Last week when I was pottering around the three pots that make up my balcony garden, my heart leapt up as I spotted this single leaf of the Oxalis peeping out.

Around two years ago, a friend of mine gave me this plant. It wasn’t half as delicate as it looked and despite my indifferent care it soon became two pots of luxuriant Oxalis Triangularis. This pretty indoor plant with its triangular purple leaves has the tiniest white flowers. It is quite unusual and I loved displaying it at the entrance. How I preened when everyone admired their lush got compliments.

But of course, me being me, had to do something foolish. I asked the building gardener to re-pot them. He did a great job of murdering them instead.

I looked at the empty pots in the hope that something would sprout. Because the friend who gave it to me had told me that the plant was hardy and thrived in neglect.

“When you least expect it, it will suddenly pop out,” she had told me.“ So, don’t throw it out, even if you think it is ‘dead.’”

And, sure enough, after months of dormancy, last week I found a very skinny stem in one of the pots. And two skinny ones in another! They are both growing with other plants and will need to be re-potted in their own pots.

I wonder if that will have me going down a rabbit hole again.

Till then, I’m keeping fingers crossed that they will thrive and survive, resilience being their key strength.

Without calling it a resolution, I had made an intention of being a better reader this year. Unknowingly, I got into the habit of binge-watching mindless Netflix programs on my tiny little iPhone!

What was wrong with me ?

It was hard to stop watching Netflix on the go. But I managed to read one book this first week of January – The Tell by Amy Griffin.

The book is not a pleasant story. As the title suggests, it is a tell-all tale. One that concerns a topic that many of us are squeamish about talking.

Amy Griffin, a smart, successful financial wiz has a secret that she is ‘unaware’ of. For years she suppressed it and didn’t correlate her physical discomfort and strange reactions to certain situations to the secret.

It was at her husband’s suggestion that she visited a therapist and finally confronted her secret. A secret that was debilitating her. A secret that many people share.

This book shows her resilience in dealing with her trauma and courage in finally facing her demons. It is not meant for the faint of heart but is a must read. Uncovering your secret and processing the trauma is quite one thing. Sharing it so publicly definitely requires courage of a different kind.

Ciao