bodies/desire/touch
hurt/pain/life
blood/gore/flesh
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sensory frames....
Smells--how evocative can they be. Taking us back in time--opening up a pandora's box of a multitude of emotions. Smells can come to represent a wide range of experiences---of culinary delights wafting in the air, the putrid smell of sweat. They can evoke a variety of feelings and images---of happiness, laughter, intimacy, death, disgust and repulsion.
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The word Intimacy conjures up images and experiences in my mind---- of provocation, closeness, company, dialogue--- monologue (perhaps?), shared memories, time spent together, caught together in a common space of time.........
A common ground of intimacy albeit for a short moment is the daily travels on a bus....co-passengers in a bus/jostling for space touching unknowingly/shoving knowingly in desperation to move ahead/bodies brushing against each other/a light touch on the shoulder/a brusque manner cutting past streams of unfettered conversation/ bodies closely packed together like sardines---arms reaching out/torsos smashed--confined/constrained---legs entwined....
Pleasure None/Thoughts of getting out pre-dominate the mind/desire to catch a breath of fresh air/Waiting in limbo.....just waiting...
***************
The word Intimacy conjures up images and experiences in my mind---- of provocation, closeness, company, dialogue--- monologue (perhaps?), shared memories, time spent together, caught together in a common space of time.........
A common ground of intimacy albeit for a short moment is the daily travels on a bus....co-passengers in a bus/jostling for space touching unknowingly/shoving knowingly in desperation to move ahead/bodies brushing against each other/a light touch on the shoulder/a brusque manner cutting past streams of unfettered conversation/ bodies closely packed together like sardines---arms reaching out/torsos smashed--confined/constrained---legs entwined....
Pleasure None/Thoughts of getting out pre-dominate the mind/desire to catch a breath of fresh air/Waiting in limbo.....just waiting...
Snapshots of a fragile memory.....
Memories are like grains of sands...shifting ....continuously moving....shaped by layers of experiences, tweaking out the old and replacing them with new, sensory stimulations.... colours, images , smells, tastes...so clear that you can feel them touching you.
How often they keep coming back...the sights, the smell....the sounds....evoked by the seemingly mundane events unfolding around us. One is always oscillating between the present and the past...taking in what one can....the memory of that event ....just an iota of the entire experience....to be embedded deep in the recesses of our mind. To be dug into at a later stage.... rummaged through for that one particular piece that would fit into an unravelling life process.
How brilliantly the mind works.....
How often they keep coming back...the sights, the smell....the sounds....evoked by the seemingly mundane events unfolding around us. One is always oscillating between the present and the past...taking in what one can....the memory of that event ....just an iota of the entire experience....to be embedded deep in the recesses of our mind. To be dug into at a later stage.... rummaged through for that one particular piece that would fit into an unravelling life process.
How brilliantly the mind works.....
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
"Home " --- Family intrigues
Stayed up till 3 this morning reading the novel Home by Manju Kapur. Its about a typical North Indian business family based in the congested lanes of Delhi's Karol Bagh. The plot is centered around the lives of two sisters and their respective families. The intrigues in a joint family set up, squabbles, relations with the in-laws, one-up-man-ship between rival sisters in-law and incestous relations tainting innocent young lives are some of the pre-dominant themes. It is sooo real in parts, it can actually feel a bit suffocating!!! Nevertheless, if one can sustain one's interest in Banwari Lal's fortunes across several generations...it is worth the effort!!!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Monday, May 07, 2007
FM Channels....
Of late , theres been a buzz in the local radio scene. Two new private operators have set up shop in Guwahati and are airing FM channels...one has been named "Ooh La La" on 91.9 MHz ( don't ask me why they chose that name) and another one called "Big" FM on 92.7 MHz. As the FM channels are rather new....the RJs are still at a nascent stage trying to woo the audience with the gift of gab. They do a lot of blabbering ....trying their level best to sound cool, young and fresh in English , Assamese and Hindi!!! Some are quite good...the rest really need to brush up their skills.
During the night over the weekend, they air programmes on western music. None of the RJs feel it necessary to mention the names of the songs that they play (for reasons best known to them) and each of them are soo theatrical that it actually is quite funny!!! There's one fellow who introduces himself as the "father of the phantom" and in a rather grave voice presents the program, interspersed with shrill laughter. Then there was another RJ who gave lessons on spoken English language , commiting several mistakes himself!!!
For all its worth, they have brought in quite a change in the radio scene and I'm hoping that things would change for the better soon....
During the night over the weekend, they air programmes on western music. None of the RJs feel it necessary to mention the names of the songs that they play (for reasons best known to them) and each of them are soo theatrical that it actually is quite funny!!! There's one fellow who introduces himself as the "father of the phantom" and in a rather grave voice presents the program, interspersed with shrill laughter. Then there was another RJ who gave lessons on spoken English language , commiting several mistakes himself!!!
For all its worth, they have brought in quite a change in the radio scene and I'm hoping that things would change for the better soon....
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Friday, May 04, 2007
Books ...books ...more books..
Books I have read in the recent past..
*Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (it was my second time....a wonderful read...very real).
*The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh (took me some time initially but it is extremely engrossing ... beautifully written)
*Snow by Orhan Pamuk (haven't progressed beyond the twientieth page or so...will have to go back to it soon)
* The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (abandoned it midway...it wasn't very interesting...didn't keep me glued to it).
* South Asia's Fractured Frontier: Armed Conflict, Narcotics and Small Arms Proliferation in India's North East by Binalakshmi Nepram ( I'm currently reading it and its very informative. An interesting book...its related to the work I do and that makes it all the better . Gives a good overview of the security scenario plaguing India's North East. It might scare off people reading about North East India for the first time. It is no doubt the reality but just one facet of life as lived by people in these parts of the country.
Books I'm planning to read in the coming few weeks:
*The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh
*Aparajito by Bibbhutibhushan Bandopadhyay
*Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (it was my second time....a wonderful read...very real).
*The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh (took me some time initially but it is extremely engrossing ... beautifully written)
*Snow by Orhan Pamuk (haven't progressed beyond the twientieth page or so...will have to go back to it soon)
* The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (abandoned it midway...it wasn't very interesting...didn't keep me glued to it).
* South Asia's Fractured Frontier: Armed Conflict, Narcotics and Small Arms Proliferation in India's North East by Binalakshmi Nepram ( I'm currently reading it and its very informative. An interesting book...its related to the work I do and that makes it all the better . Gives a good overview of the security scenario plaguing India's North East. It might scare off people reading about North East India for the first time. It is no doubt the reality but just one facet of life as lived by people in these parts of the country.
Books I'm planning to read in the coming few weeks:
*The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh
*Aparajito by Bibbhutibhushan Bandopadhyay
Thursday, May 03, 2007
One often gets driven by niggling self doubts. For me, today was one such day. I just woke up with such a terrible disposition….I was terribly upset and frustrated with my life and the way it was heading. Of late, I have begun to feel that my life is not going in any particular direction…that I need to make choices but I am not doing much about it…and that can be damn frustrating….the feeling that its all within your grasp and you are letting it all slip away because of your lackadaisical attitude!!! The feeling that there is so much to do…but for whatever reason one is not doing enough....
Its midnight now and I just hope tommorow I don't wake up with the same suffocating, nauseating feeling...a feeling that makes one extremely depressed about life....
Its midnight now and I just hope tommorow I don't wake up with the same suffocating, nauseating feeling...a feeling that makes one extremely depressed about life....
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
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