Apu’s World

So we’re approaching the end of 2008; I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or not, that I can remember the hype and fear of Y2K as if it wasn’t too far back. Does time pass too quickly, or what? I was just thinking to myself on how this year has gone by, for me, and I thought it would be a good idea to take stock of what I’ve been doing. 

First the good. 

• I’ve expanded my client base, for my communications related/writing work; I quit the corporate world in mid-2007, and started off with a single client, though I continued doing some research/consulting work. This year, I’ve focused more on the communications business and my client base has grown, though it is still small. 
• I’m also happy that though I haven’t yet actually done any sort of marketing or publicity work for myself, my new clients have mainly come through referrals/networks. I hope that indicates some amount of client satisfaction! 
• I’ve been working on different kinds of assignments from fiction editing to web content to print articles to PR work to formal report writing and even blogging. 
• I resumed blogging here after a break, and while I wouldn’t call myself prolific, I’ve been more consistent this time. This is my 77th post in 7 months. 
• I have been working to improve my travel writing skills, and got published twice in The Hindu, here and here. 
• On the personal front, we (the husband and I) were able to continue the practice of a yearly vacation; this year, we travelled to the beautiful Andaman Islands. We were also able to do shorter trips to Hampi, Shimoga and Yelagiri. 
• I’ve been reading a lot, and I’m glad that I’ve started reading more than fiction; this year, I made a start with reading science, and some books I’ve really enjoyed are Richard Leakey’s ‘The Origins of Humankind’ and Richard Dawkins’ ‘The Ancestor’s Tale’ and ‘Unweaving the Rainbow’. I’m currently reading Steven Mithen’s ‘After the Ice’, an account of human history after the end of the last ice age.  
• I’m getting more used to being a self-employed professional, which means better at managing time, working on my own and managing an uncertain payments calendar without the security of a monthly cheque. 
• I’ve started learning the violin and managed to find a good school and teacher, not too far from home. 
• Since I’m not constrained by a 9-to-6 schedule anymore, I’ve started taking public transport more often. 

Now, The not-so-good 

• I’m still not as organized as I would wish , and constantly need to remind myself to watch my time, especially when I start reading something interesting online! 
• I haven’t paid enough attention to health and fitness; while I have been trying to do a 30-min brisk walk every evening, this often falls through for various reasons such as ‘too-cold’, work to do or simply, laziness. I’ve completely abandoned yoga, something I used to practise diligently. 
• I’ve made attempts to control my temper and I think I get better with this as I grow older but I’m still not as composed as I’d like to be. One of my favourite stories is from the life of the Buddha - one day, a man insults the Buddha using harsh words, but the Buddha stays calm. When the man asks him why, he tells him, “If you give someone a gift and he refuses it, what would you do?” The man says, “I would take it back”. The Buddha says, “Well, I have refused the gift of your words.” I heard this story as a child and it has stayed with me. Harsh words are not to be given easily, nor are they an excuse for us to give back harsh words in return. Of course, this is easier said than done. 
• I would like to work on a better website (besides the blog) to talk about my professional services, but I just haven’t found the right supplier at a price that I can afford. I must also admit that I haven’t looked too closely!
• I haven’t worked on my fiction writing as much as I should have. Writing is hard work, atleast to me. It doesn’t simply flow effortlessly. Though I have ideas, I need to work on them. I started work on my first novel but abandoned it after 3 chapters. I also realised that writing a novel is harder than one thinks. I have been working on a few short stories but I’d like to do more in 2009. 
• I wanted to get back to reading poetry, something I haven’t done since college, but I haven’t gotten around to it. 
• While I’ve set my waking time a little earlier and now manage to get up at 7 a.m or a little later, I keep feeling that I could get more exercising done, if only I was able to get up at 6 or 6.30. 
• I haven’t been as good as I used to be, at keeping in touch with friends. Infact, I think things like facebook are responsible for this. You see friends there and throw sheep at them, and ‘believe’ that you are keeping in touch; but this isn’t really the same as a good talk on the phone or even a personal email that really says something. 
• I don’t practise my music enough; I also don’t spend enough time listening to Western classical music as I wanted to, and this is sad, because classical music, one appreciates even more with regular listening. 
• I wanted to start volunteering actively, with an outfit that works with either women or children. I have been making some enquiries but not yet got to the right place where my skills would be useful. 

apu In General

(Gustav Klimt’s Tree of Life)

Is life beautiful? Do we ’see’ Beauty so that we may live in a worthy manner? or do we live so that we may enjoy Beauty wherever it may exist? 

