ChirpyQuill

In February 2024, I had an opportunity to visit Tokyo (Japan) and was mesmerized with the learnings that I came back with. When it comes to technological advancements and innovation, Japan is way ahead of rest of the world be it the metro/subway system, Rail, bus or taxi or digital currency or a vending machines. It was amazing to see how you can get a hot milk tea or coffee from the vending machine.  If I have to define Japan 🇯🇵 in  one word, it will be Humility/Humbleness. Almost everyone I met in Japan is so down to earth that it sometimes feels unreal.  Everyone is  very content and grateful and will be so thankful if you take a small gift or token of love for them.  My ears are still echoing with “Arigatō Gozaimasu” whenever I think of visiting a restaurant, shop or any other place of interest.   Enjoyed the hospitality and warmth of my coworkers and business partners, who organized the Origami sessions, Tea parties serving fresh Machaa and some nice baking sessions enriching th

The world is floating on a Sea of stories, said someone. And I agree. Are we not just a bunch of stories entangled, intertwined, weaving in and out like endless ant’s paths on the jungle floor. Then when we juxtapose our’s on those of another individual with whom we may have crossed paths, it gets fascinating, doesn’t it. Sometimes there is resonance and at other times discordant notes arise. With some people our paths i.e stories even merge for a little while, while with others they just intersect. It is a giant spiderweb of paths that we took, of stories that we lived all around us. If only there was a way of zooming out and seeing all of it play out. Perhaps it is possible to cultivate this perspective in our minds eye.    It’s all fascinating and beautiful. Perhaps even worth reflecting upon on a rainy day. There is an expression among scientists of the serious kind. They say that it is as if we all are sitting on an island of knowledge and past the boundary of it lies the Ocean of

Alas, you are just renting it. It is not your’s to keep. You will need to give it back. Sooner or later. Sooner still if you skimp on the rent. That’s just how it works, you Ding Dong. Did no one ever tell you that?   Although, while in it, you do feel like the owner for sure. Fancy palace or modest hut you got, that’s your luck. But happiness, as you have already realized, has more to do with who lives inside the dwelling rather than what the structure looks like. All other things being equal though, a robust, aesthetically appealing structure helps for sure. But not that much and not for that long. A well maintained, tidy home with a manicured garden and some nice paintings hung tastefully go much further towards the well being and joy of it’s inhabitants, than a fancy house that is falling apart.  Fall apart it will though, sooner or later. Sooner if you don’t pay the full rent. So don’t skimp on the rent, you Ding Dong. Did no one ever tell you that?  If they did you wouldn’t be ea

Last weekend on 3/24/2024 I did my first ever 20 miler all alone repeating loops in a radius of 2 miles at a snail's pace... Slowly and steadily chugging along...During those 5 hours many thoughts crossed my mind, many forgotten moments relived and many hidden memories resurfaced. I felt a gamut of emotions from happy to sad, from energized to fatigued, from exuberance to exhaustion. There were so many people I felt immense gratitude for that day. I felt a strong urge to message and thank them all on my return ..Just 3 months back it was an unthinkable thought and here I was today completing the longest-distance milestone of my life. But... When I finished the run I drew a blank..Words fell short.I felt inadequate of expressing any sentiment.I felt stoned and expressionless. Just a tear in the eye and a heartfelt thank you to my coach(sometime later) was all I had to express my big day.. Sometimes silence is the best expression, I guess... A profound state of no emotion is an emoti

I almost didn’t go. I didn’t want to go. Life has a way of waylaying some of the best-laid plans. But we all know that by now, don’t we? Yet we hope that the Russian roulette that the universe plays with us all somehow misses us. Newsflash, kid, it never does! One moment, you are gearing up for a happy event that was being meticulously planned for months, and the next moment, life throws you a curveball, and the event is the last thing on your mind—or not even… I won’t get into the details of the curveball, not yet. That is for another day. Suffice it to say that my world was turned on its head, and I was frozen. Too frozen to move, too frozen to think, too frozen to love, too frozen to hate. I needed to get under my blanket and block out the world. I wanted to tent myself inside; the outside was too unfamiliar. It wasn’t my world. What does one do when their world loses its song? You dance anyway. And so, I did. I got on an airplane and made my way to Napa with the family for a

