Week 34/2024

It was a non-stop action sort of week, and I’m pretty proud to have carved out some time for rest and leisure.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

My dental troubles continued. The re-installed crown simply wasn’t sturdy enough, and as a result I cut down on what I was eating drastically; to the point that I actually lost weight in just a few days and my brain didn’t have enough fuel to do everything I had on my plate. The situation became untenable on Thursday evening when the crown began to stick out a couple of millimetres. The next morning, it was removed and a dental pin was inserted to fortify the tooth. A new crown is now being made and will hopefully be installed soon.

2.

I was so stressed and out of sorts that I couldn’t sleep past two in the morning on Tuesday/Wednesday. It was a terrible time for this to happen because I had an IRL meeting with a client the next morning, but such is life.

3.

A lettering commission that had been in limbo for the past two months suddenly got a jolt of life because the person looking after the project at the client’s end has resigned and his last day with them is coming up. I had to shift gears to focus some time towards this work in an already busy week.

4.

My cousin Aditi was in town and staying with my parents over the weekend. I spent a couple of lazy evenings with her, which was very nice.

5.

With the newsletter and other social media announcements out, there was a flurry of zine orders, and the work that comes with packing and mailing them.

6.

On the weekend, Amber and I caught a quiet meal at Café Lota and visited an excellent exhibition about India’s cinematic heritage at the India Habitat Centre. The focus on the exhibition was largely Bollywood with some Bengali film history thrown in. There was so much interesting typographic material to see, and I came back feeling energised.

Week 33/2024

I’m struggling to find my routine after the summer break, but life, it keeps on going.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I sent out an issue of my newsletter last week announcing a new batch of zines. I had been working on these zines for months, and I am very happy to finally have them out in the world. Already I have dropped off copies at The Bookshop Inc. and sent them off to the Champaca Bookstore in Goa. Champaca’s Bangalore shop is next, along with shipping a handful of zines to one of my favourite indie publishers, who have shown an interest in stocking them on their website. Some individual orders have come in too, and I packed them all on the weekend.

2.

On Thursday, Amber and I spent the day with Prateek and Rhea, chatting and playing card games. It is the kind of slow, agenda-less time I wish we had more of, but living in different cities, I’m grateful that we had some last week.

3.

Amber was visiting family at the end of the week, and so I spent a few days alone at home. It was a bit of a non-weekend weekend as I caught up with work in the hopes of dissipating some of my related stress. I was visited by a migraine and a tooth ache, so my days weren’t as relaxed as I would have liked, but I baked cornbread muffins and ate ice cream from Big Chill, so it wasn’t all bad.

4.

Through the summer, I worked with the incredibly nice folks at Dark ‘n’ Light, and that project is about to be announced soon.

Week 32/2024

The last few days of my summer break are up, and I’m back to work.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

The crown on my chipped tooth came off only a couple of months after the procedure. It appears that the tooth has broken further, and there doesn’t seem to be any discernible reasonable why. The crown has been re-attached, but the doctor told me the whole thing is very weak now. I was terrified and frustrated, and this incident coloured my entire week. On Monday morning, I went back to the dentist in a calmer frame of mind to understand what the next steps might look like, and I am feeling a little more at peace now.

2.

I spent a couple of days preparing my next newsletter issue, which will go out early in a couple of days. You can sign up for that here.

3.

I have rediscovered my love of baking after spending time with Tanya last week, and made chocolate yogurt snack cakes after returning from Ladakh, and blueberry muffins after work today. Amber and I were racking our brains over when we used our muffin tin last — it has at least been four years! I’m very happy to put it through the paces once again.

4.

Despite two weeks of break, I do not feel very rejuvenated, or inspired to go back to work. With that being what it is, I tried to make a strong start to the week, getting calls and meetings out of the way in the morning, and immersing myself in a big chunk of TypeTogether work right off the bat.

5.

Prateek and Rhea are in town for a short visit, and I am really looking forward to spending time with them.

