Dehradun Literature Festival: Talking about the sessions: Part I

Why did I seek out a literature festival for a vacation and a getaway? That too a lesser known one? Firstly because I love delicious minds, and secondly I do love Dehradun. I love the fact, that this festival doesn't tom-tom itself, it doesn't have a line-up of the who's-who of grand egos. It is a smallish festival attended mainly by the students themselves of Doon School. (Doon School is where the festival is held) I love the energy and the vibe of the students, they are the ones showing you around, manning registration counters and also just in general having fun themselves.

God, I do hope it stays small and intimate and the best minds do keep coming there (and now I feel it is time to participate in a festival than merely attend it, so let's see how that goes)

Just putting down a few sessions that were a standout for me, and this is a to be continued feature :)

First session:

The first session I attended I was halfway in, I managed to catch only last ten minutes of the session.
I remember the session being about 'Success in a career' and it was led by an entrepreneur who had a rags to riches success story, someone who is a coach to organisations and a moderator. I was tempted to ask, and I did: 'I asked them their definition of success' and boy did I love the answers. 

First off was the coach, who said, that success is very personal and not a universal definition. For someone success simply is waking up early and packing their child's tiffin or for someone success is looking after their ailing parents. (did I mention I loved the answer)

Next, came in the answer from the entrepreneur, who mentioned an incident:  His wife was in the hospital and battling cancer, she was also struck with paralysis and could only move her two thumbs. She was admittedly very frustrated and mad about the state she was in. He was at that time working from the hospital and reminded her to focus on what she did have: the resources to be admitted in the best hospital in the city, her family and friends by her side and most of all, the fact that she could still use her two thumbs. His wife then used her two thumbs and penned down short love stories upon observations in the hospital. All on her mobile phone, and they are now shortly getting published. This to him was success is what he said. And all I really could do was nod, because I had tears streaming down my eyes.

Second session: 

The second session I attended was very intriguingly called 'Masala Shakespeare' and was led by the author and professor, Jonathan Gil Harris. Jonathan is a New Zealander, who is now based in India and he wore the most impeccable kurta-pyjama I have seen. The 'Gil' in his name is adopted to accommodate his love for India.

He spoke of fascinating things. The ones I loved were:

His observation that what's common between Shakespeare and Bollywood is that: they both want to talk to the largest denominator and want to include everyone. He compared Shakespeare's work to that of Manmohan Desai (Amar, Akbar, Anthony), that speaks to everyone in the masses. Nobody is excluded. 

He also mentioned that he loved, 'Bombay' versus 'Mumbai' because Bombay was more tolerant, every single one of us could sit next to each other in a theatre and watch a film. In a theatre we were equal. 

He also mentioned that if you listen closely the iambic pentameter (the style in which Shakespeare wrote most of his poetry) it sounds a little like a heartbeat

Here I didn't ask a question, just told Mr Harris that I think his students are very very lucky. 

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My favourite kind of people

I like people
I mostly like them all
but my favourite kind
are the ones
who are a little awkward
a little messy
graceful yes,
but not brittle, like the ones who
hold a hardness in them
of being better than everyone else

the ones I love

say wrong things
stutter, stammer, fall, freeze
but they then let it all out
with a loud laugh that
seems to fountain, right
from their soul

I like mostly all people
but my favourite kind
wink at you when they are
bluffing their way out of something
but also who
when they don't know what to say
they usually don't know what to say

I like mostly all people
but my favourite kind
are found at tea stalls 
than at coffee houses
and at a humble eatery
than fancy restaurants
the real ones, the ones closer to the ground

the ones who say thank you
the ones who also unabashedly break into song
the ones who talk to children, to the trees,
who when you look at them
you feel
yes everything is alright with the world

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Intentional about Instagram

I took some time off from instagram recently. I decided to take 10 days off, off from posting on instagram and just keeping my thoughts to myself. 

I ended up staying away for nine days, but nine days was enough to let me know that why we should be 
mindful or intentional with social media.

Instagram is a wonderful wonderful place to be seen, to share your thoughts, to have your mind and its deliciousness on display, to get creative; but what can be a great place to be seen, can also be a great place to hide. 

A screen, an instagram screen: being on the other side of the screen, can keep you away from real vulnerability (where someone can read you: your eyes, your hands, your shoulders and everything you are trying real hard not to say).

