Bay of Blessings

✏️ Day 18 – Bay of Blessings
 (Maldives)

Today my pencil dipped straight into blue.
Not ink—water.
The page rippled softly,
and Malé rose like an island secret.

Houses stacked in colors of candy,
boats bobbing like toys,
and the ocean stretching everywhere,
as if the world had been drawn in waves.

My pencil twirled,
and suddenly I saw the Friday Mosque—
its walls carved of coral stone,
whispering stories from the sea itself.
I traced its lines slowly,
feeling as if I was holding
a piece of the ocean’s memory.

When I signed the page,
a spray of salt seemed to leap out,
and I laughed—
sometimes the sea doesn’t stay on the paper.

✨ If your pencil touched the sea, what memory would it sketch first?

Royal Rhythms

✏️ Day 17 – Royal Rhythms
(Sri Lanka)

My pencil tapped the page today,
not drawing, but drumming.
And suddenly, Colombo arrived—
a city beating to its own rhythm.

The pencil spun into waves of the Indian Ocean,
splashing salt across the margins.
It curved into the Lotus Tower,
tall and shyly pink,
as if a flower had decided to join the skyline.

Then a secret spilled:
long ago, elephants marched here in royal parades,
their tusks painted gold,
their steps echoing like living drums.
I added one to my page—
and the pencil chuckled,
as if it had been waiting for me to discover them.

When I signed my name,
I felt the whole city sway,
half-ocean, half-lotus,
all music.

✨ If your pencil could dance, what rhythm would it follow first?

Wish You a Happy and Prosperous Life

This greeting, the best wishes I heard from a few friends for the first time, made me wonder. I knew, somehow, what happiness was. But at that age, I didn’t quite understand this word prosperity. That evening, during my Sanskrit class, I asked my teacher, “What is this prosperity, and what is it to be prosperous?”

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