Much of their brothers' conversation came back to melancholy about the skills being lost with modern transformational societal change. Schools removing learning tablets they just got after deciding it hurt more than helped, one of their old teachers being upset with Ataturk removing the old Turkish writing system and essentially creating a more dire, sweeping version of young people being unable to read a historical document as it's written in cursive, their belief you just can't think as deeply about what you're saying without writing it on paper.

We drove to a nearby city, where there's a larger library and museum for the area. I took pictures of every book that looked interesting, but will prolly look for more general equivalents cuz I dont expect to need Indiana knowledgemaxxing. Maybe I'll make an exception for the strange amount of books about the area being hollowed out and abandoned and haunted. I was reminded of lots of encyclopedias I wanna read.

The results of a local art contest were on display. Their taller brother's painting of a goat from that public zoo took first place, while the shorter brother's bear painting won two sponsor awards. There was a painting they did of some alt girl I wanted to ask about but didn't.

Their dad gingerly crouched to reach a globe on the library floor and asked my lil bro to explain our family genealogy they'd been discussing using it. I wish I had a video of them laughing and drawing invisible lines from random northern European countries.

Afterwards he gave us extensive impromtu Urdu and Punjabi speaking/writing lessons for hours after my dad asked an innocent question. He says he sees similarities to Romani cuz they originally came from India. My lil bro's studied some Uyghur and also saw some similarities there. At one point he wrote my deadname in Urdu for practice, I wish I could've gotten Ena written instead. Their talks make me wanna learn a language more as I just know about some of the calligraphy discussed from a visual design standpoint, and want more of the cultural sides of things beyond the broad strokes. Their dad seems like a good teacher, even if prone to repetition. I got a little addicted to some masala snacks they had while watching him. I'm keeping the paper full of pen marks cuz it's beautiful.