tapioca and fish curry
moments of bliss, Kerala forests, new writing, amazing life, and Indian spirituality gurus
Dear Reader,
Thank you for joining me. I hope your week is going good.
Those who replied last week to the poll said they wanted a long newsletter even on a weekday.
This one is not long per se, as I am sending it again during the week, but I have included three new blog articles I published this week. All three are stories from the road.
Today my partner and I complete three years on the road.
Three years ago on this day, we returned the keys of our rooftop home and set out with our things in our car. We haven’t had a rented or owned home during this duration. While sometimes we have lived in a place for a few hours, we also found homes for months in one house.
In the first January newsletter three years on the road, I have given a synopsis of our itinerant life. Tomorrow, I am publishing another longer post on the experience. So, now, I will only share a small incident from yesterday.
This little story might seem insignificant to some. But for us—people who live from home to home, make acquaintances and even friends with strangers from other cultures on an almost daily basis, and who at time don’t have a kitchen or other basic things that make a home home—this isn’t little. Incidents like this keep us going, they tell us: you have a home everywhere, they are a ray of sunshine and hope on those days when things get too hard. And they do get too hard.
We have been in this wooden stilt cabin in Kerala for a few days. First, we came here for two nights. We had found the place on Google Maps, called up the number, and our luck was such that the sylvan hut was available. The family seemed so nice that we immediately took the cabin and settled in. After two days, we wanted to extend. But that day being 26th January (a national holiday for India), the cabin was booked. It had been reserved a month ago. Half-heartedly, we left.
Every guesthouse was booked for that weekend. But within an hour of driving, we found another home with kitchen. That homestay with zero reviews on Google Maps had been ignored by the long-weekend travelers. So the two bedroom-hall-kitchen place became ours. Again, a loving family to whom I have to visit once more.
While staying in the kitchen-equipped home, we had rebooked this wooden hut for four days. Even though that family was amazing, the house had its issues. We weren’t sure if we could continue to stay there. So after the third night, the plan was to come back to this hut.
Things work out in a funny manner though. That house was also cleaned once, I became friends with the brother and sister there, and when I finally packed and left, I did so unwillingly.
The first night here in the hut was spent eating the self-cooked food we had packed in the previous home and reminiscing about it. The little private forest of this cabin had started calling out to me though. By the morning, I was fully settled in. Watching the red-whiskered bulbul bring leaves to make a nest in the green plant on my little balcony, I breathed a sigh of relief. The first morning, too, we ate the food we had packed. On our second morning, we took breakfast from the family. It was the delicious rice puttus and green moong curry. All my mind, body, and soul were full.
When the fifteen-year-old son of the family brought us water, I paid for the previous two nights. While calculating, he asked, “So you will stay today too?” He seemed unsure. Most people visit the house for two, maximum three days, and see the attractions around. Combining the two visits, we had been here for four nights already and had said we would stay for two more. In the traditional sense, we had seen everything that was to be seen nearby. As per me, I had seen nothing.
“Yes. We checkout on Friday. So two more nights.” I smiled at him.
He still seemed unsure but went away. I dropped him a message with our checkout date to avoid confusions. He didn’t reply.
Then during the day when I was just sitting, writing, watching the birds, the son came to me again.
“Do you know tapioca?” He asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you want to try some?” His curly black hair shined. His eyes were curious for my response.
“Yes.”
“So tapioca and fish curry. We will bring you some. It is complimentary,” He said.
“It is okay even if we have to pay. But give only a little bit. Don’t give out too much of your lunch.” I was trying not to be greedy.
“It’s not our lunch.”
“So just an experiment?”
He laughed.
“So the mother and son have been having fun?” I say with the knowledge that the previous day he had gone to Kochi to receive an award. As laughter rang out of their house all afternoon, today seemed like a mother-son reunion and celebration .
As he hadn’t replied to my checkout message, I asked him if he had seen it.
“Are you surprised that we are staying so many days?”
“No,” he shook his head although not so convincingly.
“You have a little forest here.”
He looked confused.
“I mean no one goes in this patch of land, right?” I said pointing to the green behind the huts.
“My mother used to work there,” he told me.
“Aah! But now it seems pretty untouched, undisturbed, and so like a forest. I will show you the pictures of birds I have taken later.” With these words, I hope he understood why we are staying for a few days in his wooden cabin that overlooks a coconut, betel nut, banana, jackfruit, pepper, and avocado forest studded with two precious ponds.
