tiny magic turtles
Looking Inwards #15: the grandness of it all, nature as friend, a night train, textile love, Tagore, and itsy-bitsy tokens of life
Hi there!
Thank you for joining me.
I hope you are doing well and that your week has been peaceful.
as you can see, I have changed the title of the newsletter. It was a thoughtful recommendation by a reader, and I’m thankful. Do you like it better now?
Every week I sit down to write this newsletter, I have to think how my week went by. Some weeks are more joyous than others, a few fortnights harder than the rest, and many days have nothing outstanding to jump around about. I wonder if I should share those uneventful wretched weeks which don’t add any glitter to the milky way of a human life.
After all, all week I only wrote, cycled, sent some deep technical freelance work, fretted about editors’ deadlines, met some old and new friends, argued with my partner, spent some lovely time with him, plucked papayas and jackfruits from here and there, cooked, ate, did yoga, and read. As these summer months beckon cold showers twice a day, I spent a lot of time under water as well.
What is so exciting and interesting about these days that I should bedeck the letter with them?
Or is it so? Amidst this ordinary life is hidden the banter of ordinary genius.
yellow moss on a discarded tree stump
Most mornings I wake up early and get to hear a myriad of birds chirp to life. Little turmeric butterflies flutter around a large tree with pink feathery flowers. While reliving every-morning chorus, I remember one dawn I had completely forgotten until now.
I had woken up at 6 that day. As soon as I opened the back door of my room, the precious swell of the morning filled me. The chatter of birds welcomed me into the delight of the day. As if they were saying, “where have you been? Come, join us. See there is light and plentiful to be chirpy about.”
Barefoot, I walked out of the room and set myself on the sand-brick path that goes around the guesthouse. All kinds of birds had settled themselves on the high trees and they chatted without pausing. Light had started filling up the sky but sun was not to be seen. Fleecy clouds dotted the blue ceiling. The blue and white refreshed my eyes. This path is so known to me I already sense the fragrances that would hit my being in particular places on the track. Imbued with those early perfumes that not many had taken before me in that hour, I continued on.
A joyful feeling of well-being rose inside me. And to say, I was merely taking a walk. When I crossed into the other side of the guesthouse, I walked by the pond in which many small and big fish live. Tall weeds shoot out of the lake’s circumference and huge garden trees reflect in its face. In a corner, blue lotus gloom in full. And in the center of the pool, dark green weeds rise from beneath the surface. The center of the pond is full of these water plants in which must nest and breed the fish.
I often stand on the banks of this lake on my morning and evening strolls. Watching the water softly ripple, listening to the black and orange fish frolic in the water, and feeling the wind in my ears, I feel thankful for this life. In those moments, even a normal day seems like a luxury.
I take the saying — we should be amazed we are even here every minute of our existence — a bit too literally. Often, I’m wondering how did the plant I plucked from a forest months ago still blooms in an undisturbed water bottle, how did a kingfisher learn to dive and catch fish so skillfully, how did we prepare languages so complex that make no sense to someone while others could cry listening to just one word, and why does moon reflect so beautifully in the lake I want to scoop it out with my hands and spread it over a blue skirt.
the plant in the bottle with its own moss, spiders, fish, and all.
Mesmerized, I stood watching the lake that morning. And suddenly I saw a little something breathing the fresh air through the surface of the lake and paddling its back legs. This little life was so close to the weed in the center I was sure it had just come out and would go in soon after a few mouthfuls of the morning air. I squinted my eyes and found the being to be a little turtle.
Wow! a gasp of wonder escaped my mouth and I looked on. With in a few seconds, the turtle was gone. Just like that. The brown heron and the kingfisher appeared for their morning hunt. And the bigger orange and black fishes seemed too intimate reminding me of the oncoming summer and the plethora of new life it will bring along.
I walked through the mud path going by the side of the lake. I looked up to the blossoming mango, the flowering moringa, and the fruiting jackfruit only to be amazed again.
Wasn’t it me who was calling the past week ordinary and uneventful? I hadn’t plan to write about this morning walk in this letter. Honestly, I hadn’t remembered it until I started this draft. But the memory flowed to me, almost warning me to dare not call our existence a regular, normal, boring one.
Every minute of my life I wonder how we are even here. If only to be lost in the daily humdrum of the living and surviving. But if I open my eyes, prickle my ears, and let little bugs roll over my arm hair, I soon notice the grandness of our existence.
