This year is racing past like a rabbit on steroids and every now and then, I reflect on the weeks going back, take a deep sigh and move on with the next task on my plate.
Given the ongoing guilt I feel of not examining/reflecting enough, this weekly writing is the least I can commit to, for my own sanity. I also got inspired by a similar weekly writing project by a friend who also seems to be on a similar documentation path in life.
This week in the studio
Last Saturday, Satya didi, our cook plucked almost five kilos of mangoes from the tree that’s right outside our balcony. I had been eyeing the mangoes ever since they started ripening but I didn’t imagine that’s how many they’ll turn out to be. Looking at the plucked harvest, I went back to see that there were almost double of the harvested amount still hanging from the tree. I am not adept at thinking of the delicacies to be made (generally not creative in the kitchen and not a foodie for sure) so the task of putting all these mangoes to good use is left to Satya didi.
2. On Saturday, after a hiatus of more than a year, I was able to organise a small ‘Drawing Room’ session with friends. We got with the initial intention of making collages but ended up drawing zines. These sessions had become a weekly activity in 2022-23 and somehow I loosened my grip on it and the sessions made way for just house parties. Anyway, with this session, Kenneth got a lot of great coffees to brew along with a substantial brewing equipment and Noopur, Rasagy, Paras and I got the pleasure of sipping on amazing coffee while drawing.
3. After much back and forth (a little heated back and forth), I finally received the packaging envelopes for my independent temp tattoo brand, Anomalie Tattoo Co and knew that the rest of the week was going to be spent in packing orders and dispatching them. Specially because customers had started asking for their order updates and I was losing patience rapidly. So when the envelopes finally arrived, I hugged them for good luck and started dispatching our first tattoos to customers!
4. I went to Spirit Forward, a bar that was taken over by a Goan bar, Grumps. Its not usual that I feel the need to go out for a drink but I was positively grumpy that day and felt that a yummy drink could fix my mood. Fix it did actually. The cocktails were quite yummy but I ended up eating a wild mushroom dish that made the next day quite unbearable for me in the stomach department.
5. I received the hand tufted rugs made from my drawings and without any shame, I was smitten the moment I set my eyes on them. There’s definitely more of them coming specially with how they came out.
Writing this on a Friday night going through the phone photo gallery made me acutely aware of how documenting our lives and reflecting on them can stretch the fabric of time, albeit a little bit.