Essay: Finding Roses by Shreya Makkar

In this essay, Shreya Makkar shares a captivating observation about discovering roses in the mundane and the various emotions they carry.

The first step is to take a step. Out of the room, out of the mind. Wear a jacket too thin for the weather and feel the chill climb up your spine to make you focus more on your surroundings. Did you wake up early enough? Do your chores enough? Meditate enough? The resounding ‘no’s’ do not matter. Because we are hunting for roses.

Sometimes a rose is a person at the airport you sit next to and try to convince that their 25-year-old daughter is still too young to marry, sometimes it is a meatball subway wrap overflowing with sauces, and sometimes a rose is a dry rose you find on the side of the road. But you have to find them. Decrease the expectations for being found, for being figured out. At times the rose is yourself. You, trying to feel the spine straighten, and your eyes getting drier, will not realise this until later. Perhaps the slap across the face and the absence of warmth is what I need (, right?). It’ll wake us up from the slumber and feeling like everything is far away. Just a pinch to go back to reality.