This is my newsletter #1
Hello, and welcome to This is my newsletter, a quarantine project initiated to help people connect and experience what it's like to put together a newsletter. To create a common platform for people doing inspiring and interesting things in their own sphere to share what matters to them.
I came up with this idea as a means of reaching out to The Alipore Post community in a more engaging, meaningful way. For the past five and a half years, the ritual of compiling great poetry, art, music and other interesting articles and websites into a newsletter format has been a form of therapy.
This is my newsletter is a way of democratising the art of writing a newsletter. Thank you for being a part of this experiment, and for being open to the idea of receiving a curated newsletter every Sunday from a stranger! :)
-Rohini Kejriwal
Dear Reader,
Time has taken on such a strange nature this year. Some weeks disappear in no time, while others pass drudgingly slow. Reuters even did a study on why time feels so weird in 2020.
Since March, I've not been able to get through too many books that I've been meaning to read. But I've certainly done my fair share of binge watching. Here are some films and shows I recommend watching:
I've been actively trying to get back into the practice of writing poems after a month-long poetry writing challenge that I hosted in April. I tend to only feature others' poems in my weekly newsletter, so for a change, I'm going to to share my own quarantine poem: Gentle
I am learning from daily disappointments.
Burnt rice,
Trees emerging from potatoes,
Piles of unwashed clothes.
I ask the seeds I planted four days ago,
They tell me to be patient.
I ask my mother for an answer,
She cannot comprehend the question.
I ask myself the difference between being gentle and fragile.
I do not find what I’m looking for.
I try to be fragile.
I shatter inside.
I try to be gentle.
It feels alright.
from The Nutritionist by Andrea Gibson
I've been going through the archives of 3 poets who make me want to write and articulate my thoughts better - Andrew Gibson, Ellen Bass and Imtiaz Dharker - and letting their words wash over me.
The past few months have been so emotionally charged, it no longer surprises me when I read a powerful line in a poem that makes me weep, or crying on the phone talking to an old friend. I'm tired of cooking all my meals and eating them alone. I'm sick of sitting at my desk and trying to be productive when what I'm really feeling is homesick. And I'm extremely tired of the fear and anxiety that has come with this virus.
Then again, there is always beauty waiting just round the corner. Some days, the comfort takes the form of Jeevan Antony's dreamy music, or playing Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou on loop. On other days, it just takes a little change in perspective or looking at mask parathas to feel alright.
P.S. I made an emotions mood board to track my feelings. Feel free to download this and use it for yourself!
While it's not been the most emotionally stable time personally, it's definitely been a phase of heightened creativity. I learnt about the term 'completion energy' during a CreativeMornings FieldTrip, and it's helped me channel my energy creatively, and make things happen! Some new things I've tried out this lockdown:
-Experimenting with GIFs and mixed media! (as seen above)
-Buying an OTG, and learning how to make cookies, muffins, eggplant parmigiana and most recently, sourdough with Sujit Sumitran
-Watching Jiddu Krishnamurti's lectures in my search for meaning, particularly his talk on Observing Sorrow
-Practising film photography with the Yashica Electro 35 I gifted myself
-Learning InDesign and self-publishing three books of my own poems/illustrations/photographs on Issuu. Check them out here: Crown Shyness | Paramankeni Dreaming | I Dream of Ladakh
-Starting Chitthi Exchange, a penpal project to help people forge new connections during these lonely times
-Gratitude Journaling, which I learnt from Sheena of Mindful and Body. Must try!
I'd like to end this newsletter with a few lines by the lovely Rainer Maria Rilke:
"...your solitude will be a support and a home for you, even in the midst of very unfamiliar circumstances, and from it you will find all your paths."
If you enjoyed this, you can follow me on Instagram / go through my labour of love The Alipore Post