Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu...Unforgettable!

The Pedernal and the library at Ghost Ranch.

The first took my breath away and the second provided me with just the right amount of coziness, serenity and an endless supply of mandarin-orange herbal tea so I could write.

An unforgettable experience...

How many Horses?

From the time my sister graduated from school, she knew she was going to be an artist. She followed a steady career path that took her through the Fine Arts and did extremely well.

To my knowledge there was only one occasion when she failed on an assignment; the one I did for her! When she handed back the assignment, her teacher was impelled to remark that it was the worst he had ever seen from her and had given her a mark of 2/10. She was too mortified to let him know that due to lack of time she had allowed me to complete it for her.

And so here we are years later. She still paints pictures; gorgeous ones. I have just discovered the art of doing the same. With words.

So when she recently sent me this picture, it came with a challenge; how many horses?

I'm still counting...

To see some more paintings that she has done without my help, visit;

http://mazarinememon.com/index.php

Updated Timings for the MMM Desilit Stage

For those who might like to attend, here is an updated schedule for Saturday, July 26th, 2007


Saturday, July 26th

12:00-2:45: Live participatory all-ages writing activity
3:00-3:45: That Brown Bastard, Nila Gupta, Laila Haidarali
4:00-4:45: Ahmad Saidullah, Arti Mehta, Mary Anne Mohanraj
5:00-5:45: Janice Goveas, Sheniz Janmohamed, Mahtab Narsimhan
6:00:6:30 Children’s story reading
6:45-715: Wasela Hiyate, Moez Surani

An upcoming event at the MMMWriters Stage

Masala! Mehndi! Masti! DesiLit Writers’ Stage

When:Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 1:00pm

Where: Exhibition PlaceBetter Living Centre (near vendors' market)Toronto, ON

Details: The Masala! Mehndi! Masti! DesiLit Writers’ Stage focuses on the work of writers (fiction, poetry, non-fiction), storytellers and spoken word artists.

The stage will be open on July 26th and July 27th and will have programming for adults and children, including interactive writing activities for all ages, stellar performances and lots of contest giveaways. Check out the Toronto Women's Bookstore and our Writers' and Reader's tables.

Saturday, July 26th

1:00-2:15: Live participatory writing activity
2:30-3:15: That Brown Bastard, Nila Gupta, Laila Haidarali
3:30-4:15: Ahmad Saidullah, Arti Mehta, Mary Anne Mohanraj
4:45-5:30: Janice Goveas, Sheniz Janmohamed, Mahtab Narsimhan
5:45-6:15: Children’s story reading6:30-7:00: Wasela Hiyate, Moez Surani

Sunday, July 27th

12:00-1:00: Dipak Mazumdar, Meena Chopra, Cheryl Antao-Xavier, Rashmee Karnad-Jani, Zohra Zoberi, Priti Dhamane
1:15-1:45: Sarena Parmar, Nitin Deckha
1:50-2:40: Live participatory writing activity
2:45-3:15: Taima Silk –the amazing children’s storyteller
4:15-5:00: Sahar Rizvi, Pratap Reddy, Sharanpal Ruprai

Hope to see you there!

A monsoon from many moons ago...

The rains always remind me of the monsoon season back home in Bombay. After months of sticky, relentless heat, the rains bring blessed relief to all.

One particular monsoon afternoon stands out vividly in my memory. It was when my father, sister and I took a walk along Marine Drive. Dark rain clouds hung low in the sky, their swollen bellies almost touching the grey waters of the Arabian Sea.

Just as we had bought a couple of corn-on-the-cobs and the street vendor started to roast them for us, the skies opened up and pelted us with needle-sharp rain. We hurried to a nearby pile of concrete frames left over from some long forgotten construction project and crouched near them while the sea hissed and foamed behind us, filling the air, covering our faces and coating our lips with salty spray.

My father, completely drenched by now, brought us the steaming corn when they were ready. We gobbled them up, the corn warm against our lips, our soaked clothes cold against our skin. It was the best corn I ever had.


To this day, whenever I smell the delicious fragrance of a corn-on-the-cob roasting on an open flame and it happens to be raining, I can taste the spicy-tangy flavour of the chilli-lemon paste smeared on the sweet corn from that monsoon many moons ago.

A Question...from "The Book of Questions" by Gregory Stock

What do you value most in a relationship?


I value the freedom to be me; to not have to pretend to be someone or something I am not.


Anyone?

"What the Birds See" by Sonya Hartnett

I just finished reading this interesting and slightly challenging novel. This was my first foray into the Sonya's oeuvre and I had no idea what to expect. But the very first paragraph had me hooked. My favourite sentence in there is;

"That afternoon, so near to winter, the sky was very blue; the sun felt soft as a cat."


The protagonist Adrian is so very believable and all through the story I could feel the impending sense of doom that he's hurtling towards. Reading it in present tense was a bit unusual for me but the power of the narrative soon made me forget everything else.


I finished this book in one sitting and yet long after I put down the book, I could not stop thinking about him, his world, his feelings, what brought him to act the way he did. A perfect example of resonance.


A beautiful read and next on the list is "Thursday's Child."