Last month, when I visited Mumbai, I decided to clear out my kitchen cabinet and my cupboard as part of the yearly, pre-Diwali, decluttering ritual.
I found an assortment of coffee mugs I had collected over the years. Each one had its own little story. There was the mug I used during long study nights years ago; another gifted by a friend who knows my love for coffee, and a bright polka-dotted one that always made me smile.
A mug for those chilly nights when you long for warm brownies and hot chocolate. Another one in which I experimented with different green teas.
Some were sentimental, some just adorable to look at, but they had all been sitting there unused for ages. It felt like the right time to let them go.
As I packed them up to give away, I thought about how these mugs had been a small but happy part of my everyday life.
Now, my cabinet is less cluttered, but those memories haven't truly gone away. It feels good to know these mugs might bring a little joy to someone else, just as they did for me.
Of course, I still have many more mugs that I couldn't part with, but that's a story for another time!