Everyday Writing: Chapter 18

Once again, I have ignored the blog, but well, I HAVE been writing, but not here. So I guess it is pardonable. The post below is BAD. But well, I am probably suffering from some weird sort of writer's block where I can writer a page everyday, but again, not here.

*sigh*
*conundrumrolls*


Time swivels
coffee drains to dregs
Flies whiz past
and settle to slumber
and all through,
a constant banter
the endless gossip
in the chitter-chatter.

Everyday Writing: Chapter 17

...It is after all a graph.

Some good days. Some bad. Some that they call mota-moti in Bengali.

Have you noticed how there are always some untranslatable words in certain languages? Like, I have never found the equivalent of 'Pighalna'. No word ever comes close to describing that beautiful surrender.

Sonder. Another word I fell for. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows(what a delightful term, that is, incidentally!) describes it as

"the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk"

 I am digressing. This is not about words. This is about the day I had today. But have you noticed how our letters never stick to one topic? How it meanders and charts a new course every time either of us write to one another!

What if we make a book out of these letters? Or better yet, we become so famous, someone publishes these letters into a compilation. Sort of like 'Correspondences of the wayfarers'. Isn't that what we are? Wayfarers? Walking along one another, in conversation?

Why did we never give it a term? I have always noticed how things crumble when you give them terms. But then why do they stress on definitions and dictionaries all the time we are kids? It is bound to get us conditioned, now, wouldn't you think!

I think I should stop. I have asked too many questions! The night too is yawning its way into my limbs and I need to rest my fevered mind that has been running hyperactive rounds.

Write to me soon, you!

I shall haunt the postbox till a fresh envelope plonks itself there. Oh and I might get impatient and send you a postcard in between.

Watch out! I am on some writing spree!

Love,
Me

*NOTE.: I have always wished for this kind of uninhibited correspondence in written with someone. A conversation with a friend today triggered off this craving to write to someone. Knowing no one who'd actually bother to write back, as always, this is archived in my blog. 

Hello, FamiliarNobody, here's my letter to you!* 

Everyday Writing: Chapter 16

You still are at your mourning
Waiting for some answers from the wind
Forgetting what a fickle thing it is
Passes on without a word
And you think they are whispers
The sound of tousled leaves
And the swish around things.

*Written after watching 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' by Mira Nair*

Gray Within

Multiple emotions.
entwined like snakes in love.
sweet happy songs
cutting across like barbed wire

I have fifty shades of gray
and in each of them I am crabby
the black and white are illusions

Everyday Writing: Chapter 15

*Waking up to the usual craziness of 3 am and taking refuge in an ipod full of Mariyan songs and writing...*

His music is like a handclasp in the middle of the night when you wake up at 3 am, delirius, sweaty and unsure of what is real and what is dreaming. 'Nenje Ezhu' he says. And suddenly everything sets itself right. Why does it happen time and again? When everything fails me- people, events, dreams- his voice and music infuse strength. He made me a promise with his voice today when he crooned those words. And I know, he will not desert. 

Summers

There is a restlessness about summers. Restlessness to grab the first bunch of mangoes. Only to realize they are still unripe. The frenzy to throw away last year's school books. The hurry to watch the summer releases in the theatres and lament for the rest of the holidays about nothing being there to watch. Restlessness and disappointment.

Everyday Writing: Chapter 14

* Wrote this seeing a picture from a wedding album. The picture had lights strewn all across a pathway flanked by trees. I imagined the man writing this to his woman as they begin their life together. 

One more poem buried in the drafts and resurrected fakely as 'everyday writing' *


That day
in the forest grove
while you spun dreams for us
my limbs were aching after our walk
you wanted to hold hands
and walk some more beneath the stars
I preferred the shade of the moon
by the glimmering pool
the silence, and you...

And today,
as we begin
as man and woman
a journey
a long walk together

A walk beneath the stars, did you say? 

Everyday Writing: Chapter 13

*This is NOT technically an everyday writing. I was cleaning my drafts on gmail and re-discovered this poem I had written many moons ago. I hate keeping my verses to myself. I like to scatter them to the wind. Maybe there'll be some takers. Maybe there won't. But words were never meant to be hoarded. They were meant to be set free. So here goes...*

Whenever you demand your roti dal

You must eat at once, or befall

a horrible fate that visits the doomed

your hunger, my dear, away, would've vroomed!

