Dear reader,
Thank you for being here! * tips hat * As I am penning this, there is an ongoing white noise of the rain pouring effortlessly outside my window and for once, I don’t feel the need to turn on the music because this is music enough. This newsletter is one of the first in what I hope to be an ongoing monthly affair fuelled by time and curiosity. However, before we dive into the contents, I think I owe it to you to explain how this came about and what you can expect out of all the forthcoming editions.
As someone who spends a good amount of time ‘online’, I thrive on well-articulated long forms, thought pieces, eye-opening talks and any form of content that is worth spending time on. But, when a wonderful work moves me, an innate need to share that possesses me and I start to hound everyone who would listen, to go read/ watch/ listen to that particular work of art because everyone needs to get a share of this wonderful work. Suffice it to say, I have spammed enough and more people on chat applications!
And in my quest for discovering more, I fell into the magical world of ‘Newsletters’. Removing the noise of email campaigns and new product releases, individual newsletters curated by artists and writers from different corners of the world became my new favourite and through this, I have had the pleasure of acquainting myself with some of the most amazing humans virtually. So, it was a no-brainer that I would eventually start a newsletter myself if only to have a space of my own to yap about the incredible stuff I unearthed.
Now moving on to the juicy details of the contents of the newsletter, here’s everything you can look forward to. On an average day, there is a ton of content that goes live on the internet (Tap this link for some fun, mind-boggling numbers!). So, even in the sanest of circumstances, it is not possible to keep oneself abreast of everything that goes on and even in the occasional cases when we do find the time, we miss out on content due to paywalls (don’t @ me), news feed chatter and mindless scrolling. So, in the interest of your time (read patience!) and efficiency, I took it upon myself to curate the best finds on the internet for your reading/ viewing/ listening pleasure in the hope that good content gets the attention and the recognition it deserves!
Poetry Corner
To the New Year by W S Merwin
With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning
so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible
Via Eckyo
The year 2020 was (insert a suitable adjective that best describes your experience of the year). With a pandemic ravaging the world, people took to the internet more than ever to articulate and make sense of this shared but strange reality! But more than ever, the need to feel hope was on the rise and many ‘Good news’ pages started making an appearance and they became an instant hit with everyone. So here are some of the best articles I came across.
On 2020
Other recommended links for the month:
If you loved reading through the links above, here are few other recommendations for the month.
Recommended Viewing
‘A beautiful day in the neighbourhood’ is a timeless story of kindness and a joyous celebration of the late Mr Rogers, whose virtuous traits, affected people across generations. It is based on an article from the esquire magazine which was published in the year 1998.
Bonus: Mr Rogers Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards
‘Sex Education’, a Netflix original, is a British teen drama focusing on a wide range of issues from LGBTQ to racism set against spellbinding locations from the great country of Wales. As a female-led TV show, this series offers a refreshing perspective on female friendships and the required literature on the different types of sexualities.
Bonus: Erin May Kelly’s powerful poetry performance based on Sex Education.
‘Thoraya Maranosey’, a youtube channel created by the founder of the same name is an interactive project with strangers where they are posed with a question, the answers to which are compiled into one great video. It offers many a great insight into our shared connectedness. Here is one of my all-time favourite videos featuring people reacting to being called ‘beautiful’ and this is the video where she speaks about her learnings through this project!
‘How I help free innocent people from prison’ is a TED talk by Ronald Sullivan, a Harvard law professor and a criminal lawyer on his experiences in fighting unlawful convictions of innocent people. His latest interview can be accessed here.
‘A magnetic and a meditative dance on the deserted shores of Iceland’ is a music video conceptualised by the Parisian director Neels Castillion to the music of Polish pianist Hania Rani’s ‘F Major’.
