Ponto de Vista

Treasure from a jewel. This vase was a gift from a very special person the year I moved back to India. I was trying to adjust to being in migraine-inducing Delhi after 12 years of living away, coping with a toxic, soul-sucking job that had sounded amazing in the interview, one I gave up my entire trajectory, security, and lifestyle for only to find they’d handed my designation to someone else. What kept me going through the feeling of, “Did I give up my life for this?” was the family I lived with, a family I sort of borrowed from another family-friend. I moved in with my oldest friend’s mausi, who, with her husband, daughter, husband’s two nieces and nephew, 3 dogs and their house help became my scaffolding, my anchor, my shelter.
I would try to make my presence less of a burden by trying to bring cakes and things for the motley crew from the market and would also get myself flowers to brighten up my space.
I don’t see them a much as I should (ugh, Delhi!) but I still count them in my blessings and am grateful for them every day!
This vase harks back to that time … and yes, I still buy myself flowers.
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I’ve been spending a lot of time in Udaipur and with a view like this when I visit, how can I stay away?
Okay, that’s a little bit of hyperbole, I admit, but c’mon, the lake is gorgeous — any time of the day, all (more…)

For 27 years, I’ve made pilgrimages to Berlin to visit family. My mother’s sister moved there in 1964 and her children and now grandchildren were all born there. Since I can remember, Berlin has never been a tourist destination, more a homestay, sometimes a stopover. When I lived in Poland I went numerous times and when I moved to the US, I tried to break my homeward journey there. And still, when I visit Europe, (more…)

Throwback to four years ago. Google helpfully told me that Istanbul is where Sunanda and I were on this day in 2012. This is the inside of the Yeni Cami at Eminönü … (more…)

https://www.instagram.com/p/88JdwkHgG1/?taken-by=chhavi_sachdev
It was so weird to me that I was taking the same routes on the MBTA that I had back in 1998 and 1999 – and shockingly the #64 and #86 are still perpetually late or arrive in threes because something is up with their scheduling. I was at the same bus stops (now with a modern rain shelter at the Brighton end). The old super market is still there but the furniture store is now a hip liquor store with craft beers galore (I got some pear and apple cider) and beautiful whiskeys plus the mandatory hipster staff. New Balance has expanded massively and I can’t believe I actually am nostalgic for this area.
Also: I realized that the village I lived in in Poland right before we moved here has a web site now.

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https://www.instagram.com/p/85gt75HgE4/

I can’t get over this album sleeve! It’s from an LP of my mother’s, issued in 1964, featuring classical compositions for that most weary sounding of instruments: the shehnai. I don’t really have an ear for it, but what marvelously eye-catching, modern cover art!

This is my mother’s stray button collection. When I was little, it occupied my OCD younger self for hours to spread them out, arrange them by color, then by size, then by material. She has wood, bone, crystal, plastic, matte, shiny, glittery, round, oval, innies, outies … endlessly fascinating even now.

I loved all the lamps in the Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque), Istanbul. And I loved the tiles and the inscriptions, as well as the hushed atmosphere. One day I’ll go back. (Photo from 2012. I’m a lazy arse.)

a cute Spanish alien in Seville, 2012