So pick your chicken and bite it clean

Dip it in the chutney- spicy and mean

Food for the tummy is food for the mind

To your mealtimes, don't be unkind!

If perchance, you happen to skip

your pepparoni pizza and jalapeno dip

at half past nine on a sunday night

don't you get angry and pick up a fight

At half past ten, grab your friend and go

to a movie, that may or maynot show

but whatever it be, pause at the McD

and grab a bite and quit being angry

For good food and friends are a double

that keep your soul warm from winter and trouble

And be it silly, be it serious

friends and food, you must never cuss! 

Liebster Award!

So Nikhil Venkatesa presented me with the Leibster Award! 

Thank you, Nikhil for this kind gesture! It is a proud moment and I am honoured to receive it on behalf of my blog, for I believe half of the posts here write themselves up through me! :D 

This is no simple award as there apparently are a few rules that go with the Leibster Award. I'm pasting them here. If I have nominated you for the award, then, once you have accepted the award, here's what you do:

List 11 random facts about you.
Answer the questions that were asked of you (by the blogger that nominated you).
Nominate 11 other blogs for the Liebster Blog Award and link to their blogs.
Notify the bloggers of their award.
Ask the award winners 11 questions to answer once they accept the award.


11 random facts about me
1) I love coffee and love people who love coffee. I love tea, as well. But coffee *always* wins! 

2) I buy too many books and have a huge pile I have not finished reading! *shamefaced

3) I love the water. Love the feeling of floating in the pool! It is truly the most exhilarating feeling I have ever felt.

4) Blogging gives me calm and solace.

5) I want to be a writer with many published books under my name. Someday!

6) I cannot imagine my life without the influences of L.M.Montgomery, Michael Ondaatje, J.K.Rowling, Enid Blyton, A.R.Rahman, Rahul Dravid, Audrey Hepburn and a few others. 

7) I want to travel. I lust after travelling all across the world. I cannot WAIT for this to begin. I want to roam streets, shoot, sketch, talk, write. *sigh*

8) People first. Always! However, I totally believe in retail therapy.

9) I want to attempt adventure sports. Do everything that scares the shit out of me- bungee jump, deep sea diving, para gliding etc.

10) I wish to learn to play cricket, learn one dance form, play one instrument, learn to sing Hindustani music, speak-write-understand-read fluently in Malayala, Bengali, Spanish, French and Urdu. (Wistful thinking, I know!)

11) I don't believe in arranged marriages. I believe in love, prince charming, fairy tale-romance and happily-ever-afters. I strongly still believe I'll find love. Some day. Some way. 



11 Questions From Nikhil

What’s the worst nightmare you’ve had? 
Cannot recall. I remember pleasant dreams more vividly. 

What time of the day do you prefer to write?
Twilight! 

Ebooks or Paperbacks?
Paperbacks, without a doubt.

Do you follow the news and current affairs closely?
I wish I did. But I do not.

Keyboard or Pen and Paper?
Pen and Paper. But I don't mind the keyboard. 

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Loads to list. I hope there is more craziness to come!

What is one movie you can watch throughout a single day over and over again?
Before Sunrise

When it’s raining, would you run through it or stand and enjoy it?
One followed by the other.

Do you cook?
Of course!

How many drafts are stuck in creative procrastination on your blog?
9

Has blogging made you a better person somehow?
Absolutely!

