My experiences with Hygge, Part 1
By: Preethi Krishnasamy
Tags: Happiness, Hygge, Soulfood, Food And Drink, Comfort

My experiences with Hygge, Part 1

(It is mid-week and I only have a million people waiting to knock at my mailbox anytime starting 9 am. I realize that I am clearing every mail secretly wishing that none of them are addressed to me directly. At this point, 500 days of working from home can seem like I might have forgotten what it is like to work alongside anyone who is in the same space as me physically. I can only think of how many seconds will it take me to buffer and mentally create the most appropriate response to a question that they will ask. How did we even do it before? I break into another screen that pings a bright notification after the twenty third time I have changed the settings back to allow the app to show notifications. There are 12 messages from 7 chats. Meanwhile my mailbox floods its way in. Why does Whatsapp not have an auto text template that lets me churn out bulk yet customized messages, saving real conversations only to a select few?

I can’t find myself opening every chat and replying I definitely can’t find myself mailing so many people. I have been finding myself quite often in this situation. It seems like it was time to take a break.)

I first heard of the Danish concept Hygge (pronounced Hoo-ga) from The little Book of Hygge written by Meik Wiking. If you are wondering what it is, think of the last time you were consumed in a peaceful/blissful moment in totality. A few good moments where you could offer hundred percent of yourself to yield a few good moments of uninterrupted contentment. Could have been the time where you actually enjoyed your bath without realizing that it was your daily routine to get going with the day, could have been the time you had your adrak waali chai (translated — ginger flavored tea) by your balcony watching the sun go down as a few kids play on the ground or that soulful food that feels like a person’s hug. Whatever it is, it seems to be working well at least for the people in Denmark; a country that has consistently ranked first in the world’s happiness index. It sure would not hurt to try this out — As much as I was able to appreciate the book for emphasizing on why Hygge is important and some really defining constructs within which Hygge can be created at home with easily available materials let’s say candles, blankets, cocoa, bread and cakes, I felt that this made much sense in Denmark with its cold and dark weather. A temperature of 21 degree Celsius in summer would most definitely mean you’d find your Hygge on a spring break with people cycling around and eating fresh breads with cocktails at picnics. What about a country like India? With a population of 1.3bn and summer temperatures at 40 degree Celsius, lighting a candle could only mean a 13 hour power cut as cozying up with a blanket could only mean you are running a temperature yourself.

Here are some ways to create an Indian Hygge if you belong to a fast paced, competitive, tightly populated, noisy, warm to hot weathered ecosystem aka India.

Food and drink

My weakness

My love for food is pure and unconditional; I am most definitely close to voting for food more than for people. I am a south Indian and I remember my paati (translated — grandmother), feeding us all cousins dinner on the terrace. We’d sit in a circle around her with our palms out only to receive a few delectable morsels of what I can proudly call bite sized bliss. This curd rice, unpopularly, is made with 70% milk and 30% thick curd and a dash of salt just enough for it to leave your oral cavity without your knowledge and smoothly slide into your system probably leaving you helpless, waiting for your turn. Dinner on balconies and terraces with the night sky gazing upon, especially during a power cut is Hygge. The smell of crushed ginger in boiling hot water or the fizz of the morning filter coffee (I’d like to non-humorously call it the Kaapi Fizz) has a similar effect. I believe in having a tea/coffee spot in your house to reward you from time to time and to delineate your workspace from your own little kitchenette. Indian cuisine is as incomplete without desserts as incomplete is without the letters i and n. My sugar cravings increase after lunch and dinner and it is very often that I find myself guilty ordering in a hot moong halwa, a blueberry cream cheese cake (yes the ones that leave you licking your tongues out on the floor) or what is called an adhirasam (palm jaggery filled rice cakes); my dessert indulgence is Hygge. I don’t know if I believe in soulmates but I vouch for a soul food. The other day, I visited my sister after a long time. It was a normal busy day, we did the usual gossip and she kicked my ass at the board game. I only forgave her because she made my soul food — steaming hot rice and dal (translated — spiced lentil curry) with any pickle on the side. For 17 whole minutes while I was eating it, the backgrounds faded into something I didn’t care about except this one invisible giant person with a tender heart who hugged me for the whole duration. Soul food is food that gives you a hug without giving you one.

Atmosphere

My living room and the better plant parent

I have never been a good plant parent, mostly negligent and need-based. Although, my husband is a great one– he waters them on time and takes care of them like he would take care of his own…PS controllers. I appreciate him for having brought them into my living room — having indoor plants is calming. Just when my eyes feel drab and tired switching between screens and looking at walls that are rather obnoxiously plain and unintentionally textured with cracks, they fall on these little dashes of green sticking out from their pots — it’s like hydration to my eyes. I also think having mirrors installed in your living room makes your space look much larger/wider and works a great deal when it feels like the walls are closing in on you (trust me, there are days!). When I bought lights for this home, I was sure about one thing; do not compromise. Lighting is literally the switch that regulates and differentiates work time from non-work time for me. It tells us, if orange lights are on then the laptops have to be shut down, a movie has to be played, and pasta has to be ordered in. We tied our fairy lights (amused by the name every single time) on to the fire extinguishing ugly long red pipe that runs across the house on the ceiling. I do not paint, but I made friends with a couple of them who can. A few compliments later, I have a bunch of colorful paintings hanging on my walls (Just kidding, I love them all, truly).

Wine dining

I love birthdays that are not mine. At this point, I can call myself weird enough to think of these as opportunities for me to compete with myself. I challenge myself consistently at surprising other people — once I indulgently spent an entire evening just cleaning my sister’s refrigerator — something she despised doing for weeks; she was surprised. This time for my husband’s birthday, I thought of a concept to bring in the theatres to home — I ran couple of errands online, bought in a few this and that and made a few changes to the living room and let’s just say that all the other previous year me’s can hang themselves to death seeing this one. My husband stood startled with his jaw wide open and the brightest twinkle in his eyes to see — the living room now housed a queen sized mattress caged with a delicate yet sturdy tent in dusty rose covered with fairy lights all over. The curtains (both sheer and solid) matched the sheets on the bed in seagreen. A Spotify playlist had been faintly playing the beetles in the background as the lights get switched on at a time that is as right as a comic’s timing — here comes the sun. A tight smell of freshly baked pizza filled the air as I poured our favorite sauvignon Blanc into our coffee mugs (we broke all our wine glasses). On the TV was a list of movies to watch from, credits to Netflix- an infamous movie playlist that we had made that contained the world’s most diverse playlist — psycho mafia thrillers to 90s Bollywood cringe. There we were, living in the living room — sneaking into our tent, watching animation, drinking wine out of coffee mugs and fighting for jalapenos on the pizza. And the world faded somewhere in the background.

Right there, that was my Hygge.

(Part 2 to be contd.)