Recommended Listening
Modern Love, the podcast, is a popular series of reader-submitted essays on the trials and tribulations of love, as we know it, read out by notable personalities from tinsel town and some postscript notes from the essayist, the host and the editor. This was initially started as a column for The New York Times in 2004 where readers across the world were encouraged to send in their stories, the success of which eventually led into the making of a book with the best essays, and then a series on Amazon Prime in the same name and then a podcast which is one of the reasons I have come to enjoy my existence on this planet even more (Not kidding!). It is quite hard to pick out a few favourite episodes from the list because, every episode of this beautiful podcast presents a deep insight into being human in the most vulnerable, sincere way coupled with the wonderfully articulated ways of the author. The cherry on the top is the audio production and some bonus episodes from listeners all over the world. You can listen to this podcast on google, Spotify and any other platforms where you stream your podcasts.
All the stories are based on real-life incidents which are life-affirming in their own sweet way. The conversations that happen after the reading are always warm and funny, filled with memorable anecdotes from the author’s personal life.
Bonus: If you watched the series on Prime, then here is the link to what the actual story was, how they changed it for telly and what actually happened afterwards! (Yeah, am nuts over this ‘creation’ if you haven’t figured it out already :P)
Sweet Melancholy, a specially curated Spotify playlist titled by yours truly.
Recommended Reading
‘How to be a good creature’ by Sy Montgomery. If I could read just one book for the rest of my life, this would be it. This book was one of the picks for a book club I am part of and I am eternally grateful for the organisers for bringing this author’s work to my notice. If anything, the book offers a truly enriching perspective on the shared space we have with the cohabitants from the animal world.
Recommended Unravelling
There is an umpteen number of interesting sites which are worthwhile our time of which, these two are the top suggestions for this month.
Goodreads is a book cataloguing site which allows the user to clock in the books they read complete with the anticipated reads, dates read and also quotes from the authors.
Letterbox is a typical social networking site for movie buffs which allows the user to catalogue watched films along with the dates and leave reviews.
Recommended Subscribing
Newsletters are wonderful for a lot of reasons but specifically for having something nice to read in your mailbox amidst all the exasperating work deadlines and tiresome email campaigns. In that regard, I subscribe to some wonderful newsletters which make my mailbox look all the more pleasing for their mere presence in it. Hence, I shall be recommending one newsletter you can subscribe to as well.
For this month, I pick ‘Brain Pickings’ by Maria Popova. She sends out a Sunday and a midweek newsletter so subscribe as you see fit.
Unwanted Trivia:
I am a sucker for funny, random and weird days in a year. They are bat shit crazy and it is one rabbit hole I don’t mind going into now and then. So, if you are interested in this as me, here are some weird days for
January
Jan 17th: Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day
Jan 21st: Squirrel Appreciation Day (This is where you put out nuts and fruits for these furry rodents)
Jan 22nd: Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day (Don’t look at me, I didn’t create this :P)
Jan 25th: Backwards Day
February
Feb 4th: Thank your mailman day
Feb 10th: Umbrella Day
Feb 14th: Library Lovers Day (Book lovers unite!)
Feb 17th: Random Act Of Kindness Day
Word Of The Month: Doomscrolling/ Doomsurfing, are new terms referring to the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening, or depressing. This word became widely popularized during the pandemic.
And that is all I have to say for now. You are one of the valued subscribers of this very first attempt of mine so if you have read this far, you have my bottomless gratitude and love. I hope you enjoy discovering new content as much as I loved putting together this newsletter for you.
As a parting thought, I would like to leave you all with a question the answers to which, I may quote in the upcoming newsletter:
If you had to choose a word for the new year of 2021, what would it be?
Reply to the same mail with your answers, comments, feedback, virtual hugs and cookies :P And if you liked this newsletter, share with someone you think might benefit from this! Hope to meet you real soon in another brand new newsletter in February.
Much love,
Pavithraa
P.S: This newsletter was supposed to reach your mailboxes before the clock struck 12 AM but alas, here we are! Watch out for the next newsletter on the 18th of February :)
A gentle reminder to clear your mails regularly! :) #greentip
Hey Pavithra...though it started accidentally... nowadays I make sure that I've checked your insta stories. Most of the posts you share, I find them really good to read. So, it's a good news for me that you've started this newsletter. 😊
Hi Pavithraa. This is really nice. Thank you 👍😊