Hello from my home in Helsinki! This is NordLetter #, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Each week I share some of the interesting things I found on the web.
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I finished reading Things my grandmother said this week. It is a nice book of poetry written by an Indian guy - Amit Majmudar. I picked this up because of it’s cover and the fact that the writer was Amit. When I saw this was a poetry collection, I started reading it immediately.
It was a nice collection of poems. There are two poems in it which are about the things his grandmother said. Both, are the poems I loved the most.
I felt inspired after reading this, to write a poem called - things my mother said. I created a blank note for this. And I sat, and thought. And I could not remember a single thing my mother said.
And I felt that’s what the poem should be - a blank page.
A few days back, I was travelling through the woods, with Savya (peacefully sleeping in his pram), when I heard some sound, a rustle of the leaves. I got a little jolt of adrenaline out of that. We have evolved to be afraid of sounds in the dark. Sounds which could mean a predator nearby.
It was a little brown bird, trying to grab something - dry leaves, a broken stick, something, perhaps to add to its nest, somewhere high up in the trees.
I was reminded of this, this past week, on a morning stroll through the same woods. This time there was light though, and I could see the birds clearly enough.
There has been birdsong in the air for the past three weeks or so - ever since the weather has changed for the better. But the birds were never visible. They don’t sing on the ground. They sing in the skies, or somewhere in the trees.
I love nature. I love spring.
I wrote about little buds sprouting from trees earlier. They have turned into leaves now. There is greenery on the ground and up above, in the trees.
I love nature.
This week was Vappu week here in Finland.
The difference this week was that Prerna got to attend the putting the hat on Havis Amanda ritual.
Havis Amanda is a bronze fountain statue of a young woman rising from the sea, located at Market Square (Kauppatori) in Helsinki. The statue represents the city of Helsinki herself.
Students in Finland get the cap after passing the matriculation exam. And they wear it proudly throughout the years - especially on Vappu.
We had planned to go have a picnic at Toolo lake. But we ended up celebrating it the Finnish way - alone.
I made Biryani though. And it was awesome!
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Until next week.