Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Mommy Texts
Mom: Did you speak to Nandini?
Me: Yeah
Mom: its... YES... not YEAH... not good english!!!!
Me: Good Grief!
Me: I was speaking German duh
Mom: ur German spelling wrong... dah is Russian
Me: Yeah
Mom: its... YES... not YEAH... not good english!!!!
Me: Good Grief!
Me: I was speaking German duh
Mom: ur German spelling wrong... dah is Russian
 |
| my mommy in her hillbilly clothing looking at our house! |
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
The Joys of Reading Blyton
The Famous Five, Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, The Adventure Series, The Secret Series, The Adventurous Four, The Barney Mystery Series, St Claire, Mallory Towers, The Wishing -Chair, The Naughtiest Girl, Noddie, The Mistletoe Farm, The Magic Faraway Tree, Book of Brownies... Did this British author brighten our childhood or what!
I don't know which of her books i read first, but I do think it was The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor and the Wishing Chair. My sister got a few Noddy, the "Book of Brownies", which she got incredibly attached to, Billy-bob Tales, Mister Meddle, Shadow the Sheep Dog, Six O' Clock Tales, The adventures of Scamp, Bimbo and Topsy, The Put-em-Rights, The Train that lost its Way, Snowbell the Pony, Bimbo the Kitten (etc)., and The Mystery that Never Was (and many more). I remember sticking more the adventure and mystery books, along with the school series. However my sis, read all these other magical stories, strangely she never let me read the Magic Faraway Tree, or the Book of Brownies. She did lend me the others, and Bimbo and Topsy led me to name the school cat, "Bimbo-Lion". We would have adventures in school with our school dogs, and plant fake mysteries for us to solve later. It never worked out as Enid did in the book, but we always sought to have such experiences as the Famous Five did!
The first famous five book I read was read out to the class by Chitra Akka. It was the most delightful experience. It was in fact The Famous Five have a Wonderful Time. Where they travel to the countryside, and happen to be camping out on the same field that the circus was camping out on with their caravans. The circus folk were strange but they made friends. Then there was a mystery to solve, a big mystery, obviously involving very important physicists or scientists. The best feeling of the adventure books, was as reading as a child, we would get involved, and the climax would prevent us from putting the book down. After we experience the adventure with the characters, they would settle down for tea and crumpets in the safety of home. The reader as well would be eased out of it, to the safe surroundings, with the sudden taste for tea and crumpets!
Most of all I loved her descriptions. They made everything seem so much more vivid in my imagination. George and Timmy of the Famous five came to life. The Secret Seven club were all well described, and seemed like a group I would be in. I would love to have been friends with Jack from the adventure series, his love for animals always inspired me to adventure and be with animals like he was. St. Claire and Mallory towers made me wish I went to boarding school, and made sleep overs, and school trips so much more fun!
Harry Potter seems to have been this great mix of Magic and these books. The warmth of these books is felt to some extent in the Harry Potter books. Enid Blyton and authors such as her, always made me wish to cozy up in a ball by the fireplace with a rug, hot chocolate in hand on cold an rainy day, to read these books. Maybe I will write such books in the future.
Now as I finally grow up I find out more about my favorite childhood author and her life, books, controversies around the time she wrote them, but these facts don't sway my adoration for her work. My love and lust for adventure, travel, and encouragement to be myself comes from her writing, her characters! I always pictured myself as George, but now I know, there's a Georgina in many of us girls!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton
:-)
Breathe
I don't know which of her books i read first, but I do think it was The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor and the Wishing Chair. My sister got a few Noddy, the "Book of Brownies", which she got incredibly attached to, Billy-bob Tales, Mister Meddle, Shadow the Sheep Dog, Six O' Clock Tales, The adventures of Scamp, Bimbo and Topsy, The Put-em-Rights, The Train that lost its Way, Snowbell the Pony, Bimbo the Kitten (etc)., and The Mystery that Never Was (and many more). I remember sticking more the adventure and mystery books, along with the school series. However my sis, read all these other magical stories, strangely she never let me read the Magic Faraway Tree, or the Book of Brownies. She did lend me the others, and Bimbo and Topsy led me to name the school cat, "Bimbo-Lion". We would have adventures in school with our school dogs, and plant fake mysteries for us to solve later. It never worked out as Enid did in the book, but we always sought to have such experiences as the Famous Five did!
The first famous five book I read was read out to the class by Chitra Akka. It was the most delightful experience. It was in fact The Famous Five have a Wonderful Time. Where they travel to the countryside, and happen to be camping out on the same field that the circus was camping out on with their caravans. The circus folk were strange but they made friends. Then there was a mystery to solve, a big mystery, obviously involving very important physicists or scientists. The best feeling of the adventure books, was as reading as a child, we would get involved, and the climax would prevent us from putting the book down. After we experience the adventure with the characters, they would settle down for tea and crumpets in the safety of home. The reader as well would be eased out of it, to the safe surroundings, with the sudden taste for tea and crumpets!
