You're worth it!

Why it is worth investing in the small luxuries of life

 Luxury is such a loaded word, isn’t it? To some it evokes images of lavish suites in exclusive hotels; to others it means expensive ingredients served up in eight-course meals in three-star restaurants. To some it means designer bags and jewellery; to others it is exemplified in private-plane travel. 

 

Everyone has a different definition of luxury. For me, the greatest luxury in the world is that of time – that is, time to oneself, that you can spend on self-care without feeling guilty about not fulfilling one responsibility or the other. But, of course, there are a thousand other luxuries as well that go towards making life worth living. The test, of course, is which one of these could I absolutely not live without.

 

I spent some time thinking about this and came to the conclusion that it’s not the big stuff that I would sweat; it would be the small, even negligible, things that I simply could not bear to give up. Here are just some of them, in no particular order of importance.

 

·       My morning cuppa. This has to be perfect if my day is to start off on the right foot. And the only way it does is with my particular blend of Fresh Brew capsules (made from Indian coffee beans). The moment that beautiful aroma fills the kitchen, all feels right with the world. I am now so addicted to this that I even travel with a sleeve of capsules so that I never have to go without that particular caffeine buzz.

·       Rice, rice, baby! Ever since my diabetes diagnosis, I don’t eat rice very often – and then, only in small quantities. But there is no compromise on the rice in question. It has to be Kamini rice (very close to Gobindobhog rice – but even better!) that I buy in bulk whenever I visit Kolkata. In my view, this is the king of rice and works well with almost any style of cooking and cuisine. Or you could just add a pinch of salt, slather with ghee and enjoy on its own.

·       Fresh flowers. I don’t have a garden and my balcony is too small to grow too many, so the way I cope is by making a weekly visit to the neighbourhood flower shop to buy the blooms that are in season. My favourite is the nargis, but that has a tragically short season, so I often have to make do with tuberose, roses or lilies instead. But so long as they are colourful and plentiful and all around me, I am happy. 

·       News and entertainment. As a news junkie, I probably spend way more than I should subscribing (online) to foreign newspapers and magazines. Add to that the subscription costs to all kinds of OTT platforms and the bills sort of add up. But no matter how much all this amounts to, I can’t bear the thought of giving even one of my subscriptions up. I guess this is my version of FOMO!

·       Vanity. I don’t really care too much about make-up, but skincare is an entirely different matter. My husband is always shocked by how much I am prepared to pay for a night cream. And no matter what, I have to get my hair coloured professionally. As the adage goes, I am worth it!

 

Life lines

There are a hundred little things that make life worthwhile – let’s appreciate them

 

Columnists – and I am no exception – tend to rely heavily on what I like to call the ‘pet peeve’ narrative. You know what I mean, right? All those columns on ‘What I hate about airline travel’ or ‘The most annoying things about working in an office’ or even ‘The top ten ways in which my husband/wife drives me crazy’.

 

Well, this column is travelling in a different direction this week. Instead of another litany of complaints about what I hate about something, I am going to share a list of what I love about life. So, here in no particular order are just some of the things that I believe make my life worth living. 

 

·       Those lazy mornings when I can sleep in and not bother with the alarm. There is no luxury quite like lingering in bed, swinging gently between sleep and wakefulness, knowing that another ten minutes of snuggling beneath the covers is not going to throw your day out of gear. 

·       That first cup of coffee that signals that the day has begun. The aroma of coffee beans in the kitchen; the first sip that jolts my tastebuds awake; the caffeine jolt that follows; I don’t think I could get through the day without this.

·       The ability to download any book I want on my Kindle at any time of the day or night. Growing up in pre-liberalization India means that I still remember a time when new books took weeks if not months to arrive in Indian bookshops. So, it feels like a minor miracle every time I read a review of a new release and just open my Kindle app and download it within seconds. What a time to be alive!

·       Long-haul flights without wifi which mean: no catching up with emails; no scrolling through Twitter or Instagram; no doom-scrolling through news sites. Instead, it’s all about watching trashy movies or catching up on a good book – or both – with a glass or two (or four – who’s counting? Not me!) of champagne.

·       The fact that I live in a city that has so much to offer. There are beautiful parks in which I can walk through the year. There is no dearth of historic monuments to visit. There are plenty of museums showcasing everything from antiquities to art to textiles. There is a clean, functioning, well-connected Metro to take me to far-flung corners of the city. And there are plenty of coffee-shops and restaurants to hang out with my friends and family.

·       I am grateful that I have the downtime and the resources to go on holiday every once in a while. But I am even more grateful that much as I love going on vacation, what I love even more is coming back home. Holidays and exotic locations are all very well, and don’t get me wrong, I enjoy them as much as the next person. But there is nothing quite as lovely as sinking into the depths of my own sofa, or slipping between the covers in my own bed. 

In my view, the best gift you can get is the ability to enjoy your everyday life as much as you enjoy a break from it. That’s where true happiness stems from – and may each of us be lucky enough to experience it.