shamiana

Let us begin you and I As we write upon what has gone by And wonder if what is in store Would continue to be a bore? Let us muse you and I On theories which we stand by with thoughtless agitation vain to realize it was all in fact a game Let us then play you and I games with rules which we should abide by only to see that rules virtual or real are meant to be broken. Let us go back you and I To where we begin to say goodbye And promise to meet again So that the ordeal might start again Let us live you and I In a world where everyone would lie and yet continue to be honest and take life in earnest.

Have we bid adieu to the age of reading printed books ? Have we outgrown the excitement of buying books? Do good bargains continue to please us? Is our purchase of books based on their online reviews ? Are book fairs on their way down? Perhaps, unnervingly, I might answer these questions in the affirmative. My trip to Strand Book fair this year epitomizes the shift in the general trend from print culture to the digital culture, the shift in buying books at sales to online shopping for books and of course e-books that can be downloaded for free ! I have seen the sale of withdrawn books at the BCL attract more enthusiastic book lovers than the turnout at Strand this year. Strand Book Fair had always been a rejuvenating experience. The feverish run from station to the venue (mostly, Sunderbai Hall), the first step into the bewitching book world the cheer of a strandian serendipity (one was sure to find a long craved for book ! and long lost friends ), long queues, (Saturday afternoons w...

Warning : Don't read if you revere literary theory. Theory bashing in progress. Literary theory has been as old as literature itself. Aristotle probably enjoyed writing Poetics as he refuted Plato's charges on various levels. Sidney defended Poetry but added immensely to passionate ramblings on the nature of poetry. Dr Johnson guided by his Neo Classical inclinations tried hard to defend Shakespeare against more stricter Neo classical parameters. Wordsworth and Coleridge continued the hail nature, hail poet movement ahead. Pound took to Imagism while T.S. Eliot pondered over tradition and Individual talent. Russian Formalists set up a lab to test literary works and experimented with the idea of making literary theory, a science. Structuralism further made theory scientific. Post structuralism and deconstruction questioned language and the process of signification itself suddenly seemed precariously close to an untimely demise.Hermeneutics and reader response theories put the r...

Hello people, long time no see as the urban youth puts it. this is my first post post marriage so ..don't expect changes...I am married not matured like a willow. I wonder why people associate marriage with extreme opposites.marriage is supposed to either make you blissfully happy or drown you into a state of abrupt maturity. a pendulum swing in your life it seems. I do not accept the popular "you are not the same post marriage" belief. Firstly, why would I change? Secondly, how can I change ? Thirdly, everything around me has changed so the least i can do is remain unchanged! - the house, city, people (seeing someone for two hrs is not the trailer for the movie that follows) and of course language in my case. well, I have not changed. Neither do I wish to change. I am same the chirpy old big sham. My existence is a continuum of what it has always been. Change the bottle you may, dare not touch the wine ! btw, it was after a decade or more that I happened to listen ...

That's how a rickshaw ride "sounds" ! Most of us have been on a rick. We have experinced everything : galloping metres, a perpetual shortage of change ("chutta") and perfectly snobbish rick drivers.we've come across all kinds of drivers (they form a distinct tribe; would someone care to do a PhD on "The marignalisation of rickshawallahs in Mumbai"?) Regular readers of this blog are aware how wonderfully adventurous life the writer lives ! Adding on to my list of adventures was my experience of "DRIVING A RICK IN THE RAINS" oh yes, that's not a typo error .... it is not "Riding" but "Driving" . For those who might be curious about how did I arrive doing something so wild, I would simply write it out: Shamini : Bhaiya , Kanjur chaloge? RICKY (sounds better than rickshaw driver): haan. TRRR GHTTT TRING(That's the metre going down ) ...TRRR GHTT T KHATTAK THUD !!!! The rick came to a staggering halt ! it simply r...

SUNDAY* I woke up at 7:00 A.M. The cliched start for a Sunday account should be "I woke up pretty late than usual" or something like "the morning rays gently tickled me out of my blissful repose" . I prefer to mention the exact time. That helps because there are many who need to be shaken out of their slumber at noon. They might find this cruelly early . But then we have a few darlings of the dawn who are up with the lark. So let's not discuss whether it was early or late. I WOKE UP ! that's not to say I chanced upon some "meaning" or had a re-awakening about my "Self". I didn't wake up to anything. Done with the booting (on Sundays this includes a head-bath and a delightful breakfast), I went online. As I was about to start reading "manga", I got a message. Which read something like this: "Hey !!!! We are planning to catch up a movie in the afty, u know, around 3/4 and then we'll go for a dinner. It's a bi...

I am incredibly thrilled today. Perhaps, it's Saturday evening and I am looking forward to a peaceful Sunday. A day where I meet my bookshelf. I royally ignore it through the week. But every Sunday I sheepishly go to it. "Hello bookshelf, my old friend/ I've come to read again" :) OR Maybe, this ecstasy comes from my adventureous trip back home :) I have a rare talent to mess up well planned meetings...A simple "task" of catching a train can be messed up:) I can gloriously miss trains or get into the wrong ones, or get out of the correct ones. I bought flowers today. Long since I did that . I gifted them to myself ! That could be a source of this sudden gush of happiness. Mirth knows no reasons. It visits you in little moments. It comes alive in a pageantry of moments. Almost anything can make you happy: great food, dinner with your family and friends, a great bargain, a window seat, a long drive, the rain, a new dress, a great day at work, a long chat, ...