Category: Experiences
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If Vincent were a mental health activist and a slam poet.
Who gave you the right to dub my night depressing or fill my stars with hope? What if the dark is my time of rest and the shimmers of light, a distraction at best? Who asked you to call my cypress, the foreboding of death? When they are as commonplace in my topography as dying…
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Finding Franky and the real Goa.
The day I met Franky Gracias, I almost didn’t meet him. After I had spent two sleepless nights in Goa without electricity and in the company of buzzing mosquitoes, on that very day I defected from a home-stay to a fancier hotel with power back-up and water that didn’t make its way in a tanker.…
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Art with no strings attached.
On a warm, stuffy day in Delhi, I came face to face with a 5 feet by 5 feet canvas at the French Embassy. I stood mesmerized by the scale of it and also horrified that I was expected to fill this white expanse along with four schoolmates in a matter of a few hours.…
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I want to own my scar, and you can help.
Every scar tells a story. I have a cousin with a scar across the length of his scalp from breaking open his skull in a bike accident. I once met a mother who proudly wears her cesarean scar as a mark of having carried life within her. I know someone who has a scar from…
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A white cat, an autorickshaw and a life lesson.
Life lessons come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it runs across your path and bring your autorickshaw to a screeching halt. Yes, this happened on a trip to Mumbai – the city that never sleeps and, come to think of it, doesn’t much like stopping either. While I was on my way to a…
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Pilgrimage to happiness.
It is always heart warming to find beauty in people that transcends the beauty around them. I met this adorable duo on a trek to Taktsang Monastery and they signified everything that was beautiful about the people of Bhutan – a kind smiling face, warmth, respect for tradition and inclusiveness, which is so hard to…
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Contributing around the corner.
There is so much we pretend doesn’t exist. Our daily ablutions for instance. We all do it, we all need to, it satisfies us and gets us ready for the day, but we never talk about it. We use euphemisms to get by (ablution for instance), or politely express the need to go around the…
Tintu Saleem 