Green Knees

Sneaking one in…

su — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:01:19 +0000

… just before the year ends.

I began the year with frustration and disappointment and I end it feeling relaxed, loved and completely restored. The biggest lesson I learnt was to always listen to the voice in my heart. I hope I have the courage in the following year to nurture it from a feeble whisper to a firm, yet gentle guide, that will always lead the way.

In this new year, I wish I can take my next leap of faith.

Happy New Year !

Images courtesy: Etsy.com

Long absence and dreams

su — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:42:27 +0000

New themes, new blogging apps, and so many new features ?! Have I really been away from blogging for so long?

= = = =

Also, I know it’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, but here’s a dreams post that I’m hoping to get different interpretations of.I’ve been having so many anti-histamine and cough syrup induced dreams of late. Here are just two of them. And they are not the strangest of the lot.

Edited: I’ve deleted the dreams, because they just didn’t make sense here.

I was just wondering…

su — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:33:51 +0000

…what happens to thoughts when they aren’t expressed?

Do they linger for a while and slowly fade away like a perfume, leaving small traces of themselves wherever they’ve been? Or are they absorbed back into your head, breaking into the pieces that once came together to form them, to be bound as different thoughts ? Do they explode in rage when your head can’t contain the sheer weight of carrying them around, being propelled far, far away? Are they lost forever, like that unique moment in time, in which they first came to life?

I have GOT to go back to journaling with more discipline !

Martha Graham on self expression

su — Wed, 25 May 2011 11:17:17 +0000

‘There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. … No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.’

Thank you, thank you so much !

My week in bullet points

su — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:43:23 +0000

You know you’re in the wrong job when:

You waste all of Sunday dreading Monday morning.
You find nothing more drab than seeing an assembly line of cubicles with noses poked into computer screens.
You use your once fertile imagination to think of alternative professions (including bartender in a shack in Goa, primary school librarian, backstage person in a travelling drama troupe).
You are writing a pointless blog post at work when you can smell deadlines whizzing past.

But you know life’s good when:

Your mother and husband fight over who gets to take you to get your tooth extracted, and then both of them come anyway.
Your grandmother surprises you with her yummy parathas soaked in ghee sent through a friend because “you are working so hard in the office.”
A colleague you’re meeting for the first time in the elevator tells you what a lovely smile you have.
You have two back to back long weekends with one trip to the hills and the other to the forest. Woohooo !

Life’s good and Thank You God for the people that make it so

From the Green Knees bookshelf

su — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:27:06 +0000

So, on Smartassbride‘s ~~request,~~ polite nudge, here’s su coming out of writing semi-retirement.

Although I’ve been doing very little writing, I have been catching up on my reading over the past few months; and it has been quite an eclectic mix.

The Indian Epics Retold: The Ramayana, The Mahabharatha & Gods, Demons and Others by R. K. Narayan: I love R.K. Narayan’s writing and I was curious to read his narrative of the two great Indian epics, the Ramayan and the Mahabharat, to see how a writer knows for his simplicity tackles epics with such depth of interpretation and complexity of plot. I got through the Ramayan pretty soon, as well as the collection of short stories where a few select tales within each of them have been given a dedicated section of their own. However, getting through the Mahabharat was a more daunting task; with the subplots, endless list of characters and complicated names. However, I must say that I had picked up this book wanting only a story and in that sense, I wasn’t disappointed. Narayan focuses on the narrative and building characters, and what you are left with is stories of people, flawed personalities, raging emotions etc. No less than a potboiler. The philosophical and religious angle has been left out in this work, making it a severely abridged version (The Bhagavad Gita itself is 18 chapters in the original). While the achievement of compressing thousands and thousands of verses into a ‘once upon a time’ story format is quite something, it can never be more than a beginners guide to works that could take a lifetime to fathom.

Multiple City: Writings on Bangalore , edited by Aditi De: Bangalore. Home. Can I ever be objective about a city that holds so many memories? This collection reflects Bangalore in all its confused, schizophrenic glory; of the futuristic IT capital and the traditional Kannada heartland; of Bangalore and Bengaluru all at once. The themes of these essays are so varied, it is impossible to mention them all here. As I make my way to the end of the anthology, I realise that the city is so diverse and yet, has no distinct identity of its own, which is reflected so perfectly by the collection of writings. Bangalore will have as many stories as there are people who’ve experienced it;it’s inviting, friendly, laid-back and always ready to become something else. Therein, perhaps, lies it’s endearing charm.

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: I must say this. I’m twenty-seven years old, and am reading this book for the first time. I wonder why I never picked it up earlier (I’m still halfway through it). I can’t relate to the frustration and angst in this book and I’m sure I would have had a better chance of getting under it’s skin had I read it ten or maybe twelve years ago. The stream of consciousness style of writing, that made it a cult classic, is anything but a novelty in this age of blogs and tweets. Moreover, I wanted the author to get on with the story already, and was fed up with the diversions Holden made at every instance. We’re so used to getting information instantly, that I wouldn’t have minded at all reading the summary on Wikipedia if it wasn’t for my self-imposed ban on cheating on my reading in that way.