11 blogs I nominate for the Liebster Blog Award
Phantom Limb by Anoodha Kunnath
The Moody Kettle by Mayank Bisht
The Angelwitch Diaries by Arpita Bohra
The Old Drifter by Allen Shaw
Prav Unplugged by Praveen Krishnamoorthy
Medium Boss by Gounder Brownie
Yellow Soul Porridge by Lavanya Naidu
What-Kaveri-Seas by Kaveri Gopalakrishnan
Soup by Bibi Sarkar
Ulti Chappal and other blogs by frowningglory 
phbbt by Shreyas.R.Krishnan

11 Questions to my nominees
List 11 facts about why you blog/write/sketch and how it has helped you over the years. (Yes, I can't come up with 11 questions! :P)

Everyday Writing: Chapter 12

*Inspiration: KMC, lots of leaves, Ahmedabad summer, conversations, L.M.Montgomery(of course!), Kaze no Shoujo Emily

dedicated to Naina Shenoy for all the cheer and love* 

There is a certain slant of light
that illuminates the leaf
sneaking a peak inside
face pressed against the pane
as if a drop of sunshine
stays dancing on its vein

The air is dry with longing
trees lie limp in the absent breeze
the parched earth sighs
and the dust stomps its feet
but the rogue leaf's laughter
echoes across the streets

thirsty dogs saunter
to shaded corner spots
a drowsy silence reigns
within the city walls
And yet the rebel leaf sways
to the imagined wind calls

Everyday Writing- Chapter 11

Sleep eludes
In the cauldron of my brain 
Little monsters peek
Stories get cooked
Nights are remembered
Similar in delirium
Similar in silence
Too much conversation within!
Even stray sounds
amplify in my heart, all the
Unearthly thoughts on the prowl
Unreal events that may take my hold
Snooze and rest a while
Wretched brain, wretched brain
Don't forget it is 3 am

Everyday Writing- Chapter 10

I carry around a jar of light
I sparkle the beams all around
this glow I take with me
to light the whole world round! 

Everyday Writing: Chapter 9

Theme: Evil, Irate, Humour(maybe?)

Termites are eating my bathroom door
Biting at the base with their incisor teeth
Or whatchamacallit accessory to destroy
And little ants then come to nibble
All the leftover wooden pieces that fall
There are pigeons that constantly breed
On my window sill-all night, all day
Flapping their frisky wings like fans
And gurgling in a base voice that annoys
Little little things that irritate, infest
And patterning my days with their marks
Someday I shall pick my sparkling sword
I sparingly use and secret under the bed
And a blood trail of little icky things
Shall splatter to my echoing evil laugh!

Everyday Writing: Chapter 8: Trying to be a woman

I lack a certain grace
that comes with women.
Awkward, I fumble,
around words- overusing them
and hesitantly treading
on the edges of events
mostly not knowing
what is appropriate. 
That undeniable flair,
that the world terms 'womanly'
now why did it go lacking
in my uncoordinated fingers
that slip and drop things
(and sometimes more than that)
to irrevocably break
into a million pieces
lackluster now, that
which once sparkled as a whole.
Oh the charms of being
a girly girl shall remain
Yet another chapter unknown!

Everyday Writing: Chapter 7

if i could orchestrate my dreams

i would want them lit with lanterns

soft glows and paper thin

dreams that traipse within

a long moonlit dance

some good wine and dine

oh and people of every kind

who come tell me their tales

if i could orchestrate my dreams

i would want to dream this everyday

theme. just some pleasant pre-sleep thoughts :)

Everyday Writing: Chapter 6

*Theme: Philosophy/Empathy/Life*

Tune in.
You can hear the heartbeats.
Each beat tells a tale
it all starts the same way
and then the turns appear.
But stay tuned,
there will be announcements soon-
in the flick of a hand,
the corner of an eye-
in untold ways
many tales will be told.

Tune in
and maybe you'll hear
more than the heartbeat-
the feeble voice of a fallible soul.

Everday Writing: Chapter 5

*Theme: melancholia, again*

An attic, I call it

That little storehouse

Of words we wrote

Songs we crooned

And every little thing

That rests now as memory.

Everyday Writing: Chapter 4

*I have committed the unpardonable sin of ignoring my writing in the past two days. Blame it on fatigue and these seizures of sleep that hold me captive by 10-11 in the night. Thoughts and heat are swaying me over to exhaustion. 

Justifications apart, I solemnly swear, I shall do this tirelessly from today. At least a lone line shall be scrawled.*


Thoughts swirl up like sand storms in the desert of your mind. No particle decipherable. No shape discernable. Mirages flash across. False trails rise, only to get erased. When the dust settles down, the wonderful striations appear. And then, we lonely travelers shall find our way to our oases.