The Covid Life – Emotional Distance.

How do you do the long distance love? Parents, cousins, friends.

Yes, we do the video-calling and the normal calling and the whatsapp messages. But these are not ordinary times to just keep in touch in a passive detached way. Every thing seems to be tangled up in every thing. News, moods, love.

We consistently find the answer in everyday little things. Good mornings, breakfast photos, a call to say hi, lunch photos, a non-sensical joke forward, sharing a song i hummed all day, sunset photos, sending them reiki healing, daily game of ludo, analysis of the game, jibes over how dad’s always focused on killing us all, slightly heavy goodnights because none of us know how tomorrow will fare but we are hopeful.

It is a hell of a lot of work. Sensitivities are at peak and emotions are swinging like never before. Some days you tick all the boxes and arguments still break out but you don’t have the luxury to be upset for a whole day because none of us know how tomorrow will fare but yes, we are still hopeful.

Then we hunt for ways to keep the connection going in a purely mechanical way. Ludo comes in handy again. Play, kill, throw a six, start again. Hesitatingly share another dinner photo and hope you get a reply or even just an emoticon. Gauging cautiously, you make that call just to say goodnight and you sleep yet again with a slightly heavy heart because none of us know how tomorrow will fare but we are hopeful.

I read somewhere, ridiculous times like these call for ridiculous amounts of love. Yes please, love. Even when you feel like you can’t, LOVE. Baby steps 🙂

September 30, 2020 0

The Covid Life – Balcony series.

This tiny strip of land we call balcony.

Home to our plants, our chai dates, deep conversations.

Our connection to the outside. Moving cars on the road providing some semblance of normalcy. Heavy downpours, lightning and cloud drama giving us company on otherwise lonely days.

Our comfort space to go to after petty arguments because living together 24 hrs also takes a toll some days. To shut the balcony door firmly. To go stare outside. The vast expanse of the sea providing comfort to the restless soul.

Our brief escape route from the day-to-day routine with the gorgeous sunrises, stunning sunsets and beautiful dusk settings.

Solace.

September 11, 2020 0

Lessons in Clay.

That scene from Ghost. Demi Moore. Patrick Swayze.

Movie inspiration aside, my love affair with pottery actually began in Rome, where I stayed at my aunt’s house – it had a warm earthy vibe, an old world mess of pots and mosaics. I’ve always wanted to create a home as a reflection of who we are and our lives… every piece curated or handcrafted…speaking of interesting stories and shared conversations.

Shortly after returning, I took up pottery lessons. It was everything I was expecting and more. The absolute joy of getting your hands dirty, the feel of wet clay and the smell of glazes – it’s such a heady mix and feels like too much, yet just right all at once.

Posting some of my pieces here –

Starry Night – painted a dark midnight blue glaze with little specks that burst when fired, to give this tealight candle holder it’s glassy dotted look and texture.

Babyphants – hand sculpted, they have tiny pouches where one can keep the teabag after use or mini cookie bites even. My first creation, dedicated to the husband and his love for elephants. We are a little nervous to actually use it so these two are perched up on the windowsill, being unusually chatty with each other.

Potted in Pink – a small’ish pot, the glaze is a mysterious red that turned pink when fired, giving it a much more delicate look than what I was going for. Saving it for a money plant, multi-purposing as a pen stand till then.

Lost in Translation – As the story goes, my teacher (T) asked a friend (B) and me to paint our pieces in different layer of colors.
- T meant – each coat of paint in a different color to give an interesting finish once fired.
- B perceived – mix a couple of different colors to create a new one and paint each coat with this new color.
- I perceived – Divide my bowl into three sections/layers and paint each in a different color. I went dark to light, shades of rich blue over the raindrops carved into my bowl.

Needless to say, we had a good laugh over it all and stand proud owners of our pieces, no matter the mix-up over layers.

Roll me up Pretty – the husband’s favourite, a rolled slab shaped into a tray, stamped in lotuses, painted a dotted blue and deep pink.

Sunset in Rome – an ode to the place where it all started, the place where I left a part of me.

Each of my creations have their own little place at home…whether standing nerdy holding bookmarks on the shelf, lying lazy on the coffee-table or shining a dim light during cozy dinners.

The big dream is to go back to Rome for a pottery course (and for the gnocchi, and for the wine). But like they say – everything, in its own time!

September 11, 2019 0

Home – the feeling of it.

I read a beautiful piece yesterday on how one is not 100% happy all the time. Rather joy or the utter feeling of it comes in moments and it’s these moments that stay with us a while. Here’s some moments that belong so completely to me, they are absolutely and wholly mine :o)

Waking up to the pitter patter of rain on my window…

Stealing 10 minutes of us-time with my hubby in the morning sipping Pudina chai , no words spoken…

Discovering $10 in the back pocket of my jeans…

Hubby surprising me by buying Coca Cola cos I have cooked Pav Bhaji and it is my absolute favorite combination :o)

Noticing another couple dunk their croissant in coffee in a fancy Paris café, I smile at my hubby and then we proceed to do the same…

Reading a Nora Roberts and thinking I am exactly like the female lead (prettiness and the works)…he he he…

Tipsy happy conversations around math and philosophy…after two glasses of wine…and the memories of it the next day :o)

Simple words of appreciation from my boss or a co-worker on work well done…

Discovering by fluke that the awesomest bagel shop in all of NYC was bang opposite our hotel…

The innocent toothless grin from my friend’s 2 yr old, especially while she clutches my hand…this one just topples my heart over :o)

Wearing matching Wonder Woman and Supey tees with the hubby to comic con…

Front row seats on the upper deck of a double decker bus roaming around the city, especially when it rains…

Rains!!!! Anytime of the day!!! Rains!!! I love rains, it washes out every little bit of low and negativity from my soul…

Co-incidences, the good ones, like when I am missing someone, and they ping Hi…

Hugs!!! I am big on hugs, not the sideway ones, the really big warm bear hugs that squash me with love…I can proudly say I have received some exceptional ones…

Seeing snow for the first time!! I will never forget that feeling! Ever!!

Exchanging knowing glances with a bestie, Oooooo…the secretive ones :o)

Having an aha! Moment where all the jumbled up, messed up thoughts just sort of fall in place, in a jiffy…

Super sweet and sugary icing on a cupcake…yum…

Pure unfiltered love in any form – a friend filling my wineglass with his own in the split second my hubby looks away, another one mussing up my hair in like a protective big brother way, cutiepie of a girlfriend massaging my head seeing me in severe sinus pain, another one pushing her hubby out of the room to sleep with me cos I used to be scared sleeping alone (ghosts!!!), an out-of-touch college friend pinging to say she misses our sitting-on-the-roof-with-a-faraway-look deep conversations, yet another sort of just-got-back-in-touch friend saying she will buy me organic natural soaps (I love!!!) from her trip to Morocco…this is an endless list…

These just fill my soul with waves of happiness and a sort of glowy contentment, like feeling immense joy, safety and love all at once, kind of like how I feel resting my head in my mum’s lap. That’s what these remind me of – Home, the feeling of it, in random places, with random people.

April 6, 2017 0