Just warm and snuggly things

 "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,

Brown copper kettles and warm woollen mittens,

Brown paper packages tied up with strings,

These are a few of my favourite things...."

This "Sound of Music" soundtrack and a conversation with an old school best friend inspired me to write this blog. And with winter and subzero temperatures in Germany, I like to go into a happy place thinking about warm and snuggly things. I am so grateful to the universe that I can enjoy some of the privileges that many people can't afford to in this world. With that being said, I would not undermine them since I also come from a middle-class Indian family and I have (sorry for my language) "worked my ass off to get what I have". So here's my list:

 1. A warm cup of coffee or tea after home from work - I don't think I need to explain more. I prefer to make my coffee completely with milk. I am more flexible with tea. Sometimes entirely with milk (missing the amazing doodhpatti from my hostel canteen back in India), black tea, or an appropriate mixture of water and milk. I like ginger tea on days I have a runny nose and my tea preferences are usually English breakfast, Assam tea or Darjeeling tea. I don't consider all the fruity flavoured teas as tea. It is warm fruit juice. Fight me if you think otherwise. I drink green tea with honey sometimes - when my subconscious goes into fitness-freak (without the exercise part) mode. A bag of chips, salted cashews or cookies would be nice.

2. Living my life on bed under a thick comfy blanket - The day was Dec 1st, 2020. I wake up at 7 in the morning and lay in my bed as I watch the first snowfall like the poem my best friend from school wrote, "Chalkdust snowfall". There's something so comfortable as being able to watch the first snowfall of the season when you are tucked in under a blanket behind airtight windows with the slight warmth radiating off from the thermostat. A time to reflect the comforts, feel how good the bed feels, how soft the pillows are. On holidays I prefer to live my life under the blanket in bed. Some people would think that is boring and depressing, but with something nice to watch on Netflix, or just completing my German homework, or reading, (I am writing this blog from my bed) I would not trade it for anything else in the world. I love the solitude and the quiet. I also tend to eat in the bed sometimes. It might be a big no for many but I keep my bed tidy throughout the week and also do my laundry most of the time. Hence I earn it. 

3. Listening to good music while taking a warm shower: Recently I have tilted more towards classical music. I suggest taking a bath to Claire De Lune by Debussy and you will feel your body relax and your soul find inner peace as you do so. I sometimes also prefer dance music to feel energised after a morning shower and get ready to work.

4. Smelling fresh laundry: I like the normal laundry detergent and after finding a new laundry area around my block (because I don't have a washing machine in my apartment), which also has incredible drying which leaves my clothes and bedsheets comfortably warm, it feels heavenly to dig my nose into the warm freshly washed clothes and also bury my face into my pillow cover as I go to bed that night.

5. Books, TV series and movies that can also do the trick: Books by Ruskin Bond, Heidi by Johanna Spyri, Jane Austen novels, Anne Frank's Diary (minus the backdrop of horror). Movies: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The Polar Express, Classic disney movies, Home Alone and recently early 2000s Bollywood movies because nostalgia. TV series include : Friends,  Mr. Bean, Tom and Jerry cartoons and recently Dash and Lily (yes I turned into a bowl of mush- judge me all you want for getting too cheesy). Also watching cat videos- I would like to add. Some critic might say that I am very basic, but that was the whole point of this entry- to feel as basic as possible.

6. Chocolate: I don't think I need to give an explanation for this. Works wonders if you are sad or happy, lonely or angry, fighting off dementors or menstruation cramps, sometimes you don't even need a reason.