Mélange – Fears and inspirations

These days, the blog rarely contains the “melange” topics, which was more of a list of unrelated items happening in my life, clubbed with my random thoughts. Nowadays, I think twice, thinking whether its worth writing a post on it, before shelving the topic which came in my mind. And then the loss of inspiration. I did take part in some writing challenges and writing groups, thinking it would boost my morale, and I would get the confidence to write. But the more blogs I read, I started hesitating because of the quality of the blog posts I read. And then some conflicting thoughts, and harsh judgement by other bloggers irritated me more. The result: The blog suffered. I wondered why people want to create rules tempting others to break it or not follow it, and then get judged.

I read some questions and answers on Quora (not that I am a regular reader there) as part of email updates. It really substantiated my thoughts that majority of the people behaved to please others. It can be a matter of debate whether its a right thing to do it or not, but the fact is many people including me think like that. What will others think of my action. What will they think about what I write in blog. Will I get criticized. Will there be any likers. And we ultimately go against the heart, limiting ourselves to outperform rarely. And since we practice our skills very rarely, we never get perfect (Practice makes it perfect proverb?)

I had blogged about the fears I faced, and they are just getting bigger. The realization that I am just shuffling through various skills, rather than concentrating on one, to improve it better, has struck me hard. I seem like a frog, belonging to neither land nor sea. From being in IT manual testing, I have tried being at home, learning to do software development, getting more involved in home interiors while doing mine, doing workshops to see whether I like the field, and then jumping to DSLR and photography. Oh, and in between I also ended up buying an OTG hoping that I would love baking cakes and cookies. Note that I am yet to make one!

And then the life questions gets shooting from all directions. What am I doing. Why I do not have a clear direction of what to do. And some part of mine also becomes the pacifier. It keeps saying, its okay. The conversations keep going on and on inside the mind, unheard by me, but draining me enough to zap out all inspirations to try anything.

To boost the inspirations to bring me back on track, I watch movies. Continuosly for days, till I stumble upon a good one which creates thoughts in my mind and I finally pen down the review. Sometimes, instead of the review, some scenes may inspire to create a plot or short story. In the past month, watched Bangalore Days, 22 Female Kottayam, Om Shanthi Oshana, and Annayum Rasoolum. The new crop of actors in Malayalam movies are superb in choosing the script and performing well. Now back to watching some more…

Annie

I was panting heavily as I carried both Annie and the heavy grocery bag to the car. The guilt feeling of purchasing unimportant items increased as I thought of the money spent.

I thought about the pending writing works to do as soon as I reached home. And the unpaid bills.

When I finally started the car, she raised the request to go to the park. Children had a great sense of time and place. How else did she knew that the park was near. It had been days since we went there. I would be selfish if I did not give her play time and drooped in work instead.

The park was bit crowded. There were mothers and fathers and then there were families. Granny walking along with Grandpa while smiling at the children played frisbee.

Annie was very happy. The smile on her face vanished all my thoughts of the pending jobs. Work can wait. The night is still young when she sleeps. Annie moved on to her favourite slide, and I occupied a nearby bench. Continue reading →

The Ganeshas of Pottery Town

long line of ganesha

I had heard of the Pottery Town, through the creative communities of Bangalore on Facebook, like the Craft-lovers and the Photo walk groups. The photo walks would be held usually before the annual Ganesha Festival, when the artisans are busy moulding up the Ganesha idols in bulk. Though I had missed them these year, due to personal commitments, I do wanted to visit once, so as to give them more exposure, rather than taking random pictures and creating a portfolio for my own purpose. Using the medium of photography to convey their story of misery and their age-old artistry.Continue reading →

Lalbagh Flower show 2014

With the pressure of writing quality posts on the blog, I realized I am losing out on the posts itself. As one of the ways to rekindle your writing streak, I was going through some of the old posts of this blog, and I remembered how I wrote so free flowing, without any double thoughts of who is reading, whether the post is useful and all other checkpoints.

After April A to Z challenge, where I had to churn out fiction, I was rather drained to keep up with other blogs. Then, my interest shifted to photography. But the inner devil does cause me problems in that field too. I am like the frog who neither belongs to the water nor to the land. Strange isn’t it, to compare myself on a public blog.

Yeah, that was the original me.
Writing unabashedly about myself thinking that this blog is not that popular, or no one would find about this side of mine.

This August, not much photo-walks happened over the weekends. Rather I was too busy with my health problems like wheezing, which was quite high, and almost asthmatic. I did visit the Lalbagh flower show though, which happens annually.

Here are few photos I took this time. Make sure you view them in fullscreen mode to maximize the viewing experience.

Also, check this post to see how I took photos in 2009 with my point and shoot camera, Canon Powershot A400.
What do you think? Did I improve my photography skills, or still the same?

[Book Review] Meghna – Sundari Venkitaraman

cover

The Blurb

The young and dashing Rahul Sinha lives in England with his parents, Shyam and Rajni. He is an only son of the rich banker. Rahul is totally attached to his father but does not care for his mother. Read the book to find out why….

Rahul is exulted with his efforts at work paying off and plans a holiday with his best friend Sanjay Srivastav who lives in Mumbai with his wife Reema, kids Sasha and Rehaan and most importantly, his sister, Meghna. Rahul recalls meeting Meghna just before they parted six years ago. Meghna works for a website and also teaches modern dance as she loves it. She’s thrown for a toss when Rahul comes visiting. She had thought he had forgotten them. But how could Rahul do that? Sanjay’s his best friend and Rahul had always treated their home as his own. Sanjay’s mother had been more of a mother to Rahul than his own. Rahul had stayed away after moving to England or so Meghna believes.

Thus begins the story between Rahul and Meghna, the teasing, the flirting, the anger, the tears… …will they find love?

A FRIENDLY WARNING: This book has been written only for the purpose of Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment! If you are looking to learn something or improve your lives after reading this work, then this book is not for you. I am not trying to get into competition with the Author Biggies of this world. I wrote this simply for the fun and joy of it. One thing I can promise the reader though: Well proof-read, perfect language that I feel is very important for every book that’s written in any tongue.

Yours truly,
Sundari Venkatraman

Continue reading →

Quintet Radiance meme

Long back I had got this award from Huma, which is called Quintet Radiance award. Following are the rules of the award.

1. Include the award logo in the post
2. Describe yourself using the alphabets
3. Nominate few other bloggers

5788467_orig

Describing myself using alphabets, as written below, was an attempt done by me during one of the free write, which I try to do everyday morning, though I miss most of the days. 🙂

Archana is
Bold and
Coward at the same time who wants to be
Different and
Energetic like many others whom I admire.
Friendly person who is a
Google lover and keeps
Hiding behind
Internet.
Jovial,
Kindly and
Loving being a Libran.
Married for more than 6 years and
Nayana is my three year old daughter.
Open communication is what I prefer. At times I can be
Philosophical and there was a time I resorted to
Questioning on life and
Relationships which are complicated but lasts life long.
Simple and Silly, but
Truthful to many. Started believing in
Universal Spirits and Soul recently… Has
Varied Interests but keeps
Worrying all the time having been subjected to
eXtra mood swings from long time.
Young and Yellow who is overtly
Zealous to live life to the fullest.

Now for passing the awards to fellow bloggers from my blog roll. Anyone who reads this post is tagged. How about that?!