But I was quite taken aback. — Have you ever considered visiting Qatar? I have been to Doha, the capital of Qatar, three times. Now you may be surprised why on earth would someone visit Doha and that too multiple times. Well, on my way to my hometown Kolkata in India from the Netherlands, I usually have…

Here’s how it turned out to be so far — When we (my husband and I) lived in the USA, we almost contemplated relocating to Canada because the procedure to get a green card in the USA is extremely difficult and long, especially if you were born in India or China. Getting a green card is like meeting God. My…

It’s a disaster of a lifetime. — My 13-year-old niece is a very talented girl. She lives in the USA with her parents and her younger sister. She goes to a school for gifted students. She has good manners. When she is alone at home with her younger sister, she takes good care of her. …

Especially when the near and dear ones are gone. — I am going back home after over three years. The last time I went was when my father passed. That was December 2019, right before the pandemic started. …

Because some of us also have a life. — Medium announced its new partner program incentives, and while I don’t know yet about the implications of all the new changes, I am very happy about one thing — no more “publish every day” advice. If you haven’t read the full story about the new changes yet, you can read…

A simple thing to try out when nothing else works — The last few weeks have been terrible for me. I have been going through acute depression. I usually don’t suffer from depression. Stress and anxiety are more my thing. The depression is more cyclical — it comes and goes. But when it comes, it almost makes me feel paralyzed. Depression is like a curse If…

Who knew having darker skin is such a curse? — I have been living in the Western world for the past 17 years. First, a few years in the USA, then in Germany for a few years before finally moving to the Netherlands. I was born and raised in India. And even though we were people of color with predominantly…

And I wish I didn’t have to live to write this… — A lot of people complain about a lot of things that they don’t like about their country. I think we all do, from time to time. Sometimes these are justified and valid reasons, and sometimes these are just our privileged expectations. Take for example, how Americans always complain about how…

The charm of an ordinary and lazy Sunday afternoon — Last Sunday was a usual ordinary Sunday. I was getting bored at home. Enough of cleaning the house, cooking, doing laundry, and all the regular chores I do during the weekend so that I can focus primarily on work during the weekdays. I wanted to do something fun but not…