under the moonlight
scrabble, wine, happy with what I do, rabbit stew and a penny or two, quotes, travel writing, Einstein, and solitude.
Hi there!
Thank you for joining me.
I hope you are doing well and your week has been peaceful. I didn’t send the newsletter last week but I’m sending it now.
The past fortnight was another one of those when I had a writing deadline. One of those kinds that suck me all in.
Apart from writing, I was reading a lot and have shared some of the books and blogs I read below. I have been spending a lot of time in nature, walking, doing yoga, meeting up with friends eating burgers, being slow, fixing old work, and wondering how horribly I used to write.
My intentions were good, my blog’s old content is meaningful, but the presentation, grammar, usage of words, long sentences, there is much I’m unhappy about.
But what upsets me also makes me happy. Now when I edit I see how far I have come along on the writing journey. I also realize I still have a long way to go.
I am almost about to complete five years living as an itinerant writer. And the changes I have gone through are profound.
One big change in me is I start my day with a little walk (if I can), I want to get to the most important thing of the day, and only then I think of what else is to be done. I eat tonne of fruits, I like to stay light during the day to write, I love going on infinitely long walks through the forest, I need homemade food to feel full, and I don’t like to speak many a times.
If we keep shifting our living spaces and places, changes in self become even more visible. As soon as I get to a camp or a treehouse or a room, I put my books, toilet paper, slippers, and toothpaste to make it my home. You may throw me out the next day but I would have already lived in it as if I own the place. I know I like quiet to write but I need music to fill the time in between (one of these days I want to share all my playlists on Youtube and Spotify).
But I wasn’t the one to get to the most important task of the day at 6 am five years ago. Neither did I care so much about making my life an adventure.
That’s how I was I guess. And this is how I am now.
When I was working in a bank as a software engineer I still had challenging days but there was only so much I wanted to solve. And look at me now. I want to submit to every magazine I lay my hands on. I’m noting down emails of all comic books I know take children’s stories. When in the library, I browse shelves and shelves of books ignoring what I already know but finding unknown every day. I want to find those I haven’t heard of.
I want to challenge myself. I want to know more. I want to dig deep. I want to learn and read and write and explore and go on.
Even though I am growing older, my energy is growing a hundred folds. Or so it seems. And I’m glad for having found my cause.
What about you? Have you found your rooting too? I hope you all have the pleasure to get to some work that makes you sing.
Its been raining here in Pondicherry and I have been enjoying the rain with wine and scrabble. Above us, shines the full moon until the clouds cover it all. Now light, then dark, the game goes on.
And the game is on in my life too. Staying devoted to one’s art isn’t easy especially if you come from a society that expects a lot out of you (especially if you are married and a woman). But here I am and I don’t plan to quit any soon irrespective of how many sleepless nights I spend thinking what they said shouldn’t have been said.
And I am not here to prove anything to anybody. After all these years, I am coming around to the feeling that this is what I was meant to do. And that’s enough for me.
Is the life you have made for yourself enough for you?
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
Powerful Quotes On Everything in Life
In this piece, I have shared some of the most profound quotes about life I have come across. The hope is to read these avant-garde quotes, to come back to them whenever we need them, and sift through them even when we feel we don’t require them. Thus we keep ourselves soaked in inspiration.
Click to read the inspirations. Or Pocket for later.
9 Creative Writing Tactics to Enrich Your Travel Writing
When anyone compliments my travel writing or says I have immense writing talent, I quietly remember the nights and days I spent bent on my computer writing, editing, reading aloud, deleting, rewriting, poring through books and blogs, and so on. I want to stand on a rooftop and scream that writing is less of an inborn talent and more of a muscle that strengthens as we exercise it more.
In this writing guide, I share the indispensable creative writing techniques that have helped me write engaging travel stories.
Read the 9 creative writing tactics now. Or Pocket the tips for later.
Quotes I Love
These are some of my favorite from the article I shared above.
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced .” — Soren Kierkegaard
“One of those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” — T.S. Eliot
“The shortest answer is doing the thing .” — Ernest Hemingway
“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.” — William Morris.
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” — Henry David Thoreau.
