January 2017 - Week 3

It's a very happy Thursday in the Shankita household and we honestly have no idea why. My guess is that all the little snacks we stocked up on yesterday gave us a high that has managed to last well into the next day. But for whatever reason, we both jumped out of bed with huge smiles plastered on our faces.

The first thing we watched in bed when we woke up was this:

We'd just released that video before we went to bed last night, and although we watched it while getting it up, it still made us laugh in the morning. If you remember, in Episode 11 of the podcast (which was a braindump), I quizzed Meenal during a rapid fire round that I randomly sprung upon her. After watching that, many of you asked for her to do the same to me. So this week, we thought, why not? As we prepare to get Season 2 ready, we thought we might as well have some fun together by recording a short video. So in this video, you're going to see a lot of giggles interspersed with my answers to Meenal's questions.

Speaking of questions, I'm collecting a few for this month's QnA. I want to thank all of you who've sent in questions already and invite the rest of you who might have questions to please drop them either in the comments below, or send me a direct message on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or my email.

Now let's talk music, shall we? Before I tell you about the songs I want you to picture something. It's a cold winter's evening and it's windy outside. You're warm and cozy at home, sitting next to a fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate in your hand. You're with two of your closest friends and doing what you three do best together - talking? laughing? playing a board game? watching a movie? You tell me. This is the playlist that I imagine would be playing in the background in that perfect little scene.

I've been reading The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking and I'm in love. The concept of Hygge is something I absolutely adore and I've been trying to be mindful of the little ways in which I can bring it into my own life. It's nothing but an internal sense of warmth generated by one's external environment. For example, warm lighting is hygge. Good company is hygge. An evening spent in a cozy room with a blanket and book while sipping on a glass of wine is hygge. A homecooked meal had on the floor of the living room while watching a lighthearted comedy with a loved one is hygge. Cuddling your furry pet to sleep is hygge. The cover of this book itself is hygge.

The songs we chose this time are songs that you may not enjoy individually if you were to pay close attention to them. Or maybe you'd love them anyway. But our idea is that these are the kind of songs that can blend in with a 'hygge' environment that I just described, that enhance the mood of said environment and make everything better. However, the last (and my favourite) of this playlist deviates slightly from the theme, in that, you will surely look up from what you're doing to listen to that one. I hope you love Lena Fayre's Every Man Is a Warrior as much as we do.

In the comments below, I'd like to learn what you and your two best friends would be doing together on that cold winter's evening while sipping on hot chocolate. I'm sure every intimate group of friends has its own thing. I for sure would be sitting with them on the floor, on a cozy rug, and laughing about the lame jokes we made 5 years ago when we thought we were cool. Then, we'd break out a board game in true nerd fashion.