Week 31/2024

This edition of weeknotes is late because I came back just yesterday from a long-awaited vacation.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I celebrated my birthday last week with a quiet lunch with Amber. Much of the socialising around that already happened on the weekend, and my little treat for the day was chhena toast from Khoya.

2.

The next day we took a flight to Leh to visit Tanya and Mayank who live in a nearby village in Ladakh. Amber and I have wanted to make this trip for years, and this summer we finally did it. Of course the landscapes in the region are stunning, but I was equally thrilled to go see the beautiful life our friends have built in an unforgiving and tough (by my city living standards) environment. Sarthak and Noémie were also visiting, and we got to see them a little bit too.

Thankfully, we acclimatised to the altitude well, and so after a day of rest, we were able to take drives and walks around the area. We found ourselves in Ladakh during an uncharacteristic wet spell. On our second day, Mayank drove us to Sakti as rain fell in heaps and we chased dark clouds. We capped off the day at a café with sandwiches made with local Ladakhi bread, khambir. The next morning, we had an early start to go to Shey Holy Pond and Shey-Thiksey marshes for some birdwatching. It was Tanya and Mayank’s first time birding and we kept it very relaxed. We saw roughly twenty species, including Citrine and White Wagtails, Wood Sandpipers, Oriental Turtle Doves and Eurasian Hoopoes, and so many Eurasian Magpies that I might now be bored of a bird that I’d found fascinating once. We spotted lone members of a few species: Carrion Crow, Pond Heron and Little Egret. It was also my first time seeing the Common Rosefinch and the Mountain Chiffchaff.

We spent the rest of the day resting. Mayank whipped up a most heartwarming chicken stew for lunch and Tanya made hot chapatis. For dinner, we made pizzas from scratch. There was a newish oven to break in, and all of us had a lot to learn about high-altitude baking. We rounded off a quiet Saturday at home with a walk in the back lanes of Shey, and food at Chimath Tibetan Kitchen in Leh. Their fried chutagi and dry thenthuk were excellent. On Sunday, we took a picnic to Matho, and walked up to the glacier-fed stream in the upper village. Our last day was spent in Leh — eating, shopping and photographing some street lettering in the market. And just like that, it was time to fly back to Delhi.

I’m still very excited that I saw both the Milky Way and the Indus in Ladakh. And so, so grateful to have spent some unhurried time with our friends.

Week 30/2024

It was the week before I take some time off work, and gosh, am I happy that it is over.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Much of my work time went into drawing an endless stream of Devanagari conjuncts, writing features for them and testing them out for a type design project at TypeTogether. The monotony of this exercise is strangely hypnotic and therapeutic. Otherwise, I spent a whole day working through my creative block to send design directions to a client. I got a positive response on that work, so phew! The remaining time was dedicated to creating more delivery files for a lettering project, which is all but wrapped up. I am relieved that when I get back from my vacation, there will be one less thing on my plate. I will miss working with this team of folks though, all-women and so funny, kind and generous.

2.

Mid-week, the new batch of India Street Lettering zines came freshly-baked from the printers. Immediately, I sent some copies to Pulp Society, where they are on display until September 15 as part of the gallery’s exhibition, Paper and Play. The exhibition opening was on Friday evening, and I flagged off my downtime with a visit. Amber and I celebrated this little win with dinner at Oh Calcutta!, where we haven’t been in ages. The restaurant had a hilsa festival going on, and so I got the chance to taste this fish for the first time.

3.

My little home studio has been neglected for weeks — mail piling up, books sitting on my desk, art supplies all over the space. With help from Amber, I gave the space a bit of love on the weekend. We also spent some time adding our latest book haul to the catalogue on Libib. Our library is inching close to being 1100-books strong, and that is without counting my collection of Pelicans, Jñyānabhāratī Bāla Pocket Books, etc.

4.

I had early birthday celebration plans with my family on Saturday evening and with Purneetha and Harshay on Sunday afternoon. Amber and I added a trip to the NGMA to the mix to attend a walk about the life and works of Amrita Sher-Gil.

5.

