unfinished nutopia

looking out the window. wind dancing with the sheets that hang on the clothesline. their colours popping against the clear sky. the soft mobility within the frame magnifying the stillness around it.

I wind up the propeller. Dad insists on launching it. He has the stronger arm. I watch as my birthday present, bright yellow and wooden-winged, climbs above the field. It banks, reverses course and makes for the power lines. It may still be there, broken in half, dangling in the wind, 30 feet above the cows. 40 years on and Dad still apologizes.

The dark and wholesome smell of torrential rain on dry dust and tree bark.

eating with my hands, making contact with chicken bones, physically thanking for its sustenance 

Security was not only reserved for the rich and in the price of surveillance. Neighbours, the multiplicity and chaos of the different functions of one street provided a natural ‘sidewalk police’ 

i miss my grandma's dilapidated bungalow and its dark cavernous interiors. i miss her too

i miss waiting for my to-go lunch at the restaurant where the aunty knows my name, wrapped inside of banana leaves

realizing what might be meant by “the hissing of summer lawns”

i miss hearing the adhan soaring through my communities’ skies

i miss being drenched in sweat and sun, playing sports with my neighbours without shoes on

Nutopia is a conceptual country, sometimes referred to as a micronation, founded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. There is no leadership and not all citizenships have been recorded. As a result, the population is unknown. This blog wishes to digitize Nutopia and explore the lack of authority that digitization has offered our planet. Nothing is ever bookended with the digital, nor is it with Nutopia. They both stand for the fluid and the procedural. The meaning is in the process and is precisely why it is ‘unfinished’ as it is based on contribution and collective. The instructions: To submit/share a memory (a fluid term in itself) of your culture / nation / family / self acknowledging and reciprocating earth's presence. Eg: I miss the smell of burlap in my rice, my dad made us yoghurt from scratch, I still have my older sister’s shirt from when she was little but as a dishtowel

i miss the smell of burlap in my rice