Happiness

“Happiness and unhappiness differ as a bucket hammered from gold differs from one of pressed tin, this painting proposes. Each carries the same water, it says.”

—  Excerpt from Late Self-Portrait by Rembrandt, by Jane Hirshfield

You call it Dining table?

As a kid we had this lovely teak polygon shaped dining table.  I remember one of its legs used to be short a wee bit, not too much.  I don’t remember the chairs, but I remember only 2 can eat on that dining table.  There was very little food to eat those days yet there was enough space in the table for just one max two persons to sit and eat at a time. My dad always used the dining table and I used it occasionally. All in different timings. Maybe its this background that made me scorn at what people used to say “families that ate together stayed together”  When I grew up I scorned the idea of eating together. i would rather buy books and read together or buy some books shelves. I was obsessed with knowledge and knowing and less with consuming. So somewhere i had to relent to demands. So I decided to make my own dining table. So I made a huge one that can make 10 people dine together. The idea was for 10 ppl to sit and discuss and also have some food. It was certainly not for food alone. We had a few such sessions but the the size of the table and design did not suite the milieu. And I decided to junk the table. And we lived without a table for many years. Took the food from the kitchen and sat in front of the computer most of the times watching some youtube videos or listening to music. Life went on. Few months back I went through a transformation phase in my life. I decided to get myself good furniture for the home starting with a decent dining table – a four seater.  Its been 2 days. I know its too early to make a observation. That piece of furniture even now does not look like a object to consume food. Its more for gathering and binding oneself together.