Malli - A beginning

This story came to me the other day on the wings of a sleek, black-as-ebony raven. He cawed at me while perched on the window sill and I thought of Malli (in Tamil, the name means Jasmine).

xx--xx--xx--xx--xx--xx--xx--xx--xx

   Billa the crow sat on the wall preening his feathers.

   "Malli is coming, Malli is coming," the watchman muttered as he went hastily to the shed.
   Billa the crow stared at him curiously and decided to follow him. He took flight and landed on the window sill of the shed. The watchman was going through an old box. He threw down dusty newspapers. He threw down some plastic cans. He dug deeper into the box and came up with rubber chappals.
    "For Malli," the watchman said, grinning a toothy grin.

    "KAA KAA," someone called Billa. It was time for breakfast; he flew to the second floor balcony. Soft fluffy idlis for Billa. YUMMM. Billa perched eating his idlis.
    "Malli is coming, Malli is coming," the lady of the house said as she took out a bag from under the bed.
    Billa the crow stared at her curiously as she pulled out brightly colored clothes. The lady shook her head at a green skirt.She shook her head at a yellow shirt. She finally found a red paavadai chattai with a faded gold border.
    "For Malli," the lady said with a bright sunny smile.

    CRASH
    Billa flew to the balcony below. It belonged to a little girl who fed Billa his favorite treats - bread and honey. The little girl stood with her hands on her hips looking at an upturned box of toys. She sat cross-legged and searched among the toys. She said no to an old wooden train. She said no to an alphabet board. And as Billa watched, the little girl found the perfect toy - a big plastic doll with long black hair.
    "For Malli," the little girl said with a twinkling laugh.

    Who is Malli? Billa wondered as he flew back to his wall. He spotted two women hanging clothes to dry.
    "Lakshmi, I heard your daughter Malli is coming," said the first woman.
    "Yes Devi, it's puja holidays for her in the village. My father is bringing her to me for a week!" said the second woman with a very happy smile.
    "I can't wait to see her," said the first woman. "There's a carnival near my house, why don't we take her there to play?"
    Billa decided he wanted to see Malli and flew to the gate. A little while later, an auto came to a stop before the gate. The watchman, the lady of the house, the little girl and the two talking women came running to the gate.
    An old man got down carrying a tiny suitcase and a yellow bag. He adjusted the towel on his shoulder and kept his luggage on the ground. Billa saw Malli's face peeping out of the auto, and as she got down he saw the steel braces on her legs glinting in the sunlight. Her grandfather grasped her hand as she turned towards her mother and friends.

   "Welcome, Malli," everyone sang, and Billa cawed.

Glossary:
Chappals - Slippers
Paavadai Chattai - Traditional silk blouse and skirt

Multiculturalism

My most recent work for GlobalKidsOz - a wonderful resource to help Australian parents and kids develop a positive attitude in a multicultural society...

Diversity in the classroom:
http://multiculturalisminschools.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/diversity-in-the-classroom/

Celebrating Waitangi Day
http://multiculturalisminschools.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/waitangi-day-new-zealand-february-6/

The Chinese New Year
http://multiculturalisminschools.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/celebrate-the-chinese-new-year-in-your-school/

What happened when I found an Indian poetess...

I have a confession to make: I have never touched Indian poetry or poets/poetesses. I'm drawn to and relish the likes of e.e.cummings, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou et al. But it's been an ongoing effort on my part to learn more about contemporary Indian writers. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I discovered a Indian poetess from very early 20th century. Here is the woman I'm talking about...

Poet's Parlour

Padmabhushan Nalappat Balamani Amma: A poetess who loved children

Nalappat Balamani Amma was born in Kerala in the year 1909. She is considered to be one of the best Malyali poetess and won the Saraswathi Samman, which is the highest literary medal in India. She is also a Padmabhushan awardee - the third highest civilian award. But Balamani Amma never went to school; she was tutored at home and learned Sanskrit and English Literature. Balamani Amma is also the mother of Kamala Das, a famous writer who wrote many Malayalam short stories as well as English poems. A lot of Balamani Amma's poetry is on the love for children and grandchildren. This is one the reasons she is called the Mother/ Grandmother of Malayalam poetry. Balamani Amma passed away on September 29, 2004, at the age of 95.

Red Pyramid - A tween's dream come true.

It's fast. It's sassy. It's peppered with facts about Egyptian mythology - easy to digest and fun to learn. What are we talking about? Rick Riordan's Red Pyramid: The Kane Chronicles of course! I recently picked up the book, realized that it had been out for a considerable time, and because I enjoyed the Percy Jackson series decided to give the RP a shot.
Now, I'm the Cornelia Funke kind of a reader. I love exquisite prose, the rise and fall of rhythm, the way beautiful prose can soothe you and take you to a different dimension. Rick Riordan's writing does not fit into this category by any measure.
But I picked it up because I like the man's sense of adventure, plot pace, characters and the twists and turns in his book. Here's my two pennies on the Red Pyramid: The Kane Chronicles.

