The uninitiated, please read the previous post first.
PJ1
Q: What does an author, distressed at the fact that his books aren't selling and he's running short on money, say to his books?
A: Damn! Sell(, I'm) in distress.
PJ2
Q: What's the female counterpart of the infamous "male gaze"?
A: A female gazelle!
So, there you go. That's my two cents. Start with your own PJs in the comments section, or email them to me. I'll put them up in future posts with appropriate acknowledgments.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
A New Feature!
Yes, yes, I know I'm supposed to be on a sabbatical and leave my workaholic ways behind. I just had an idea and I thought I'll write about it as the last thing before I leave.
I''ve been told over and over that I'm a PJ person and that I have horrible PJs. Must really thank Manisha for bringing it to my notice. But, that's the point, no? They are supposed to be poor.
Anyway, so I've decided to start a daily PJ feature on this blog. It's a big demand on such a creative pursuit and I'll try to follow it as rigorously as possible.
We'll also make it contributive with people leaving their PJs in the comments section and I'll pick out the best and put them up in the next PJ post. They can also be emailed to me at swetankgupta@gmail.com.
I start with it in the next post, with, not one but two, yes two PJs as the opening offer. And we'll tkae it steady from thereon once I'm back from my trip.
I''ve been told over and over that I'm a PJ person and that I have horrible PJs. Must really thank Manisha for bringing it to my notice. But, that's the point, no? They are supposed to be poor.
Anyway, so I've decided to start a daily PJ feature on this blog. It's a big demand on such a creative pursuit and I'll try to follow it as rigorously as possible.
We'll also make it contributive with people leaving their PJs in the comments section and I'll pick out the best and put them up in the next PJ post. They can also be emailed to me at swetankgupta@gmail.com.
I start with it in the next post, with, not one but two, yes two PJs as the opening offer. And we'll tkae it steady from thereon once I'm back from my trip.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Blogging Sabbatical
I'm off on a vacation, a 10 day trip to Kuala Lumpur & Genting in Malaysia and Singapore and will be back on the 19th of August.
If you happen to visit my blog in the meantime, please do leave some comments (!), and have a great 60th Independence Day, nice, relaxing couple of weekends, and a (for the girls) financially uplifting Rakshabandhan.
See you soon, with reports from the lands that'll be blessed by my esteemed, revered, distinguished (you get the hang of it) presence.
Tada!
If you happen to visit my blog in the meantime, please do leave some comments (!), and have a great 60th Independence Day, nice, relaxing couple of weekends, and a (for the girls) financially uplifting Rakshabandhan.
See you soon, with reports from the lands that'll be blessed by my esteemed, revered, distinguished (you get the hang of it) presence.
Tada!
Poor Ol' Me and Politics of Correctness
We finished with the British Council course today. By the end of it, I was told that I am nothing like a true Saggitarian, whatever that is, and I didn't really mind that. I've never really fit under any stereotype, not much anyway.
Another thing they said was that I'm too politically correct. I see where they are coming from but I still tend to disagree. When, in my defense, I claimed that I was just a nice person, I was given an answer which was amusing and probably even true: "Saying that you are nice is just a politically correct way of saying that you are politically correct."
So much for all my niceties over the past two months! (See, see, I'm being mean now, I'm not politically correct.)
Another thing they said was that I'm too politically correct. I see where they are coming from but I still tend to disagree. When, in my defense, I claimed that I was just a nice person, I was given an answer which was amusing and probably even true: "Saying that you are nice is just a politically correct way of saying that you are politically correct."
So much for all my niceties over the past two months! (See, see, I'm being mean now, I'm not politically correct.)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Flipside of Reincarnation!
From Terry Pratchett's 'Mort', fourth book in the Discworld Series:
'Yes, but, you see, I have what you might call a season ticket,' the abbot explained.
Light dawned on Mort, but very slowly.
'Oh,' he said, 'I've read about this. Reincarnation, yes?'
That's the word. Fifty-three times so far. Or fifty-four.'
Binky looked up as they approached and gave a short neigh of recognition when the abbot
patted his nose. Mort mounted up and helped the abbot up behind him.
'It must be very interesting,' he said, as Binky climbed away from the temple. On the absolute
scale of small talk this comment must rate minus quite a lot, but Mort couldn't think of anything
better.
'No, it mustn't,' said the abbot. 'You think it must be because you believe I can remember all my
lives, but of course I can't. Not while I'm alive, anyway.'
'I hadn't thought of that,' Mort conceded.
