Obeisance to the Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) whom I consider as one of my spiritual teachers. His works introduced me to mindful walking, mindful thinking and how to live mindfully in my day to day life. What better way to pay my deepest admiration and reverence than with his won words. Thay On Death“Even when the cloud is not there, it continues as snow or rain. It is impossible for the cloud to die. It can become rain or ice, but it cannot become nothing. The cloud does not need to have a soul in order to continue. There’s no beginning and no end. I will never die. There will be a dissolution of this body, but that does not mean my death.I will continue, always.” Excerpts from......

The Other Shore by Author Madhu Bazaz Wangu is a collection of liminal stories which surprise you even as they make you soar. If Mother Nature had chosen to be a writer and not the painter who composed the Universe, she would be Madhu Wangu. Each story shines a light on what has become dark not because one was ignorant but because one chose to ignore. Like a mirror blackened by time. Madhu makes one see the interlocking roots of trees beneath the earth tied in a tight embrace, she turns one into a bird whisperer as the cardinal who revives her spirit. She makes one smell the fetid life of the sister of the protagonist, Jyoti. The characters are honest and shock one – “I hate to hold knives without......

Happy and Healthy New Year! May these Navreh Thaals (Plates to welcome the New Year) from our and our daughters’ homes usher good look and shower you and your families with delight, wonder and joy!   The plates (thaals) show traditional ingredients of bowls of milk and yogurt, sugar and salt, fresh and dry fruit, book and notebook, pen and pencil, gold jewelry and a mirror. The items are placed over uncooked rice. Modern items added are red chili, pods of tamarind or similar items. At the end of the day each ingredient is transferred back to their containers to bless the household and its dwellers. Rice symbolizes sustenance and gold abundance. The transformative process of milk turning into yogurt signifies skill, method, duration and patience it requires for a task to......