A love letter to curiosity 🌿
+ The Alipore Post turns 10 this Sunday ❤️🤗
Dearest,
The further I get from this newsletter, the more complicated life seems to get. And inevitably, the harder it is to find my way back. I’m glad the meandering has finally brought me back here: my virtual bedroom, a digital archive of curiosity, a space that has been a home-with-an-open-door-policy for nearly 10 long years.
I can’t believe I’m even typing this, but The Alipore Post turns 10 this Sunday, on February 2nd, and I’m suddenly hyper-aware of what this journey has meant to me. Thank you for being here, you wonderful strangers, familiars and friends.
Today, I feel like sending out a love letter to curiosity, wishing this mini universe of you and me a whole lot of hope, sunshine, small mercies and thriving plants. 🌿
Poetry Corner
Befriending A Poem by Marjorie Maddox
Invite him home for dinner
but don’t insist on rhyme;
he may be as tired and as overworked
as his distant cousin Cliché.
Best to offer intriguing conversation
that’s light on analysis.
Allow for silences and spontaneity.
Most importantly, like any good friend,
be faithful and patient;
remember to listen.
Sometimes he’s shy
and just needs a little time and coaxing.
Much of what he has to say
lies between the lines.Self-Portrait I by Tove Ditlevsen
I cannot:
cook
pull off a hat
entertain
wear jewelry
arrange flowers
remember appointments
send thank-you cards
leave the right tip
keep a man
feign interest
at parent-teacher conferences.
I cannot
stop:
smoking
drinking
eating chocolate
stealing umbrellas
oversleeping
forgetting to remember
birthdays
and to clean my nails.
Telling people what they want to hear
spilling secrets
loving
strange places
and psychopaths.
I can:
be alone
do the dishes
read books
form sentences
listen
and be happy
without feeling guilty.I Don’t Want to Lose by Mary Oliver
I don’t want to lose a single thread
from the intricate brocade of this happiness.
I want to remember everything.
Which is why I’m lying awake, sleepy
but not sleepy enough to give it up.
Just now, a moment from a year ago:
the early morning light, the deft, sweet
gesture of your hand
reaching for me.
Of Tenderness and Beauty
“The feeling mind draws ink from the heart.”
-Ahmed Salman
Maria Popova’s Almanac of Birds: Divinations for Uncertain Days is just ❤️
The Garden of Heart (A Szív Kertje), an immersive animated short by Oliver Hegyi (Found this gem on Short of the Week)
Tintin Reading, 1993 by Roy Lichtenstein (What a find!)
This reminder by Mlgrs Graphic Design:
“We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves.”
-Patti Smith
Still watching Reply 1988 as slowly as possible, savouring every scene. So, so wholesome!
“I observe how much I have matured since last year despite my belief that I was losing myself, how something strong was born from the painful experiences survived and from the numerous minutes that I believed were wasted.”
-Simone de Beauvoir, Diary of a Philosophy Student: Volume 1
I’m hopelessly in love with cyanotypes <3
My mother has been watching me slowly fall in love with cyanotypes. She helps me source distilled water during my trips home, always bringing me foraged goodies from her walks to compose with. She recently asked me, “You keeping making these cyanotypes, but what will you do with them?”
“It’s my practice, Ma, a ritual that helps me see the world differently,” I replied. In that moment, I realized I was an artist, pursuing a fascinating medium for the sheer magic and respite it offers me from my mundane existence.
In the coming months, I want to proactive share some of my own writings and creative explorations with all of you, starting with some recent cyanotypes:
Here’s to 10 more years of curiosity and creativity. Happy meandering!
Love,
Rohini
Immensely grateful for you and the Alipore Post for bringing so much beauty, wonder, and curiosity our way for a decade! The cyanotypes are absolutely gorgeous (I may be partial to what I think are ones of the pink trumpets:)
Congratulations on ten years! And thank you for all this inspiration and loveliness. This line hit me hard, in the best possible way: “…a ritual that helps me see the world differently.” Yes! Exercising our creativity does indeed enable us to see the world differently and on a deeper level. I love this thought.