Day 24

birthdays and balloons

a lone loony

in the corner

sensing death

its smell

R... is for Romanticism

What an immensely rich body of work the Romanticism movement gave us. The 18th century poets, dramatists, theatre-artists, playwrights, authors, everyone gave us a tremendous plethora of intrigue, love, hate, awe, insanity... it was also a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature.
It became important to feel fully and well, and to express this feeling in no uncertain terms. Lofty thoughts and ideals formed the pillar of this movement, both uplifting and humbling, all at the same time. Thought was secondary to emotion, and it was this emotion that took precedence over all else. It gave us beautiful things.
Some of the most noted Romantics include William Blake, Byron, Coleridge, Keats, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Southey, Wordsworth. Just Imagine!

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This is the eighteenth post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature, Critical Analysis, Drama, Edinburgh, Faust, Gothic Fiction, Humour, Interpretation, Journalling, Keats, Language, Metaphysical Poetry, Narration, Ode, Papillion(ed), Quatrain

M... is for Metaphysical Poets

One of my biggest takeaways from this course is the knowledge of Metaphysical poets and their poetry. According to Wikipedia, "The metaphysical poets is a term coined by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of English lyric poets of the 17th century, whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by speculation about topics such as love or religion. These poets were not formally affiliated; most of them did not even know each other or read each others work."
How amazing it is to imagine that there have been times when one's work would not have been inspired by another. I, for my part, cannot quite fathom how one creates a genre, how one starts to write without a precedent. John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and Richard Crashaw were the centrepieces of this kind of poetry. Making love could be the bite of a flea, the soul could be a drop of dew and such other metaphors seem blasphemous even today, let alone in the 17th century. Back then, these parallels would be unheard of! I'll leave you with a few lines of Donne's 'Elegy XVIII: Love’s Progress':

Her swelling lips; to which when we are come,
We anchor there, and think ourselves at home,
For they seem all: there sirens’ songs, and there
Wise Delphic oracles do fill the ear;
There in a creek where chosen pearls do swell,
The remora, her cleaving tongue doth dwell.
These, and the glorious promontory, her chin
O’erpast; and the strait Hellespont between
The Sestos and Abydos of her breasts,
(Not of two lovers, but two loves the nests)
Succeeds a boundless sea, but that thine eye
Some island moles may scattered there descry;
And sailing towards her India, in that way
Shall at her fair Atlantic navel stay;
Though thence the current be thy pilot made,
Yet ere thou be where thou wouldst be embayed,
Thou shalt upon another forest set,
Where some do shipwreck, and no further get.
When thou art there, consider what this chase
Misspent by thy beginning at the face.

Thoughts ;) ?

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This is the thirteenth post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature, Critical Analysis, Drama, Edinburgh, Faust, Gothic Fiction, Humour, Interpretation, Journalling, Keats, Language

Q... is for Queen of Scots, Mary!

The history of civilisation is bloody and torturous. Death, murder, villainy, and tragedy... Mary's life, like the lives of many women before us, was difficult, and much more than what makes us complain. For one, she became Queen when she was 6 days old! What a joke... anyway, Scotland was ruled by regents while she grew up in France, married the french Dauphin, and came back to reign.
Imagine being 19 - 20, married, and expected to come and rule over a land that she was in for the first time! Anyway, when he died, she was heartbroken. But I don't think there was ever any place for personal emotions for Monarchs. She remarried, and soon after, that man died too or was murdered, but not before she bore him a son.
Following this, she made a mistake in marrying the prime accused of her ex-husband's murder. Two, he had divorced his earlier wife very recently. Three, he was Protestant! The Catholics were outraged, obviously! She was imprisoned and forced to give up her crown in favour of her one-year-old son. She escaped and fled to England, where she sought asylum from their Queen (her first cousin, once removed). But instead, her claim to the English throne politically meant that she was imprisoned, for 19 years! Finally, found guilty of plotting the assassination of the Queen, she was executed! Her son had her exhumed from her initial burial place, though, and re-interred in Westminster Abbey.

