an accumulation of homes

as places, people, feelings, things

Apr 01, 2023

this week’s Thought (singular)

the humble backpack and all her incredible capabilities. big zip. small zip. front pouch. bottle holder.

a very warm welcome to all new readers. i love new readers so much that whenever i get an email about a new reader, i manifest that they have no more problems falling asleep. thank you for joining us. may your eyes close and your dream reel begin to play before your head hits the pillow tonight.

(this issue has been inspired by two separate but related conversations with two dear friends.)

a recent visit home got me thinking about, well, home. and the beauty and subtlety of its apparent modulation (which i wrote a bunch about here), but also about the variety in the concept itself.

in that, i have lived in seven houses in my life, and each of them will always be my home. in that, as i grow older and move through the world, i will live in more houses and call more places my home. in that, there are people in my life that i’ve known for so long, or who make me feel so secure, that their company is a house and they are a home. in that, and this is a mind-blower, there are feelings that i constantly come back to that feel like home - being on stage, spending a few hours with close friends, drifting in the space between asleep and awake. in that, and this is the second mind-blower, there are things - physical, tangible items - that feel so precious, and so comfortable in their grooves and ridges, that they feel like home - my shruti box, a mug i got as a birthday gift, the pillow i hug in my sleep.

i think a beautiful way of looking at our time here - in this lifetime, in this circumstance, wherever ‘here’ is for you - is as an accumulation of homes. some are more durable, built with stronger materials, can weather storms inside and out. it’s only natural that some are more fragile, built with playing cards, will unceremoniously topple with a tiny gust of wind. and it’s inevitable that, like most things, there will be in-between houses, upright until they aren’t, destroyed into rubble that could instantly disappear or take years to clear away.

in a few years, i will have other homes. more homes that will add to the ones that i’ve already collected, different homes that will replace a few. and in a few more years, there will be even more changes in the landscape of my homes. my capacity and requirements could change, my ability to keep them standing firmer, forming higher could improve. in a few decades, i want to have accumulated more homes - places, people, feelings, things - that i can always return to when i need shelter and strength.

i’d like to leave you with this very topical tumblr post -

ps: happy april :D

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English Recitation Competition

The Need Is So Great, Jim Moore

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The way light falls on the last
of the stricken leaves of the copper beech
at the end of the block is something to behold.

I Went Out to Hear, Leila Chatti

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I knew this was
a perfect moment.
Which would only hurt me
to remember and never
live again. My God. How lucky to have lived
a life I would die for.

Winter Remembered, John Crowe Ransom

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Better to walk forth in the murderous air
And wash my wound in the snows; that would be healing,
Because my heart would throb less painful there,
Being caked with cold, and past the smart of feeling.

Which would you choose, and for what boot in gold,
The absence, or the absence and the cold?

A Picture!

i spent last weekend in mahabaleshwar, which means my camera roll is FULL of pretty hill station and strawberry photos. do visit if you get the chance :D

*stairs that look like they’re from a story book*

*the krishna river, viewed from the hill where it originates*

*a perfectly adorable elephant statue outside the hotel reception*

*there was a stall at the mapro garden where they painted this strawberry on my arm and it was so cute*

*a very tasty strawberries and cream sundae, also at the mapro garden*

*a stray cat that did not at all appreciate being pspsps-ed at*

The Good Side of the Internet

(subscribe to my standalone publication

The Good Side of the Internet

for consolidated and extra links at the end of each month!)

Our daughter had a year left to live. We had to do something wonderful with the time she had left.
When Havi was diagnosed with fatal Tay-Sachs disease, we decided to celebrate her with a lifetime’s worth of birthdays.

What You Get Is the World from
The Convivial Society

In this installment, I’m thinking a bit about how modern society tends to deplete rather than renew us and what we might be able to do about this.

What Do You Do With An Idea? (video)

Aristocrat Inc.
How a small computer chip company, owned by the author’s mother, became the target of a sprawling pan-Asian crime ring that operated throughout Silicon Valley

A Matter of Honor
Why were three Afghan women brutally murdered at the edge of Europe? A journey from Mazar-i-Sharif to Istanbul to Athens in search of answers.