Earlier in the week, I got to spend a little bit of time with my cousin and Uncle, who were visiting my parents. Amber and I also snuck in a lunch with my Mom, while my Dad was traveling to a conference in Bangalore. At the conference, along with Prateek and his long-time colleague and friend, Rachna, he picked up an award for their work.

6.

I read about actress Shannen Doherty’s passing, and that prompted me to start rewatching the original Charmed. The show came out when I was just entering my teens, and as one of few series with all women leads, I devoured it. The rewatch has been much more sobering. The portrayal of the three Halliwell sisters is so typically framed by the male gaze, and I shudder to think how the show may have shaped my own body image.

Week 29/2024

The soft landing of the last few days transformed into anxiety before I could really enjoy it, but overall, it was a week of balance and I’m grateful for that.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I woke up on Monday with a headache that didn’t really leave me all day, and it kept returning through the week. I blame it on my still-awry sleep cycle, which is finally showing signs of much-needed improvement.

2.

On the work front, I spent a lot of time fighting an untenable, self-imposed deadline. It took the calmness of the weekend to realise that I was becoming agitated for nothing. Hopefully, on Monday I will be able to calmly assess the situation once more and do what’s feasible and keep my eyes on the bigger picture. That aside, I prepared a lot of delivery files for a project that is coming to its conclusion. I’m behind on a third project, where I have hit a bit of a creative block, something that I will have to breakthrough in the coming week and produce work to share with the client.

3.

Amber and I met our financial advisor, as well as my accountant on Wednesday. Both long-overdue meetings that I am happy I can cross of my list.

4.

After several inordinate delays, I finally sent a set of three new zines for printing. I should have them in my hands by mid-next week, when I will start the process of photographing them and preparing a newsletter issue and my online shop so I can finally share them with the world. As it turns out, they will probably be in an exhibition and art sale before any of this, and I am hoping to have that sorted out soon as well.

5.

The weekend was leisurely. On Saturday, we met Noopur and Rasagy who were visiting from Bangalore. We met for lunch at Guppy, and then went to The Bookshop Inc next door. Amber and I picked up a few books, and I placed a request for Sadak.

After that say be said bye to Rasagy, and the remaining contingent headed to Akar Prakar for an exhibition of printmaking from Bengal. The exhibition had some some beautiful artworks on display, but I wish there was more contextual information alongside. I fell in love with Ramendranath Chakravorty’s woodcuts. Sunday was spent at home, mostly catching up with reading. I finished the Phryne Fisher mystery I had picked up mid-week, after reading Julie Delporte’s Portrait of a Body. Now to return to Hindi Imperialism once again. I’ve already polished off three books during my struggle to finish it.

6.

There is some worrying news on the parental health front, and we’re waiting for test results. Serious, but nowhere as bad as these things can be.

Week 28/2024

It feels so good to have had an ordinary week at home.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I had a soft landing into the everyday with a work week that was quite manageable. There was enough to do, but it never bled into the evenings, or god forbid, the weekend. It was also a nice balance of type design and OpenType features along with some graphic design and writing.

2.

After my monthly accountability call with Prateek, I decided that I would send in a proposal for a short talk to a conference happening in October. I’ve had a little germ of an idea for it some weeks, and chats with Amber and Rasagy helped me polish it up. Now, I need to make a video proposal, which honestly feels like a lot to do. When did text proposals become passé?

3.

Amber and I started listening the That was Us podcast, and selectively re-watching bits and pieces of This is Us. That was our entertainment regimen for the past few days.

4.

We cooked at home regularly this week, so we happily went to Carnatic Café for brunch on Friday. It was both a nice treat, and a well-deserved break from kitchen work. On Sunday morning, we made our way to Sunder Nursery early in the morning. It was humid, wet and really quite still to either walk around or sit on the grass, but we enjoyed the weekly market, eating breakfast there and picking up some small odds and ends. We found five varieties of mango there that neither Amber nor I had eaten before — Gulab, Fajri, Aaliya, Haya and Mehtab. With these, the tally of mango varieties we would have sampled this year has risen to twenty. That is the most varieties I have ever eaten in one summer.

5.

