Latitudes of Longing

by Shubhangi Swarup

‘Standing alone in the face of infinity, it’s not your beliefs but what you have rejected that bothers you.’

‘To value a lemon is to value the wisdom of all creation. In the jungle, you can squeeze it over leeches that have latched on and they shrivel instantaneously. You can squeeze it over bites and wounds as an antiseptic. And when you are dehydrated, nothing revives you more than an entire lemon, especially the rind.’

The bachelors may keep the world spinning, but it’s the married ones that keep it grounded.

The life of an equal couple in the latitudes of longing and the longitudes of trepidation has hitherto been a rare, undocumented phenomenon—like a whale giving birth in Antarctica or white elephants mating in south Asia.

The struggle of an equal couple isn’t just the subject of ethnography. It is multi-disciplinary. Intimacy and distance operate like the tide—high during the day, peaking at mealtimes. The moon is a cup of tea, it pulls them to the zenith of their interaction. The nights are parched. Unconquered land separates their beds.