I’m not sure if he understood but he left with the promise of bringing us our food at 2 pm.
I had been woken up from a nap by him. So I went to bed again for half an hour.
At 2, the mother and the son brought us food. I tried to tell them I had eaten tapioca before too. I repeated the mother’s Malayalam words just to tease her. She laughed, as she always does.
We got a full plate of boiled tapioca that was just delicious. We ate it with a chutney of green chilly, onion, garlic, and coconut oil. On the side was a red bowl of fish curry that looked spicy but we wanted to try it.
Sitting in the plant-covered patio under our hut, overlooking the ponds shimmering in the afternoon sun, we knew we are fortunate.
This hut for a few days is the perfect place to spend the completion of our three years of itinerant living. Though while coming here I was unsure why I was leaving the previous home, that this is more expensive, smaller, and so on, now I have been told by the universe—for the hundredth time—that what happens happens for the good. Don’t fight life’s plans. Life is in the right always.
We aren’t always so cosy. We are out of our comfort zone from minute to minute. Not all families treat us so well. But when we get someone’s love, we receive it with open hands.
I don’t know whether the son understood why we are staying for as many days we we are. But we know. And that is enough.
Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living, heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.
L.R.Knost
What have you wanted to do for a long time but are afraid to try?
For this week’s letter,
Some of my writing,
quotes I love,
things to read,
things to watch,
and
travel tips.
Articles of the Week,
Lost in the Sikkim Countryside Alone–Learning to Unstuck Myself
A short, solo hiking adventure in the Eastern Himalayas, when I got lost close to my home stay, and the host family’s dogs abandoned me.
Read the narrative now. Or Pocket it for later.
The Road Taketh, and the Road Giveth–Moments of Bliss
I travel full-time—haven’t had a rented or owned home to call mine since February 2021. So when a friend asks, “What are your favorite moments from your journey?” many moments of bliss rush to me.
This is the story of one such moment of bliss on the road.
Read the narrative now. Or Pocket it for later.
From Homeless to Home in Himachal: Travel Serendipity
Homeless in Himachal during a storm but then we find cosy rooms in a monastery on the bank of the Rewalsar Lake. Travel Serendipity in the Indian Himalayas.
Enjoy the post. Or Pocket the article for later.
Quotes I Love
“The most precious light is the one that visits you in your darkest hour!”
Mehmet Murat ildan
"...because we are readers, we don't have to wait for some communications executive to decide what we should think about next—and how we should think about it. We can fill our heads with anything from aardvarks to zucchinis—at any time of night or day.”
Kurt Vonnegut
“When you look at life through eyes of gratitude, the world becomes a magical and amazing place.”
Jennifer Gayle
“History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.”
Seamus Heaney
What looked impossible became possible when I set out to do it.
Yours Truly
What I’ve Been Reading
I’ve been reading short stories, books, articles, and so much more. I can’t possibly list all what I have read in the past week so I’m putting down the things I found most relevant and worthwhile.
Recently I was writing a story—the Travel Serendipity narrative I shared above—which made me think of a conversation about the Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Then I remembered I had to share a few links on Sadhguru: the founder of the giant foundation Isha.
Sadhguru has an ongoing case against him for murdering his wife, has built his foundation Isha illegally, and is rude, unclear, and angry whenever he can't explain something or if someone from the audience calls him out. As I know many people trust in the Indian spirituality gurus, I want to continue sharing here the real stories behind some of these self-declared gods. Please give yourself a chance to doubt that some of these gurus might be fraud. See the evidence with a scientist's mind who is set out to find the truth no matter what.
Here are the relevant links:
2. Another one of Vincent van Gogh’s visionary letter: I always look to his letters for strength, strength as a creative, writer, pursuer of an art, and lover of this universe.
Careful study and the constant & repeated copying of Bargue's Exercices au fusain have given me a better insight into figure drawing. I have learned to measure and to see and to look for the broad outlines, so that, thank God, what seemed utterly impossible to me before is gradually becoming possible now.
Vincent van Gogh
What I’ve Been Watching/Listening
that’s worth mentioning
I haven’t seen or listened to anything new, except the calls of Kerala birds.
And for all adventure lovers!
As I have shared many pictures above, I am closing the letter with just this one picture here.
Taken in the forest around my current home in Kerala.
Thank you for reading.
I hope you have a great rest of the week :)
Let me know what you think about this letter. Press reply.
Yours,
Priyanka
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