Y... is for Yeats

You will LOVE this poem. Enjoy!

Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

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This is the twenty-fifth 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, Romanticism, Shakespeare, Tone, University, Victorian Literature, Wilde's Wit, Xenophobia

E... is for Edinburgh

What a disaster! I was away yesterday and this post was scheduled. :( Anyway, here it is now.
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Many of you here don't know me personally. Actually, profession-wise, I'm an Engineer. I have a Masters in Electronics engineering, and while I'm not a complete geek, I like to think that I have a decent analytical brain. I also love Literature and pick up new languages fast, maybe something to do with a good left brain. I got my Masters degree from The University of Edinburgh and it was that time I spent in Scotland that my passion for Literature really picked up. It was also during that time that I decided I was going to study Literature properly, and give my passion a voice.

Edinburgh is a very literary city. There are immense resources for writers, some brilliant book/writing clubs, and endless inspiration. Of course, it helps that nature is predominant in Scotland and very motivating to artists, musicians, and poets. It also helps that Edinburgh itself can also be a very dark and brooding city, with its bloodied past, scary haunting history, and intriguing city-upon-city structure.
Organisations like the Scottish Book Trust and the Scottish Poetry Library promote reading, writing, and generally, the culture of staying associated with good book and good authors. Edinburgh has been a massive inspiration to my literary side, and for that I will always be grateful, and I wrote about that here.

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This is the fifth post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature, Critical Analysis, Drama

A dash of history, a lump of faith!

Have you seen this? Did you know about it?

Promontory

I will tell you of the solstice,

If I find you,

at the promontory...

Firth of Tay, from St Andrews Castle, Scotland

X is for... the Saltire, of course!

The Saltire is the beautiful national flag of Scotland. It has a large white X on a blue backdrop. The patron Saint of Scotland, St Andrew, was crucified on a diagonal cross instead of the traditional cross. Apparently, this was because he felt that he wasn't as great at Jesus and felt that he shouldn't have the same cross. The Saltire is the oldest continuously used sovereign flag in the world, having been in use since AD 832 - or so legend has it.
I love how you can do anything with it! By that, I mean, you can hoist it, fly it, drape it, weep on it, click happy pictures, make memories... in India one can't do anything at all with the Indian flag (read: Flag Code of India)! I know that this safeguards the fact that no one can disrespect it... but in the light of the current state of India, do we need a flag to show our disrespect?
Anyway, here is me and the Saltire!

Glencoe, with Piyush, Nippon, Vishesh

Loch Ness, with Vishesh, Nippon, Piyush, Nessie!

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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, Queen of Scots, Robert Burns, Stirling, Tantallon Castle, Urquhart Castle, Venison, Writers' Museum.

R... is for Robert Burns!

Scotland's favourite son, The Bard of Scotland, The National poet... are some of the titles Burns has earned over the years. I had read very little of Burns before I got here, only having perused his most famous works. I have been reading some more now that I've been around a bit of Scotland and can see what inspired him; and man, is he brilliant!
I'm not in the mood to write much today, so I'll leave you with some wonderful poetry and my favourite version of Auld Lang Syne


Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victorie.
Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour;
See approach proud Edward's power,
Chains and slaverie.
'Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn'

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow'r,
Thou's met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem:
To spare thee now is past my pow'r,
Thou bonie gem.
'To a Mountain Daisy'

The following is my favourite version because this thing in the video is exactly what I'd do for a friend. And people who have heard me sing this like it :)




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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, Queen of Scots.

O... is for Old Man of Storr!

At 719 m, the Old man is the highest point of the Trotternish Peninsula on the Isle of Skye. An old man and his wife, that lived close to the foot of the hill climbed up everyday and when they reached the summit, they told stories to the faeries. They told great lovely stories and the wee folk loved them! This went on for years and years until every fairy in the fairy land came to listen to their stories every evening.
Then one day, the Old man announced that this was his last visit to the top because he was old, his knees weren't so good anymore and he needed rest. The faeries were very sad, they pleaded, but he couldn't have done anything about it. That evening, the Old Man and his wife stayed longer. It was pitch dark by the time they began their descent. The nasty faeries, however, are very nasty. They did not share the love that the good faeries had for the old couple. And they charmed them! As the man and his wife began walking, they slowly turned to stone...
To this day, the Old Man of Storr stands tall and proud. His wife stood beside him for many many years; but in the late 19th century, her knees finally gave way and she crumbled.

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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.

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!

L... is for Loch Lomond and Luss

Loch Lomond is very very popular. Almost everyone who I know that has been to Scotland has been to Lomond. And it doesn't disappoint! The largest freshwater lake in the UK (nope, it isn't Loch Ness, with its monsters, that's the deepest), its waters are an absolute delight to look at. Silvery and ripling, the waters have a beautiful, serene quality with hardly any waves. The sides are dotted with low hills, and in autumn, the contrast of the yellows of the tops of pines with the surrounding dark greens is magnificient to look at!
Little known, and very close to the main tourist area of the Loch, is the village Luss. I only got to go there because I was with Scottish friends, who have lived in Glasgow all their lives! Luss is tiny, maybe a hundred or so houses. It is pretty and has this absolutely wonderful coffee shop where I had the most heavenly scones! Most of you will go to Lomond, if you can spare an extra hour, go to Luss, feed the duckies by the Loch, have a scone, you will have made a lovely headful of memories!

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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.

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.

C... is for Cramond!

Cramond is a beach. It is located about a half hour's bus ride from Edinburgh towards the north-west, where the River Almond enters the Firth of Forth. I went to Cramond during winter break, it was a very cold day. The bus dropped us off at a place which seemed like the end of the world, no trees, just a few shrubs, a few sheep on the hill slopes, and wind. Oh wind... it was blowing and whistling and generally creating a ruckus.
The seaside is beautiful, not a traditional sandy beach, but more of a driveway. People jogging, walking their dogs, kids playing, the usual.

There's an island a little way off into the sea called Cramond island. Wiki tells me that it's a mile into the sea. The really cool thing is that it is connected to the mainland by a really narrow, ledge-like path that gets exposed at low tide. You can walk into the sea! I haven't been there, we didn't know about it and by the time we were there the tide was up and there was no sign of a path :P

Someday, for sure, must go back.

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick.