travel diary – andaman & nicobar islands 🌊

7th Oct 202215th May 2023 maya rajesh13 Comments

Hi.

It’s been a while since I did one of these, but in late September, my family and I flew south of India to the picturesque Port Blair, the capital of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

And the week we spent there, on the beach, in the waves, under the sun… that was all the inspiration I needed to write. This is mainly a photo dump with a few scattered thoughts (because I’m too chaotic to manage them at the moment owing to a multitude of inexplicable reasons.)

It’s certainly been a rollercoaster, these past couple of weeks; from studying, to half-yearlies, to vacation, to worrying about the results, to actually getting the results today… and actually being happy about them. And now we repeat the process for the next 6 years? I’m just exhausted at this point, haha. Anyway, here we go~

it’s time to pause🌹 stop & smell the roses

17th Aug 20227th Sep 2022 maya rajesh20 Comments

Lately, I’ve been struggling to find the time to just pause.

In the tornado of life and school and dancing and travelling… I think I might’ve just gotten a little frazzled by it all. I needed a moment to step back… to just pause.

Pause and finally finish Origin by Dan Brown, which I’ve found absolutely no time to read. Pause and listen to Sabrina’s new album, because I haven’t even made it past track four. Pause and write this post.

I think life’s beauty often lies in simplicity which is something we overlook one too many times. I’m guilty of it – we all are. So caught up in the race to the finish line that we forget to stop and think about why we’re racing in the first place. To win? I don’t think so.

summer diaries #1: and at last i see the light 🌄

26th Apr 202228th Apr 2022 maya rajesh37 Comments

When things are at the worst they can possibly get, there’s always this notion that washes over me, saying, “it can only get better from here,” and gosh… it has. The last few months have got me reminiscing, almost reliving early 2020 and I think we’re finally at the end of the tunnel (NOT jinxing anything! 🤞) But, regardless, I’ve been doing so much better especially since in my little corner of the world we welcomed summer a few days ago.

Also, I did manage to watch most of the Grammys as it was streamed and I am a little underwhelmed because I was actually rooting SOUR to with AOTY. It didn’t, though, even though it practically dominated the entirety of ’21 🤷. But I loved the Happier Than Ever performance (literal goosebumps) and Liv’s outfit paralleled Taylor’s from 2010 + she dropped her Grammy which was so funny. And that moment with the guy from BTS.

Anyway, this post is a welcome to summer, a recap of my year (so far) and a life update in general. To me, this spring/early summertime of the year has always represented hope 🌼. Biking down the streets of my town and seeing it come to life with the prettiest pink trumpet trees, and the pool opening up again (the swimming season is here,) it just feels a little bit like light. A much-needed life update:

2021: a year to remember || i’m feeling ’22 ✨

20th Jan 202220th Jan 2022 maya rajesh39 Comments

Glossing over the fact that I’m nearly twenty days late in this recap, 2021 is gone already. How?!

2021 was a great year in so many ways – I have nothing but good memories. I got to go to school again, I revamped my blog, I learnt to play the piano… but mostly I think it was a better year than 2020 because we’d sort of come to terms with the pandemic.

This year got off to a not-so-great start, considering my family contracted the virus and we were stuck quarantining for the longest time. I haven’t gone outside my house in more than a month and still haven’t. Sometimes I’m just sick of the whole thing, but isn’t everyone?

To write this post, I went back to Google Photos and relived every moment of last year and it was so special and also odd how quickly we can forget. And that’s part of the reason why I write because it helps me remember and I cherish memory like nothing else.

my 2021 bookshelf || the best books of the year || life & literature ep. 10

30th Dec 202119th Jan 2022 maya rajesh41 Comments

2021 can be marked as the year I fell in love with reading again – the year I realised how much impact books can have on your life. From setting myself a goal of reading 70 books earlier this year to actually finishing all those books ~~well I’m still reading the last one, but there’s~~ ~~time~~ I’ve enjoyed the entire process of reading them.

It actually started with my Cassandra Clare obsession in late 2020 – where I binge-read the entire Mortal Instruments series. I remember being in my grandmother’s house and just reading all. day. long. By early January, I’d finished the series and started on the other three trilogies and was done by the end of February.

It sort of marked the beginning of new reading ‘era’ for me – after my middle-grade fantasy phase and I have read so many good books this year. Obviously, credits to all the book bloggers out there who put out amazing recommendations, and thank you to Goodreads and StoryGraph for all the stats.

I won’t be able to mention all 70 books I read this year, but I will be mentioning the biggest surprises, some books that literally changed the way I look at things, and books I absolutely adore. Let’s get to it!