'Imagine toilet training fifty times.'
'Nothing to look back on, I imagine,' said Mort.
Light dawned on Mort, but very slowly.
'Oh,' he said, 'I've read about this. Reincarnation, yes?'
That's the word. Fifty-three times so far. Or fifty-four.'
Binky looked up as they approached and gave a short neigh of recognition when the abbot
patted his nose. Mort mounted up and helped the abbot up behind him.
'It must be very interesting,' he said, as Binky climbed away from the temple. On the absolute
scale of small talk this comment must rate minus quite a lot, but Mort couldn't think of anything
better.
'No, it mustn't,' said the abbot. 'You think it must be because you believe I can remember all my
lives, but of course I can't. Not while I'm alive, anyway.'
'I hadn't thought of that,' Mort conceded.
'Imagine toilet training fifty times.'
'Nothing to look back on, I imagine,' said Mort.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Keeping The Flame Alive
"You know, it's like the difference between a sonnet and blank verse. Marriage gives my life structure, and this way it's always two people on my side."
It's an interesting take on marriage, reproduced from here on Meenkashi Reddy Madhavan's blog. The words belong to Shakti Bhatt, an editor who worked at Random House India, Brackett Books and more, and died suddenly on 31st March 2007, an untimely death at 27, a shock to all her friends and acquaintances alike.
I came to know of her just today because the inaugural Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize shortlist for debut novels is out. A blog created and run remembrance has continued since her demise, and though sporadically now, it is still active. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the blog, and her dreams, witness a contribution, directly or indirectly, from a major part of the publishing industry and it is heartening to see that. I didn't know her then, I was just getting to know the publishing world in early 2007, but I might have met her briefly had luck wanted it, but I didn't know of her existence till today.
Yet, what's important and what's comforting is that friends remember and acknowledge her, that a project (the First Book prize) that was conceived has seen the light of day and that the passion, the vigour has not diminished with the passage of time.
I will not go into what a great person she was, for one, because I knew her not, and secondly because the others have done a much better job of it on this blog. Go read.
It's an interesting take on marriage, reproduced from here on Meenkashi Reddy Madhavan's blog. The words belong to Shakti Bhatt, an editor who worked at Random House India, Brackett Books and more, and died suddenly on 31st March 2007, an untimely death at 27, a shock to all her friends and acquaintances alike.
I came to know of her just today because the inaugural Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize shortlist for debut novels is out. A blog created and run remembrance has continued since her demise, and though sporadically now, it is still active. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the blog, and her dreams, witness a contribution, directly or indirectly, from a major part of the publishing industry and it is heartening to see that. I didn't know her then, I was just getting to know the publishing world in early 2007, but I might have met her briefly had luck wanted it, but I didn't know of her existence till today.
Yet, what's important and what's comforting is that friends remember and acknowledge her, that a project (the First Book prize) that was conceived has seen the light of day and that the passion, the vigour has not diminished with the passage of time.
I will not go into what a great person she was, for one, because I knew her not, and secondly because the others have done a much better job of it on this blog. Go read.
Paulo da Costa: Magic Realism and Metafiction
I was reading a short story 'Turn The Page' by Paulo da Costa (Luso-Canadian author) and it really struck me as something brilliant, the idea at least. I've come across metafictional works before but this seemed different (rest assured, it isn't a marketing pitch for a Bollywood movie). The story itself is a part of a collection 'New Writing 14' published by British Council in association with Granta, so I'm not sure if you'll be able to find it elsewhere, but the idea is as follows:
The book starts with two characters who have been abandoned by the writer. They have to look for their own destinies, figure out their role in the scheme of things. They sleep at night and when the male character gets up, he realizes that the female character has been 'deleted' from the script. He wonders how it would have been in the pre-computer era when they would either be together because there wasn't an option, or simply be torn apart. Today, through cut-copy-paste mechanisms, their characters, their lives could be modified. He moves out of the 'white room with paper-thin walls' and is thrown in the 'real world' where his quest for an identity begins. He constantly wonders if his author has abandoned him for good, or if his story has been told earlier and he is just following the script, or if this exploration, this abandonment is his story, so he really hasn't been abandoned (sorry for using 'abandon' so many times, I just can't seem to abandon it! :P). Beyond that it gets into the usual realm of the meaning of his life, his purpose in this world, etc. etc. as he takes a more material shape from a nebulous, rather ephemeral existence and ultimately ends with him being slashed by red lines by the editor.
