A few (nice) things in February

Miles of cheese, endless potato chips, and walking around the city

A small section of cheese at the Desi Dairy Dialogue

A few nice things this month and last: linen shirts and cotton saris, the beginning of summer, a long table of cheese from all over India, watching cats from my window, seeing myself through selfies, feeling brave enough to take more than one selfie(!!), excessive pairs of earrings, pastries and pakoda. These two months have given me insomnia and lethargy, sumptuousness and rigour, with a touch of chaos.

The chaos, here, referring to both the world at large and a personal exhaustion that manifested in the form of a weeklong (and continuing) illness. All my essays have a lot of thought, reading, and research behind them and can take weeks (or even months) to put together. But writing a newsletter that pushes out essays every week/every fortnight requires a quick turnaround—it reminds me of when I was working at newspapers/publications—and involves a substantial burnout when you’re done writing. (I, for instance, have the need to immediately close my laptop and lie down on the floor for 30 minutes.) Anyone who tells you otherwise is highly organised or is lying to you. So my paid newsletters usually bear the brunt, aka I tend to write these pretty quickly, even though the thoughts have been swirling inside for decades sometimes.