a warfoot basis. Sprinting around getting things done till the day she took ill and visited a realtime hospital. Her exit was sudden, almost abrupt - like she was in a rush to get to the last item on her to do list. All that remains now is the timeline of our virtual conversations and the realization of how the smallest, most taken for granted of things in my daily life are strangely related to her. The cup of coffee I make in the morning, the teacher's copy of The Merchant of Venice she gave me with her scribbles in the margin, the silicone hot pack she got me for my menstrual cramps and a cupboard of eclectic sarees I grew a taste for, (thanks to her influence), the rhinestone stud earrings I collected over the years to recreate the magic trinket box of my childhood - every ****ing thing in my life seems to be a trace of her that she'd left behind.

I know I cannot take her shopping to get her the silk sarees I promised to get her, or have her over to attend my first born's graduation ceremony but she'll live on a lot more vibrantly and intensely in my memory and lifetime.

I don't take my coffee for granted anymore. The waft of its aroma wakes me up to the things that need celebration.

pic - From Pexeles, by David Bares.

Swan is the ride of Goddess Saraswathy, my aunt's namesake.