I fell in love with the idea of a character and/or characters being abandoned (again!) by the author and them trying to figure out their own lives. Would make for an interesting writing exercise, if nothing else. I realized that towards the end, the story had a more philosophical bent, but I missed that meaning, and would have to go back to again a few times to understand that. If I do, I'll share it with you.
I found an interview of da Costa here. Do visit the link. He talks about magic realism and how he has been compared to Allende, Marquez and the like. Also, his take on writing, the life of a writer, primarily after a million Creative Writing programs have cropped up in the past decade and how it has become even more difficult to break into mainstream publishing as they all flock to these programs (Creative Writing MFAs, but for Columbia and Iowa, have seen rather low publishing success, and even there it's more related to 'contacts' rather than creative brilliance - that's basically his point - it's forming a nexus that excludes more than it includes, and gives primacy to a certain sort of brilliance, often referred to as MFA Fiction as opposed to literary fiction or just fiction).
Maybe we could have our own Writing competition on this theme (of abandonment of a character by his/her/its progenitor) right here!
The book starts with two characters who have been abandoned by the writer. They have to look for their own destinies, figure out their role in the scheme of things. They sleep at night and when the male character gets up, he realizes that the female character has been 'deleted' from the script. He wonders how it would have been in the pre-computer era when they would either be together because there wasn't an option, or simply be torn apart. Today, through cut-copy-paste mechanisms, their characters, their lives could be modified. He moves out of the 'white room with paper-thin walls' and is thrown in the 'real world' where his quest for an identity begins. He constantly wonders if his author has abandoned him for good, or if his story has been told earlier and he is just following the script, or if this exploration, this abandonment is his story, so he really hasn't been abandoned (sorry for using 'abandon' so many times, I just can't seem to abandon it! :P). Beyond that it gets into the usual realm of the meaning of his life, his purpose in this world, etc. etc. as he takes a more material shape from a nebulous, rather ephemeral existence and ultimately ends with him being slashed by red lines by the editor.
I fell in love with the idea of a character and/or characters being abandoned (again!) by the author and them trying to figure out their own lives. Would make for an interesting writing exercise, if nothing else. I realized that towards the end, the story had a more philosophical bent, but I missed that meaning, and would have to go back to again a few times to understand that. If I do, I'll share it with you.
I found an interview of da Costa here. Do visit the link. He talks about magic realism and how he has been compared to Allende, Marquez and the like. Also, his take on writing, the life of a writer, primarily after a million Creative Writing programs have cropped up in the past decade and how it has become even more difficult to break into mainstream publishing as they all flock to these programs (Creative Writing MFAs, but for Columbia and Iowa, have seen rather low publishing success, and even there it's more related to 'contacts' rather than creative brilliance - that's basically his point - it's forming a nexus that excludes more than it includes, and gives primacy to a certain sort of brilliance, often referred to as MFA Fiction as opposed to literary fiction or just fiction).
Maybe we could have our own Writing competition on this theme (of abandonment of a character by his/her/its progenitor) right here!
Fabricated Societal Needs
In yet another short story, titled 'My Mother Lived on a Farm in Africa' by Abdulrazak Gurnah, there appears the following two sentences:
In the day, she was expected to stay close to Aunt Amina, and wait for chores to be given to her. She understood it was really to keep an eye on her because she was fourteen and a girl.
It got me thinking, as usual. I've always been vaguely disturbed by the idea of keeping girls 'safe', forbidding them from going out late at night because they might end up being raped or molested, and generally being asked time and again to 'be careful'. Yes, the continued threat of something happening is disturbing, so is the mankind at large for propagating such fears, but what has disturbed me the most all through, with respect to this and any other similar situations, is that the girls are being asked to sit at home (or need to be watched, or carry device some sort of a defense mechanism or various other acts of safety that ones sees or hears about) because someone else might harm them. My issue has always been that why should they suffer for the actions of someone else.
I've always been told that yes, it sucks, but there isn't a way out. It's a necessary evil and precautions must be taken since there's no other way out. That argument would shut me up for the time being because it seemed to make sense, but it still rankled and left me unsatisfied. Reading that line got me started on the issue again, and suddenly I saw a solution, simple, obvious and crystal clear. I don't understand why such an obvious answer had eluded me (or the population in general) till now. It's infeasible but it's just.
