From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Greece is famous not only for Greek jewelry, wine and olive oil but also for traditional Greek sandals and for that too, one shop is most known. “The MELISSINOS ART! Artist Sandal Maker who puts art on your feet.” - It is said and he is indeed one of the best traditional shoe-makers in Europe. A historic leather footwear shop which started in 1920 by Georgios Melissinos, who used to make ancient looking sandals mainly for theatrical productions and the tradition of family sandal business was carried forward by his son Stavros Melissinos and grandson Pantelis Melissinos. But Stavros Melissinos made the same sandals for everyday life and people made fun of him until Sophia Loren walked into his store, sometime in 1950s and today they are called the God of   sandals. There are even imitations of Melissinos originals. The shop and the Melissinos are famous in Athens not only because of the beauty and perfection in their creation, which is very much visible the moment you enter t...

We are a travel buff family. Come vacations and we are ready with our backpacks. It refreshes, fill us with enthusiasm and prepare us for the monotonous and exhausting  daily chores to be followed. We had not gone on a long vacation for the past one year due to renovation at home  followed by my illness with dengue. I had hardly recovered when my husband got kidney  stones followed by a severe Herpes zoster virus attack. Things were going pretty messy at home when we decided to go for a grand break.  Being sea lovers, we knew it had to be some island. Sri Lanka and Maldives, being closer became our first choice but they are not advisable during Monsoon while children have long vacations in May and June only. We had already seen to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and so we wanted to go somewhere else this time in our budget. 1. Decide Your Destination We shortlisted Mauritius or Greece and after some reading...

Hi Friends! I just returned from my holidays in Greece and so have got busy with home and kids. It's time to wrap up up their holiday homework and push them to start their studies. So for this week I present my first online published story - 'A Surreal Gift'.  Hope you enjoy reading it!  “Look at her tiny hands, tiny feet. She is so soft and supple. Almost like cotton. These European babies are really adorable,” said Neera, while cuddling her friend Marie’s baby on her bed. “All babies are like that,” said Dilip blankly with his eyes boring into his laptop. “I know you are upset, especially with the conditions in your office and the city. But we simply can’t throw away an infant.” replied Neera, getting down from the bed. “She is not our baby. Don’t you see how risky it is? Anyone can lodge a case against us. We are in a foreign and in a troubled country,” said Dilip and followed Neera to the kitchen. “Give her to the police. Someone will definitely come forward...

When we believe in our dreams and have faith, life start taking it's own beautiful twists and turns. Here is another story , written by me. It was published in Love and War Anthology. The Call of His Eternal Love: “Niti!” he called and hoped his smile and wave did not look over enthusiastic. She flashed what was clearly a fake smile - she looked rather upset. She wasn’t perhaps as excited as Nitesh had thought she would be. But they were both part of their college alumni group on whatsapp where they had received an invitation to a common friend’s wedding. Nitesh had definitely expected to see her, although not at the start of the journey. He was sure, she too was aware that she might bump into him. Just then his eyes took him to a pretty little girl with one hand wrapped around Niti’s finger and the other holding a soft bunny. “May be she is with her husband,” he thought and a wave of jealousy filled his heart. After all it seemed that just yesterday they had walked ...