Hello hello dear friend, it’s been a while since we caught up … and somehow that’s exactly how I start most of my coffee dates. Clearly, I need to have more coffee dates or a new opening line — for now, let’s consider it my signature move.
But that’s life, isn’t it? Busy busy busy, no time for quiet conversations, unless one consciously makes them happen. Here I am finally, doing just that.
I’d invite you out onto my balcony — Weather Gods are being exceptionally kind and Pune is at its very best. A delicate rain falls softly, a gentle caress when the occasional breeze blows it onto us. I’d set out your coffee and my tea as we settle down for a heart to heart.
If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you what a chaotic month this one has been – happily chaotic, I have to add. The children are home for the holidays and there has been much chehel pehel. Everything seems exciting with them around. Our days are full of celebrations — birthdays, get-togethers, lunches and dinners. Mundane things like picking shows to watch together become fun when they are here.
If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you how H has decided to hit the gym seriously. Suddenly, he is measuring out protein and passing on wisdom about how the Indian diet is severely deficient. The husband too has been on a health-spree for a while, dining at 6pm and walking up to 20K steps every day. He is a man of extremes.
If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you how thanks to H, cooking has once again became a thing of joy. N is a frugal, disinterested eater while the husband and I are constantly striving to become frugal disinterested eaters.
That leaves little scope for enthusiasm in the kitchen. H on the other hand, enjoys his food, is super generous with compliments and also loves to cook. He is constantly excited by the science of it and thrilled at how things come together on the stove. And that is infectious.
The much-neglected airfryer is being put to good use as is the OTG and I could do a whole post on Twenty Ways to Make Eggs!
Food really has been much on my mind.
If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that N has been on a ‘make my vacation productive’ mission. This girl is really too serious for her own good. The good thing is she has also been on a reading spree. Taking a break from Kafka’s existential crises and Plath’s poetic gloom, she picked up her first Chitra Banerjee — Palace of Illusions. This is rare because she almost never reads my recommendations. Even this one was picked up because a friend seconded my suggestion. I find it outrageous specially since most of my friends love my reccos.
Anyway, setting my bruised ego aside, I have to admit, it brings me great happiness each time I see her engrossed in a book or marching into my room to declare that her ‘mind has been blown’ by a quote or a passage.
If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you I’d been reading a lot too. Stories really are wonderful, aren’t they? The power to break down walls of time and space is amazing. I’ve been travelling between modern-day Japan on my Kindle and Italy of the 1950’s on Audible, and 1720’s Spain on Netflix. Each story is so very different. Interestingly, they all have women as central characters. Isn’t it amazing? That more and more women are telling women’s stories?
If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you I was already dreading the end of holidays. I can feel the familiar anxiety coming by. Even now, after a full year, I dread the first few days of H’s departure and N being away for most of the day. I’m so very grateful I have things to do to keep myself distracted but that empty feeling is hard to conquer.
Let me not think of that just yet. It’s silly to let the worries of tomorrow cloud my todays. For now, the children are here, I have time to spend with them, I am reading and writing and Pune weather is cool, cloudy and rainy – life is as good as it gets.
So tell me what’s happening with you. Have you been reading, travelling, crafting, working? What’s keeping you happy?