Hello!
A couple of days ago, as I was meandering through the internet, I came across an interesting perspective on chores. Often mundane, and time-consuming, I am yet to come across someone who genuinely gets excited about doing them. Chores, pile up, taking up vast swathes of time and energy, that we procrastinate, and often snowball into a dreadful To-Do list that doesn’t seem to end. However, when seen from a different perspective, they can also be thought of as something cyclical in nature.
Diving into our To-Do lists can help us stay more present while taking off the pressure of wanting to do something productive with our time. The repetitive nature often grounding, and hence being a reward in itself.
Reading Corner
Haven’t been doing a good job of reading this month, and I find myself falling back on my TBR list. Going to skip this month, and hopefully will have more updates for you in the next edition.
Writing Corner
In our previous edition, I shared a scene of conflict between a couple. In this snippet, I attempted to create an ‘exposition’- giving background into the story to see why they were having this conflict. I may serialize this story in upcoming editions as I get more ideas. For now, please read and enjoy!
I met Ronald for the first time at a friend’s birthday party.
“….And I wasn’t prepared for it to rain for 2 days straight. I was camping in the cold the whole time. My phone wasn’t working, I couldn’t call for help and I had not eaten in that entire period”, He raised his eyebrows to emphasize the difficulty. He was standing in the balcony, his voice inviting me to listen more. There was a small group around him, listening intently.
“But when the sun came on the third day, after all that, it seemed like I got my life back,” he gestured with his hands. It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I had seen in my life”, he concluded and took a sip from his beer can.
Our eyes met.
“Nice story.”, I found myself saying before I knew it. It was the beginning of wanting to seek his validation, a desire that only got more intense as time went on and he became an important part of my life. Others followed with compliments. My compliments were not as detailed as Nirupama’s, who sounded more confident than I had, who had a similar experience to share, and who possessed the beauty that came with regular visits to hair salons and having the means to purchase new clothes every season. I knew who was more likely to leave a good impression on him by the end of the night, and it wasn’t me.
The night had belonged to Ronald. I saw Ronald drifting through the crowd, cracking jokes with them, with an ease that seemed like they had known each other for years. How can someone be so good with people? I want to be a friend of this guy, I found myself thinking. Maybe Nirupama felt the same. I saw her making her way to the same place where he was, comfortably placing herself in the middle of conversations without waiting for an invitation.
I wanted that too. I wanted to speak with him, laugh with him and spend time with him. But I couldn’t compete with Nirupama’s beauty or charm. Attending this party was already out of my comfort zone, and seeing Nirupama and Ronald standing next to each other, mirroring each other’s words, it made more sense to continue to maintain the orders of the universe.
A charming, Rich guy meets Charming Rich Girl. They charm each other and the rest of us with their charming stories and live happily ever after.
Click here to read the next episode.
Learning Corner
Some interesting things that I found on the internet
Lounge Corner
In loving memory of Robbie Coltrane who made Hagrid come to life-
Thank you all for reading!
Talk soon,
Pratiksha
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