Tashi Dendup: Strathnairnability

It has been a couple of months since I moved to Strathnairn. It is an uber quiet suburb with fewer than a thousand residents. And no, unlike Bhutan, it is not the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else. Apart from my immediate neighbours and a Bhutanese friend who lives a few blocks away, I know no one else. People here just keep to themselves. As strange as that might sound, I have grown used to it. I will tell you that you must have an ounce of Strathnairnability to do that, really. Looking back, I have never really been a people person anyway.

Back to the Strathnairn scene, I take an evening stroll, and I am instantly filled with the urge to take my phone out and go click, click, click. And that is exactly what I did.

If the houses are Strathnairn’s soul, then Paddy’s Park must be its heart. Its sheer existence is a feast for the eyes. The photos prove it.

Oh, and I have been saying for a while now that Strathnairn has the best sunsets. I cannot speak for the sunrises though. By the time I am up, the sun is already high, staring down at me with a knowing smirk.

So here I present some of the photos I captured. They were colour corrected and graded on Lightroom Mobile.

Inside Paddy's Park

'Tashi was here.'

Food for the body and Strathnairn for the soul.

There was this darkling sky, and then sun just peekaboo'd.

Trees are always close to my heart because they remind me that no matter where
I branch out, I must remember my roots.

Paddy’s pause

Strathnairn is too young to be an empty-nester, but it wears its quiet well.

A spark from Paddy's Park.

One thing that lives rent-free in my head is the bridge metaphor. We are all just a bridge: between moments, between people, between versions of ourselves.