#34. Claw Clips, Diwali @ home, and finding balance
October 2024 Round-Up
Hello!
October was the first month the newsletter's weekly cadence was sent out. In addition to sending this newsletter often, I have also started testing Notes, and I am warming up to it.
I wrote about Claw Clips earlier this month and you can find an excerpt below-
Reading Corner
In the winter of 2020, I made a list of books I wanted to read by Indian authors. After spending the summer reading non-fiction, self-help-styled motivation books, I wanted to spend long evenings of winter, reading classics or books that were ‘heavy’. After this list was compiled, the hunt for the books began. I had a habit of reading from my Kindle and found it easy to find books by Western-origin authors. But Indian classics had been slow to transition to Kindle. With limited luck, I was able to source some of them from Blossoms at Church St., Bangalore.
A Fine Balance was one of them.
Writing Corner
My best friend and I slump on the couch after a heavy meal. Together, we made holige (also known as obattu, puran poli, or simply poli), carefully churning the chana dal filling and patting the dough by hand into perfect rounds. We had other accompaniments too—a side of kosambari (which my friend’s partner casually called salad), poori with saagu, white rice with holige saaru, and curd rice with a mustard tempering. Later that evening, I slip on my winter jacket and step outside to light sparklers. For the decor, we have put up Thorana ( Mango leaves that we sourced from the Indian store) and plenty of Diyas all around. In the evening, we do a little Lakshmi Puja, singing Lakshmi Aarti, and feeling wholesome.