Book Review

The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)

Author: Rick Riordan

If you loved Rick Riordan's extremely popular Percy Jackson series, you will worship The Kane Chronicles. This series opens with The Red Pyramid – an action oriented story that zooms from start to finish. The Red Pyramid is the story of Carter and Sadie, siblings who have grown apart ever since the mysterious death of their mother Ruby. Carter is dragged all over the world by his archaeologist father Dr. Julius Kane, and Sadie lives a normal life in London with her grandparents. But their world is turned upside down when their father disappears while trying to destroy the Rosetta Stone, which unleashes powerful Egyptian gods who are out to destroy the world. The book is funny, fast-paced, has a solid take on Egyptian mythology and characters whom you will love by the end of the book. Author Rick Riordan was born in Texas and taught in schools for fifteen years before turning to writing. He is also the author of the wildly popular Percy Jackson series. 

courtesy of coffeeforthebrain @blogspot

Excerpt:

If you’re hearing this story, you’re already in danger. Sadie and I might be your only chance. Go to the school. Find the locker... The combination is 13/32/33. By the time you finish listening, you’ll know what those numbers mean...The most important thing: when you open the package and find what’s inside, don’t keep it longer than a week... it will grant you almost unlimited power. But if you possess it too long, it will consume you. Learn its secrets quickly and pass it on... I guess it started in London, the night our dad blew up the British Museum. My name is Carter Kane. I’m fourteen and my home is a suitcase.

This review was meant to be very brief. For a lengthier look into the book, I recommend Coffee for the Brain.

                                                       

A seashell dreams by Annie Besant

I lie faded
beached
on sand seasoned with footsteps, crushed tin, gum, weed, a lost slipper, a tube of sunscreen.
Grubby hands turn me over
flicking away the silt of the ocean.
I fall
harshly among the skeletal remains of my own kind
I lie faded.

I was once a mermaid's comb
The sea king's token
I was a half of a whole
A body enclosing soft warm life

I lie faded
forgotten
my jagged edges too sharp for delicate fingers.
The sea will claim me soon
to drown in its dirty emerald depths.
I dream
of a mermaid's laughter and the half that once made me whole
I lie faded.

Writing under pressure!

A professor at school often told us that you can't hold down a full-time job and be a full-time writer. Choose.
I always thought this was unfair. She encouraged bar tending/ waitressing... anything that didn't tap into your
brain juice. Five years after college, I see the grain of truth embedded into that statement. I'm a full time creative lead with an organization where the work sucks up every ounce of my creativity. And I come back home dead tired and too burnt out. It takes me most of the weekends to re-energize and get back to full steam. By then it's Monday and I'm back to being burnt out again. But my passion for writing was strong enough that after much reading up on Zen and the art of living in the moment, I came up with a few of my own tips and tricks to employ my creativity for myself.


The early morning call

My mind is at its freshest when I wake up in the morning. So I began setting my alarm clock to ten minutes earlier than the time I usually wake up at. The moment I'm awake, I take 2 minutes to center my focus, grab the pen and notepad from beside my pillow and write... it could be a continuation of a story from the previous day or just hashing out a plot...whatever it is, I'm training my brain to think when I want it to think

Take a breather

I find that it helps when I take a few moments off from my heavy work load to breathe, really breathe deeply. Just 3 deep breaths leaves me feeling more focused, and I can then segway into my ten-minute doodling

The ten minute doodling

Every two hours, I take ten minutes to put down a ideas and simply write on anything that my brain
happens to think about at that point. This is difficult if you're under a deadline but with practice you'll
be able to sashay in and out of ten minutes of pure creative writing. It's akin to shifting gears when you're on the highway...you go from 4 to 1 and cruise along for a while before you have to get back to 4 again.

Time out Saturday

I tell myself that Saturdays is my writing time. This is the day I take time (I'm a morning person so that's when I work best) to collect all my ten minute doodlings and make sense out of it. Some of the ideas wil see the light of day as short stories or poems, most of them will be filed away for the future. But whichever idea I pick, I make sure I spend atleast an hour on it. When you're in the throes of writing, you can sometimes write a story in half an hour... it's just a matter of dedicating time to it.

The Practice
Let's face it, all writing is a matter of discipline. A good writer writes often, a great writer makes it a matter of discipline to write atleast a few pages everyday. So practice practice practice. Sometimes when it seems like the words just won't flow or the story is stuck, don't stop, keep writing. Because practice makes perfect.

Cecil the Lost Sheep

I'm an online book scavenger, which basically means any downtime I get at office I'm on scribd or searching for websites that will let me read books for free. I get my fix, and don't have to pay for it. (I know, sad isn't it?). So, I was on scribd the other day and came across this cute children's book published by Zondervan. Cecil the Lost Sheep takes a parable from the Bible and makes it into a very non-religious story. I got the sense that I could share this story with kids as a stand alone piece or relate it with the Bible... would work either way. The book encouraged me to keep alive my dream of writing Bible stories.... here you go

Cecil the Lost Sheep, Full Book