Edinburgh Castle: Entry to where the crown jewels of Scotland are kept

Phew! What a life to have led! Her story always makes me somber...

Born: Linlithgow Palace (to go),
Crowned: Stirling Castle (been!),
Gave birth to son: Edinburgh Castle (been!),
Recuperated from illness: Craigmillar Castle (to go),
Married both second and third husbands: Palace of Holyroodhouse (to go),
Imprisonment (Scotland): Loch Level Castle (seen),
Buried: Peterborough Cathedral (seen),
Re-interred: Westminster Abbey (been!)

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats, Kirk, Loch Lomond and Luss, Mogwai, Necropolis, Old Man of Storr, Portobello.

Liebster Award!

My lovely friend S, over at Failed Experiments & Experimental Failings, nominated me for the Liebster Award!
A couple of days later, Kathleen from Writing, Reading, and Life, nominated me again! I have only started reading her blog but the name, if you know me, is like a magnet and you should definitely stop by.
This is very special to me as this is the FIRST award this blog has won. Thank you, both of you!
This is a pay-it-forward award. It’s only for participants of the A-Z blogging challenge that began on April 1st... I understand that some of you might not 'do' blogging awards, so just take it as my appreciation for your work :)

The rules are:
1. Thank the person who nominated me and link back to their site
2. Post 11 random things about myself
3. Answer 11 questions that S has for me
4. Ask my nominees 11 questions of my own!


Here we go then:

11 things about myself:

1. I'd really like to be a travel writer. Being paid to travel and to write is my dream.
2. My friends are my life. As an only child, they have always been my support system.
3. I love Scotland! There is something simple and unpretentious about life here.
4. I have lived 23 years of my life in India and am not patriotic at all. Close friends say I was born in the wrong country :P
5. Poetry is a sublime form of life.
6. I believe in magic and fairies!
7. My favourite movie is Walt Disney's Cinderella; there is wayyyyy too much to learn from it.
8. I'm a huge pessimist when my feet are on the ground.
9. I love entering peoples' lives when they are messed up and then fixing them!
10. I get taken for granted by friends a lot, I hate it!
11. I am a Grammar Nazi.

Now to answer the questions S put up:

1. What does your name mean? Do you like your name? Have you ever wanted to change it?
It means 'the rising'. I do like my name. I am called Jhelum at home (most Bengali kids have two names lol), sometimes I wish I was called Udita at home and Jhelum formally.

2. Why did you start your blog?
This blog began on 18th Feb, 2007, the day I turned 18. I wrote my first post at 1800 hrs.

3. Tea or coffee?
Both

4. If you could revisit a  day or a certain period of your life, what would it be?
It would have to be my undergrad years, I loved it then, and I would like to relieve it again!

5. What’s your favourite thing about the internet?
Being able to read pretty much anything that I want to read

6. Do you think all this technology and social media has made us better or worse at being social?
Definitely worse! People can't even read real maps anymore!

7. What’s your favourite food?
I'm not fussy about food, anything goes. But I quite like my Gran's Mutton Curry :)

8. Are you a city person or a country-side person?
Oh I'm a countryside person through and through; I'm miserable in cities

9. If you won the lottery, what’s the first thing you’d buy or spend on?
More books :) and travelling

10. Why did you decide to do the A-Z challenge this year?
It gave me a reason to put down in words all the thoughts I have in my head. Also, I wanted to catalogue Scotland the way I saw it.

11. Describe yourself in 4 words.
Imagination. Creativity. Free. Aquarius.

Now for Kathleen's questions:


1. Of the Three Stooges, which one are you most like: Larry, Curly, or Moe? Curly!

2. If you could take the place of any character in any book, who would it be and why?
Tough, maybe Alice, or Sophie... they're both curious :)

3. Mac or PC? PC

4. What is your favorite book cover of all time?
Don't know, maybe the old cover for The Bell Jar

5. What are the last 5 books you’ve read?
Leave of Absence
This Mobius Strip of Ifs
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
Leonardo’s Swans
... all of which i have written about at BookMark

