Smitha Vishwanath's Blog, page 2

Quote 30 : Friends and Acquaintances

Note: I don’t use curse words and I don’t encourage its usage but I used this quote today because, over the last few days, I have been feeling ‘What the hell is wrong with people these days?’ The word ‘Friend’ is overly misused. With social media making it so easy to connect with people and […]

Art : Whirling Dervishes

It’s a year since I did an acrylic painting or any painting on a canvas. With all the moving around over the year, it’s been hard to do anything beyond working in a sketch book. However, reading Elif Shafaq’s book ‘Forty Rules of Love’, and a conversation with an acquaintance made me want to try […]

Kenya Diaries: Thankful Thursday 040925 Thursday Doors – Shrine of Remembrance, poetry- Lest we forget

It’s been a busy week: lunch at a friend’s place ( someone I met at another friend’s house), a neighbour’s birthday celebration and my first meeting at a book swap group. Meeting so many people in a short span of time has been a test to my memory. At the first friend’s house, I met […]

Art : Attempt at portrait drawing, Tanka Tuesday 08/26/25

After my last fiasco with portrait drawing, many months ago, I mustered the courage to try again ( I may have starting trouble but I don’t give up easily). This time, I think, there is an improvement and yet, it’s a little off because I did not use grid lines. They are the bane of […]

Book Review 17/50 2025 : The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davies

This is a lovely book that grows on you. Written between two time periods – 1943-1945, Paris (World War 2) and 1985, Boston, with two protagonists- Soline (a dress witch, a French seamstress who belongs to the Roussel family, bridal designers with a speicality – who sew charms into wedding gowns to ensure happy and […]

Thankful Thursday, Thursday Doors : 280825, Book Review, Ganesh Chathurthi celebrations

It’s been more than a week since I wrote. I’ve been busy doing a lot of things, one of them is working on a poetry book that I want to publish. I had sent a sample of it to the publishers in May and while two said they were busy this year and were willing […]

Art on Story Chat

I’m beyond thrilled to have my art showcased on Story Chat, which is managed by Marsha Ingrao. ‘Story Chat is more than a writing challenge. It is a unique and proven online program that encourages interaction between authors and readers. It’s part writers group, part beta readers, part fun fiction, and pure enjoyment.’ To check out […]

Book Review 16/50 2025 : The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

The book was published in 2015. It came to my attention in 2019 or 2021 but I did not bother picking it up because I thought it was a teen kind of book, thanks to ‘love’ in the title. I couldn’t have been more wrong. A friend of mine said I’d like it. Curious to […]

Monday Walk, Thursday Doors – Melbourne University, Tanka Tuesday 12.08.25

I’m writing this post for Jo’s Monday Walk challenge and Dan’s Thursday Doors challenge. This week, I’m writing about my walk around Melbourne University. Two years after my daughter entered the institution, did I finally get to see it. One thing and another, our travel to Australia had been postponed- first, my older daughter’s exams, […]

Book Review 15/50, 2025 : The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I’ve fallen far behind my target of 50 books for the year and we are already in August. I did not have the energy or the time to read in July as I was travelling and had a lot on my hands. However, I did manage to read ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ , a […]