“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave Imprints / footprints in your heart” – Eleanor Roosevelt
As I pen down this last post for the #writebravely challenge, the prompt Heartprints threw me off a little initially. But then I looked up its meaning and realised this could well be my gratitude post for the month too. So without much ado, let me take you through a blissful October where I was showered with tonnes of love and joy.
♥ Pink Delights ♥
When I woke up yesterday morning, it was to the excited twitters of the sunbirds whom I could see swooping around my bedroom balcony. I stepped out to investigate the hullabaloo and added in my cheers as I could spot gorgeous pink blooms on the Kachnar trees. In fact there are three different shades of pink across the dozens of such trees in my apartment block. The sight of these happy pink flowers brought a smile to my face and thanks to my mind as I marvelled at their beauty. Tried taking in some shots, the birds were too quick for me and I will be back with pics of the other shades later in the month.
♥ Festival of lights ♥
Diwali month has been exciting for me with several cards parties and a spicy bachelorette party for a diva (no details and no pics from there 😉 ) I lost plenty in the cards parties but had a ball connecting with friends and family over the festive occasion. Oh I had a lovely time meandering through the festival of lights fair at the Dastkar mela and picked up some lovely stuff from there.
♥ Soul Friend ♥
Anamika is a soul connection from the past who I connected with very randomly some 3 years ago. Neither one of us can explain the closeness but look forward to meeting each other whenever we can. She and I met at the City of Joy restaurant in the Diwali week and she treated me to sumptuous Bengali fare. Sated, we headed back to her gorgeous eclectic home where I was treated to some blue tea that she made by drying up aparajita flowers. Her terrace garden is a joy to behold and she loaded me up with lots of greens from there plus a bevy of seeds to be planted in my winter garden.
Psst: I did a post some while back on having Purple Tea.
♥ Catch up weekends ♥
I have been making plans to meet up folks on the weekend in a bid to step out and enjoy the winters descending upon us – Oh yes they have made their presence felt by now! Last weekend I met up with the bubbly Ishieta at my favourite store/cafe where we gabbed on for hours. As we got up to leave, she handed me this lovely book on one of my favourite authors as a gift, saying she hoped I would enjoy it. Devoured the book in two days as his writings have me spell-bound since a long time.
This weekend I met up a lovely soul who felt like a connect from a past life. Again we chatted the place down; this was the first time I met her as I have known her for a few years (we have common friends) over the social media. She is a market research analyst and wanted to interview me for my shopping habits.
Gosh! this was exciting new for me and I was delighted to learn something about this research. Not only did I spend time with a warm soul, but was showered with gifts as a thank you for taking the time out.
I treasure meeting folks who leave such beautiful imprints on my heart, making me want to meet them again and again!
♥ Books & Movies ♥
This month I went through a motley of books and movies which have left so many imprints on my heart that I am wondering how and why I landed on them. I read a beautifully written book Seahorse by Janice Pariat and am yet to recover from it to write a brief synopsis of it here. Urge you to check out its reviews for a read.
I caught three movies on Amazon Prime revolving around near death experiences – 2/3 of these movies are based on real life incidents. 90 minutes in heaven is a true story of a preacher who went through a horrific accident, leaving him immobilized and how he lost his faith to find it again. Miracles from heaven is a true story based on 10-year-old girl’s life who is suffering from a rare disease and how her mother loses the faith only to find it in the darkest hour and finally the little girl recovering from her disease which is unexplainable in medical terms. Just like Heaven is a romantic tale of a doctor in coma who befriends a man grieving the death of his wife and is renting out her apartment. Though not a true story, it reinforces the value of connections and faith.
I have come to believe in angels and miracles over the past few years. The people I meet in my life form my Karmic circle of give and take and I am blessed to have this exchange with them on a regular basis.
What comes to the mind when you think of the word heartprints? Do you have moments/people in your life that have left indelible imprints on your soul for life? Wont you share something with me here.
If you would like to read the posts on previous prompts:
- 27th Oct – Coming Home
- 23rd Oct – The monster in my mind
- 20th Oct – Ditch convenience to support sustainable lifestyle
- 16th Oct – Disobedience
- 13th Oct – Bated breath
- 9th Oct – Terminal
- 6th Oct – Nostalgia
- 2nd Oct – Pattern
#writetribe #writebravely
I’m taking part in the Write Tribe ProBlogger Challenge
Also Linking up with Corinne for #MondayMusings
Linking up Vidya for the gratitude circle & Shantala for the #chatty blogs
Good to see October has been lively. But seriously, I need to ask – this is the third time I am hearing of blue tea in a month. What exactly is this and how have I not heard of this before?