Earlier in the summer, Noopur and I set out to do a year-long art project together, but I have been woefully behind in making my monthly artworks. I’m still behind, but during the weekend, I planned and prototyped my collage for June. I also spent some time typing out folk songs that I’ve been goading my Mom to put down on paper.

6.

I’ve struggled to make much headway into reading Aladi Aruna’s Hindi Imperialism, despite being rather invested in the subject. The writing, or maybe the translation, is rather stilted, and I’ve found it tough to stick with. I didn’t let that stop me from picking up Lisa Wool-rim Sjöblom’s graphic memoir about interracial adoption, Palimpsest, and finishing it in one sitting. What with re-watching This is Us, the timing felt very apropos.

Week 27/2024

Talk about dropping the ball — I haven’t written or posted these notes in almost three weeks. In my defence, there was a lot of life to be lived and not enough time to document it, but I am happy to have a quiet moment to reflect today, and get this week notes train back on track.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

It was Amber’s birthday this past weekend, and despite being quite tired, we tried to make the most of it. On Saturday, we ate brunch at Fig at Malcha, a restaurant we had been thinking of revisiting for months, and then made our way to The Bookshop Inc. and Bahrisons Booksellers for an afternoon of book browsing and purchasing. We finished a couple of errands from our to-do list, grabbed a coffee and then headed back home. On Sunday, we had my parents and Purneetha over for a snack and some cake. Purneetha ended up spending the day with us, and we capped if off with some chaat and samosas at the local market.

2.

Through late June and early July, I was in Penedès, about an hour away from Barcelona, for the annual TypeTogether get together. Like always, it was an intense week or so of work and socialising. I liked the house we were staying in. It had lots of spots for working together and alone, and an open courtyard that was perfect for al fresco dinners. Building on the tradition that Elena started last year, I put together a quiz for everyone one of the nights, which was fun. As was watching football, and even a spot of cricket during the World Cup final. I find that as the years go by, I am more comfortable with being myself at these long meetings, even when it means hitting the sack when everyone is still drinking and chatting.

I saw two lifers in Penedès — the European bee-eater and the Common Starling.

There were a lot of midges at the house and I’ve come back home with dozens of bites. Unsurprisingly, I had an allergic reaction to the bites, and I am still on a medication regimen to manage the itching and burning sensation that has continued to persist.

3.

I was not looking forward to the flights to and fro from Barcelona since there is no direct connection between India and Spain, and it turns out all my fears were well-founded. I was flying Lufthansa, and I don’t think I’ll be doing that again. Each of my four flights was delayed. I had to be rebooked on one of the connecting flights, and barely made it for my flight from Frankfurt to Delhi. Frankfurt airport was a nightmare with its multiple security checks and long immigration queues for non-European travellers. The whole experience was very stressful, and I wouldn’t want to put myself in one of these situations again.

4.

I’ve been back home for a few days now, and it is nice that the monsoon arrived while I was away. It is such a relief after the terrible heatwave, and we’ve been trying to spend some time outdoors every evening. My sleep cycle is still messed up, and I am hoping that it will be fixed by the weekend. I had to jump right into finishing a grant application that was due soon after my return, so I haven’t had the kind of rest I would have liked. That doesn’t take away from my joy with eating home-cooked food again. Not that food at the TypeTogether get together is bland, but it definitely doesn’t pack the flavour punch I am used to.

5.

Time away from home always makes me think about everyday life with some much-needed distance.

I need to think clearly about the rest of the year and how much work I want to take on, apart from my regular TypeTogether hours. The first half of the year has been a lot, and if I want to stay sane, the second half cannot be anything like it. I’ve agreed to take on a couple of small writing assignments, but I’m saying no to some events. I have, however, been struggling to make a decision about a conference whose call for proposals ends next Friday.

While contemplating a move away from Delhi that didn’t end up happening, I feel like I had focused a lot on the negatives of living here in the last five or six months. I am looking forward to reorienting my thinking now, otherwise I’ll just be miserable. The monsoons, I find, are a great time to do that. To make myself fall in love with the city once again, I picked up Bulbul Sharma’s Sunbirds in the Morning, Grey Hornbills at Dusk last weekend, and scarfed it down in a couple of hours. Sadly, the book was terribly underwhelming. But then again, I probably don’t need a book to remind me how I have discovered my love for nature while living in Delhi.

