Maria realised that her first love was words and the pictures they evoked, a discovery she made in her late teens when living in one of the most splendorous spots in the foothills of the Western Ghats. And then life happened. Along the way were several years spent strenuously training in Kalarippayattu, intermittent lessons in the violin and limb quaking time spent on climbing walls, along with an ocean of other life experiences. Providence gave her an opportunity to revisit her life and she realized that a life fully lived was one where we live our dreams. Today she lives her life with two ridiculously conflicting desires; a longing want to live out her life drawing inspiration from the changing seasons in the little patch under the sky where she spent some of her most bittersweet years, and a deep desire to be able to travel the world sans passport or visa and to be able to call any spot under the endless sky 'home'.