WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
1.
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind, more specifically: a tiring whirlwind. I spent almost all of last week wrapping up as much work I as could before I took time off at the end of the year. I was going on leave a full week before most of my TypeTogether colleagues, so I was all the more keen not to leave any of them with incomplete work that they would have to tackle in my absence.
I also had a really productive meeting discussing the first design directions for the lettering commission I’ve been working on. We chose which way we’d like to go, and I am looking forward to picking that up again in the new year.
2.
Last Friday, Amber and I hopped on a train early morning to head to Lucknow. There was terrible traffic near the station, even around 5:30 am. While we didn’t miss our train, it was a stressful beginning to our travels, especially since Amber lost his beloved HMT watch in the kerfuffle.
My main agenda in Lucknow was to photograph some more street lettering in order to put together a collection that will be exhibited next January. I met folks at Sanatkada and Lucknow Bioscope, who have me some excellent recommendations for the neighbourhoods I should try to explore, and even introduced me to local sign painters. The days were gruelling — lots of walking on busy streets, going back to places in the right light, and generally being out for hours. I was also struggling with getting the right shots in congested locations and becoming increasingly stressed out in the process. The focus was too soft, and the angles weren’t perfect, but Harshay helped out with some ideas.
We ate some delicious meals at Naimatkhana, and ended each day at The Fresh Factory, which was pretty close to where we were staying. Their cinnamon hot chocolate was just the pick-me-up that I needed every evening.
On our last night in Lucknow, we met Noopur and Kenneth, who were in the city for a family gathering. Noopur and I met in three different cities this year! It is a tough thing making friends as we grow older, even more challenging when the person who want to get to know better lives thousands of kilometres away. But thanks to Noopur making the kindest offer last year, we’ve both tried and I am so happy to have a kindred spirit in my life.
3.
On Tuesday, we traveled from Lucknow to Kolkata, for few more days of hectic photo documentation. Even though it was a short trip, I was able to meet Ananya and Kritika, and it was really nice to have conversations about design and life, and in general, put faces to names you only see crop up on social media. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hang out with Ankush, who got busy with some unexpected work during that time.
We spent many afternoons at Motherland Café, and had an excellent dinner at Sienna Café, but overall we were underwhelmed by the food options around our hotel. It didn’t help that service was quite poor in one of the cafés nearby.
I find Kolkata a challenging city to be in — so beautiful in parts, but it can be unclean to the point of unhygienic. And there is a slowness about everything that is opposite to what I enjoy about city life.
Photography, too, was tough here because of the congestion, and the fact that many streets were misaligned with the sun’s path 🙈
4.
We got back to Delhi on Saturday afternoon, and the same evening went for a Christmas get-together at Rishabh’s. He had cooked an excellent spread. We met some of Amber’s college classmates, and despite our original intentions, ended up staying quite late.
Now I am looking forward to a fortnight at home, where we can both relax before going back to work in 2025.