Happy New Year to all of you! Wishing you good health and happiness for 2023. I wanted to reflect on this year in a slightly different way. I will look back at memories inspired by the prompts of the first verse of the song Seasons of Love from Rent.
Let’s begin!
Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes
Five hundred, twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights,
Light serves as a symbol of life, happiness and prosperity. A guiding light of purity and goodness.
Every day when the sun rises in the east is a mark of a new day. New life, new beginnings, new starts. One of the biggest new beginnings was starting college. I think every child wonders and eagerly waits for college life to commence.
Wishing everyone prosperity and light. Lumos to all!
in sunsets,
The setting of the sun marks the end of the day. I enjoy watching sunsets and try to catch one as often as possible.
I love the different gradients of colours of the sunsets from orange and red to pink and purple. There is a sort of stillness in the world when the sun is setting and slowly darkness engulfs us.
Moreover, I love to capture it. I believe no camera can capture the beauty that the eye perceives, but the latest phone cameras don’t fall that behind. So a compilation of a few of the sunset photos from my gallery.
Sunsets also symbolise the completion of an event or phase. Talking about beginnings I became an adult this year (on paper, I am still a child at heart :) ) and said goodbye to childhood. I graduated from school. This hit harder when I went back for the alumni meet a few days back. I spent 10 years of my life in Gitanjali.
I had a sense of comfort and belonging there hence leaving that behind is still one of the biggest changes in my life.
In midnights,
Midnights makes me think of Taylor swift’s album titled the same which came out in October this year. I listened to this album with a new college friend, the only one who could match my swiftie enthusiasm for a new album release. Even better I got to go to a Taylor swift dance party with her. We were quite apprehensive about it however the energy and the feeling of belonging once it started was amazing. The pure ecstasy I felt screaming every single word of her songs at the top of my lungs with everyone puts this as one of the peak experiences of my life.
in cups of coffee.
Coffee and Conversations are two of my favourite things. I simply enjoy coffee because I like how it tastes but symbolically I associate coffee with much more. I am fascinated by the duality of coffee, I rejoice and rejuvenate myself with a cup of coffee but also can contemplate and bury my doubts and sadness in it. Coffee is a connection for conversations with others and also with the self. Moreover, coffee for me symbolises precious quality time with the people I love.
Sitting on the balcony on a rainy day with a mug of coffee thinking and wondering about life, meeting friends over a cup of coffee, and drinking coffee with my mom in the morning as we watch a standup routine or the news or stop at the middle of nowhere as we spot a small dhaba for coffee in clay pots. Coffee is good company!
In inches
Inches remind me of an interesting hobby I picked up last month. We had to pick an add-on course for the semester and I picked crochet. It was an 8-day course which I chose purely before the rest of the courses were art related and I cannot even draw a stick figure! However, to my surprise, I found peace and enjoyment in crocheting.
I spent so much time practising to better this skill and it was quite concerning for people around me. It also confirmed my suspicions that I am an old heart. My friends will attest to the fact that in any free time during college I have my hook and yarn out with my hands moving nonstop building a project. I ended up making three small mats which I am quite proud of. The thrill of creating and watching it form into a functioning item is hard to put into words!
in miles
Travel and movement were restricted for the better part of the last two years. So here are some pictures of some of my travel during 2022 as we come back to normalcy.
Right after my birthday, I was able to travel to my native place Uttarakhand and meet my extended family for the first time since 2019. It was lovely going back
We also took long car rides to Aurangabad to visit family. Stopping at small roadside bandis to eat hot Poha and omelettes.
We also went on an impromptu trip to Bidar for 3 days during Christmas. We lived the night in a Rural Experience Living area called Around the Village. We got to eat yummy local homemade food, and enjoy the peace and calm of the village side away from all the urban hustle. On the second day, we decided to find a place in the middle of the city so we could visit the tourist attractions like Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Sahib, Bidar Fort and Bahmani Tombs. It was a great family vacation with beautiful locations and delicious food.
In laughter,
Finding the fun in living. This year was truly fun. Even with the changes, I found incredible people who make me smile and laugh. Pulling each other’s legs and making fun of each other while doing improvisation bits which end up becoming long stories which could be the next big blockbuster television show. Seriously, they should put on a camera and record all our shenanigans. I was blown away that I made deep connections with people and it already seems like I have known them for ages.
I have been even more fortunate to have amazing friends from over the years who are somehow still in my life despite the distance and my life is richer because of it.
However, I laugh the hardest when I am with my family. Perhaps it is by living together that our sense of humour has morphed into one but no one is ever serious.
in strife.
Strife is defined as angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues; or conflict.
During the extempore I wrote about recently, an image prompt was shown to a participant which said “is it that easy to divide us?” which got me thinking. Is it? In a world where we all come from unique backgrounds, there ought to be differences. Unfortunately, there is more strife than proper discourse. We are always at war with each other’s differences trying to bring the other down. We are having bitter disagreements over ideas of love, race and religion in the 21st Century!
I constantly see trolling and negativity on these social media platforms and it is hard to fathom as it seems like the world is torn apart. I however believe that the online world and the real world are not the same. The real world is kinder and more tolerant. We can have different ideas and perspectives that have helped humans evolve and progress. Unfortunately, these disagreements shouldn’t become strife as then we start taking steps back. I hope it isn’t easy to divide us, I hope we would be able to look past our differences not by removing them but by accepting them.
But What about love?
Love is at the centre of it all. Everything I do I try my best to make sure it is congruent with the theme of love. I let my life be driven by love. While you learn about love from experiences and life, I learnt a lot about it from books. Love comes in many forms, it may be as a romantic partner or a friend or family or a pet or even your college professor from nearly twenty years ago, as in the case of Mitch Albom. Morrie’s idea of love is about giving and receiving. Love is the uniting force of this world without which we wouldn’t be able to survive. I realise that I quote this book almost in every other newsletter but very few books can explain the power of love like Morrie Schwartz does. I want to end this very long newsletter with a few of my favourite quotes-
“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."
“Without love, we all like birds with broken wings.”
"Love each other or die.”
“Love wins, Love always wins”
Have I known you for 18 seconds or 18 years !