Week 24/2024

This past week was a bit of a whirlwind, just like I was expecting it to be. There was lots of catch up on after being out sick for several days.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I had not one but two talks/workshops at TypeLab Asia, which concluded yesterday. On Friday, I presented a new talk about India Street Lettering that delved into the approaches I take for annotation and archive building, and how this collection catalyses different aspects of my practice. That was followed by a Devanagari TypeCooker drawing session the next day that I co-ran with Namrata.

Some results from the Devanagari TypeCooker workshop

Having lost the last week, I felt under a lot of pressure to prepare for these. Thankfully, I was able to ready all the material for both a day in advance, and that helped with nerves and getting on with life otherwise. Ultimately, I think the talk and workshop went better than I was expecting. I had a lot of fun delivering them, and some of the messages and comments I received afterwards were downright heartwarming.

I have done a lot of public-facing activities this year, more than I have ever done, to be honest. And while it has been an exhilarating experience putting each of them together, it has also taken a lot out of me. With TypeLab Asia over, I am hoping for a couple of months of quiet before I jump into organising type walks in Delhi.

2.

A client and I had a deadline at the end of this week to send some files over to the production vendor, and I am happy to report that everyone worked quite hard to make that happen. It is not often that clients are so responsive in a crunch situation and carry their weight so admirably.

3.

I tried and failed to make plans to see Harshay and Purneetha this week, and that was terribly demoralising. Hopefully, next week will fare better, and I will get to spend some time with them before I ship off to Spain. Amber and I, did however, spend a couple of fun evenings with my parents. Just sitting around and chatting, without any pressure. It was my Dad’s birthday last week, but we couldn’t really celebrate since he had a series of long meetings that he had to go some distance away for. That celebration will now have to wait for July.

It has taken us long enough, but Amber and I finally made plans for some days off in July to visit Mayank and Tanya. I cannot wait.

4.

The India Street Lettering zines are now sold out at both Champaca and The Bookshop Inc.

5.

In the run-up to my travel, I started putting together a solid reading list that should tide me over the long flights. This is what I have got so far: Ruben Pater’s Caps Lock and The Politics of Design, Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People, Julie Delporte’s Portrait of a Body, Luke Healy’s Self-Esteem and the End of the World, and Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom’s Palimpsest.

Week 23/2024

I wish there was much to report about last week, but I was unwell for most of it and spent time recuperating.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

On Monday, I was beginning to feel the effects of the heat. Little did I know that it won’t be that but a botched dental procedure that would leave me in pain for days. I went in for a tooth extraction where the local anaesthesia didn’t work as expected. The procedure had to be called off midway and I came back home in a lot of pain and in serious shock. The physical effects have worn down, but I think my mental health will take longer to recover.

2.

The Lok Sabha election results were announced on Tuesday. While they weren’t exactly what I would have liked, they were more in the realm of what best I thought we could expect. At least they keep some hope alive.

3.

During my sick leave, I made a new household record for Jenga with a tower that was 31⅓ levels tall, besting our previous best of 26⅔.

4.

I was feeling well enough by Saturday afternoon that Amber and I planned an early morning visit to Sunder Nursery the next day. We made it there by around 7:45 am to comfortably do the rounds at the weekly market. At one of the fruit and vegetable stalls, we found two varieties of mangoes we hadn’t eaten this summer: mallika and amrapali. Add that to another variety called zardalu that we found at our usual grocers, and we have three varieties to eat in the coming week. We read a little, ate some delicious kheer, and then headed to Masjid Nursery for some plant shopping and Khan Market for breakfast. The India-Pakistan fixture of T20 Cricket World Cup was also on Sunday night. I had hoped to catch it, but was ultimately too tired to watch the delayed game. India won a close match.

5.

I received some beautiful mail from Ankush — zines about life in Kolkata, and a holiday in Goa.