This past week was a pleasant change of pace, what with travel taking up most of it. I’ve also been a bit better at soothing myself about potential changes that might dominate our lives in the coming months. I can’t say that I’ve made friends with the uncertainty, but it is no longer keeping me up at night. On the other hand, I’ve been thinking a lot about small adjustments I need to make in my life so it becomes less rushed and more fulfilling. So all in all, it has been a pretty reflective few days.
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
1.
I spent most of the week in Udaipur, where I was visiting my friend Ambika and participating in activities at LAB59, an artist-led practice, research and community space that she is running alongside Nanditi and Agat. My trip coincided with Anushka’s time as a resident at the lab, and so they kickstarted things with an informal convening called cmmn.rm (common room) where Anushka, Agat and I shared a little bit about our respective practices.
My planned activity at LAB59 was an exploratory type walk around the old parts of Udaipur. While I helped a motley group see the details of the letterforms we saw there, Amber recorded them as photographs and Nanditi documented the sounds from the same locations. After that, Ambika, Nanditi and I brainstormed how we might put our collective skills together to create an experience that captured what we saw and heard during the talk. We came up with and discarded a few ideas before zeroing in on what we’re working on now. There wasn’t enough time to complete our project during my stay but we built a small prototype, and I hope that the finished work will take shape soon.
2.
The trip gave Amber and I a chance to sample plenty of local food: we ate a thali at Traditional Khana, where the highlight was chakki ki subzi; sampled kachoris, poha and jalebis from Jogmaya along with special mirchi wade from a shop a little outside the city; tried papad and methi ki subzi at Dhabology; and had a breakfast thali at Tapri Niwas with the thinnest, crispiest jalebis one could imagine.
We also spent an afternoon with everyone from LAB59 at Jajam. I am not much of a co-working space kind of person, but the setting was quite beautiful, and with friends around, it was fun to spend time working from there.
3.
An account of this trip would be incomplete without mentioning Yugen, Ambika and Agat’s six-year old. I had last met him properly before the pandemic, when he was still a toddler. And unsurprisingly, he is completely different now — so full of energy and always ready with clever remarks. There aren’t many children in my life, so it always feels like a revelation spending time with one.
We also hung out with Purneetha’s brother and sister-in-law. Most of the delicious food we ate came down to their recommendations. They were very kind not only with that, but also with taking us to some of these places, and generally making us feel very much at home in Udaipur.
4.
Once back, I had a meeting with TypeTogether colleagues who are all working on a multi-script typeface project. It was fascinating to see everyone’s approach and methodology, where they intersected, and how they diverged. My part in this project is an ambitious one given our timelines, and I am expecting to get a lot of the foundation for it laid in the next week or so.
5.
I’ve had a couple of enquiries for new projects on the Matra Type front, and had two excellent meetings on Tuesday. I also sent off another proposal to a prospective client today. I have my fingers and toes crossed that all these projects come through — each has something challenging and fun to bring to the table.
6.
I was bummed this morning to miss part of Silas Munro’s lecture during my Provoking Type class. The clocks turned in the US, and I didn’t have a calendar invite that reflected that. Running online events is hard, even more so with a global audience, but I would have liked if the organisers had been more thorough.
I turned in my reflections on last week’s reading: Grace Lee Boggs’ These are the Times that Grow our Souls. While I was disappointed that the very first assignment in the course centered the American experience, the essay gave me a lot to think about, in particular, the disillusionment that many of us feel with the dire state of democratic apparatus on the one hand and the inefficacy of our protests on the other. I am really looking forward to doing this week’s homework — an exercise in collective poetic research — which was prompted by Munro.