Welcome, dear reader, to another edition of my newsletter!
Breakfast is my favourite mealtime - it seems to be a quieter experience than other mealtimes, catching you somewhere when youâre still not fully awake; the day hasnât happened to you yet. I tend to wake up early and spend a lot of time breakfast-ing, and then I invariably run late to whatever Iâm supposed to get to.
Iâm always too early and then suddenly too late.
Within just India, breakfast choices are so varied. When I studied in Pune, the discovery of the number of things one can eat with pav blew my mind. The fact that Odias eat puri with kheer blew my mind. Eating dosa with the previous nightâs chicken curry at my close friendâs house blew my mind. I found it interesting to know the differences and similarities between what people eat for breakfast across the world.
I like to think that Iâm open to all types of breakfast foods, but I really dislike cereal. Although itâs convenient, it feels so uninspired. I remember feeling very jealous of Americans for having so many sugary cereal options when I was younger, looking wistfully at Cocoa Puffs ads on the back of Archie comics. From this essay, Corn Flakes Made Me Hate Myself, I learnt that the Cornell Food and Brand Lab conducted a study that found that cereal boxes are placed in supermarkets in such a way that the character/person on the cover makes eye contact with their target audience. An excerpt:
This finding shows that cereal box spokes-characters that make eye contact may increase positive feelings towards the product and encourage consumers to buy it ⊠A second key finding from the same study is that the average angle of the gaze of cereal spokes-characters on cereal boxes marketed to kids is downward at a 9.6 degree angle whereas spokes-characters on adult cereal look almost straight ahead⊠Results show that characters on cereals marketed to children make incidental eye contact with children and cereals marketed to adults make incidental eye contact with adult shoppersâŠ.. the children's cereals were placed on the bottom 2 shelves while the adult cereals were placed on the top 2 shelves.
In many parts of Bangalore, auto drivers go by instinct, rather than by the meter. One evening last month, I walked away proudly, wordlessly, angrily, from an auto driver who quoted an exorbitant amount for a three kilometre ride. He drove behind me, trying to bargain, but I didnât respond. He kept at it, though, and after a few hundred metres I finally turned around and told him what I was willing to pay - it was more than half of what he had said. He shrugged, then nodded, and I got in. What proceeded for the next few kilometres was a life lesson lecture (frankly, one my favourite way to pass time). âYou have to face your fearsâ, the auto driver told me. âYou canât just walk away. Even if I had said one lakh, you should tell me your priceâ.
âWould anyone have paid what you quoted?â I asked him. âYou never knowâ, he said. âI had to at least tryâ. He went on - âIn life, if you run away from your problems, youâll never rest. When you face your fears, you get gutsâ. I appreciated the advice, so I gave him a coconut I happened to have with me. We parted, me - encouraged; him with a coconut.
Sometimes, advice finds you at the right time.
Although it wasn't any extraordinary advice, I heard it exactly when I needed to hear it. Thatâs a good case for oversharing, something my friend Protima told me. She said that you never know when someone is going to be moved by something, or going to feel connected. So overshare. Someone, somewhere, might need to hear it/ read it/ see it.
The modern world is sometimes so funny. I recently learnt about the emailing etiquette of âmoving you to BCCâ. So this âemerging etiquetteâ is ⊠a thing:
âBim, bam, blessedly silent boomâpoliteness all around. Itâs so elegantâŠ. You were shown the greatest gift another human can offer to another, on email: You were given the present of non-presence. So to have been moved to BCC is to have been liberated, but only almost; until the next round of replies, you will exist in a kind of epistolary purgatoryâ.
I think it would make great song lyrics, something like: âSet me free/move me to BCCâ. Okay, itâs not the best. Let me know if you come up with something better!
At this time of the year, the rain trees all shed their leaves. In the afternoons, the patches of shade youâre used to are now transformed into skeletal figures with sunlight filtering through, lighting up the carpet of fallen leaves on the road.
The above picture is taken in the LIC colony in Bangalore. In the seventies, the Life Insurance Corporation offered policy holders the opportunity to buy a flat once their policy matured.
I learnt a lot about the LIC Colony in Mumbai from the documentary Lovely Villa. Charles Correaâs architecture was meant to reflect the ideals of India - different house sizes would ensure that people from varying income levels lived there; there were people from different parts of the country, it was âa cross-section of the Indian middle class of the 1970sâ. The unique design of the colony ensured cross-ventilation, and open terraces received âthe blessings of the skyâ. Neighbours would sit on the step which separated the entrance of the houses from the landing, and chat with each other. Itâs a film about spaces, about growing up, about families and about colonies - all the feels. You can find the full film here.
In a couple of weeks, those rain trees will all grow new leaves. Itâs another spring, or pre-summer really, another few months of âIt wasnât ever this hot!â, another season of mangoes âŠ
How early in the year it begins to be late! It matters not by how little we have fallen behind; it seems irretrievably late. The year is full of warnings of its shortness, as is life.
Doesnât it feel like the months and years are just going by faster and faster?
So spend each day mindfully. You might be calmer if you make peace with the fact that our time is finite.
Take my advice, Iâm not using it.
Nitya
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I am thoroughly enjoying your writeups. With every article, I see your wonderful progress. Its funny, simple and with lot of takeaways. Love you lots