I moved in with my friends for a while.

It is uncannily like a sitcom. All we need is an opening track and a jingle. (I am open to suggestions. I reckon, an upbeat indie song or a moderately dance-y pop song should do the trick)

We eat together, we cook together and we drink a lot of wine together. We go over abysmal Hinge profiles together. Every night is girls’ night. It’s been great.
 

The best way to get to know what an eccentric clown you are is to live with new people. If you get lucky they tolerate it, if you get luckier you get an audience who appreciates it. Does that mean I'm not on my toes trying my best not to be sloppy? No, sir. We're honeymooning our way through this temporary period of cohabitation.

A perk of living with friends is being able to absorb some of their good habits by sheer proximity, like a sponge. I now work out more, eat less sugar (mostly) and have protein shakes (which I surprisingly love)

I am reveling in the temporary thrill of being a different person. A more disciplined, patient and less aloof person. Sachi with the latest software update.

At the same time, I feel unexplained pangs of sadness and I crave alone time more than ever. I need tons of time to recharge. I’m like a cranky animal when not recharged enough. So far, cohabitation has been a constant negotiation between getting my needs met, meeting someone else's needs, and also really wanting to be liked.

Please like me but also leave me alone but don’t ignore me? How does one deal with this?
 

We’ve taken to cooking meals twice a day. Not once, twice. We didn’t want to hire someone to cook for us and wanted to avoid ordering in as much as we could. I love it. Who would’ve thunk? It's a quiet yet gentle kind of love that comes with making simple dal, rotis, rice and veggies. I haven't been baking cakes and quiches like I did last year. It's the everyday cooking that I've come to love. Watching onions sizzle and being able to put the right amount of masala by instinct and not by referring to a recipe are little delights to be savoured. Getting the right texture for roti dough is always a quietly proud moment. If anyone can romanticize tadka, it’s me. Hello. My tadka game is strong.

 

As I send this, we’re close to completing a month (not there yet). You can love someone and still want to whack them with a big pillow. (You can be incredible and want to whack yourself with a pillow) You can live with people you love and still find yourself going (mildly) nuts. The review overall is glowing. Every change in life is another opportunity to get feedback about your flavour of crazy and if you’re lucky then appreciation for it. I don’t know what’s next for us or my hunger to go traipsing around for work this year but I’ll keep you updated with honest-ish essays. You’re free to unfollow me the day I call myself a ‘digital nomad’ or if you ever catch me using the hashtag wanderlust. I may unfollow myself if that's possible.

 

I’ve got a few recommendations this month. I feel like I read and listened to less content than usual. Not being a pampered brat is time consuming. Bear with me.

---

---

READ
⭐️ The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V E Schwab - I LOVED this book! Who doesn't love a good Faustian deal? Adeline LaRue makes a deal with the devil to get out of a situation that gives her eternal youth, health, and immortality but the caveat is nobody she meets can remember her. That is until she meets a guy who can. The book is broken into two timelines : Addie's life from 1714 to 2013 and her life in 2014. We see how she slowly comes to learn the repercussions of her bargain and make her way around it. This book is exciting, it's thrilling and an absolute delight to read.

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff - This book will make you feel warm and fuzzy afterwards. It is a collection of letters shared between Helene Hanff, a writer in New York and Frank Doel, a man who works at an antique bookstore in London. Their friendship spans decades. You can read this in one sitting, preferably accompanied by a warm cup of tea/coffee.

Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami - Ms Ice Sandwich is a deeply heartwarming coming of age story. It’s particularly powerful because you’ll inevitably find yourself revisiting your first crush. 
The unnamed narrator is a child whose mother is rarely present, whose father passed away and grandmother is too ill to pay him heed. He finds himself enamoured by a girl who works at the sandwich counter at the supermarket and called her Ms Ice Sandwich because of her electric blue eye shadow. He hasn't spoken to her and finds himself making up stories about this girl and her life. The novella takes you through his friendships, his hopes, his fears and his crush on this person he admires from afar. I can't help thinking of myself at 8 with a big crush on this guy and never being able to tell him.

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson - After reading this book I'm convinced most parents are emotionally immature in some way BUT the objective of this book is not to fault your parents but to find ways in which your childhood affects your relationships as an adult and what to do about it. A lot of us had all our physical needs met but not our emotional needs. This book talks about ways of meeting your needs as an adult and making better choices.
A lot of things made sense after reading this book. Read it if this subject interests you.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton - Nina Dean is a food writer in her 30's. She's single. She's navigating failing friendship, dating apps, being ghosted, resilient friendship, her father's dementia, her mother's crises and work. Alderton describes dating apps with razor sharp wit and remarkable precision. Ghosts was relatable, heartbreaking, warm and incredibly real.

Currently reading - Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu.
(My reading list is currently full of translated Japanese novels)
 

---

AUDIO GOODIES
⭐️ Brene Brown with Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman on Love, Life and the Pursuit of Creative Space on Unlocking Us - Roxane Gay is an extraordinary writer and Debbie Millman is a design +  branding icon. They're also one of my favourite couples out there. Two titans in their field get together to talk about living together during covid, making art, personal boundaries, their story and spending their time in a meaningful way. What more can one ask for?
I loved this episode so much. I revisited many parts.

⭐️⭐️ The Cave by Paul Tran - a poem about the linguistic nuances and implications of the word cave, and various metaphors that still connect us to caves. i wish I could describe it better. I love how poets analyze every aspect of life with a poetic microscope and implore us to look deeper and slower.

Tender Discipline with Jocelyn K Glei on Hurry Slowly - “Tender discipline pushes back against this whole suite of ideas that have been embedded in us by our capitalist culture, about speed and efficiency and progress. And it pushes back against the idea that when we’re doing a task, the best way to do it is to get from here to there as quickly as possible. And then when you get there, you damn well better have a product to show for it. Just being you isn’t enough. It’s what you produce, that matters. That’s what capitalist culture teaches us. That we don’t have inherent value. That we have value only when we produce things.”

Vaccine Logistics on The Urbanist - Covid vaccines, city life and how various countries have copes with covid.

---

ARTICLES
Seneca on peace of mind and the antidote to anxiety.

Against Performative Positivity - This talks about why business and design need to be politicized and how we should challenge ourselves to imagine better alternatives for our future that aren't based on convenience.