published pieces: March-July 2014

bazaar came out with some beautiful covers this year.
(The cover with the beach, however, is from June '13. Realized it later :/)

While it may seem like my writing has taken a backseat, that's only as far as the blog is concerned. Here are links to my published articles in Kuwait's bazaar magazine over the past few months:

March: The Essence of Travel
For those who were following the Deutschland Diaries, this is a succinct account of gastronomical experiences in Germany :)

April: Why the Litter?
Commentary on littering in Kuwait (beaches in particular) that comes dangerously close to a rant.

May: Prague: Off the Beaten Path
Collaboration with the mother on a few gems of the Czech capital. The digital issue makes for a better read owing to the gorgeous pictures (page 130).

June: Why Do We Love Sports?
Piece on what makes us invest so much of our time and emotion into watching sports.

July-August: The München Marathon: 10 KM Lauf
An edited narrative on the first official run that some of you might have read previously :)


Criticism is always welcome. 

The CELTA Games - Part 2 - The Watermelon Incident

It was lunch hour. Ms. Fish and I skedaddled out to her car, intending to eat at Pizza Hut which was a few minutes' walk from the British Council.

It was 44 degrees. Walking was out of the question.

The car wasn't much better, suffocating us with its trapped heat while the seats burned our posteriors. I strapped on my seat belt, yelling out as my fingers accidentally touched the flaming hot buckle. Right then, we were distracted by a pick up truck stacked with dozens of watermelons parked on the side of the road. One lay cut up at the edge of the truck, its pink flesh exposed and inviting. Ms Fish and I exchanged a glance, lips curling into impish grins.

Pizza Hut could go to hell.

We stopped on impulse, bought one after due consideration, got half of it sliced by the vendor but still intact so as to have no difficulty breaking the pieces apart, smuggled it into class past beaming security guards (I had a sudden thought as to whether they'd ask to screen it while I expended all my strength on not dropping it) through a side entrance of the building and gorged on it with our delighted classmates.

There are few joys in life that are as fulfilling as eating watermelon straight from the rind after being subject to a blistering 44 degrees. It was a pain to clear the seeds strewn across the floor and mop up the juice with wet wipes and toilet paper, and even then we didn't manage to get rid of all the evidence in time as one of our CELTA trainers walked into the room wrinkling his nose, exclaiming, "it smells like hamburgers in here!"

It was worth cleaning up all the muck. The spontaneity and glee put us all in a good mood and took our minds off the stress that was beginning to take a toll on most.  I was slightly surprised at how excitedly everyone had indulged in the act despite there being no cutlery; I'd expected a couple of our older classmates to turn our offer down in slight disdain.

But then it would take one considerable willpower to turn up one's nose at sweet, juicy, joy-inducing watermelon.

On that note, a piece I wrote called Bringing Out Your Inner Child was published in bazaar magazine's September issue, which should hit stands by the end of this week. You can read the digital issue here.


Part 1

learning creative compassion - published pieces (July)

If you're observing Ramadan, I hope you're having a productive month!

Keeping in tune with the essence of this holy month, my piece on Learning Creative Compassion was published in bazaar magazine's July-August issue. Read bazaar's digital issue here. If you prefer to peruse a physical copy, you're likely to find one at your local Starbucks.

I crave constructive criticism; do share your thoughts in a comment below.

And yes, I'm back. Torrential outburst of posts coming up.

published pieces (June)

"In learning you will teach
And in teaching you will learn.."

- Son of Man, Tarzan (Phil Collins)

I've been very tied-up with a new endeavour that I took up on impulse. So far, it's been a lot of fun (and a lot of work) and I'm enjoying it. More on that in a later post sometime in the foreseeable future.

To make up for my sporadic posts, I have for you two articles that were published in bazaar magazine this month (June):

You're Someone's Type!
Live Painting Comes to Kuwait

Critical feedback is always welcome. For the piece covering the Live Painting event (an edited version of the blog post published earlier in May), I'd recommend bazaar's digital version (Page 49) so you can view all the gorgeous pictures, courtesy of Kuwait Music. If you live in Kuwait, you still have a few days to pick up a copy of bazaar, before the July-August issue hits the stands. You can find one at most Starbucks outlets.