Godyears.net
Thanks Doc. Blue tea is made by infusing dried aparajita flowers in hot water and just steeping them for a bit. It releases their blue colour in the water and Voila you have blue tea. Its being marketed widely too and I am guessing they are mixing a blend of light tea leaves with it to give it more flavour. This tea changes colour with a change in PH and is quite an interesting thing to drink!
Lots of chefs and restaurants across the globe are coming up on deserts/cocktails and other dished conjured around the colour of this tea and the way it changes colour. Its quite interesting.
An exciting month for sure and lots to be grateful for! I have seen these pretty pink flowers in my neighborhood too and now I know what they are called! A post like this reminds of seemingly simple joys that accumulated to give you a good time through the month. So much to be thankful for!
Thanks KR; these flowers are called Bauhinia Variegated in english and Kanaraj & rakta-kanchan in marathi! Cool no! I love them and just realised that my apartment society is named after them, probably thats why so many trees here!! 😉
Wow! Looks like this was a fab month Shalz. I have seen that movie “Miracles from Heaven” and I loved it- it reinforces faith in Almighty. For me its been a month away from home and my daughter which was tough but I am loving the new experiences of living alone, talking to new people, having time for myself for a change and travelling.
I am loving following your travel trail on the blog Aks; so good that you are focusing on having a great time and not fretting about your daughter or home! Enjoy your swiss tour and keep posting the chatty posts!! 🙂
Awww thx so much Shalz! I am so glad to hear that ❤️
Cheers girl!!! 🙂
so many beautiful times to be thankful about. I wish I had friends here to meet and chat over coffee. It feels so good to just talk about things and spend time with wonderful peoople. I didn’t know you can make blue tea at home too. That’s so cool. Wish you another month of happy moments.
Ah yes you are a blue tea lover too- I loved the box of tea you have for it. I need to find one for myself too! But yeah the flowers are easy to find here and once dried out they steep in hot water to release the colour and flavour.
I am indeed blessed to have friends nearby; dont know what I would do without them!! Cheers Raj!
Love, love the shade of pink of those flowers, Shalz. What a lovely month you’ve had. Nothing beats good conversation and the promise of great books to read. May your November be equally blessed.
Thanks Corinne. Yup these blooms are gorgeous and come froma whitish pink to a purple pink- I plan to shoot them all in a few days as they have been really captivating me! 🙂
Conversations are needed for the soul lifting an it truly feels blessed to have such wonderful peeps around me!
You had a very fun October indeed. What with the Diwali party and catching up with friends. I must say that I am so envious of all you guys meeting up, while I can’t ever catch up with you guys in person because I am on the other end of the planet. Anyway, hope you have a rocking November too. 🙂
Awww hopefully we will meetup someday – I know I will love to meet up with you Shantala; what part of the world are you in and where in India are you from?
I wish you a rocking November too darling 🙂
You had a wonderful October with so many happy imprints on your heart. I wish this continues for you even in November and thereafter too. Connection from the past – I often wonder about the spiritual connect we have with people that feels like going beyond this present lifetime. For me, blogging has been that medium which has found me such connections. It is like being a part of the same nucleus irrespective of the difference in age, experiences, backgrounds, distance and nationality. Amazing, it is!
At the moment I am struggling with my reading. I fell off the track in the first week of October when guests gave a visit, staying for a month and now I just want to sleep. The three movies, you have mentioned, on Amazon prime have caught my imagination. I am adding them to my ‘Watch later’ list right away.
You seem to have had a fun and fruitful October. 🙂 That’s nice to know and to see. I hope November has much excitement for you too. I loved the clicks. Did you love Seahorse, the novel?
Thanks so much Vinay- yup Seahorse was a well written book – I love the way the author uses the words to describe things/events – very poetic!
Lovely post. Great to read that you had a meaningful and fun filled October. Card party sounds like fun 🙂
A month that’s well spent. Friends who share you, a soul connection and laughter together. Surely these are elements in life, when always looks forward too.
Wow, I love how you have taken everything and listed a good gratitude list 🙂 Glad to have connected. 🙂 Blessings.
I am glad to have read your posts Shalini, al through this challenge. Good to hear to had a fab month. Stay connected!
Busy busy busy as always Shalz. How wonderfully you capture your busy life… Looking forward to more such chatty posts
Looks like it was an eventful month for you. 🙂 Blue tea is fascinating…I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that before. Hope November is good to you!
That was a wonderful October you had, Shalz! Good for you!
For me, incidents, words, people are the imprints that seldom get erased from my heart. The people may no longer be in my life, but the words they uttered, the happy times we shared stay on. I prefer remembering the good times instead of ruing the unpleasant ones!