6. If your life was a movie, who would you want to play your nemesis? (HA! Tricked you on that one!)
Liv Tyler

7. Vanilla or Chocolate? Vanilla :)

8. By some strange accident of fate, I’ve been stranded in your home town. Can I stay at your place?
Yes!

9. Are you sure? Yeah...

10. What was your favorite book as a child?
Moby Dick and Treasure Island

11. What is one word that describes your current MC?
MC?


So, here are the people I nominate. They are doing a great job in their spaces!
Life and Times of a Student
MAGICAL MYSTICAL MIMI
The Ruralhood
Paula's Place
Life on the Muskoka River
Crazy California Claire
Finding Eliza
Voices in my Head
Oh, Frog it!
Michael Abayomi
Phenomenal Lass

My questions for you are:

1. Do you know the meaning of the German word 'Liebster'?
2. One place on your must go list?
3. Do you believe in astrology? Why? Why not?
4. What is the most daredevil thing you've done?
5. What is your favourite book? If you don't read, movie?
6. What is your biggest weakness?
7. Do you believe in fairies?
8. Tea or Coffee?
9. Who is your best critic?
10. Life in five words?
11. One blogger you read everyday (doesn't matter if they aren't taking the challenge)

Enjoy!

N... is for Necropolis!

There is something infinitely sinister about the world Necropolis, City of the Dead. Dark, depressing, and creepy are the feelings I'd associate with the word. The Glasgow Necropolis is all those feelings, and one more, that of sheer beauty.
For a bit of background, Wiki says, "Following the creation of Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris a wave of pressure began for cemeteries in Britain. This required a change in the law to allow burial for profit. Previously the parish church held responsibility for burying the dead but there was a growing need to give an alternative solution. Glasgow was one of the first to join this campaign, having a growing population, with fewer and fewer attending church. The planning of the cemetery began formally by the Merchants' House of Glasgow in 1831, in anticipation of a change in the law. The Cemeteries Act was passed in 1832 and the floodgates opened. Glasgow Necropolis officially opened in April 1833."
This place is stunningly beautiful. Among the buried are actors, musicians, and scientists. Almost every grave has a massive and prominent tombstone, mostly having something to do with the profession of the person buried there. This place is free and very close to the city center, so if you are, say, changing trains or have a couple of hours in Glasgow, go to this place. I have seldom felt so powerless and humble in front of anything that is man made.

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats, Kirk, Loch Lomond and Luss, Mogwai.

J... is for John o' Groats!

Again, this post comes at a strange time, for it will have to be updated next week!
John o' Groats is famous famous, as being the northernmost point on the UK mainland. It is not. That glory belongs to Dunnet Head, a peninsula that is close by and that actually is the northernmost point! This weekend, I'm going on a trip to hopefully both these places.
John o' Groats is only 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from The North Pole, a thought that is celebratory and humbling at the same time. It is named after Jan de Groote, a Dutchman who obtained a grant for the ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, recently acquired from Norway, from James IV, King of Scots, in 1496.
There is nothing much to do there, what does one want to do at such a place, I wonder. The sheer feeling of being there, of being so far far away from everything else, everyone else must be so overwhelming. Anyway, as I said, wait for the update :)

Courtesy: Reasons to be Cheerful

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye.

I... is for Isle of Skye

Last weekend, I went on a three day trip to the Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Skye. The entirety of Sunday was spent in exploring the Isle. I loved it. It was an organised trip, so we had a lovely guide explaining to us what on earth it was that we were looking at, where it all began, and how everything was beyond pretty!
According to Wikipedia, Skye  is the largest and most northerly large island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillins, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. It isn't very tiny really, it's just that there's not much to do. The island is 67 miles long, there are 3 -4 small towns, and the total population is about 10,000. It is connected to the mainland by way of the Skye Road Bridge.
The scenery is stunning. It is dotted with bens (mountains) and glens (valleys). The hills are not very high (certainly for me, I have been to the Himalayas too many times), but they are older and more rounded, no spikes. And they get snow because of the latitude rather than their altitudes. It is also home of Drambuie, a fine Scottish whiskey liqueur. It is said that Bonnie Prince Charlie's supporters gave the recipe away to the islanders as a way of saying thanks for sheltering him and helping him escape after the Battle of Culloden (which, by the way, is the last battle to have taken place in the UK).
Most of the rivers are enchanted, they are dotted with the wee folk (faeries), and they glitter and gurgle. Skye is very very beautiful; all of you that have been expressing their wishes to visit Scotland should know that your visit would be incomplete without your footprints in Skye.

