Smitha Vishwanath's Blog, page 19

Blogging after a hiatus: Untethered

The last couple of weeks have been both exhausting and unsettling. While I love traveling and enjoy getting out of Dhaka every now and then, I realized I like doing it out of choice and not when I’m forced to. The protests and attacks on minorities in the country meant I had to travel to […]

What do you tell your daughters?

On the 9th of August, a thirty-one-year old trainee doctor was brutally raped and murdered in W.Bengal when she went to rest in the hospital seminar hall at 2.00 a.m. after working for 48 hours. A fortnight later, justice is awaited. Doctors all across the country have come together to ask for protection for medical […]

Published : ‘Empty Lines’ by SpillWords Press

My poem, ‘Empty Lines’ was posted by SpillWords on July 23rd, 2024 and had surprisingly received 90 likes, even before I shared it on my social media accounts. Remember, I was cut off from the internet because of the problems in Bangladesh? Well, I happened to see SpillWords post on Twitter, two days ago. I […]

Dhaka Diaries : Thankful Thursday 08/08/24, Poem Published by Masticadores USA, Art, Tête-à-tête

This post is late by three days but I couldn’t go without writing it. I had to document the 8th of August, 2024. Apart from it being the Lion’s gate portal number (the date on which the stars align in a particular way that supposedly helps you achieve everything you manifest), it’s the day after […]

3 Book Reviews (14, 15,16/50)- ‘You can take the girl from the prairie’ by Darlene Foster, Harbor Pointe Series- Book 1 by Mae Claire and Book 2 by Gwen Plano

I managed to read three novellas during the time that we had an internet blackout in the country . Thankfully, I had downloaded the books prior to the blackout and they kept me entertained in the absence of Netflix, Amazon and social media. You can take the girl from the prairie (but you can’t take […]

Dhaka Diaries: Life without the Internet and yet, so much to be grateful for

I haven’t published a post for over a week. It’s not because I did not want to, but because I couldn’t as we had no net. Limited internet services resumed in the country last Wednesday after five days. We can send text messages on WhatsApp but cannot send or receive media. We still do not […]

Thankful Thursday 180724, Thursday doors, flowers and lots more

I’m back home in Dhaka after a month and a week in India. My older daughter was there with me for all five weeks, the younger one came for a month and hubby was there for three weeks. It was one of those holidays that we all felt the same about: fulfilling, and we were […]

Published : 3 poems in Thieving Magpies Summer Issue

Thieving Magpies Summer Issue 2024 was out on June 23rd. My heart thumped hard as I opened the e-zine to check if the poems I had submitted were part of it. I had received an email from them two days before saying they liked them and yet, I couldn’t be sure. You know how they […]

Published- Art & Poetry : ‘To all those who hate me’ in Masticadores USA

It’s been a fortnight since I shared a post here but it feels much longer than that. I’ve been traveling. We covered a distance of 510 kms from Chandigarh to Dharamshala and back(at the foothills of the Himalayas) over a week. While 510kms may not seem much, it’s a long distance when you’re traversing winding […]

Book Review 12 & 13 : The Great Train Journey by Ruskin Bond, The Law of Attraction by Laura Carter & Coming Home by Me

I read two books over the last two weeks of my holiday, amid shopping, cooking for two hungry girls (who’re home for the holidays) and managing home. It’s hard to make time to read with everything going on. By the time I hit the bed, I’m dozing off. So, I’m glad I managed to complete […]