Projects

Volume N°2 of Patina is in the works. The theme this time is “legible”, which is definitely one of my favourite topics to interpret.

I had to extend the gap between the first volume and this one a bit, mostly to account for my three-week trip to touch grass in Australia. It’s unbelievable how much I hesitated to do that, even wondering if I should take my laptop on my trip to go through pitches when I had a spare moment so I could stick to the quarterly cadence.

Then, I realised that doing that would suck the joy out of both my trip and making the magazine. So I decided, with some queasiness, to push the pitch deadline to after I was back. It’s funny how working with your own timelines doesn’t magically change how you’re wired.

On Kindred Spirits: I think it’s time to call curtains on the season that was. One thing I don’t want to do is force writing where there isn’t anything meaningful to say. I find my attention being pulled towards other forms of writing—specifically, food writing, which I’ve done in bits and pieces but now want to devote more time to. A writer in the kitchen can cook up some interesting stories, methinks.

I’m debating whether to archive Kindred Spirits entirely or rebrand it to retain existing data and stats. After all, a lot of people emailed to tell me that they follow my newsletter because of my writing, first and foremost, and only then what I’m writing about.

Work

I’m still working on interesting projects that are more editorial and curatorial, which I naturally enjoy. I have had to make my peace again and again with the idea of red tape and bureaucracy, because that’s part and parcel of doing most things in a large company, even if everyone is really enthusiastic.

When journalling, I realised I should look at all of this through the lens of a cultural anthropologist—someone who observes and participates to understand more, but doesn’t necessarily imbibe every single value or way of working they experience.

Play

I hit my Goodreads Reading Challenge number half-way through the year! Admittedly, 25 books a year is a small number for the Sindhu of the past, but I wanted to keep this challenge realistic and low-pressure given everything else I’m involved in. Since my last update, I read:

• Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao (terrible, but pushing through it got me out of a reading slump so small wins, I guess)

• The Bangalore Detectives Club and Murder Under a Red Moon by Harini Nagendra (delightful stories, but terribly sloppy editing in the second book)

• Hamnet by Maggie O’ Farrell (devastating, a must-read)

• The One-Hundred Foot Journey by Richard C Morais (had so much potential but felt like a mix of biography and fiction in the worst way)

• Babylonia by Costanza Casati (Liked it)

• Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio (Wasted potential, a novella that could’ve been a gripping full-length novel)

• Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (Hilarious and definitely one of my favourites in the Discworld series)

I’ve been thinking of introducing more hands-on hobbies into my post-working hours, a meal prep approach to making my free time more delightful and whimsical. I have a couple of 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles I’ll get to, and I’ve also bought some beading supplies to make silly little keychains and bracelets to wear and give to friends.

If you have other silly little hobbies in mind, please share!

Travel

I spent 3 weeks in Australia and it was incredible. The country felt familiar in some ways, mostly because the architecture in the major cities is reminiscent of British—specifically Georgian and Regency—styles that I was obsessed with while studying in England.

I really appreciate their strong conservation and preservation policies. In Melbourne, for example, I saw so many examples of facadism, where the front of historical buildings are immaculately preserved and used as the facade of new buildings built against or around it. Such thoughtful integration of old and new.

I was super keen to explore Australia’s nature and wildlife. And while I didn’t hit too many beaches (it was freezing cold and the polar winds are like icicles across your face), I did spend a lot of time in a bunch of national parks, including the Blue Mountains and Onkaparinga River National Park. Did some trekking, watched wild kangaroos calmly go about their business, and tried to spot koalas and wombats (no luck).

I think you’d be so incredibly lucky to have gorgeous national parks a 30-minute drive away from the heart of the city, with the perfect levels of accessibility. There are short trails, ropeways and cable cars if you want to be touristy, 5-20km loops if you’re there for a day or a weekend, and longer, winding, Bear Grylls-style treks that stretch on for days and cut through the heart of the forests. It really made me consider moving abroad and being able to spend my evenings and weekends in wonderful—free—public spaces.

I bought a new film camera, the Ricoh 35 ZF, in Adelaide’s Central Market. My Asahi Pentax Spotmatic F is an excellent camera, but it’s also super heavy which makes it really hard to lug around when you’re walking 20k steps a day. I also have the Yashica EZ Junior that my parents got for me in the 5th grade, but the auto-focus conks out sometimes and I didn’t want to lose precious film on a precious trip.

The Ricoh was the perfect balance: manual and automatic, super lightweight, and similar enough to mechanical cameras that I could start using it almost immediately. The real test, however, is how the photos turned out!