Author Archives: Curio City Collective

Dear Friends, Last month, I signed up for a memoir writing workshop. It was a 16-person strong group from across the country and my first experience of its sort. I was expecting writing tips and discussions on form and style. What unfolded was something I was unprepared for. “Tell us something about yourself that you wouldn’tContinueContinue reading “The Commune: Daring to Connect”

Dear friends, Recently I was reading the Mary Oliver poem, ‘Of the Empire’ “We will be known as a culture that feared deathand adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurityfor the few and cared little for the penury of themany. We will be known as a culture that taughtand rewarded the amassing of things, thatContinueContinue reading “The Commune: Hopeful Action”

Dear friends, This year began with great excitement at TCC. We held a long conversation early January about how it was time to leave 2021 far behind and get back to the work we were doing with enthusiasm and rigour. You see 2021 for us, like for most people, turned out a bit tough. AllContinueContinue reading “The Commune: Begin Again”

Dear Friends, A few months ago, Arpita, my friend and colleague here at TCC, handed me four packets of seeds for my birthday. Carefully gathered from her garden and the plants that cross her path wherever she wanders, they were retrieved from her seed bank and packed into hand-labelled paper envelopes. Other than micro greensContinueContinue reading “The Commune: Seeding Hope”

Dear friends, How have we come to the end of 2021 already? A part of me feels like the entire year went too fast and another feels like the time passed has been excruciatingly slow. Through this time of so much loss and grief, we all held onto the small and big joys around us.ContinueContinue reading “The Commune: Tending to the Earth”

Dear Friends, Somewhere deep in the mountainside of West Texas, a clock is currently being built. It is a massive undertaking into the future for what’s special about the clock is that it is designed to keep time for 10,000 years. As the founder of the project, Danny Hillis, describes it, “The century hand advances onceContinueContinue reading “The Commune: Entering Deep Time”

Dear Friends, As part of our Book Club reading this month, I’ve been diving into Carl Honoré’s  In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed. Writing the summary for it, I found myself leaning heavily on the history of our collective obsession and addiction to speed, its antecedents being traced to the Industrial Revolution. “Industrial capitalism fed onContinueContinue reading “The Commune: It’s Time To Say Enough”

Dear Friends, The festive season has been ongoing for a few weeks now first with Dussera and then of course, Diwali. All around us we see messages and advertisements about sales, presents and gifts. I was scrolling through Instagram last week and noticed how many prompts I received to buy new clothes or to participateContinueContinue reading “The Commune: What is Enough?”

Dear Friends, Today I finally decided on a name for the mantis that has taken residence in my hyacinth bean vine for more than a month. It felt rude to just refer to her as a ‘mantis’, as if we were not acquainted. The truth is that almost on a daily basis we exchange ladenContinueContinue reading “The Commune: Contemplating Pace”

Dear Friends, A few days ago, I was revisiting a book that lives on my bedside table. “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future,” writes Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh. The first time IContinueContinue reading “The Commune: An Invitation to Slowness”