Grateful By Ketaki S. Vaidya

 I have a place in my heart It is a place where I spent my childhood I know it does not exist anymore but it  exists in my heart just the way it was or just the way I perceived it was  I feel so lucky to be able to perceive it  the way I perceived it then. Where learning was not limited to school learning happened while the life happened there where I always felt safe whether I felt I belonged  or whether I felt I did not belong Where I met new people and discovered friendship Where I celebrated festivals and life in general where conflicts amongst friends  were life's big problems where I found a part of me that made one piece of my puzzle called identity I have a place in my heart where I spent my childhood I get to visit it once in a while when I meet my old friends I think we all visit it  for the time we meet and talk  that common place is one of the strong reasons  of our friendship It is still a piece of the puzzle called  my iden...

 During the pandemic I realized planning life was a joke As if till now I was in a deep sleep and suddenly reality gave me a poke.  It occurred to me that I had life time membership for the gym that closed down life looked all the same no matter whether you lived at country, city or town In one night everything changed even life's future goals It was suddenly important to store more grocery and have lots of toilet paper rolls All the fake sophistication was exposed by just forgetting to click "mute" on Zoom the so called "lovers for all lives"  had difficulty to stay in one room. Pandemic definitely taught me to look at life by keeping some sense of humor taking life very seriously was definitely a bummer!