Nesting

... the year is almost drawing to a close, what with a visit to Pune planned for Dussehra and a Delhi visit on the anvil for Diwali & Bhai dooj and December being the month when my precious boy turns 5, I am thinking I should just go ahead and share my present home before it is time to move again!! Yes,  did I tell you that our own home is getting into almost final stages before we get a handover early next year!

and so here goes some visuals of my current abode, clicked on different days (and times of the day), different kinds of light through the last six months of summer & monsoon. As I have said, nothing is ever settled in my home, the placement of that cushion, or that piece of artifact, or that color match, almost always in a whirl of flux, so reflecting my mood of that day and that of the light that is filtering in!

This home is kind of a rectangular spread of space, two apartments made into one by knocking off the wall in the middle. So the result is this broad un-artistic doorway, wide rectangular space, a bit too much to hold my treasured belongings:). The challenge, if there was one, was thus to give the space some visual partitions, create separate dwelling spaces and give the wide frame some visual reprieve, aesthetically. A well heeded promise that my husband and I made before we moved into this rented place was not to acquire even a single new piece of furniture or artifact while in this house or before we move to our own. Hence, this totally negated the most adopted option of filling up odd and empty spaces by acquiring new odds and ends. This, believe me, has been the toughest promise to keep to ourselves!! That's another reason why the state of flux is so real and so imminent as I choose some of my favorite frames to share -

this favorite book shelf lends itself to a visual partition to the TV lounge area.

The welcome spread as we enter the living space

All pictures clicked by me. 

the Tugs at my heart!!

Ah I can smell the Shiulis, smell the magical closeness of Durga Maa to our earthly abode, feel the nip of the Autumn air when I slide open my doors early morning before waking my boy up for school! and my heart screams Sharodiyar Shubhechha to all those who are feeling the same pangs of Pujo Esheche - Maa AAshchhe and some silent tears are almost welling up as I write. Call it silly, call it emotional but this is how I inevitably feel every time, every year, this time of the year.

I miss those golden days of abundance, abundance of enthusiasm & boundless energy, abundance of the hormones that made us competitive and coquettish as we dressed up in our new Durga Puja finery, four, at times five or more sets of clothing for those 5 days of Pujo. The sweet pleasure of borrowing long-eyed sarees from Didis & Boudis, the hours in front of the mirror taking turns with friends who would have moved into our CR Park house for those 4/5 days of celebratory obsession, the nights spent out pandal hopping from one CR Park- block Pujo to another, the countless Bangla movies watched after midnight nestled with the girl-gang sprawled on the darris in the Pujo pandals, and above all, the stoic patience of parents to allow this nonchalant lack of discipline to continue through the week, every year.

Today, I want to thank my parents for their patience & trust in turning a blind eye to all that we did & then some behind their backs! Today, I thank my Boudis and Didis for the countless lending of sarees that made us feel like queens of our own little Bengali castles. Today, I wish to thank my Baba for shelling out enough kindness for the number(s) of new sets of clothing for all us siblings (though my elder sis always managed to have one extra!!), to my Ma for stitching up the most magical fits in Dresses, Skirts, Shirts, you name it! Today I wholeheartedly thank C R Park, the only Bongland I know, for those myriad memories that still contain the thousand-watt-redial of the familiar pangs and smiles, all in the security of its gallis, paras and blocks that made it possible. Today, I want to hug-tight all my friends who made it so so worthwhile!!

Sharodiyar Shubhechha my family & friends!

This picture for me is a true amalgamation of all that life for me is today - a little bit of this, a little bit of that, all sparkling under the same Sun and connecting in Oneness!