Mohit Parikh's Blog

- I have got nothing new to say

- I am happy

- I am speechless

- Also, jo kuch mein kehna chahu, barbad karein alfaz mere

 What picture does ‘meditative life’ draw in your mind? 

Is it one of a quiet, contemplative life of a hermit? Or is it a life of service and action of a large-hearted, compassionate person? Or is it a colorful picture of a life full of devotion to spiritual or religious ideals, full of poems, pilgrimages, and prayers? 

Our cultural ideas, roots, and personal inquiries would inform what a meditative life is for us as well as what ‘personal development’ and ‘spiritual growth’ mean. To each his own ...

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” - Meister Eckhart

Our minds are vulnerable. They are out on the battlefield of life, constantly warring with other human beings, getting bombarded with content from phones and laptops, and incessantly engaging in critical self-talk influenced by collective consciousness and childhood conditioning. We never know what words or deeds can hit our minds, strike them hard, and injure them for good.  

Around May 2020, ...

 It's one thing to work when you have a manager, a boss, a document with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. When you have accountability. It's quite another to work when you have nobody to answer to but yourself. 

No matter what your background or training is, when you start working on a passion project this is one of the hurdles you will face. There is room, a large one, for procrastination, complacency, moodiness. For self-indulgence. To counter it, you might take the role of a discipl...

Lately, I have been reading about Personal Finance a lot. A lot. My quest started somewhere in April'20 when my brother created a Zerodha account for me. Till then, at 34, I had little knowledge of stock markets. I didn’t know much about the financial instruments that around in the world. Heck, I had learned how credit cards work (and got my first one) only at the age of 32. No wonder, I was an empty cup waiting to be filled with the wisdom of creating wealth and, as importantly, growing it. 

Int...

Jotting down my thoughts, and sharing them through a new post, after a long, long while. Apologies upfront if I seem rusty. 
Today morning, while cycling under an overcast sky, I listened to a podcast interview of an Australian athlete. Kim White, a yesteryear runner and now an energy healer, talked about his passion for running and his focus on continuous improvement. Running, he said, was like partying of the good kind: invite someone over, run together, and have a blast. He had been running si...

Rajat Ubhaykar’s Truck De India is fun, refreshing and sweet. Suitably subtitled ‘A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Hindustan’, the author escorts us on random truck rides across the ‘cheek of our nation’ in a spirit of journalistic inquiry but also with a childhood fascination and a sense of adventure. The result is a delicious cocktail that you want to both savour and drink down in a single sitting.Highly recommended.

How much did I know about Hindustan? Every now and then I paused while reading the...

I am delighted to share the slightly belated news that I have been awarded the Toto-Sangam Residency Fellowship 2017. The residency program was open for application to all the previous finalists of the creative writing contests by TFA. Since I had won a Toto for Creative Writing (English) in 2015 I was eligible. 
The applications were judged on the basis of a Statement of Purpose, a new piece of short fiction and (perhaps) writing credentials.

I am excited for the residency....

Excited to share my interview with Jed Doherty, host of 'Reading with Your Kids' podcast channel. Jedie discusses Manan and its significance to children. He found in Manan similarities with Catcher in the Rye, which is very generous of him.
Loved talking with him. His energy was infectious.

Here's a link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/readingwithyourkids/

"Can Indian Male Authors Create Memorable Female Characters?"
Nice to see Manan get a mention in the article at Women's Web. The list has many of my favourite recent books by Indian writers in English.

Check it out: http://www.womensweb.in/2017/03/indian-male-authors-memorable-female-characters/ 

As such, in my memory, Manan the boy always saw women as 'divine feminine'. Not sure if I mention in the book, probably not, but Hriya was never a mere person to him. She was a human form  of...