#29

Somehow it is mid-July already, and this is the first time I’m writing here. It’s not for lack of time, to be honest. Writing is so grounding, and sometimes I like to just float a little, while I can. Besides, at first, I was busy settling once again into a beloved city (I must admit however that it is difficult to romanticise Mumbai this time around, as grateful as I am to be here) and later, I got stuck thinking about what objective this newsletter fulfils and if this is the best way to go about it and things of that nature. I still don’t have any answers, but I do have an exciting thing to share, which is the perfect opportunity to resume these reflections. I wrote an essay about Amrita Pritam and Imroz’ letters to each other, about love in the face of separation, and what language can offer in the absence of physical closeness. You can read it here. I hope it provides some insight.

I went to watch a play a few weeks ago – a Gujarati adaptation of The Vagina Monologues. It was an absolute riot and incredibly powerful – they also perform it in English and Hindi all over the country, and I can’t recommend it enough. Afterwards, I went to meet the cast onstage, and once I walked up to one of the actors, I realised I couldn’t speak a word. I opened my mouth and closed it, still in awe, but she was quick in drawing me into a warm hug and said “Thank you,” and I said “Thank you!” Perhaps she’s seen many girls like me, rendered speechless after a show. It was the most tender and beautiful thing.

I appreciate the tender and beautiful things in the world even more now, as the heartbreak in it overwhelms. It would be impossible to survive without a commitment to noticing these things, and making note of them to share with others. A few newsletters that do this in their own ways and which I’ve been greatly enjoying: Life, Annotated (such lovely stories,) Uncanny Sketchbook (notes on creativity and a touch of whimsy,) and Literary Delights (book reviews with alternate book covers). Two things that made me cry recently: condolence letters written after Virginia Woolf’s death, and this comic by Sofia Sabbagh about the use of trees in settler violence in Palestine. Finally, I want to share the following astonishing image of a reader in Cubbon Park, and Salman Toor’s Bar Boy (2019) who is also in his own bubble.

Salman Toor - Bar Boy (2019)