4 days have slinked past already…A day of travelling, unpacking and warming up the cold house. Two days of reminiscing about the wedding…and today has begun with Biskit wanting to see the stars and crescent moon at dawn.
We went out, Biskit Pepper and me, into the silky, quiet darkness of the night. The horse-chestnut tree has turned golden-brown and is shedding leaves faster than me shedding warm clothes in Kolkata. I could hear the fluttering dead leaves falling crisply, the frost dropping on the cars like slow-motion rain….and the quietness–absolute, total and magnificent.
I was in a very different place last week.. Kolkata nights are all about honking cabs and noisy pavement shops, serving up food, fresh veggies and fish to returning commuters. High up in the apartment which was handed over to our family, I would be spending precious hours laughing and chatting with my siblings and Dad, cousins and relatives and friends who had come to attend the wedding of my niece. All the girls were busy with arrangements, dancing and merry-making and having fun…I would be asleep when they would return, they would be snoring when I would leave for the wedding festivities.. Just how it should be!
And now, how should 2016 be for this blogger and knitter? the urge to make a few resolutions and fewer decisions has been resisted strongly…I break them anyway! So this year is about living in the moment, living with good cheer and faith, believing in myself and the work we are doing, and refraining from belittling myself when another good intention bites the dust.
For starters, I am going to savour some delicious “besan barfi” made by my friend last evening. I baked that delicious lemon cake which has been invented for the big juicy pahaari nimbus of winter.The local preparation of “Nimbu”, a tangy sweet combination of lemon wedges, cream, jaggery, flavoured salt, chillies and some mountain magic was devoured in the morning sun with much slurping and sighing. Winters are welcome in this house just for these “Nimbu”sessions..
Knitting cannot be missing from a treatise on the coming year! Friend and website designer has given me a map and a push to get the products online and I have all intentions of doing it now.
We have some new and some favourite products which are coming up…my personal favourite remain these cowls, which keep the winter wind from coming close, and which keep the compliments coming!!
Here’s to another year, another twelve months of ups and downs, of cold and hot, of quiet days with myself and rowdy times with guests, of hearing from you and sharing with you, of staying connected and staying grateful.
Here’s to us!!