Life at Breakneck Speed (Yikes)

It’s been a wild week: in a dramatic turn of events, I wound up at the hospital for a sprained neck, started therapy, took a trip to Tokyo to watch Vir Das live (which my little girl heart will obstinately not shy away from calling the best trip ever) and am currently on the bus to the elementary school I teach Japanese at, bracing myself for the biggest hug in the world (my student very dramatically leaps each time she sees me, then throws her arms around me and screams “As-salam alaykum!!!!”). I live for that kind of energy but I’m going to have to walk the corridors gingerly today because I am afraid the hug might meddle with my neck’s healing process. I’m not sure if it’s actually healing though, because I woke up with the other side of my neck hurting slightly this morning and the originally sprained left side still has a dull ache. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed but this seems ominous. It’s okay. Deep breaths. Worst case scenario, I won’t be able to run the half-marathon I’ve been training for the last two months or so. That’s alright (internally screams). In any case, preparing for the half-marathon really helped me bring my attention back to my body, and while I still mostly run while playing loud Punjabi music, I’m beginning to be able to do shorter, slower runs without music — allowing myself five kilometers of trying to relax into my surroundings, really listening to the river and obviously, getting blinded by sweat because the humidity here has been unforgiving. Of course, it’s not like music solves the sweat problem, but it’s much easier powering through it while humming along to Tokyo vich munda renda, soniye Punjabi yEeEe as opposed to trying to be attentive to the river. I’m sure I can rewire my brain eventually.

I’m trying to calculate the number of times I have taken this bus. I’ve been working at this school since May of 2021, and it’s May of 2024 now. I used to come here twice a week, but that changed to once last October. Here is the answer produced by a quick and efficient deep dive into the vortex of my supreme mathematical abilities: it’s a lot of times. I love this route so much — it’s a highway flanked by mountains and occasional outlet shops. A restaurant or two, too. The driver almost always says good morning, and there’s very few people that take the bus so if I sit towards the back, I can sneakily make calls or — would you believe it — even type (typing is usually considered to be impolite on public transport here). So much for being a loud Indian. In fact, yesterday my friend and I were taking a bus back from Tokyo and were chastised by the driver for talking. He literally put his finger on his lips to gesture us to stay quiet and I was reminded of the cruel face of the class monitor that made obnoxious lists in middle school of children who were talking when the teacher left the class because of something she had to take care of (I was that class monitor, no cap). Anyhow, the driver was a sweet guy, I’m sure, and I loved the bus ride through and through, but I swear we were only whispering.

I’ll reach school in a while so I’m going to have to end this piece here, but writing today reminded me of how important spatial factors can be to smart (or not) habit-forming. I was prompted to write on this bus today because I’ve been writing on this bus the last couple weeks. This seems to work with other things too, like falling asleep. If I try to allocate a specific space just for sleeping and not use it to do anything else (re: mindlessly scrolling), maybe I’ll be able to sleep better? Can’t wait to live in a house with twenty thousand rooms so my twenty thousand different selves can comfortably have their own spaces for every minute task. Very smart, Swastika.

Anyhow, happy Friday, folks!

Pictorial representation of joy, featuring the most memorable tiramisu ever, next to which rests a cup with my fanciest order so far: 白湯 (warm water)