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Charulatha Banerjee's avatar

Embroidery to still my hands and Carnatic music by a particular musician. Atleast an hour of it everyday. And checking into the hotel room at the end of the day on a work trip and the rest of it is exactly up my line too. Liberating!

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Uthara's avatar

I can picture the two together and they sound very harmonious indeed! Thanks, Charulatha! ❤️

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Shreya's avatar

What a fantastic piece!!! I am at a loss for words💖

As someone who's only just started living truly, fully alone....this hit me right in the gut.

Some of my favourite non-screen ways to spend time with myself: journaling (a good notebook and a smooth pen are criminally underrated), yoga, breathwork, reading on my Kindle 🥰

PS: You have a fan in me now😁

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Uthara's avatar

Thank you for the generous comment, Shreya! ❤️ I’m a fan of breathwork and journaling too. So cool that you’re a yogini too!

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Natasha Badhwar's avatar

Amazing, startling clarity.

You are a Guru, Uthara 🌸

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Uthara's avatar

Oh no 🙈. Thank you, Natasha! I promise I was trying not be be.

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Raju Tai's avatar

Uff makes me value what I have.. ♥️ can’t wait to try out face mask + beverage..

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Uthara's avatar

staying alone is the ultimate luxury in a way! ive actually never had the privilege. It was always roommates or partners or family.

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Maanav's avatar

Lovely piece Uthara! Cafe dates with myself as many days of the week as I can manage, ideally the cafe is far away from home so there’s a long drive on either side, and whenever possible, I have a pen in hand to journal, scribble, doodle, make lists. Also, hotels are great because they have Tata Sky (which I don’t) so you can watch something you hadn’t thought about beforehand.

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Uthara's avatar

hahaha Tata Sky is gold. I still watch when I go home - my mom subscribes. Won't admit in public usually - but I'm all for the reruns of strange Govinda movies on Zee Cinema. :D

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Maanav's avatar

Govinda is a national treasure. Don't know if you've heard, but in the most Govinda news ever, Govinda accidentally shot himself in the foot two weeks ago.

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Uthara's avatar

😂 our algorithms are bringing us the same discourse.

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Sanskriti Bhatia's avatar

This was such a powerful read! Beautiful :)

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Uthara's avatar

thank you for reading, Sanskriti!

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Rohan Banerjee's avatar

100% agree. One of my favourite hotel memories is from a work trip when I spent an evening alone in the hotel room, watching a TV show about Heston Blumenthal build a pub (an actual building-sized pub) out of food. Bliss.

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Uthara's avatar

Ha! That sounds intriguing!

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Ila Reddy's avatar

Alone time is non-negotiable to my happiness too and a party of one is my favourite/default way of being. So strongly relate to this post - thank you for penning it down! 🍄

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Uthara's avatar

I think we might all be living the same type of life + have the same type of existential crises. 😂🙈

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Ashwini Mistry's avatar

This is the first time I sat and read your article; word to word. In MY Free time. And I am at work currently. But I needed 5 minutes of peace to get back to my tasks. I can confirm that this helped, positively!

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Uthara's avatar

Haha thanks Ashwini! Happy Monday! :)

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Tyagarajan S's avatar

Agree! It's a blessing and a curse that I like spending so much time with myself 😂

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Uthara's avatar

LOL I must say I got a lot of happy notes from the introverts club.

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Prasanna's avatar

As a person who loves spending time alone and quiet it is becoming a bit harder after marriage. How am I going to explain to my spouse that I'm not talking because I like the quiet and not because I'm uninterested to talk to her. Definitely will share this to make her understand me better

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Uthara's avatar

If its any consolation - I was the same way until some time ago! <3

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Payal's avatar

I love alone time. I quite enjoy long distance running and that's the best use of my alone time, followed by making myself a cup of tea and sitting at the verandah staring blankly into nothing.

And i agree, it only helps you develop deeper connections with your people . thanks for sharing :)

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Uthara's avatar

extremely into the tea + verandah + staring into nothing. <3

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Ajay Kelkar's avatar

Lovely post. For me alone times are 4 things:1) long run 2) Good book 3) Long walk/hike 4) playing with my dog

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