Ponto de Vista

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/

https://www.instagram.com/p/8v_EUdHgJc/?taken-by=chhavi_sachdev
Today I wrote a story for the web site to accompany a story I sorta helped on.

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I wanted to put up something Christmas-y and I guess I’ve been in a quirkier, lazier mood than usual so this is all I got! Merry Christmas all, from Chhavi Noticed This! and a bloom from my very own balcony “garden”.
It’s the only one we’ve had, although the bougainvillea is drooping with blossoms. Where I lived in Mass. had wonderful soil for roses – there were houses boasting 60-year old bushes that were pretty much knotty, gnarled trees with massive, fragrant flowers. I’ve never been crazy about roses, but these were heady. And then I had a friend who once stopped on the bike path and made this elaborate show of deviating, stopping, and sniffing. I made a point of stopping and smelling the roses every day after that. 🙂

So, while I do miss Trader Joe’s and biking along the Charles in Boston, the one thing I’ve found a good substitute for is the library. I actually patronize (that sounds awful) Eloor
which is beautifully stocked and really a pleasure to visit. The other day, though, I was surprised to find that the hole-in-the-wall library I frequented as a kid, daily (except on Mondays when they were closed, so I was allowed two books on Sundays,) had re-opened. As a 7-year-old I would ride to the library sitting side-saddle on the back rack of our Man Friday’s bike. By the time I was 11, I was deemed old enough to manage the 8-minute walk on my own. Displaying my OCD tendencies even then, I serially ploughed through all the Enid Blytons, Carolyne Keene’s, Franklin W. Dixons, Alfred Hitchcocks, Robert Arthurs‘s Three Investigator books (Jupitor Jones is responsible, I’m sure, for my obsession with business cards) graduating on to Sidney Sheldon and Lawrence Anderson. What was my mother thinking?? Nah, I’m glad she gave me free reign. Yes, I was precocious, but, hey, I knew stuff!! 😀 Oh and the 3L’s are: Live, Laugh, Learn. Cute, no?

Look at that baby mouse — beseeching me not to eat him. I resisted for a long time, then I figured, with all apologies to the poor dear, James, and Ami — he was made to be eaten. And in Delhi’s heat, he’d simply spoil if I didn’t put him to rest. <sigh> Broke my heart, but he was delicious! And now I have a L. A. Burdick box from the heart of Harvard Square to keep trinkets in.