The River Sligachan

On top of the Old Man of Storr

Trotternish Peninsula 

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish.

H... is for Hamish, the Hairy Highlander

I'm just back from the Highlands of Scotland and my head needs time to recover from and process all the beauty that I was bombarded with in the past three days. I'm scarred from the assault of sheer beauty and magnificence on my senses. Anyway, so for a funny one.
Hamish is a hairy coo. He is big, he is hairy, and he's pretty much the first thing you'll see in the highlands. He's also adorable and loves veggies!
He's really famous too; do a Google search and you'll find posts, pictures, forum - all for Hamish appreciation!

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow.

U

U is for ‘Ursula’.
The mother in ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’, she is the wife of Colonel Buendia and along with her husband, the founder of Macondo. This book is so unreal that certain events are almost believable. Ursula oversees six out of the seven generations of Buendias covered in this book, she is over a hundred years of age.
I loved her devotion towards her old and senile husband and towards her many strange kids and grandkids. She was an intelligent woman, she found a way from Macondo to the outside world when no one else could. She took stray waif-like children in, she was kind. And like a lot of other characters in the book, she was quite a bit of magic. Ursula, although the name has an evil tone to it, was a woman of great strength; she reminds me of my Grandma.

The author and the book

So far: Atticus, Beth, Cassius, Dumbledore, Estella, Francesca, Gandalf, Humbert, Ishmael, Jean-Baptiste, Kali, Long John Silver & Lisbeth, Miu, Nancy, Oliver, Piyali, Quentin, Rebecca, Scarlett, Tita

I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...

T

T is for ‘Tita’.
She is the protagonist of a book that should be better known, Like Water for Chocolate. It is a strange book with a strange name and an even stranger theme. The plot is simple, a man not allowed to marry his loved one Tita, marries her elder sister Rosaura so that he can be around the one he loves. I like themed books, the kinds that have a single theme running across all chapters, sort of like a spine to the book. In this case, the theme was Mexican cooking. Every chapter began with a list of ingredients for a dish and the events in that chapter somehow managed to give the entire recipe within it. Not once was there a disconnect, not once did the pace falter. Now that’s powerful writing.
Tita is obsessed with cooking and her dishes are delicious. There is a scene in which she is baking the cake for Rosaura’s wedding with her love, Pedro and her copious tears mix with the icing. Everyone that eats the cake is overcome with an eerie sense of infinite longing.
At times though, the magic realism foes into an overdrive and things are too strange to be true. I definitely recommend this book, not if you’re looking for classic magic realism; but more if you’re looking for a beautiful love story and a very unusual narrative. And of course, if you want to whip up some delicious Mexican!

From the movie, Tita, cooking

So far: Atticus, Beth, Cassius, Dumbledore, Estella, Francesca, Gandalf, Humbert, Ishmael, Jean-Baptiste, Kali, Long John Silver & Lisbeth, Miu, Nancy, Oliver, Piyali, Quentin, Rebecca, Scarlett

I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...

S

S is for ‘Scarlett’.

What a girl, what a woman! She is the epitome of womanhood. A match of strength for every Rhett, a match of folly for every Ashley… This O’Hara is beautiful, brave, cruel, and brilliant. So what if Rhett left her (I do not think that the sequel to Gone with the Wind counts); she was no left weak. No when he played with her, not when he loved her. Bonnie’s death was Rhett’s fault. Period.

Scarlett needed a different man, she didn’t need a charmer, she didn’t need a fool. She was ahead of her times and men just couldn’t catch up with her. Ever since I’ve read the book five years ago, her words have given me strength on many a hopeless day. Whenever faced with trials and tribulations, judgment, loss, and despair; she always believed:
"After all... tomorrow is another day!"

Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara

So far: Atticus, Beth, Cassius, Dumbledore, Estella, Francesca, Gandalf, Humbert, Ishmael, Jean-Baptiste, Kali, Long John Silver & Lisbeth, Miu, Nancy, Oliver, Piyali, Quentin, Rebecca

I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...

R

R is for 'Rebecca'.
I never, even for a moment, felt that she was dead and gone. I identified with the second Mrs DeWinters, nameless, faceless. I shivered with her, I despaired with her… Du Maurier struck gold with her intense portrayal of Rebecca. Her presence, like an evil charm, hung on the reader’s head throughout the book. She haunted me right through it all. Manderley, oh Manderley, that fell prey to such dark, gothic forms! My heart bled for it.


I sympathized with Mrs Danvers, even when she was being villainous, at least she had a belief and an existence. The rest of us that the author dragged to Manderley, why we didn’t stand a chance against R at all!

She just overpowered all our senses and took over our lives from us. What a woman, what a book!

P

P is for 'Piyali'.
This girl is the heroine of The Hungry Tide, she studies cetaceans. An American of Indian origin, she comes to the Sundarbans to study them Irrawady dolphins. In a haunting tale of love, high and low tides, and shtrrange relationships that follows, the reader is led through a brilliant travelogue. The writer, Amitav Ghosh, has made a brilliant tale out of this one. The novel is well-researched. And the relationship of Piya and Fokir, her boatman, trancends time and space.
Love that has no words, love that has no name or meaning, perhaps it is not even love but a curious feeling that can exist only in the Gangetic swamps... This is the only contemporary Indian author I have true respect for. The way darkness and light have come together is beautiful, yet disturbing, a highly recommended read. I have written more about it here.

Irrawady Dolphin

J

J is for 'Jean-Baptiste Grenouille'.

This guy is the main character in 'Perfume'. If you've read the book or the Alan Rickman movie (I hear it's very good too), you already have shivers down your spine. Jean has a heightened sense of smell... he can discern the many different notes or undertones of smells. Of everybody and everything around him! This condition is a classic case of synaesthesia, where one form of sensory stimulus (here, sight or taste) is perceived as another smell).

Understandably, this socially inept and weird boy gets picked up for his gift by a perfumer. It was a good choice because Jean makes him very successful because he whips up new scents without any regard for process or protocol. But, like all twisted characters, he eventually embarks on a quest to make the best perfume of all... the book is replete with his dark ways of doing it. Eventually, he is caught for the multiple ruthless murders of young girls; the climax of the book when he is about to be hanged is brilliant. I relate to him because I relate a lot to the smells of things and people... not a good thing to relate to a psychopath!

Not connected, just my favourite poison... oops! I meant perfume.

I

I is for 'Ishmael'.

I fell in love with the novel 'Moby Dick' when I was eight. I was a goner from the first like 'Call me Ishmael'. As I grew up, the tale of the great white whale appeared to me with a hundred other thoughts, a ton of other mysteries. And with the knowledge of the Bible came the appreciation of the protagonist, a school teacher turned sailor, Ishmael.

Abraham and his wife Sarai (in religious history, of course) were unable to conceive. So, Sarai suggested using her Egyptian handmaid Hagar, as a surrogate. Thus, Ishmael was born. Years later, however, Sarai got pregnant and delivered a baby boy, Isaac. Driven by jealousy, she convinced her husband to drive away Hagar and Ishmael. They spent years in the desert and yet the boy was to become great. All of that would eventually lead to Moses. But I get carried away.

The plot of Moby Dick is symbolical. The cruel and madly driven captain of the ship Pequod, Captain Ahab, has only one aim in life, to kill the whale Moby Dick. Ishmael narrates the story and somewhere in the middle of the book,  he becomes omnipresent and almost able to read peoples' minds.

Illustration from an early edition of Moby Dick (from Wikipedia)

Moby Dick is a thrilling tale. It is one of those books that must be read as children and reread as adults.