Hello!

I’m Roshni. This is my own little corner on the internet - the only one I want to shape actively. I live in India.

Words have been a safe space for me since childhood. I write to make sense of the worlds within and around me. It’s part of how I learn and remember my lessons. I find the very process of writing uplifting.

Why ‘Beneath The Boughs’?

It’s from W. H. Davies’ ‘Leisure’, a poem that has stayed with me since childhood.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

I was probably 7 or 8 when I first heard this poem. Back then, I couldn’t imagine life getting so busy that I won’t have the time to ‘stand and stare’. I chose these words for my site as a reminder to sit beneath (metaphorical) boughs and choose pauses over movement, silence over noise. The writing you see here is one of the many wonderful things that come out of such pauses and silence.