The Internet Personified: A kiss is still a kiss in Casablanca

Back in Delhi, I'm writing this with two air purifiers on and a streaming allergy-cold keeping me from feeling at my optimal bright eyed and bushy tailed. But it's great to be back in my beloved flat, with my beloved cats (who have vanished to nap in a secret place at the moment, but it's comforting to know that they're around.) Delhi, devoid of home, cats, family and friends would be a post-apocalyptic world where the sky is an ominous orange grey as you circle above it, and nothing to recommend it except a few brief months of good weather.

Anyway, this newsletter is going to be kind of thin, seeing as all I did this past week was prepare to leave and then arrive.

This week in life dreams coming true: Taken one step closer to our eternal question, "Why don't we just move to Goa?" and have rented an old crumbling mansion for ourselves on an eleven month lease. I have a grand total of SIX friends in Goa (which is not bad) and am well on my way to making six more. The house is in the process of being cleaned and pest controlled and the massive garden cleared and weeded and by the time we return in December, should be fully functional (but then, it's Goa, so I'm just hoping.)

This week in Things That Are Inconvenient About Goa Should You Choose To Live There Full Time: 'coz you've gotta take the bad with the good, guys. Thing one: garbage collection happens ONCE A MONTH in villages like the one we're living in, even if said village is home to many bustling restaurants and bars. Most people drive their garbage over to a literal hill of garbage on top of another hill, but we intend to compost + separate. Still, is a pain in the ass. (Alternatively, you can pay Rs 20,000 a month for a private garbage collector to come.) Thing Two: Everything. Is. Very. Slow. That's people, services, even your spotty Airtel signal. Prepare for patience, and not being able to get any work done involving other people between about 1 pm to 4 pm. Thing Three: The wild is waiting. And the wild is usually winning, too. Abandon your house for the monsoon and sunnier climes and come home to mystery smells, crawling creatures and things that go bump in the night.

Oh, but the sky is so blue.

This week in But I Don't Wanna Play Nice!: I'm a member of a Whatsapp group run by my neighbourhood association, which I check in with every now and then to see whether there's going to be a power cut/water shortage etc. Some of these people are hilarious. And terrible. Hilariously terrible? When I first joined, there was a circular going round asking "Brahmin members" to please come and join a little "Brahmin club" some people had started. (Thankfully they were soon hissed and booed offline, where I'm sure the Brahmin club still meets and laments the good old days.) More recently, the subject of a Dusshera mela came up, and a bunch of people were all "I HOPE IT'S ONLY GOING TO BE VEGETARIAN FOOD BECAUSE WE'RE INDIAN AND FESTIVAL TIME MEANS VEGETARIANISM." Uh, no, and also, do I feel sorry for you for never attending the meat heavy feast days of the Telengana region. Mmm. I'm not sure what consensus is, but I think the non-veg will win (yay). (This whole story was just to tell you how much I love meat, esp festival meat.)

This week in stuff I wrote: I'm finishing a Book you guys, so totally flaked on columns, except my fortnightly feminism one for the Week, on concepts of female beauty.

Reading list: I Capture the Castle is, without a doubt, one of the finest YA books ever written (and my personal favourite.) ** Indian housewives in America. ** Every single black character in a white movie. **

Have a great week!
xx
m

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