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My Chair has broken.

I am saddened.

A person’s relationship with his Chair or his place of seating is perhaps the most important relationship apart from a person’s relationship with his place of sleeping. For some, the two overlap. For me, they’re very distinct. Unless I fall asleep on my chair (this happens often), or sit on my bed (which is not as often as I would like), these two pieces of furniture will only interact where I wish to stretch my legs out and work.

Eliminating my Chair from the equation leaves my room with 3 pieces of furniture that belong to me. I am a proper Hostel student.

My chair has always been something I hold very dear to me. My room still contains the first chair I’ve ever owned, and over the years, my posture and back health has been defined by how much time I spend at my desk – considering I’m on my laptop/studying/reading for atleast 8 hours in a day.

When I was around 8, we purchased a really nice blue chair for my room – a chair that was with me till I left Dubai. I don’t really have any memories of it, particularly, but it served me consistently. Never did it let me down.

When we first moved to India, my parents and I searched and found the most incredible Blue Featherlite chair. It was an Office chair – one of those fancy “ergonomically” designed ones. All I know is that it had wheels, and therefore I could roll around my room. And it had a height adjustment feature. I was in love.

6 months in, my grandmother (of all people), broke that Chair. None of us really know the sequence of events that took place – because she was changing in my room at the time, but we entered to find her on the floor, in pain, and my chair, in pieces.

I was part shocked, part confused, and get this: I laughed.

I understand that that makes me a horrible human being. But my grandmother laughed at me when I fell over when I was 5 years old. Because I backtracked and went to sit where I thought the chair was (without actually feeling for the chair), and promptly fell on my ass. She found it hilarious.

I considered this payback. Of course I was a petty 6th Grader at the time, but the chair I had longed for had been broken, so you really can’t blame me.

We purchased a new chair. Which I’ve come to like, but I can never love as much as the Blue Featherlite.

When college rolled around (see what I did there), I wanted the full Hostel experience, so I didn’t invest in a chair.

My back decided to rebel against me. I developed a pilonidal sinus (which is legitimately the worst thing I have heard of), and develops as a result of too much friction near your butt and too much sitting. It was hilarious (but very painful).

And thus, I went and purchased a chair from Infocity. I was cheap about it and bargained, and did the usual things. But having it in my room made me so happy. It had wheels, it didn’t hurt my back, I could rock back & forth on it, and it was supremely comfortable.

Around 4 months in, I accidentally put too much weight on one of the arms of the chair & it collapsed promptly, but I loved the chair nonetheless.

2 years later, the chair has disintegrated fully. A true tragedy.

I am sad, and now in search of a Chair to fulfill the empty space this is left in my heart (and in my room). My butt longs for a place to rest and to leave an impression – perhaps one of the only impressions I will leave upon college (this is a joke, I am very committed to doing things for college).

Please tell if you have extra ones in your room. Thanks in advance.