grocery lists
milk fruit tea leaves wafers detergent nothing gets as intimate as grocery lists. in all its plainness and simplicity, stark in contrast with the plenty of things in everyday life that can get twisted beyond recognition so ruthlessly, so unprompted, it is but hasty scribbling on a piece of paper. quintessentially utilitarian, apparently meaningless. i remember how in my childhood, my mother made monthly grocery lists. she always asked me if i had paper scraps, discarded out an important school project where i had gotten the slant of the cursive wrong or misspelt a noticeable word in the heading or dozed off while writing and extended the cut on the 't' a bit too much till the pen dropped from my limp hand and in doing so ruined the labour of the previous ten minutes. the backside of printed notices, cavalier with blank space and newspaper clippings where two columns were placed just enough inches far apart. she could never be persuaded to tear a pristine white page fro...