There is life coming out of every nook and corner. We only have to see closely. All the big events we plan and look forward to - our graduation, foreign trips, marriages, potlucks, successes, get togethers, movie nights, and so on, they all are awaited, but happen soon, and finish. In the end we are left with the loneliness of our being that can be complimented with this daily magic, if only we are ready to find it. Then we will never be alone.
If we all let ourselves witness even one percent of those tiny turtles of trickery that bedazzle our pool of life, we will never be lonely and bored.
What do you think really matters?
For this week’s letter,
Some of my writing,
quotes I love,
things to read,
things to watch,
and
travel tips.
Past Articles I’ve Just Renewed
A Road Trip From Bangalore to Coorg – Quintessential Karnataka [Updated for 2022]
Narrating my road trip from Bangalore to Coorg while talking about Kodagu culture, coffee estates, people of Coorg, and how to meaningfully explore Coorg district in Karnataka.
The point of these travel memoirs is not to tell anyone how to book a taxi or which guest house to stay in. I write to tell people about other people who are different in their ways but still us human beings.
Click to read the travel narrative and guide. Or Pocket for later.
Quotes I Love
“Even during a crisis, one has to pay attention to these minor issues; the world will heap obstacles in your path, but will still expect you to keep walking with your load.” — Rabindranath Tagore
“Mysterious and little-known organisms live within reach of where you sit. Splendor awaits in minute proportions.” — E.O. Wilson
“The Chinese character for catastrophe is the same as that which represents the word opportunity.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
“I can only be me.” — 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.
Starting with the most beautiful,
A Night Train in the Tropics by Keerthik Sasidharan — I loved reading this long-form, poetic-prose that takes the reader on a train journey transcending stations, moods, scenery, relationships, time, and the fluid movement of life.
The more they swam through life, through their middle ages, the more they recognized that their roles was not to complete the other person to form a mythic wholesomeness; but, instead, for my mother to be the custodian of his solitudes and for my father to be a voice of calm in her enthusiasm for life. The more they swam together, they recognized that nights could be just bright as days. They learnt to be independent, to look out for each other as to where the waves were rough, where the sharks lived, where a spot of sunlight had warmed the waters more than the other. The older they got the more confident they were about the other's intuitions. They learnt that to be correct is less important than to be kind towards each other. To forgive is indeed the greatest virtue.
On social media and sharing,
Was it the first time the term content curator was coined? — Manifesto For The Content Curator: The Next Big Social Media Job Of The Future? - Published in 2009, this piece by Rohit Bhargava predicts, perhaps for the first time, how the world would need more and more content selectors and aggregators when the data on the internet is exploding (doubling every 72 hours or even faster now).
A course I have been taking,
Given my profound love for the history of everything, I have started to take an insightful and free course on the textiles of India. From the art of color-dying the clothes naturally to where our textile industry stands right now, this Map Academy course has it all.
The horrible in the world that shall be known,
This tweet on how Ukrainian mothers are writing contact details on children’s body in case the mothers can’t survive, is heartbreaking.
The gang rape that isn’t yet solved, justice hasn’t been delivered, but people have already moved on. Newslaundry continues to report.
From the animal world,
What a majestic animal and how majestic is the spirit in which it is being saved - How former foes came together to rescue giraffes
These giraffe photos blew my mind, sort of
Beautiful books from the week,
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses By Robin Wall Kimmerer — A book of poetry, love, and mosses that will make us observe life around us more closely. Mosses were, after all, the first plants to crawl their way out of the water onto the earth.
Three Women by Rabindranath Tagore — In the three novellas in the book, Rabindranath explores the undercurrents of human relationships in his deeply thoughtful way. Observing every little change in the countenance of a human and weighing their word against what they might have meant to say, writings of Tagore can help us understand the world around us a little bit more.
Meanwhile I have also found some rare editions of books from the local library. I’m devouring a version of Alice in Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn with original illustrations, and Rainer Maria Rilke’s rare poetry collection. Will update here soon.
What I’ve Been Watching/Listening
This week has been more about writing and reading so I have nothing big to update here.
And for all my Wanderlusters!
Only a couple of photos as I have already shared much of the travel narrative from this week and photos above. Hope you enjoy.
life coming through the roof
a plant so beautiful I want to eat it right away
a clown fish coming in and out of an anemone in the aquarium of Pondicherry town
peaches on Himalayan trees
how can just a little grass be so beautiful and full of multi-colored flowers?
making the most of it and writing, in Himalayas, June 2021
Thank you for reading.
I hope your Sunday is curious and refreshing. Take good care of yourselves :)
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Yours,
Priyanka
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