Lunches and monkeys
Hello from my home in Helsinki! This is NordLetter #90, 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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Are there fewer things to write about?
I started reading Bird by bird last week. One of the exercises in the beginning of the book (and this is not a book about exercises by the way) was to think about the lunches you’ve had in school and write about those. As an exercise. Writing of course is different from the dreams one has of being a published author. Writing is a daily thing - a practice. This book is about the lessons and improving the practice.
While reading this section about lunches, I thought about my own lunches at school. We did not have specific lunch rooms in our school. You either ate lunches in the classroom, or the dustbowl that was our playground. We were very health conscious then, burning all our lunch calories, running around the dustbowl, till the bell rang and we had to be back in our classrooms.
All of us had similar lunches. A few had different lunch-boxes. One for example had a little maze game in the cover. I remember wanting that as a child. I always had tasty food in my box. But it was mostly roti and sabzi in my lunch, sometimes sandwiches. I don’t remember too many of these lunches. Do you? Eating lunches was not the highlight of our days.
There is one memory I have though, of a particular piece of lunch someone else used to bring.
I had a friend. He would have this crust-removed white bread cooked in milk. It was sweet and so damn yummy. There was no youtube in those days. My mother did not know how to make it. She could not google it. I remember she would sit during the tapings of Khana Khazana making notes on some of the things she wanted to make.
Do you have memories of your lunches in school? Think about those, write about those.
Lunches in Finland are different. We are older now. I still carry my lunch box with me, as do some others. But I see many Finns sitting in the cafeteria eating their lunches. It is the norm here that they don’t bring lunches. Some may. But most don’t.
We sit on a table, and share our food. I have friends from different parts of India. I get to enjoy their food. They get to enjoy mine.
Most Indians eat lunch around 13:00. Most Finns start around 11:00 and are done by 12:00. By the time we get down to eat, the cafeterias are mostly empty.
In Finland, every morning, I get up, freshen up, take out my mat and do yoga.
While on vacation, I have tried to keep a similar routine.
For the longest time, if I could not do yoga at the fixed time (early morning) I would not do it. It felt wrong somehow.
It took me several rounds of Prerna yelling at me, to be fine with that. With doing yoga a bit later on some days. Here, I wake up late. Once I do though, I go out get the mat and do my yoga.
Today, while doing pranayama, I realised my mind did not feel rushed. In Finland, by the time I get to the pranayama, I have half an hour or so left to get ready, take Savya and leave. My mind, no matter how much I try, is filled with a ticking clock. Even during the weekends, there are things to be done.
I would often wonder, in passing, how it would feel to do this if I did not have to be somewhere, do something.
I know now. It’s nice!
The thing I am here to do, the main thing, well actually there were two, maybe more.
OK.
One of the things I am here to do - my friend’s marriage, is this week. He is marrying a Kannadiga, in Sirsi. I will be travelling to Bangalore on the 3rd, then travel to Sirsi with my friends - a road trip of sorts. It will be fun.
I shopped for the outfit for the wedding while Prerna was here.
Last week three of us (the other two are in Japan and Bangalore) met to celebrate his wedding. A bachelor’s party of sorts, though I would have wanted it to happen in Goa, and then travel from there to Sirsi, it’s closer that way. Any way, that did not happen. We are all parents now. We all have work. We do what we can.
We ordered food from Bistro, a Blinkit service which served good food. We got some vodka and gin from a place near my friend’s work place. There are so many of these shops in Gurgaon.
A monkey stole a chips packet from a shop, tore it open and ate the chips. It was surreal.
It was fun. I had fun.
I don’t drink that often. I got drunk a little too quickly - drunk-dialled Prerna at some point, told her I loved her, drunk-dialled our friend in Bangalore, tried to call the friend in Japan, but he must have been sleeping, and we are scared of his wife. One friend was logged in. He had a P2. I took his laptop, rebooted all the servers. The issue was resolved before anyone could say ‘bridge’.
Or so I hoped would happen. My friend was not as drunk as I was.
/five things to share
1. 12 Distractions to Leave Behind in 2026 by No Sidebar
After a long day, your brain wants relief. Culture offers the fastest version: endless content.
But relief and restoration are not the same thing. Scrolling often leaves you more restless than when you started—because it never resolves anything. It just fills space.
Try a different question this year: “What restores me?” Then do that instead.
Wonderful list of things to get rid of, like shutting off push notifications, avoiding multitasking, etc. Seeing it as a list, helps imagine how wonderful it would be to leave these things behind.
2. Finland starts work on national segregation prevention programme
According to the economic affairs and employment ministry, segregation refers to “growing differences in the population structure of neighbourhoods, where deprivation and advantage increasingly cluster in specific areas”.
It said that segregation in Finland has deepened in recent years, particularly in larger urban areas.
“The aim of the programme is to reduce segregation and its negative impacts. It emphasises a comprehensive, knowledge‑based and strategic approach, as well as wide‑ranging cooperation between the central government, cities and other partners,” the ministry’s release read.
Diversity is good. Without interaction with different people we tend to perpetuate the prejudices.
3. Tesla discontinuing Model S and Model X to make room for robots by Andrew J. Hawkins
Tesla will discontinue the Model S and Model X in the second quarter of 2026, Elon Musk said in an earnings call with investors today. No advance word was given about the cancellations, making it an abrupt ending for Tesla’s two original flagship EVs.
Makes sense. Tesla is clearly losing the EV game to the Chinese manufacturers. There is simply too much competition there. Makes sense to pivot to something no one else is doing.
4. Apple’s New Split iPhone Launch Strategy Corroborated in Latest Report by Tim Hardwick
The report also notes that Apple is facing additional pressure as some of its suppliers have shifted resources toward AI companies like Nvidia, Google, and Amazon. Notably, Apple explicitly mentioned iPhone supply constraints during its recent earnings call on Thursday.
If this goes on, we might get to a point where they may not be the best, top of the line for consumer products and we may end up with shitty tech to use.
5. How to do morning pages via Gina Trapani
Morning Pages are three pages of longhand writing done first thing in the morning. They’re one of Julia’s toolkit for unblocking creativity, and I have the pleasure to confirm that they work.
I wondered after reading this if I should have morning pages in my life. I have something similar, that is I have daily notes, where I write things at the end of the day, like a journal. A journal is not this though.
If you enjoyed reading this, and know someone else who might, please consider forwarding this to them. It would help this grow and make me happy. 😄
Until next week.