191118

Hello.

Oh Dear.

I did not do well on my promise of more posts. Ten months later, here I am!

Better late than never, I suppose?

Recently I’ve been going through some of my notes from my time at the Met, and sort of picking out different topics that interest me. I definitely found any information on trade relations between Ancient India and the rest of the world to be the most fascinating. But then again, I’ve always sort of found it fascinating, the ways that cultures can connect with minimal technology and resources. Thinking about how easy it is today for someone to pick up a new language, or talk to someone on the other side of the planet (as I endeavor to do with my sparse and infrequent newsletters) it becomes even more impressive that there were so many different things that were able to be translated across cultures, from languages, to religions, to technologies and beyond.

As I’m looking into pursuing higher education (i.e. graduate school programs) (oops) I’m trying to come up with topics I want to learn more about, that I could potentially see myself studying for an extended period of time. I find myself increasingly drawn to the Silk Road, and I think I had mentioned in a previous post here about different topics that made me want to learn more. I think there was one on erased LGBTQ histories in Asia, trade and transference of religion and faith/their related iconographies on the Silk Road, and the aforementioned trade routes connecting South Asia to the rest of the world.

I remember my research on the ancient port city of Muziris was especially intriguing to me, so it may be interesting to focus specifically on that site.

Regardless, I think that recording my thoughts on topics as they interest me may be beneficial in the long run, especially considering I am someone who benefits greatly from having things written down to refer to in the future. Hopefully recording what I do not only gives me an outlet to really work through these thoughts, but also probably will help me hold myself accountable to finish things that need to get done sooner rather than later (here’s looking at you, GREs). So if you’re reading this and it doesn’t make sense…That’s the intention B-)

But all that pondering will have to wait until Wednesday. Tomorrow I’m headed to a concert! I’m seeing one of my favorite k-pop artists and this weird fusion group he’s part of, which is clearly a money grab, but I’ve been following his music for over 10 years now (!!!) so at this point I’m too far gone to not go. It’s going to be a lot of fun anyway! But it’s making me realize how old I am, since everyone who I’ve heard is also going is like. Under 21. Well. Nothing can be done about that since the concert is tomorrow. But lots to think about re: the cogs of time moving ever forward etc. etc. etc.

I WILL WRITE SOON!

‘til next time,

Mallika