 So,my mom and dad both love their Facebook.📲 Whoever said social media is a bane should meet them for a tete-a-tete..Both empty nesters happy in their virtual connection with the world around and ten thousand miles away..🙂🙂 My mom has found her mojo at a young age of age 70 actively participating in culinary groups,sharing and judging recipes. 👩🏻‍🍳🔪She very proudly displays her vouchers for judging recipes to which my husband wonders if I was swapped at birth, given my exceptional cooking skills...whatever 🤷🏻‍♀️ My dad keeping himself busy with political articles and reels.Its like their simple source of khushi 🙂and gyaan 📖 Well, All is honky dory in their Facebook universe... until they encounter a login hiccup, of course. Enter their knight in shining armor? 🥷🏼Yours truly, the techie daughter who they believe can magically retrieve their forgotten passwords and get them back to lala land.. So, this morning, my mom nervously rings me at 11:30 am, wondering if I'm too

   Piping chhole(chickpeas) with fluffy just out of the wok bhature is our catch-all 🍴. Its for all emotions(Bored,Tired,Happy,Sad," kuch achha khana hai "," aaj khana nahin banana hai "..😃) and distances (FM,HM,10K,5k,1 mile and  0 miles 😴) . So, last year-end I signed up to train for a spring full marathon. Though I didn't believe that I was ready, my husband of 2 decades felt it was high time I spent more time outside pacing the pavement than indulging in my favorite nagging-at-home hobby ..whatever 😃. And thus began my journey at a pace closer to 15 min/mile. Sometimes walkers on the pavement would ask me"Aren't you cold dear" on my fourth mile and I would simply smile back thinking "Naa. just running in slow motion."   My lovely coach always encouraging me with her words of wisdom that slow and steady is good and on race day I would rewrite a different story. The story of me finishing 26.2 miles in 61/2 hours.. Naa scratch that..

  A genie appeared in my dream and said ”two wishes I’ll grant you”  My husband said he heard me scream “That’s too good to be true!”  “Make my bank balance like my laundry basket, No matter how much laundry I do (withdraw), it seems to refill by itself” Said the genie “That’s an issue faced by so many girls, my dear Trust me you’re not alone” I then said “Wouldn’t it be great if my bank balance increases as fast as my weight? The genie laughed and said much as I would love to grant you this, there are something’s a genie just can’t do! And so I woke up from my sleep because sometimes dreams don’t come true                                                       ................................... Leena

I absolutely love and adore women, girls, the female form and all that it entails. From my daughter to my Mom to my lover, and everything in between. They are just so rich and complex and beautiful in their design and depth and color and beauty, that I cannot stop admiring them for who they are. Men too are fabulous creations for sure, but I kind of know them some, being one myself. Women, a different story. Just so lovely to continue to get to discover their beauty in all their avatars.   One such delightful avatar is my daughter and by extension her teenage friends. They are all wide eyed and bushy tailed about life, as they should be. They are discovering and exploring their femininity, it’s power, it’s travails and all that jazz. My teenage daughter would sit sometime in her room and color her nails or just do her hair this way and that way. The door is closed on the outside world when she does this, but am sure her inside world is wide open then. At other times, she tidies up her

 Sound of Gong - Revisited When I'm tired, stressed and restless, I close my eyes and take a deep breath and everything comes live like a movie reel. I go back in time to early 90s and experience myself sitting in a meditative pose at the    Namgyal Monastery   located in Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, India.   Here comes the sound of GONG, the peace and sound of silence When I visited Dharamshala (HP, India) for the first time. I was visiting the Tibetan monastery library in McLot Ganj and in the evening I had the privilege of visiting the Buddhist temple. The Gong's sound was coming in and phasing out and I was feeling as if I had an out of body experience while sitting down in a meditative pose at the age of 22. Till date I go into a different state of mind when hear the sound of Gong. Maybe I was a Buddhist in my previous life as the sound of Gong makes me totally relaxed and calm.