musingswhileunlearning

  Wishing everyone out there a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year! 2022 brings with it hope after two difficult years. Call it a gut feeling or unshakable faith in the Universe and its natural tendency to restore balance, I sincerely believe that this year will finally let us be comfortable with the new normal and get on with our best lives. 2022 adds to a 6, which is a number of love and unlike the previous year which was all about change (which is seldom comfortable or enjoyable) this one will be about peace and harmony. In the tarot world, number 6 is the “Lovers”, depicted traditionally as a couple watched over by an archangel. Interestingly enough, the “Devil” card is a number 15, which adds up to a 6, and this is depicted by the same couple chained to one another with a devil watching over them. The same goes for this year! If you use your common sense, this year will spell Love and all good things that come from it- happiness, freedom, success, loving relation...

  Fasting is a trend now from a health point of view. You have the 16:8 fasting and different varieties depending on whom you follow. However, before making fasting scientific in the manner it is being made today, it was an age-old ritual followed in all traditional religions if I am not mistaken. Patterns may vary. Be it Lent before Easter, Ramzan/Ramadan before Eid or the number of fasts in the Hindu tradition especially in India, for every occasion and region for instance the two Navratris, Chhat pooja, the 41 days fast during the Sabarimala season and many more which we might touch upon as we progress. Actually, our forefathers were more aware and mindful of their bodies and hence these traditions were made as a maintenance practice for our systems. They added a religious connotation to it so that people would follow it. Faith can move mountains! In this blog, I shall cover my relationship with fasting. Now, why would I want to write a blog about that?? Well, I have an hour t...

Fear! That’s the word I meant! Whoever found a word to describe this terrible feeling knowing that it was a universal trait in all living creatures with a brain! A feeling so limiting and stressful and yet, what is fear but your imagination running wild in most cases!! For Harry Potter fans out there, it can be best explained by the “Boggart”! Fear stems up from perceived peril. So, ideally fear is that morbid feeling in the face of imminent danger where, in that split second you have to decide what next and go for it, in order to survive. This is natural and it works in our favour. It is a result of chemical changes in our bodies in the form of hormone release. This fear is real. Credits: humanpsychology.com.au Yet, the fear that plagues us for the greater part of our lives isn’t real fear; it is imaginary. It is the mind working overtime! We conjure up emergency situations and allow fear to take enormous proportions. “What if” situations are aplenty and this very concoction in o...

Credits:mentality10.com Gorakhpur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh is predominantly famous for its Gorakhnath temple and Kushinagar, where Buddha is said to have left for his heavenly abode. There are a multitude of things that make a place famous. Currently, it is also famous as the city from where the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh hails. Located on the banks of river Rapti which swells up every few years and scares the population around it with the threat of flooding, it is a unique city which has all the typical peculiarities of UP and yet is a little more conservative than the rest of the state. The dialect is typical but the people are a lot simpler. Credits: wired.com I do not intend talking about the city itself but about a special feature that affected my year and a half long stay here. I feel I owe it to them to dedicate this piece for the innumerable times I have cursed them under my breath. Rhesus macaques! Our set up being well tucked in, amidst Sal forests, it woul...