State of Chhayanat

Okay, just for documentation's sake.... it's -25 degree centigrade out here today with a wind chill of -34(only! and not even snowing anymore!) and I tried to walk across the street to get some nourishment in shirtsleeves, froze, tucked my tail between my legs and took the pedway on my way back. The prairie winter bullies you into submission. But I must say it's a nice day. Sun's a-shining, pigeons huddling on the glass roof of the greenhouse that my window looks out onto - it's the only surface without the snow-cover anyway - and I have only a remnant of last night's Saawariya-induced headache. Awesome! The randomness of life has reached that level where I get out of my house and walk seven blocks in the snow with the intention of doing some yoga and end up watching my brain getting arse-raped by the Kapoor contingent. There! I have said it! I was hoping to muster enough courage, conviction and emotional maturity to deal with this trauma on my own, but I fail! Epic FAIL!

The Hundred Club

A question that I have been mulling over for some time now is whether I am living in excess. I know, a grad student living in the great Northern Whites - how do you even define 'excess'? Apparently other people thought about this when they reached a life and an apartment choked with stuff that they didn't need and probably forgot that they possessed. Other people in the North Americas - makes sense. So they started the purge and described it as an "emotional process" drawn over several years of prioritizing possessions. And since a hundred seems be a nice, friendly number, some people are trying to reach the state where they can live with just a 100 of most essential objects. However, this is the area where it gets a little blurry as far as the goal definition goes. 100 Things? 100 Objects? 100 Items? Clearly, if I had ever possessed 756 pairs of shoes and about 21.6 of past and current love interests, then it would probably make sense to club them as single items. Having had none, it was still kind of unclear to me as to how should I exactly proceed. But being a grad student living out of a suitcase should make it easy, right? This is when my friend DV suggested the name "The Hundred Club".

Given that it is a difficult journey to SHED (Separate the treasures, Heave the trash, Embrace your identity from within and Drive yourself forward - yeah yeah, I know, Baloney and Marshmallow Clouds raining M&M Candies), I am gonna use the safety net of not being obsessive compulsive about whether it's a hundred items or objects. My housecatty self finds it challenging to even start thinking about making a comprehensive list of the things that I happen to possess but give it a try I must.

Writing all this wearing my newly acquired tweety-colored life-saver jacket and jungle green hat. My life is the biggest consistency challenge I have ever known.