TT #4
delight
this week’s Thought (singular)
shoutout to ors, love you ors
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 do NOT get a tummy upset. thank you for joining us. may the food your consume be healthy and fresh and good for you.
a very warm welcome to old readers as well. may good sense continue to prevail.
hi
welcome to the fourth thodi together!
i asked you a question, you gave me an answer, and we now have a community edition of thodi.
Q. delight. what’s something(s) that filled you with delight recently? it can be as dramatic or as small, as transformative or as par-for-the-course as you’d like. my answer is that once last week when i was taking a walk, a stray cat walked with me for many minutes. we had a lovely conversation.
i’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about how to not feel doomed, how to be less bitter, and how to make things feel lighter. i’m certain that the key lies in finding small saving graces everyday, things that poke holes in my developing cynicism, and this question was an attempt to keep finding instances like that. all of your answers were so lovely, and truly did make me feel a little more connected, a little less gloomy, and of course, delighted. thank you so much sharing, and i hope you enjoy going through this little list of delights <3
smrithi - coming back home honestly
lokesh - I got a summer internship offer. I had interviewed in 4-5 firms earlier and something would go off in some round. Either I would give a blunder answer to a simple tech question, or the interviewers were jerks, until this one. The tech rounds went insanely well and the final HR round happened with the CEO and it was one of the most natural conversation I had had with a stranger in years. Everything felt so easy and smooth and perfectly placed. [read the full reply in the comments here]
srishti - surprising my friends and my cousin in bangalore
shiwangee - fort cats. i’ve met these two cats in kala ghoda thrice and also introduced them to my friends. realising how much i’ve made a home out of my bombay apartment.
ronith - we found a bird that hasn’t been seen in 20 years!!!!!
atharva - I recently moved to an apartment in the most densely urban and touristy part of my city. You could say I live in the equivalent of whatever Times Square is to NYC. So you could imagine my surprise when I woke up to the sound of a Rooster from somewhere outside my window when I moved in. Yep. I now have a real organic Rooster as my alarm clock every morning. I have no idea where this fine bird resides and how it even resides in this part of town. But it is indeed unexpected and delightful.
from totto-chan: the little girl at the window by tetsuko kuroyanagi nitika - i read a non-fanfic book in one sitting after a long time, and it made me want to read more! :D
pramit - i sat by a lake and read a book
lakshmi - successfully brewed a cold brew for parents that they liked. it was their first time drinking cold brew.
gayathri - the taste of fresh, crispy apples
this segment is one of my favourites, and with every edition, it grows a little bit. it’s truly lovely to read the replies that come in every time. i hope you have a delightful october.
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?
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?
and TT #3 here, which was about -
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.
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
Fishing for Shad, Kate Rushin (read the full poem here)
I don’t know where I belong but I know I don’t belong here. I don’t know much but I know what is right. I don’t have much but I have myself. I’m not a man yet but I’m not a child. I don’t want much but I want more than this.
Greenness, Angelina Weld Grimké
Tell me is there anything lovelier, Anything more quieting Than the green of little blades of grass And the green of little leaves? Is not each leaf a cool green hand, Is not each blade of grass a mothering green finger, Hushing the heart that beats and beats and beats?
Fear, Liv Mammone
If the pain doesn’t come back, what will I write about? Will the poems have tendon and teeth? I didn’t get right the sonnet of all its colors. I did not find the exact dagger of phrase about the long loss of my life. Hope is all I do and am. I don’t think I’m poet enough to make you taste this mango; or see that sutured sunset unless from a hospital bed. I was good for carving. There will be kisses, music, street names. Loved ones will go where the gone do. What if I don’t want to (write it: can’t) write about these things. What if I would rather feel than create feeling? What then? Go ahead.
The Good Side of the Internet
… has been permanently shifted to The Good Side of the Internet. subscribe for many many links at the end of each month, and tell your friends about it :D
this week’s Song
Aao Naa by Sadhana Sargam and Udit Narayan
find all shared songs here.
thank you for reading, and see you soon <3