It can also keep you away from rejection and loneliness (by creating a false sense of connection)

Why a false sense of connection? Because the like button is like a sugar high. Sweet but devoid of any real nutrition. Real nutrition or real connection nourishes us. 

A real connection is when someone is witness to you in real life. To all your idiosyncrasies: to the way you make coffee, laugh annoyingly, the way you cry or the way you arrange your food on a plate. All of it.We can't share all of our insides on social media (mercifully), that can be done only in real life. 

Instagram, snapchat, most of social media also understand our need for perfection (hello filters), and end of the day all it can leave us at times (when all the wonderful people we meet go back into our phones), perfect and well, lonely. 

In Musing Mode is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

The voice that lingers on....

If there is a voice that travels through various parts of my life as song (as I am sure is true of many many Indians) it is the singular voice of Lata Mangeshkar:

through the radio at the istriwaale bhaiya, where as you waited for your clothes to get ironed, you were treated to songs from his tinny radio (Ye Mausam ka Jadoo hain Mitwa)

through the voice of my best friend singing her songs to me in cafes and on walks (Chupa Lo Dil Mein Yun Pyaar Mera), the rendition of which brought tears to my eyes and hers

through the music which mom listened to on the radio as she went about doing her chores (Rahe na rahe hum, mehka karenge: banke kali, banke saba, baage wafa mein)

through this voice that still calls out to me, it was a Marathi movie someone at home was watching and a song that still calls out to me, because the quality of it is haunting and beautiful and soulful and that stays as an echo in you, long after it stops playing. (Akercha Ha Tula Dandavat)

And of course Ghanashyam Sundara in Marathi again, it can be conveyed only in one word: uff

And just about two days ago listening to 'Ajeeb Dastan Hain Ye' as I finally found an auto-rickshaw driver who had a portable speaker and was playing all old Hindi numbers. I was struck by the sheer quality of feeling in that song. It takes you a place that is beautiful, laced with melancholy and longing and you cannot miss a single note of that feeling.

What an echo, of a voice that will linger on forever, what a legacy, to leave behind that you live on in music, in a million households, in a million memories: in devotion (Allah Tero Naam), in love, in sadness, in laughter: to live on as a song, how beautiful is that.

And finally as a tribute, an old haiku of mine:

this song that plays
i haven't left this place

yet am not here

In Musing Mode is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

No free time on Independence Day

What a crazy day this has been. Starting with a 10.30 am class on Branding and Human Behaviour: it is called Inside Insights. And then a Haiku Utsav from 2pm to almost 6.30 pm. 

The class, is led by someone I know from my days in advertising. Someone I really look up to. Very sharp, very down-to-earth, and of course wonderfully perceptive. The class today reminded me of how much
of human behaviour we think we can predict, and really how much of it, we can't. Humans are complex creatures and of course got me thinking, what about studying humans beyond their minds. Can research
and marketing peep into souls? Yes do, they call it the sub-conscious. Fascinating all of it really. 
I miss the role of 'love' in marketing. Brands should simply get consumers to fall in love with them.
But of course love is a tricky thing: no rational reason, we don't love someone for any rational reason. 
So brands are a little bit of everything I guess: myth, marketing and insights....hmmmm

The poetry I stumbled on to today at the Utsav was amazing. Made me realise how much I love poems,
and thought of so many of them today: but didn't pen a single one. Except this one, right here:

the lit patch of road
under a
streetlamp

I wonder, 
which way 
is home

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Micropoetry - mine

I am bound by your imagination. Free up an universe within you. We might meet.

Mangoes ripen. Love fades. An ant scurries away. Life happens when you are not looking.

A mouthful of sun 

Hot, yellow and salty

A raw mango less in the pickle

Winter sunset

The scent of your laughter

Ripens the oranges

Like a seedling from the soil,
Like a flag in a victory march,
Like a note in a crescendo,
Like you never did fall,
Rise.

In Musing Mode is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

The Line

What if there was a line,

right in the middle,

of wherever you are,

and everything you wanted,

ever desired and hoped for,

was right across that line,

all you had to do to cross over,

was leave somethings behind,

excuses, self-defeating patterns,

negative thoughts, self-criticism,

judgments, regrets, if-onlys,

blame, mistrust and your limitations,

would you cross over?

In Musing Mode is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.