A sliver of sunshine lit up the hardwood floor of the cafe as a thirty-something brunette pushed open the door, dragging a laptop stroller behind. She was dressed in business clothes — crisply pleated dark trousers, a collared shirt and a navy blue blazer. She looked out of place in the hippy café with its multicolored chalkboard menu listings, ads plastered over the walls, and local paintings for sale exhibited all over the seating area.…
Musings
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I have been writing all my life. Stories, poems, and essays. Scribbles in diaries, haiku games with friends and long, winded letters to loved ones. Every single time emotions overwhelmed the mind, my instinctive reaction was to pick up a pen and paper and just write. Falling in love, falling out of love, failing at work, getting promoted, family feuds, a show that I loved, a book I hated–all of it tumbling onto paper. And…
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I step out from under the dirty brown awning of my three-story apartment building. The grey cracked concrete walkway to the street is littered with a soggy, muddy old copy of the Los Angeles Times, pages falling out of the flimsy string holding it together. An empty Starbucks plastic cup (tall) rolls over brightly printed car wash coupons, charred cigarette butts sneak from under the sun-baked yellow grass, dead bougainvillea flowers sit degenerating into pulp…
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Landing in Florida As the plane circled Orlando, I had a feeling that I was flying over a gigantic golf course. Orlando is not just the city of theme parks, it is a theme park. Well manicured gardens, little ponds, white roads, and clearly outlined neighborhoods, it appears very pretty from the top. This appeared to be a very promising beginning to our seven day trip to Florida. Stepping out of the airport, it was…
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Note I wrote this in my journal ages ago on our first trip back to India in 2012 after having lived in the US for 3 years. Posting it here because I feel it’s still relevant. Things have changed over the last decade or so in India. There has been development although a little skewed. The situation for people like me has gotten better. Unfortunately, people like me make a very small part of this…
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DestinationsTravel DiariesTurkey
Istanbul : Travelling in buses, getting lost and eating baklavas!
by VipulaStarting the day with a bus ride to Chora Museum On our third day, we had to get across town to the Chora Museum, one of the last standing churches of the Byzantium Empire. The Chora museum is famous for its large collection of gold mosaic work. As we boarded a packed bus at Galata Bridge, I was a little nervous because crowds and new places do that to me. We also had no clue…
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First Impressions he plane circled the skies waiting for its turn in the queue for the landing strip. I craned my eyes to get a glimpse of this ancient city over the winter rain clouds. Istanbul was a mosaic of red rooftops, mosque domes, and minarets. Smoke escaped from the chimneys of the houses in the early morning, and the grey sky promised a cold and cheerless day. After exiting immigration we searched the exit…