Happy to report that apart from a slight knee pain flare up this week, this week continued its streak of being a quiet productive week for me. Work at the studio, art, incorporating some decent sized walks and a lot of meeting with friends. By this Sunday, I was quite sapped and spent many many hours just in bed.
Last week, I made a Replit app to visualise the movement of dancers in space. I wanted to see how it would look on a dancer performing Aigiri Nandini and spent some time tweaking the settings to visualise this.
2. On Tuesday, it was Lohri a midwinter folk and harvest festival that marks the passing of the winter solstice and the end of winter. It is a traditional welcome of longer days and the sun's journey to the Northern Hemisphere. Avinash, Varsha, Gouri, Rasagy, Garima and Kenneth came over and there was much dancing around the bonfire on the terrace. Much of the dancing was quite funny and I relegated to my bed at sharp ten completely spent.
3. On Wednesday, we also had Noopur’s birthday dinner at Matsuri - the Japanese restaurant attached with the Chancery Pavillion. She is a big Japanophile and so it was a no brainer for her birthday celebration at a Japanese place. I wasn’t too happy with the vegetarian dishes but the shared laughter made up for any blandness in the food.
4. On Thursday, it was Pongal - a multi-day Hindu harvest festival celebrated by Tamils. The festival is celebrated over three or four consecutive days, which are named Bhogi, Thai Pongal, Mattu Pongal and Kaanum Pongal, beginning on the last day of the Tamil calendar month of Margazhi. Thai Pongal is observed on the first day of the Tamil calendar month of Thai and usually falls on 14 or 15 January in the Gregorian calendar.
According to tradition, the festival marks the end of winter solstice, and the start of the Sun's six-month-long journey northwards called Uttarayana when the Sun enters Capricorn. It is dedicated to the solar deity Surya and corresponds to Makar Sankranti, the Hindu observance celebrated under various regional names across the Indian subcontinent.
At the studio and at home, it was a holiday and I went to eat some butter idli at Rameshwaram in the morning after my walk.
It was also Avinash’s last day at his current workplace and we went for dinner and beer at Toit. I have seen his journey for over a decade now and his work ethic is always a source of deep inspiration for me. I wore a cute pinafore that Noopur had gifted me that felt really cute :)
5. On Saturday, Pooja released her book on Indian Street Lettering at the Champaca and after a full day of painting tiles at the studio and chatting with Rashmi and Gouri, I made it to the bookshop to hear her conversation on how she put together the book, her snippets of conversation with street letterers were enchanting and honestly having seen her entire journey of documentation for years now, I came back quite inspired as well.
6. Spent Sunday grabbing some real good coffee from Still and dipping into the book I am reading this week.
That’s it from my week!