If we realize that girls aren't safe in the vicinity of boys in certain places or at certain times, and their presence must be compartmentalized, so be it. But, if the concern is the girls' safety after all because of the untamed carnal instincts of the male population, why restrain girls from going out at night or to places that are unsafe. It should be guys who should be asked to stay at home because if they go out late at night, the world would become unsafe. In this world, the girls would roam free and live without care, stay at home or go out, as they wish and as their needs demand. Since it is the guys who propagate this dystopian outlook, they should be the ones suffering, not the ones they target.
Yes, it needs a radical change in societal needs and outlook for this to happen but isn't it fairer to all? Does it not serve the purpose as well?
In the day, she was expected to stay close to Aunt Amina, and wait for chores to be given to her. She understood it was really to keep an eye on her because she was fourteen and a girl.
It got me thinking, as usual. I've always been vaguely disturbed by the idea of keeping girls 'safe', forbidding them from going out late at night because they might end up being raped or molested, and generally being asked time and again to 'be careful'. Yes, the continued threat of something happening is disturbing, so is the mankind at large for propagating such fears, but what has disturbed me the most all through, with respect to this and any other similar situations, is that the girls are being asked to sit at home (or need to be watched, or carry device some sort of a defense mechanism or various other acts of safety that ones sees or hears about) because someone else might harm them. My issue has always been that why should they suffer for the actions of someone else.
I've always been told that yes, it sucks, but there isn't a way out. It's a necessary evil and precautions must be taken since there's no other way out. That argument would shut me up for the time being because it seemed to make sense, but it still rankled and left me unsatisfied. Reading that line got me started on the issue again, and suddenly I saw a solution, simple, obvious and crystal clear. I don't understand why such an obvious answer had eluded me (or the population in general) till now. It's infeasible but it's just.
If we realize that girls aren't safe in the vicinity of boys in certain places or at certain times, and their presence must be compartmentalized, so be it. But, if the concern is the girls' safety after all because of the untamed carnal instincts of the male population, why restrain girls from going out at night or to places that are unsafe. It should be guys who should be asked to stay at home because if they go out late at night, the world would become unsafe. In this world, the girls would roam free and live without care, stay at home or go out, as they wish and as their needs demand. Since it is the guys who propagate this dystopian outlook, they should be the ones suffering, not the ones they target.
Yes, it needs a radical change in societal needs and outlook for this to happen but isn't it fairer to all? Does it not serve the purpose as well?
It isn't? It's not!
Roy Robin's short story 'The Caretaker' ends with the following sentence:
'It isn't the responsibility,' my mother said. 'I mean it is, but it isn't just that.'
Good story, nice ending, but that isn't why I'm writing this post. After I finished reading it, I was replaying the last sentence in my mind over and over again, and I realized I would have never written it isn't just that. I'd have, instead, gone with it's not just that. Both are valid contractions, but I never thought such differences could exist.
I don't know why this is so, if it's just a personal thing, or has it got anything to do with 'Indian English' as compared to 'British English'. Thought it was an interesting observation nonetheless.
Linguists. Others. Any opinions?
'It isn't the responsibility,' my mother said. 'I mean it is, but it isn't just that.'
Good story, nice ending, but that isn't why I'm writing this post. After I finished reading it, I was replaying the last sentence in my mind over and over again, and I realized I would have never written it isn't just that. I'd have, instead, gone with it's not just that. Both are valid contractions, but I never thought such differences could exist.
I don't know why this is so, if it's just a personal thing, or has it got anything to do with 'Indian English' as compared to 'British English'. Thought it was an interesting observation nonetheless.
Linguists. Others. Any opinions?
History to Astronomy/Astrology?
When one drives from Dhaula Kuan towards the IGI Airport, on the right hand side, there's used to be a Maharana Pratap Dwar, one of the entrances to Delhi Cantt. It was a mildly imposing gate and looked good.
Of late, its name has been changed to Taurus, Gate 3, in big, golden, stencilled letters. I'm not sure, but I think even the structure has changed a bit from the top. It looks bad.
I'm no part of the brigade fighting to save Hindi (though I support the sentiment), but this just doesn't make any sense. If nothing else, aesthetically, it looks and sounds much worse. Wouldn't their (whoever's doing it all) time be better utilized thinking over and changing something that would actually make a difference?
Of late, its name has been changed to Taurus, Gate 3, in big, golden, stencilled letters. I'm not sure, but I think even the structure has changed a bit from the top. It looks bad.
I'm no part of the brigade fighting to save Hindi (though I support the sentiment), but this just doesn't make any sense. If nothing else, aesthetically, it looks and sounds much worse. Wouldn't their (whoever's doing it all) time be better utilized thinking over and changing something that would actually make a difference?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