Rogue by Danielle Steel: It has all the elements of the typical Danielle Steel novel: charming men, feisty women, difficult choices, complicated relationships. I was reading too much off the computer and needed something that would take my mind off life and work, and a book of “girly trash” did me a world of good.

So, what have you been reading?

A life of immersion

su — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:27:32 +0000

The overwhelming thought I am left with after watching this TED video by Jacqueline Novogratz:

What am I doing in a 4 X 4 cubicle when there is a full life to be lead and knees to be greened???

===

PS: If anyone knows how to embed non-youtube videos, please let me know. This video is definitely 17 minutes of your time well-spent.

PPS: The block seems to be melting with the onset of summer. A post is trying to cut loose and break free. It should see the light of day pretty soon.

Looking ahead this new year

su — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:45:17 +0000

If 2009 was mostly the year of dizzying happiness, 2010 has been one of just getting by. When November and December rolled around, it hit me like a bolt that the year was almost over, and I had almost nothing to show for it. My days were filled with activity – meeting new people, changing jobs, settling up our own home and resetting boundaries. But somehow, the end of the year feels only slightly different from where it began it twelve months ago.

Adjusting to a new life takes it’s time, and I’ve been a slow learner through some of the past few months. But they say life happens to you while you are busy making other plans. So last year, I was grateful for unconditonal love, and support from friends and family – both new and old. I’m so lucky to have them. I was grateful for my own patience, uncharacteristic, in waiting for situations to iron themselves out. I was grateful for Geek – for his reserves of patience, calmness, and love. He’s done a marvellous job of putting up with my neuroticism and loving all my quirks like they were the most beautiful things on earth.

So in 2011, I’m going to be a girl in a hurry and hoping I can make up for the last year by actively trying to tick things off my To-Do-Before-30 list. I’ve got roughly three years and a lot of things to do before the next decade slowly creeps up on me. Here it is. I’ll try and update whenever anything is done:

Travel to 10 countries
Run a marathon
Learn Spanish. Again.
Dress well, whether it’s important or not. (And that does not mean fancy)
Take more photographs
Archive and organise all of them
Send my parents on an exotic holiday
Get 10 published credits. (to satisfy the closet writer in me)
Have a healthy baby
Buy a house and then spend time making it into exactly what I/we want
Read 50 books a year. 150 books
Watch 25 documentaries a year. 75 documentaries
Donate blood
Work in a bookstore/library
Write everyday in my journal
Learn to manage my accounts – figure out stuff about savings, online banking, investments etc.
Start investing in the stock market
Take up a sport
Blog more frequently
Sign up for belly dancing
Take three vacations a year
Visit an asylum
Learn sign language
Learn to change a tyre
Throw a successful surprise party
Plant a tree a year. 3 trees
Go bungee jumping
Sleep under the stars
Visit every state in India (or my base country for the next four years) at least once.
Develop the habit of getting out of bed as soon as the alarm rings
Learn first aid
Dance *well* in front of an audience
Learn to mix cocktails
Visit New York City
Volunteer at a hospital
Take a long road trip with girlfriends
Get my body into optimum health and shape
Go back to school
Go kayaking/white water rafting
Be punctual
Learn to do Sudoku puzzles
Learn to say ‘No’ and mean it. Learn to say ‘Yes’ and mean it.
Learn to make Diwali goodies from Ajji
Read the entire newspaper everyday
Win the lottery (or the equivalent by earning lots of money at work) for points 1, 7 and 29.
Finish things that I start
Find a job that I ‘love’
Rock the hell out of an LBD
Learn pottery.
Identify 100 things that make me happy

This list is subject to change / grow since i’ve made it rather quickly. I’m sure there are more than 50 things I want to do before I turn 30. So I’ll keep coming back here often, and try and write about it here once it’s done.

So there you go, Universe. I’ve put it out there. I’ve set the ball rolling. Now please do your bit. Thank you.

Happy Thirtieth, Tinkle !

su — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 06:14:10 +0000

Dear Tinkle

Thank you for you clean and simple stories, and hours and hours of summer-vacation fun ! Although the Enid Blytons taught me about mysteries, secret clubs and afternoon picnics in the English countryside, you reminded me how many stories are waiting to be told from us here in India. As you turn thirty ~~today~~ this week, you will forever remain a major part of my growing years.

Love

Subroto Bagchi: About Writing

su — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:32:12 +0000

Rule number two. Choose a theme to write on. We are invariably looking for an earth shaking, original idea and we return frustrated. Like simplicity in writing, look for simple, everyday things to write on. They are all around us. They show up, as if by some divine arrangement but we are so obsessed with other things that we just do not notice them. One of my most memorable pieces that first appeared in the Times of India was triggered by the sight of a fallen tomato cart at a busy traffic intersection in Bangalore. It touched countless people who keep forwarding it to their friends over the Internet. My writing is full of small, everyday incidents, interactions and normal people. Thus, I do not run out of ideas.

Wise words from an exceptional professional. Read the entire article here.

This should inspire me to blog more