These were some of the thoughts that came to my mind, when I read this wonderful, quirky, thought-provoking story by Falstaff, ‘A Beautiful Tree’. 

apu The Literary life

One day every week, I attend a class to learn violin, about 4 bus-stops away from home, in a slightly dingy area. These days, with the Bangalorean winter setting in, it starts getting dark by 6 o clock and by the time I finish class at 7, everything looks dull and gloomy. So, I was thankful when I got to the stop and almost immediately, my bus came up. I struggled up the stairs - umbrella tucked under one arm, holding my music notes in one hand, clutching the violin with another and trying hard to keep my fashionable-but-impractical handbag from falling off my shoulder.  The driver took one look at me and immediately asked me to give him the violin, so that he could place it next to his seat. 

A very small and instinctive act that set me thinking about the kindness of strangers. 

Last year, my husband and I saved up to go to Europe during the summer. I looked forward to it for months, but I was also somewhat apprehensive - would we be treated well? Since we were going to some smaller, rural areas as well, would we face any trouble? As it happened, we needn’t have worried. For the most part, we met with such friendliness and help from all the people we met. 

Asking for directions in the compact and beautiful French town of Colmar, we were startled when two 70-year old ladies started walking us in the right direction. We thought they were going the same way; they weren’t - they just wanted to be sure that we got to the right bus-stop. `At the tiny village of Hunawihr, walking on the routes des vins, for some ten minutes, I stopped enjoying the country-side around me while my mind was focused on only 1 thing - how to find a toilet, and find one quick! The village had practically shut down for the day and the one public toilet (outside a church) was closed. In desperation, I asked a woman emerging from a school, if she could help. It turned out that she was the gym mistress, and very graciously, she unlocked the school and gym that she had just closed, and waited while I used the loo. 

In Paris, at the interminable queue outside the Palace of Versailles, an Italian lady extended her umbrella over our heads as it started raining. The umbrella wasn’t quite enough for 3 people, but it didn’t matter. In Amsterdam, lost in the circuitous streets, a young man who saw us poring over a map, volunteered to our rescue. 

Closer home, when we visited the Andaman islands this year, we were captivated by a plant with lovely pink flowers, at one of the homes. Hesitantly, we enquired of the owner whether we might have a sapling to take back for our garden. A young girl, who informed us that it was the ‘madhavi-lata’, enthusiastically dug up one for us, though it took her some time and effort. 

While we enjoy the places that we visit - the chance to see the well-known monuments and natural beauty of the world and explore unusual cuisine and activities, is it not the kindness of strangers that makes travel so much more enriching? And not just travel, but in the midst of so much gloom and pessimism, it makes life itself so much sweeter. 

apu In General, Travel Tales

As a woman, one learns very early on that there are all sort of creeps on the road. There are the kinds who walk as if they are in a hurry, and at the last minute, bump into you. There are the sorts who always look at a point somewhere 10 inches below your eyes. There are the ones on a bus/train who feel up your butt (or any other handy part) quickly, and when you turn back to glare/fight/whack them, pretend that the hand belonged to someone else. And then, there are the weirdos who sing.  

What is it with these men who sing at perfectly unknown women? Last week, I was on my way to the bus-stop near my house, on a slightly deserted road, when a young boy, about 15 or 16, passed me on a cycle. As he passed me, he turned his head to sing something to me, before zooming away. I could not hear him very well or figure out what song it was. It set me thinking - what really is it that this creep was trying to do? His message was audible only to him, so it wasn’t even like he succeeded in conveying anything to me. 

This is not the first time I’ve had a strange man sing in my direction, nor has it always been young men. Sometimes, I really, really blame Bollywood (and other Indian cinema), for producing such sick farces in the name of love. You know the story - dashing young man woos unwilling young woman through what can only be called harassment - because, of course, the lady only needs to be persuaded, no isn’t really no. On the other hand, it is difficult to believe that anyone takes what they see in the movies that seriously. But, perhaps, even if they don’t believe it literally and don’t expect the woman on the street to fall in love with them for the price of a song - perhaps, they do think that at some level, women will welcome any kind of attention? 

There is also of course the possibility that they do it to make themselves feel ‘macho’ and good. I’m inclined to think this is the real reason and that they don’t actually care very much whether the woman responds or not. My guess is, if a woman actually responded in any manner, they’d be more shocked than anything, since she is quite besides the point. 

apu Women & Feminism

“यहाँ भी घास है, यहाँ भी घास है, यहाँ भी घास है, यहाँ भी घास है” - a memoir-style piece by Ramesh Chandra Dwivedi, over at Pratilipi, which I much enjoyed reading - an account of a day spent with Munshi Premchand and the poet Firaaq Gorakhpuri. I’m not quite sure if the events narrated really happened the way the author recalls them, or whether some fictional licence was taken; irrespective of that, it is very readable for the way it captures a slice of a very different world (The old UP ‘cultured world’ of mehfils and shaayari). I also liked the rapid descent from euphoria to gloom. For the Hindi-challenged, there is an Angrezi (English) version as well. 

apu The Literary life