Actually you absolutely must envy my boarding school experience! Best years of my life. Where else would a teenager after the 2000s have been allowed to live an analog existence? Life sang in a clearer pitch. There's little mental noise, and you have no option but to make friends for life too. It was also a large beautiful valley that was all ours to explore. Pretty much a dream, tbh.
Where did you grow up? Did you enjoy the 'analog existence', or did you mean something else?
The letters, yes, I re-read them sometimes. Not too often because the effect isn't so visceral then (diminishing marginal returns or whatever lol).
Of course, the memories come tumbling back when I read them, and so does the longing. A Blueprint for Life from that period + place has been branded so deep into my brain that I know the rest of my life I will just spend chasing that feeling. That's my fatal flaw, I guess - that I'm afflicted with the dis-ease and restlessness that comes from having felt a fundamental kindness someplace and assuming that that is the default state of the world. Maybe you know what I'm speaking of?
I've really digressed, but I also haven't articulated myself like this in a while, so I will not delete this haha. I'm reminded of some note you'd posted a while ago when you were considering what the ideal response length + tone (?) is for online conversations (??) - I clearly do not know, either.
Alright, I'll envy it 😅 I grew up in Ooty, a mountain town with a bunch of boarding schools far removed from the city. I didn't go to one of those though.
"the disease and restlessness that comes from having felt a fundamental kindness someplace and assuming that is the default state of the world." Hmm... Never quite thought of it that way, interesting way to put it.
Did I post some note like that? I don't remember, but I wouldn't be surprised given that "how much is too much" is one of my preoccupations lol. (Don't delete, I like to observe how people's minds work)
You're welcome, Maria. It's funny, Kierkegaard has been popping up on my radar ever since I read that note. I loved writing this one too, maybe I'll do a part 2 sometime :)
I’m sure this is definitely not the part of this week’s newsletter you most wanted to impress upon your readers, but I'll tell you anyway: I reacted viscerally to the ‘Bangalore, 16th April’ at the top.
I went to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere where we were literally cut off from the rest of the world. Except for newspapers and letters (!!) (and a rationed 2 phone calls from a phonebooth each month, which is a story for another day).
And that's how I ended up with a large cloth bag of letters! Brief blue inland letters, birthday cards, long handwritten ones, a set of photographs from another continent!
Most of those years have thus been papered down for posterity, and that period of my life has taken on the same sepia-tone as those letters now, in my mind's eye.
All this to say, again, that 'Bangalore, 16th April' made my heart ache (in a great way!) and none of us should ever stop signing the date and place onto books we gift and the rare letters we still write.
Hey Bharati! I insert little twists like that hoping readers engage with it and it feels good to know how they landed. Thanks for letting me know :)
Man, that boarding school sounds like a lot... and kind of reminds me of the town I grew up in? I don't envy your boarding school experience, but having that bag of letters to look back on must really be something. Do you reread them? How do they make you feel when you revisit them? Didn't expect a comment like this but it's so cool!
Actually you absolutely must envy my boarding school experience! Best years of my life. Where else would a teenager after the 2000s have been allowed to live an analog existence? Life sang in a clearer pitch. There's little mental noise, and you have no option but to make friends for life too. It was also a large beautiful valley that was all ours to explore. Pretty much a dream, tbh.
Where did you grow up? Did you enjoy the 'analog existence', or did you mean something else?
The letters, yes, I re-read them sometimes. Not too often because the effect isn't so visceral then (diminishing marginal returns or whatever lol).
Of course, the memories come tumbling back when I read them, and so does the longing. A Blueprint for Life from that period + place has been branded so deep into my brain that I know the rest of my life I will just spend chasing that feeling. That's my fatal flaw, I guess - that I'm afflicted with the dis-ease and restlessness that comes from having felt a fundamental kindness someplace and assuming that that is the default state of the world. Maybe you know what I'm speaking of?
I've really digressed, but I also haven't articulated myself like this in a while, so I will not delete this haha. I'm reminded of some note you'd posted a while ago when you were considering what the ideal response length + tone (?) is for online conversations (??) - I clearly do not know, either.
Alright, I'll envy it 😅 I grew up in Ooty, a mountain town with a bunch of boarding schools far removed from the city. I didn't go to one of those though.
"the disease and restlessness that comes from having felt a fundamental kindness someplace and assuming that is the default state of the world." Hmm... Never quite thought of it that way, interesting way to put it.
Did I post some note like that? I don't remember, but I wouldn't be surprised given that "how much is too much" is one of my preoccupations lol. (Don't delete, I like to observe how people's minds work)
Thank you for the shoutout, Adhithya.
Interesting read, I love letters about letters. Maybe you should make one more of these.
You're welcome, Maria. It's funny, Kierkegaard has been popping up on my radar ever since I read that note. I loved writing this one too, maybe I'll do a part 2 sometime :)
I’m sure this is definitely not the part of this week’s newsletter you most wanted to impress upon your readers, but I'll tell you anyway: I reacted viscerally to the ‘Bangalore, 16th April’ at the top.
I went to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere where we were literally cut off from the rest of the world. Except for newspapers and letters (!!) (and a rationed 2 phone calls from a phonebooth each month, which is a story for another day).
And that's how I ended up with a large cloth bag of letters! Brief blue inland letters, birthday cards, long handwritten ones, a set of photographs from another continent!
Most of those years have thus been papered down for posterity, and that period of my life has taken on the same sepia-tone as those letters now, in my mind's eye.
All this to say, again, that 'Bangalore, 16th April' made my heart ache (in a great way!) and none of us should ever stop signing the date and place onto books we gift and the rare letters we still write.
Hey Bharati! I insert little twists like that hoping readers engage with it and it feels good to know how they landed. Thanks for letting me know :)
Man, that boarding school sounds like a lot... and kind of reminds me of the town I grew up in? I don't envy your boarding school experience, but having that bag of letters to look back on must really be something. Do you reread them? How do they make you feel when you revisit them? Didn't expect a comment like this but it's so cool!