“We can only be with someone if they can be with our solitude.” — 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.
Delving a bit into finance,
I’ve been reading a lot about investments, stock markets, and mutual funds these days. And the open education platform of Zerodha (Online platform to invest in stocks, derivatives, mutual funds, and more) called Varsity has been helpful. Do tune in.
To read and see,
A (not so active) blog I’ve been enjoying — Megnut: This is about the simplest things of life. Like the short sweet life of Smokestack beef.
I’ve shared many illustrators, painters, and Twitter accounts who tweet old art. And here is another beautiful illustrator to follow — Lily Seika Jones (Instagram). Why not fill our walls with the beautiful and inspiring? The reality of the world will anyways scooch its way in.
Image Courtesy: Instagram of Lily Seika Jones
Beautiful books from the week,
Einstein: A Life in Science by John Gribbin and Michael White — This book has chapters on Physics before Einstein, how he dropped out of college, Einstein’s discoveries that changed how we understand the world, a deep explanation of his work, his personal journey, and the outwardly reception (or ridicule) thrown in Einstein’s direction unabashedly. Even the concepts how light travels, what happens when electromagnetic waves approach a celestial object, and quantum-wave behavior of particles: all of this is explained in depth. And I found that reading through the physical nature of the world is indispensable to understanding Einstein’s life. The authors also talk about Einstein’s opposition to his own quantum theory and the end of his life in the US.
Einstein: a life in Science is a great book for those who are interested in how science works, how a scientist’s mind thinks, and that great results can be achieved if one is not prejudiced towards one particular answer but is open to possibilities. Einstein’s Credo at the end is unmissable.
All books by James Herriot — All of the works of James Herriot, an English veterinarian, will cheer you up and fill you with joy and laughter. Herriot weaves his stories through his own experiences in northern England’s Yorkshire County. The adventures represent a simple rustic world driven by the cycles of nature.
Rabbit Stew and a Penny or Two by Maggie Smith-Bendell — A book by a woman who was once a gypsy in the US and later turned into a house-dweller. I loved reading the adventures of the little girl driving around in her parent’s wagon meeting up and disintegrating from other gypsy families. The troubles they faced and the wildflowers they picked on the way together made their life the adventure it was. And I can relate so much because I know what we get once we decide to get out of our own four walls.
Though this isn’t a regular travel book (as some would say), I don’t know what else would qualify as a journey. As someone who doesn’t have a permanent home myself and withdraw with fear at the aspect of buying a flat and “settling down”, I understood what Maggie felt when she finally had to live in a house.
I drew many lessons from the book, but more than that I accompanied Maggie and her wagon and the hundred other wagons on their wild wild trips. I recommend the book to those who want to see a different way to life (perhaps the natural way?) or want to read good memoirs which make one laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time.
What I’ve Been Watching/Listening
that’s worth mentioning
Phas Gaya Re Obama — This is a satirical comedy set in a small town of India. A NRI businessman loses everything during recession and returns to India hoping to sell his ancestral home. But the NRI is kidnapped in his hometown and then he is passed on from one kidnapper gang to another, at his own suggestion.
The movie is fun, informative, and a good parody on the gangsters of India, the economy of the world, and politics. While everyone thinks a US-returned businessman is bound to be rich, the man doesn’t have even the ticket money to return to the US and has to figure out ways to make money out of nothing. And isn’t that life? Out of control and illogical.
And for all my Wanderlusters.
I’m sharing a couple of photos from the past couple of months of my travel through the east coast of India. Hope you enjoy.
a simple vegetarian meal in Pondicherry
faith finds its way
a book I had just been reading (or should I say seeing?)
living in auroville be like
riding horses in Pondicherry
beauty finds its way
so much is going on here
the colorful Pondicherry pottery mart
random cows everywhere. And the cows think, random human beings everywhere.
trees.
wall drawings in the botanical garden of Pondicherry. This one is a little tilted and I like it so.
another one from the same garden.
Thank you for reading.
I hope your week is energetic and in harmony. Take good care of yourselves :)
Let me know what you think about this newsletter. Just press reply.
Yours,
Priyanka
Eduard Kasparides (1858–1926), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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