I love those pink flowers Shalz..I didn’t know the name of it until now. The tree used to decorate our home (rented home thought) once. It was at one side of the entry gate, but my owner got it removed just because it was shedding leaves during the fall and the maid was complaining about it. I tried many a ways to stop them to do it but all my efforts went in vain 🙁 After that recently couple of months back they got the jack fruit tree also removed from the yard! Sigh!
I was thinking of writing my gratitude post for this prompt too. My fever put me off and reminded me to take rest and include that in the gratitude list me thinks. Lovely post Shalini. The flower is such a beauty. I miss trees here at hubby’s place which is pure City Life unlike mom’s place where I wake up to birds chirping and sun rays entering the room along with so much colors and pets. You have had a gala time this October. Wishing you an awesome November ahead!
What a lovely month with some great soul connections and beautiful moments. Stay blessed and happy always and wishing you a great November, Shalini!! ♥
PS : We are going to have this blue tea, when we meet next!!
Thanks so much Shilpa; I think our date was in Oct beginning only – I missed out on highlighting that. Yes next time I am taking you home with me for some tea and cake!!:-)
Moments and people that leave a heart print on your heart..glad to see this connection with fellow humans. The Satyajit Ray’s book caught my attention and how wonderful to spend such a good month, Shalz.
Thanks Vishal. Yes this month has been very blissful and happy for me! The book was splendid; I love reading these simple yet twist in a tale kinda stories and Satyajit Ray is a master at it.
I remember my kids and my hobbies when i think of word imprints of heart. Nice movies that you mentioned from prime. Will add them to my wish list.
Yeah imprinting does remind one of crafts too 🙂 If y ou do watch the movies, I would love to know what you thought of them?
Good way to end the challenge. Blue tea sounds interesting though I have no idea how to make it. Maybe you could do a post on that, perhaps? And how was Seahorse?
Thanks Sreedeep! Seahorse was fantastic read- the author has a way with words; she emotes really well through them and had me hooked beacuse of that! Its an ordinary story but the depth from the words is what makes it so superlative for me!
Blue tea is well just these flowers dried out and steeped in hot water; lots of restaurants and cafes are serving it now adays and you get it packaged and sold in market too! I had done a post on the expereince of how blue tea turns to purple.
You can check that out here https://www.shalzmojo.in/category/point-of-view/product-review/
This is such a flowery post! Love the pictures of the pink flowers. I’m curious about this blue tea you’ve mentioned. I have to try it sometime. You seem to have had so much fun in October. I hope it continues in November and through the coming days. Keep posting such happy updates. 🙂
This sounds and reads as though you had a lovely month. May November bring you joy and happiness too! #mondaymusings
Thank you so much Lisa and thanks for dropping by on my blog. I wish you a very happy november too!! 🙂
Looks like October was a lovely month for you! May you have many more similar ones that leave an imprint on the heart. 🙂
Books, meeting friends and making friends sounds blissful. And blue tea and purple one too? Wow! Why haven’t I heard of these yet? Sounds interesting.
The chirping of birds and pink flowers is a delightful thing to wake up to. While I don’t see a lot of flowers early morning, my apartment guard is a hard working man and when I peep in from my balcony to signal to him that I need my bicycle, I always find him right there washing a car. That particular scene each morning inspires me so much. His dedication is unmatchable 🙂
Thank you for sharing with us the beautiful things that have left a lasting imprint in your heart. It was such a beautiful read, I enjoyed every minute of it.
Thats so kind of you to say Raney- thanks so much! Hope its been a blessed month for you too!! 🙂
There is so much warmth in this post. So much gratitude and such moments of joy. I am happy for you, Shalz. Happy you got books, friends, love and joy to keep you going. May you always have it. Always and always.
Thanks so much Shy- your words always warm me up and you are one blogger you is a cherished friend for ife- never mind that we havent met or even spoken on the phone yet! Thank you for being there! 🙂
What a delightful post/month, Shalz. Right from that pretty flower (what a shade! and yes, about the birds being too quick!), friends, books, and good times. I’ve always enjoyed your insta feed tremendously! Great to see you had a wonderful time at BNLF. So nice to meet virtual friends! Thank you for being part of the Gratitude Circle. Love and hugs, and wishing you a superlative rest-of-the-year ahead!
Thanks so much Vidya, feels good to know that you enjoy my INsta feed. I think you have me confused with Shalini Nair as I wasnt at the BNLF- I missed going there this year.
But yes its amazing to meet virtual friends and I have been blessed to meet loads of them recently. Hugs and love right back at you Vidya – its been a fabulous journey of reading n interacting with some terrific bloggers like you! Wish you a superb year ahead too!
I enjoyed reading this!
Thnaks so much for stopping by Peggy! 🙂