In this newsletter we are digging through my notes, a compilation of thoughts, quotes, or excerpts that I stubble upon in books, movies, newsletters, blog posts, and occasionally on Pinterest, which I diligently note down - on paper or on tablet.
Enjoy these random note entries from my archives. Hope they make sense to you (even if not, hope you enjoy a glimpse of my organised yet chaotic notes)
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July 2022
Discovered the words of Pulitzer Winning Author John McPhee -
“A great paragraph is a great paragraph wherever it resides, he’d say. It could be in your diary.”
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April 2020
Mid-Lockdown
Why True Love Doesn’t Have To Last Forever by The School Of Life
We appear fundamentally unable to trust that a relationship could be at once sincere, meaningful and important – and yet at the same time fairly and guiltlessly limited in its duration.
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Undated Entry
I Wonder!
Do you ever wonder if you will add up to something? Do you ever wonder if you were even meant to if you even want to? Why is our worth intrinsically tied up to what our life adds up to?
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August 2022
While reading a Novel by Orhan Pamuk
We are all collectors of memories. We are a collection of all the memories we archive.
Orhan Pamuk writes in The Museum of Innocence,
“We can bear the pain only by possessing something that belongs to that instant.” The quality and significance of emotions deposited within it, even subconsciously, make it a treasured entity, sometimes despite its sheer mundane nature.
Then again, I wonder what is the relevance of these traces, these memories, these objects?
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Undated Entry
An excerpt I stumbled upon explained why women are obsessed with romance and how it fails them. Wow!
Women love romances because it is one of the few narrative genres which portray men as being just as invested in love, in the relationship, as the woman is. There’s great and reassuring parity there. Women dream of a man who will find them as essential to his happiness as the man is to theirs, who holds love and the Ideals it enshrines as supremely important. Romeo refused to go on living when he thought Juliet was dead.
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April 2021
Mid-Another-Lockdown
Read this essay (Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person) by Alain de Botton
Finally, we marry to make a nice feeling permanent…. Choosing whom to commit ourselves to is merely a case of identifying which particular variety of suffering we would most like to sacrifice ourselves for.
(Lol, that last line truly made me chuckle. The entire essay is quite fun, read it whenever you can)
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December 2018
From one of my favourite novels - Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
“He came. He left. Nothing else had changed. I had not changed. The world hadn't changed. Yet nothing would be the same. All that remains is dream-making and strange remembrance.”
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October 2023
A friend sent me a screenshot of an excerpt by Maria Popova and it was comforting.
“Few things limit us more profoundly than our own beliefs about what we deserve, and few things liberate us more powerfully than daring to broaden our focus of possibility and self-permission for happiness. The stories we tell ourselves about what we are worthy or unworthy of - from the small luxuries of naps and watermelon to the grandest luxury of a passionate creative calling or a large and possible love - are the stories that shape our lives.”
That’s it for this one! Hope you enjoyed that.
And if you have any notes in your archives you’d love to share, please do send them across. I’d love to read what you found worth documenting :)
This time around, I’d like to share some things that make my life better:
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Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux. This book documents the all-consuming passion of a love affair and it does it so well. I’d recommend it to anyone who has ever loved and desired another with a burning, irrational logic.
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Valerie Lin. A YouTube Creator I revere. Her art, her voice, her videos, all of it is akin to a calming, heartwarming hug.
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Mangalyam. Clearly, it’s the wedding-guest within me that is recommending this. But, this song truly makes me happy. Love it!
Before you go, enjoy some favourites from my gallery!
Blooming bougainvillaeas can brighten up your mood any day.
This gorgeous photograph pinned on the studio wall always makes me happy! How comforting it would be to lay under a tree canopy alongside my favourite women.
One of the many ethnic outfits I wore this wedding season :)
Until the next one sending love and a warm cup of chai,
Krupa 🌺
