Whispering Shadow

2019 has been an eventful year, to put it mildly.  In this post, I am going to synthesize the year that was and my learning from it.  There were many positive things that happened. I saw my sister get married to her friend of many years. I chose to follow my purpose and explore what acting towards it looks like. I went on my first solo travel to Vietnam and spent the remaining time of my sabbatical learning more about change. I participated in a transformational three-month journey with the uLabs community. I also grew physically stronger and healthier. I reconnected with friends more consistently than ever before. I started writing again. At a societal level, it was good to see pockets of hope - masses beginning to question the status quo and seek the truth behind choices made by those in power - whether it was against climate change (eg. Fridays For Future), whether against corruption (eg. Iran), whether against bigotry (eg. anti-trump rally), whether for equality (eg....

I left my last job on 14th August 2019 and am still on a break. While I was backpacking  in Vietnam after my transition, it was interesting to observe how so many travelers took long sabbaticals (often between 3 months to a year)  from work but Indians formed a minuscule percentage of these. What was not surprising was the reactions I received from other Indians -  How did you get this much time off from work?  Are you not worried about not having a job offer in hand?  How did your wife allow you to travel solo on a long holiday?  Why do you need three months to reflect?  Why did you leave your last job if you were happy with the work? Honestly, when I quit my job, I had no clue what I was going to do with the break. I had a sense that I had hit a learning edge. I knew my vision for my contribution to the world had evolved beyond the boundaries of my current role. I didn't know exactly what it was. I didn't even know if the break wo...

Had Cleo been alive today, she would have been four years old. She would have been eating a special meal of freshly cooked chicken or fish. She would have been forced to wear all kinds of fun accessories, much to her dismay. She would have had tonnes of photos clicked for the sake of our memories with her. She would have visits from people who have parented her. After all, she was the Queen kitty in our lives. The Queen for a reason However, Cleo is no longer with us in physical form. She passed away three months ago, after fighting courageously a battle that she could not win against lily toxicity. I will never forget the day she passed away. It is the saddest day of my life.  It is not the saddest because of her death. Everyone dies when their time comes. It was sad because it was not her time. She was a healthy, happy, playful cat. She had never been to a vet for any illness, not even fleas. She didn't deserve the cards of death that were dealt to her. She didn...

It is my last day in Vietnam. I am feeling many things - content at having experienced the country and its people, slowly and holistically; accomplished now that my first long solo trip is coming to an end; excited to be back home with family, especially with my cat Kovu; relaxed having had time away from everything - both personal and professional; reconnected with my hobbies of photography and writing and through them, my self; and a bit nervous at the prospects of having to find and resume work again. I don't have much planned for today, except seeing the sunset in the city. Instead of blogging on the day, I thought I will just rewind this whirlwind 20-day trip over the next two days. To do this, I have chosen one photograph for each day (not necessarily clicked on the same day). I will tell you the story behind these photographs through that, help you learn a little more about Vietnam.  These photographs are in chronological order and not ranked in any other way - it...

Based on my first impressions, I have seen Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City's Urban Districts) be a stark contrast from all the others I have visited in Vietnam. It beats all the others, including the capital, Hanoi, in terms of the pace (10x) as well as the cost of living . It is also, by far, the most Westernized of the eight cities or towns I have been to, with even your average street peddlers talking to you in broken English, people dressing up in sync with international fashion trends and many of the major global companies having a visible presence here.  An Unbeatable Pace All cosmetic factors aside, I have also felt the people are cool and distant, unlike all other cities where I felt welcomed and at home. This might be one of the reasons it is called the Paris of the Orient (I love Paris, but it does not have the warmest people in the world). Given my two days of immersion in local history through museums and reading a memoir of a war survivor, I am wondering why this mi...

I arrived at my final destination - Ho Chi Minh City. The city has seen many decades of naming and renaming the city and its streets under the influence of the Chinese, French, American-backed Republicans and eventually the Communist regimes. However, despite their best efforts, I don't think it is easy for people to let go of the city's original name Saigon,  as it is more commonly and dearly called, much like Bombay over Mumbai. I dedicated my first afternoon in the city visiting the War Remnants Museum. Despite being a largely one-sided story shared from only the Vietnamese perspective, the museum was still beautifully curated. It helped visitors experience the horrors of war and witness the loss of humanity in the face of blind aggression for political gains. After the Museum of Murder Jews of Europe in Berlin, I would probably rank this museum my second best experience in historic story-telling. Disclaimer: Some of the images in the post are graphic and gruesom...