this week’s Thought (singular)
switched from black and blue pens to multi-coloured felt tips, i feel childhood whimsy taking over my soul
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 a really lovely sunday evening with their friends that saves them a little bit. thank you for joining us. may the dread of monday lessen after you spend a few hours roaming/loafing/lounging/strolling around the city with people who make you happy.
a very warm welcome to old readers as well. may good sense continue to prevail.
hi
welcome to the third thodi together!
i asked you a question, you gave me an answer, and we now have a community edition of thodi.
Q. home. what spaces, apart from where you live, feel like home to you? it could be a friend’s place that you’ve been to a bunch of times, or a road you’ve travelled so often you would know if a stone is out of place.
this question is so, so special to me (as anybody who’s been around here for a while can attest), and it was lovely to receive such personal, genuine answers (with supporting facts and reasons!! i was delighted!!). it made me think about our little internal lives, and how the oddest of spaces can make you slip into that feeling of comfort and familiarity. thank you for sharing and being a part of this week’s thodi <3
divya - jayanagar 4th block. visited a million times for errands but never feels like a chore
pramit - the eateries near my college where i went with friends
lasya - familiar neighbourhoods where i walk/ have walked around many many times, particularly ones which have a lot of trees. even the bus stop closest to my house that i get off at feels like home. my old dance class or guitar class
sky - browntown felt like home to me. tfer 422 was really a home to me.
abinandhan - bangalore - friend’s home
varsha - it is not the place but the people. anyplace with the right people is home
nitika - my friend’s new apartment in manipal. only really stayed there for one night, visited it maybe on 3 occasions but it’s so comforting to know her and see so much of her in that space that it’s like home. and also just manipal in general, i’ll never forget how easy and solvable everything feels there.
anhad - nani’s place
the bedroom, van gogh anirudh - that chinese restaurant on cmh road. chungs!
mathew - when I'm practicing dance, the space that my movement and my reflection in the mirror take up. it's nice because it can be any mirror in any studio in any city. it still feels like a familiar, comfortable place like any physical home. neighbourhood grocery shop - before blinkit, i was sent there multiple times a day— milk for tea because guests are coming, mother bought all the vegetables but forgot dhanya, maggi because there's no snacks at home, eggs - we were always out of eggs, i blame my 6ft 4 brother. the shopkeeper knew residents by name. i could tell the moment a chips packet was out of place whenever they reorganized their layout. trip to the corner booth of the corner house in hsr layout where my dad and i went for ice cream at 11pm every day during my last summer at home before college.
smrithi - college
kurchi - kfc
ayush - every place i've spent a considerable amount of time in - my childhood home, college apartment, the apartment in the city i moved to for work - has had a patch of dense forest nearby, and within it, peacocks. so even though it's not a specific place per se, it's the presence of that animal that turns even a foreign place into home
jui - surprisingly, xl hostel room
krishna - oddly enough the malls and shops i’d go to in the layout i moved from 19 years ago now. just hits, i don’t know why
bhavesh - pride@xl
jahnavi - the bangalore metro. the coolness of the glass against my back, the comforting rumble as it moves along the tracks, the familiar sound of the disembodied announcements. the metro was a very important part of my life from the ages of 17 to 23, and i’ll always remember the independence, convenience, and joy that travelling in it gave me.
riya - the tiny neighbourhood parlour where i get my eyebrows plucked every time i’m home. my best friend’s car
i see this project growing bit by bit with every edition, and this one was particularly beautiful to read the answers to. i hope you carry the feeling of home with you.
in case you missed it, you can find TT #1 here, which has your lovely answers to the question-
warmth. the weather is colder, noses are stuffier, minds are heavier, days are shorter. how do we stay warm emotionally and mentally? what brings comfort and lightness?
and TT #2 here, which answered-
long distance friendships. you’ve moved away, or they’ve moved away, or you’ve both moved away. as we get older, how do you stop physical distance from causing relationships to drift apart? how do you stay in touch with the people whom you don’t live in the same place as anymore and/or don’t see as often as you used to be able to? do you have any weekly/monthly/annual rituals that help?
if you liked this post, please hit the like button! it’ll help more readers discover thodi and join this lovely community. thank you!
English Recitation Competition
Questions About Angels, Billy Collins (read the full poem here)
It is designed to make us think in millions, billions, to make us run out of numbers and collapse into infinity, but perhaps the answer is simply one: one female angel dancing alone in her stocking feet, a small jazz combo working in the background. She sways like a branch in the wind, her beautiful eyes closed, and the tall thin bassist leans over to glance at his watch because she has been dancing forever, and now it is very late, even for musicians.
The Tell, William Bronk
I want to tell my friends how beautiful the world is. Not but what they know it is terrible too-they know as well as I; but nevertheless, I want to tell my friends. Because they are. And this is what they are; and because it is and this is what it is. You are my friend. The world is beautiful. Dear friend, you are. I want to tell you so.
Somehow, Dorothy Chan
You visit me in a dream after passing, after I’ve been awaiting you for weeks, because Chinese belief teaches us our loved ones will appear when we’re asleep. It’s real when I enter the hotel restaurant in the middle of nowhere town I live in, as the Midwest architecture transforms into Kowloon at evening time. We eat bird’s nest soup, and I remember the time my father ordered me this four-hundred- year-old delicacy at Hong Kong airport. Out comes the Peking duck, and I ask you: “Why did it take you so long?” You answer: “I arrived once you were strong and ready.”
The Good Side of the Internet
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this week’s Song
find all shared songs here.
thank you for reading, and see you soon <3