Week 22
3 min readJun 5, 2022
- I feel great, I really do.
- I might be moving soon, with a friend, and we’re so incredibly excited to bring into reality the kind of life we dreamed of together back when we were languishing in college.
- The prospect of moving is also making me spend more time with the Rain trees outside my balcony. I will miss them. Moving in to this house was the first time I experienced trees from the vantage point on the 4th floor. I get to look out at a level where they’re gloriously spread out. Not from ground level staring up to look at the underside of their canopy (something none of us do nearly enough of), and neither from a tall building or airplane looking down at the trees resembling broccoli. No no, I get to look at their most overwhelming part at eye level — the part where the branches span across my entire view of the sky. It’s like I’m in a tree house. And I love it. So so much.
There’s never enough time to follow the network of each branch, to watch squirrels chase each other up and down the branches (quick detour - I had no idea squirrels climb so high up into trees! They don’t have wings! Are they not afraid?! I would love to imbibe some of that fearlessness, if that’s what it is.), to be delighted at discovering that parrots (or are they parakeets?) live in the hollow close to my window, the White-eyes that live in the adjacent hollow along the same branch, and the occasional Brahminy that perches on branches slightly further away. I was fortunate enough to watch the trees change with the seasons — as they shed their leaves in the winter leaving me to trace the shapes of just their skeletons, when they suddenly sprouted new leaves in just a matter of days (why can’t my house plants learn a thing or two from them?), and when their delicate feathery pink and white flowers bloomed and dropped (also realised that the flowers are hardly visible when you’re inside the tree, and more so when you see the outside of the canopy). Now I enjoy them with a cup of steaming chai or hot chocolate as their sturdy branches sway to the strong stormy winds when it rains, and the sudden flashes of lightening in the sky create a momentary intricate black and white silhouette.
The Rain trees constantly remind me of my capacity for wonder. None of the pictures or videos I’ve taken of the trees have actually been able to do justice to their character — my only option is to stare at them intensely enough to permanently etch them in my brain. Thankfully, the city seems to be full of Rain trees and I know a time will come again when I get to live in their company again. - Moving on from my current tree obsession, I watched Stranger Things S4 and it was a pleasant surprise. They did not fail to recreate that retro nostalgic ambience that I’m a sucker for, and the soundtracks slap as usual. This scene (spoiler alert) made me feel a lot of feelings, not gonna lie.
- I’ve been reading a bit of Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running to fuel my own journey towards better physical endurance. This week for me was about realising that the pause is, in fact, as important as the note.
- I’ve also been reading a bit of Neil Gaiman’s Art Matters kindly lent to me by Shruti. This excerpt about how fiction builds empathy is one that I have deeply resonated with for a while.
- I also read Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere this week. It was an okay quick read. But a good reminder to not lose a rebellious spark.
- I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift’s reputation album for over a month now and I’m still not sick of it. Very typical of Taylor.
