Gargi's Soulful Musings

Have you observed swimmers in back-floating posture - the peace they exuberated?! Ever since my eyes fell on that lovely sight, been in awe of back-floating. For its cozy, relaxed posture and effortless balance! A few years back, as soon as I joined my swimming class, I curiously asked my swimming teacher pointing at a senior's backstroke, "Master, Master! Can you please teach me that back-stroke?!". He scanned me head-to-toe and ridiculed, "First go learn to float properly! Haa, Not even started crawling yet, and this girl wants to run it seems!" And that remained an unfulfilled wish since then. Recently, after many years, in a small pool, while I was panting and busy catching my breath with normal strokes; A father-son duo was having fun swimming in different strokes - Indeed, "back stroke" caught my attention first. That day, I was determined to crack the deeply desired back-strokes subject all by myself. Slowly grasping the walls of the pool, I lai...

  It was a nerve biting, emotional experience with an hefty insect at our home recently. A gigantic, pista-green grasshopper - with long legs and short antenna - peeked into our kitchen, in absolute silence. Fearing its painful bites, We started chasing it away. I and Amma(mom) were such a determined “shooing-away” team that the hopper not knowing where-else to escape, it jammed itself in between immovable, narrow glass doors. With sudden dramatic turn of events, feeling awfully upset and guilty, We rigorously made every possible attempt to free its tussle. Into the tiny teeny glass door’s gap, we carefully plugged in varied shapes of tools - long forceps, coriander stem, curry leaves stem, a thin string etc. We were operating in a mode of tension and guilt to save the jammed creature’s life. The more we tried to help the poor creature to get out of the suppressing narrow glasses, the more it got pushed towards the closed wall. The hopper wasn’t ready to grab support - it was in pa...

 “Open your legs, Push, Push, come on, it’s too comfortable for your capacity!” “Definitely no, You have not given your full potential!”  “Gargi, you still have the style in you! All you need is a little more practise”  “What has happened to your pace, why so rigid, when do we get to see our old “speedster” Gargi?”  Well, the scene here is a sprint practice for a competition with my running group.  Those are the diverse, invigorating yet pinching comments from my near and dear run-mates.  I understand where the expectations come from. I was shining as a lightning speed runner few years back. Me in my speedster form in a relay few years back   As life took on its own course, varied sorts of traumatic incidents, pain, priorities engulfed me, resulting in lesser speed workouts.  It was a sprint practice after a very long time. Strengthening exercises, interval runs, freeform, running with free mind - I exercised almost most of them.  Despite tha...

Dear readers,   It’s been a while since I blogged.  Nevertheless, I am thrilled in unravelling my twin children: Manasa and Shareera.  (Leaving their gender to decide for themselves later; for now it is “she”!) It’s been quite a journey trying to understand and raise them with quality. Still a long way to go!  Manasa is predictably unpredictable. Bundle of varied emotions. A born leader - smart enough to get things done from Shareera! Intellectual. Creative. Over imaginative - sometimes out of reality.  Manasa becomes super naughty if not consciously taken care! Shareera - a Lover of physical activities. Strong. Intuitive. Brilliant, action oriented Doer; However, heavily influenced by Manasa.  If not taken care consistently, Shareera becomes weaker with time easily. When they yearn for junk food, like all parents, I heed to their tasting buds and let them enjoy. However, driving them to healthy track soon.  Some days, Shareera may totally avoid food, ...

  Brownish or  yellowish one - Which banana do you pick at first glance?! Many a time, I choose the bright yellow one and the most ripened, brownish one wasn’t a preferred choice. Imagining the brownish one to be too ripened and clumsy to eat.  … Until I knew how pure it looked inside. Until I actually peeled and savoured the ripened one with open heart.  Until I grooved on its health rewards and acquired taste. … Often, we get carried away with constant judgements from surface level experiences.  Rather, deep diving may take us to unknown depths and ecstasies we never dreamt off.! Yours Soulfully  Gargi SMARam 🌟💫

Imagine yourself engaging in a new passionate activity, to raise above your challenges. You gain momentum. Your soul feels energised.  Your life gets more meaningful with each step into your passion. Unexpected applauses pour in.  All of a sudden, your deep fear comes alive through a personally hurtful criticism in public. What do you do?  That’s exactly what happened to my blog writing passion.  My subconscious fear, that held me back for many years, to be active in public forums, turned true with my previous blog post. Fear of facing hurtful, judgemental and hostile perspective/comments over  me  and  my   thoughts .  I believed I had overcome that fear, until it resurfaced out of the blue. An “anonymous” reader *ranked* me as “ zero ” in writing. I was accused of making a “mistake” in creating the blogspot. Above all, my writing was  brutally  compared with my Appa’s writings and labelled as “nothing” in front of his works. ...

During one of the travels, I bumped into a minor yet compelling episode.  The room I was allotted with, could not be opened, how much ever effort I put in. The neighbours tried but in vain and as it happens most of the time, none of the receptionists were reachable as well. I was super tired and exhausted, It was already late in the night.  To add onto the thrill, I was informed that another guest as well faced a similar difficulty the other day and ended up staying in another room.  Now the little hope that I had besides drifted away.  “What do I do, what do I do?” “Whom else do I call for help? “ “Where else do I go in that dark night?”  “What if I am left stranded in the middle of the night?” “Should I ask the neighbors for a small 6 feet place for sleeping? “ There began my eagerly awaiting mind’s endless chattering. Though I knew these panicking thoughts are of no use. So, I took the weapon again - that troublesome (or so I thought) key.  Rather than h...

 #SpotifyEmotions🌠 Do you spot an ink stain on the pant?  It was from a mistakenly misplaced, wide-open marker pen on my seat.  Causing an irreversible stain, as I sat on it, without realizing its presence.  Likewise, If Emotions are unrecognised and swept under the carpet unaddressed, it causes a deep stain and manifests in different forms within ourselves and around!  Masking them would only cause more damage to us and our loved ones.🍂 Identifying the trigger for our reaction/response,  non-judgementally and consciously spotting the emotions,  acknowledging and addressing them head-on by being genuine to oneself,  are ways to sanitize ourselves time-to-time! 🧘🏻‍♀️🪴 Although It is a well known concept,  reminder such as this, was much needed! Thanks to the stain🫧  Yours Soulfully, Gargi SMARam 🌟💫 #emotions #mentalhealth #soulful #soulfulgargi

During a casual walk, happened to come across this blissful, beautiful view without realising that it’s sunset time. Speciality with sunset and sunrise is that we never get bored of it how many ever times we gaze over it!  Isn’t it a mesmerising and simple yet deeply thoughtful sight, every single time? To relish this precious moment, sat across silently to absorb the wonderful sight, as its a privilege to watch over this priceless beauty for the umpteenth time. While absorbing the sunset beauty in my eye lenses, eagerly captured the attached picture in mobile lens to send it across to my dear ones. Though It was just for a minute, but, Poof! The stunning, reddish sight of sunset was long gone. Yet again, making me cognizant of this illustrious thought - how important is “Being fully present in that present moment before it vanishes away!” For the “past” and “future” moments are flavourfully created ONLY by “consciously being” in the “present”.  Savouring & skilfully bundl...