Chasing Longevity

In today’s to-go world, “looking after your health” often feels like just another task on the never-ending to-do list. But here’s the simple truth: your health is the foundation for everything else. Without it, your goals, relationships, and daily life start to fall apart. Prioritising health isn’t just common sense—it’s backed by both psychology and biology. Even small shifts, like cutting back on carbs, can have a ripple effect, not just on your weight or blood sugar, but on your stress levels, sleep, and mood too. Psychologist Abraham Maslow described our needs as a pyramid. At the base are the essentials: air, water, food, sleep, and health. Only when those are covered can we move on to feeling safe, building relationships, growing confidence, and reaching our potential. But when you’re running on empty—tired, inflamed, or constantly stressed—how can you focus on your goals or even enjoy life? The whole pyramid gets shaky. And often, it starts with what’s on our plate. “Health” is...

  Looking after a family is a constant act of writing — not on paper, but in real life. I am scripting meals, schedules, moods, negotiations, little peace treaties, crisis management plans — and every single "sentence" has to land differently depending on who’s hearing it. Different tastes, mindsets, ages, choices — it's like writing six parallel stories that somehow have to coexist in the same book. One child wants quiet, another wants attention. Someone likes spicy, someone refuses to touch vegetables. One believes in rules, the other in loopholes. The elders bring wisdom and expectations. The younger ones bring rebellion and raw honesty. And you — you’re constantly rewriting, editing, adjusting your tone, pausing, adding footnotes, softening harsh lines, bolding what needs to be heard. It’s exhausting. But it’s also strangely literary — because like any good writer, you keep showing up to the page , no matter how messy the draft is. It is exhausting — that...

अपने जज़्बातों के सफ़र में , ख़ुद - शिनासी को पहचाना मैंने। (self-awareness) चुप की ज़ुबान से लिखीं थीं कहानियाँ , जिन्हें ख़ुद भी ना कभी सुना था मैंने। अब ख़ुद से वफ़ा करने की बारी है , अब ख़ुद को सुनना सीखना है। अबके दिल से एहद किया है — (promise) हर जद्दोज़हद को समझूंगी , (struggle) बग़ैर शर्मिंदगी के , ना दबाऊँगी , ना झुठलाऊँगी। अब ख़ुद से वफ़ा करने की बारी है , अब तो मैं ख़ुद के साथ हूँ — मुकम्मल , सच्ची , मुकम्मल। (whole, true, complete) अब ख़ुद से शुरुआत करूंगी , प्यार से , सब्र से , सच्चाई से , और जो भी टूटा है अंदर कहीं , उसे आहिस्ता - आहिस्ता जोड़ लूंगी।

I’ve kept so much inside for so long that it’s begun to choke me. I’ve been “good” for years — silent, pleasing, responsible — because I thought that’s what love meant. But I’m not okay anymore. I feel used, burdened, and exhausted. You expect me to carry not only my own life but yours too — your pain, your guilt, your fears, your dreams. I can’t do it anymore. Every time I try to speak my truth, you make me feel guilty. When you withdraw into sadness, it makes me feel like I’m breaking you. When you cry , it traps me in shame and silence. But I am not the villain. I am looking out for myself. I am a person. I have limits. I need space to become who I am. I need to stop living your lives for you. And I need you to stop expecting me to sacrifice mine. I love you. But I need to love myself too — and I am so far away from that right now. I am allowed to live honestly, even if that honesty is uncomfortable. And so I’m beginning, finally, to choose truth over guilt. Even if you...

  “Sunshine all the time creates a desert.” When I first came across this quote, it struck me like a truth I didn’t know I already carried. I loved it instantly. I thought I’d write about how too much ease, too much comfort, too much of anything — like sunshine — can dry us out, leaving no space for roots to grow deep. But as I began reflecting with my pen, something almost ironic emerged. My life doesn’t feel like unending sunshine. It feels like storm after storm. I’m not lacking contrast — I’m drenched in it. What I long for is not more “growth through struggle.” I’ve had enough of that. What I long for is stillness. Peace. Just a little light that stays. That’s when journaling entered — not as a solution, not to chase the storms away, but as a way to pause. To breathe. To empty out what the world was pouring in. I didn’t come to the page with wisdom. I came tired, cluttered, confused. And yet, something shifted. Not around me, but within me. My life didn’t slow down. But my tho...