Most of all I loved her descriptions. They made everything seem so much more vivid in my imagination. George and Timmy of the Famous five came to life. The Secret Seven club were all well described, and seemed like a group I would be in. I would love to have been friends with Jack from the adventure series, his love for animals always inspired me to adventure and be with animals like he was. St. Claire and Mallory towers made me wish I went to boarding school, and made sleep overs, and school trips so much more fun!
Harry Potter seems to have been this great mix of Magic and these books. The warmth of these books is felt to some extent in the Harry Potter books. Enid Blyton and authors such as her, always made me wish to cozy up in a ball by the fireplace with a rug, hot chocolate in hand on cold an rainy day, to read these books. Maybe I will write such books in the future.
Now as I finally grow up I find out more about my favorite childhood author and her life, books, controversies around the time she wrote them, but these facts don't sway my adoration for her work. My love and lust for adventure, travel, and encouragement to be myself comes from her writing, her characters! I always pictured myself as George, but now I know, there's a Georgina in many of us girls!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton
 |
| Enid Blyton |
 |
| The Adventure Series |
 |
| A rather nice TV show created out of Famous Five... i love the people that played the characters, i thought they did so well! Also the theme song was great- "We are the famous five - Julian, Dick, and Ann, George and Timmy the Dog." |
 |
| Cover art for the Famous Five |
 |
| The Books! |
 |
| Old cover art |
 |
| Julian, Anne and Dick, the three siblings. George is the cousin and she owns Timmy (the dog). |
 |
| Here they all are, and some other kid. On their many adventures they would often make friends with locals! |
 |
| We've all traveled and adventured through caves, tunnels, secret passages with them! |
 |
| Magic Faraway Tree |
 |
| this is not the cover which my sister had... but still! |
 |
| Right, George has her own Island! |
 |
| The Five Find-Outers ... Everyone loved fatty, I just found him annoying! |
 |
| Oh Yes! It's a great book! |
 |
| This was not the cover I had, but Scamp was fun! |
 | |
| Noddy |
 |
| Love how Snowball is such an ironic name! |
 |
| I had this very book! |
 |
| Malory towers |
 |
| I had this one! |
:-)
Breathe
Monday, July 09, 2012
To Be a Writer
I wanted to be a writer ever since I had an imagination, and I could scribble characters which were alphabets to me. I first expressed myself by drawing, and then writing. My little 3 year old head had such thought and imaginations; I was fed books, cartoons, movies... and my brain would create a new world for myself from those ideas. It was truly glorious. I have always wanted to share it with the world.
The catch is, being a writer is like being an artist... you might as well be a poet or a penniless sitar player (Moulin Rouge reference). The profession of being a "Writer" was not in my parents vocabulary. Like all Indian parents, the idealized profession for their kids is: Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer. So hackneyed, so trite, yet it is the norm; so sad. However other occupations that lead to an abundance of wealth, and a "normal" life is acceptable, in example - business person, computer technology, research, etc. As long as you are able to follow the formula- Graduate, Get a Good Job (which pays enough to sustain you, parents, spouse and children, accomplish the following- buy house, car, get kids college educated, paid time off etc.). Cookie cutter houses, cookie cutter lifestyle. Life pattern: set. This is the best and safe route: take it. Best advice ever?
I like being safe, but I don't want the above. I've been searching my whole life, for more than what is presented to us by society, family, media, popular culture... There is more, but it's a risky jump away from my clutches. My family and society have never accepted this route/ idea, it's not safe, we don't know where it will lead, it is unconventional. (Just a tiny insight into my inner struggles with identity, family, cultures, life, and self).
Writing, though many a writers do exist, is still an unconventional career. How will I make it work? I am used to a certain lifestyle. Am I willing to give it up and live below my standards to become that independent yet awesome writer I yearn to be. No one believes I can, but I believe in me. Yet I have been seeking support for years now. That is the path I need to take, when no one has faith, I do, and I go with it. I know people who believe in God know God believes in them and it makes it easier. So I will just have to create my own imaginary being, maybe it's gonna be Higgs.
Writers need time, and space, and that's another lifestyle change most families have a hard time accepting. The aloofness, the quiet, ie. why would someone want to go solo, away from family and friends? Especially for a very chatty/clingy/emotionally dependent family. It is funny cause we start out life as us, and then we mold to our families, and then realize we have to become us again. I always was quiet, shy, introspective, and friendly; somewhere that changed and I became social and chatty, and now I long to revert back to default settings.
I want to write, I can't wait to. My mind is a mess, 29 years of ideas floating around, unharnessed, connecting at points, needs filing and organization so bad. I wish I could hire an assistant to help go into the deep dark cupboards in the back, which has fresh ideas locked away, and bring them to the forefront. I need to grease up my writing hand and pick up a pencil, eraser and sharpener and draw the thought flows down
In the middle of the 29 years of mental story planning and building, a lot happened - personal growth, life, college, education, college English classes, artistic influences, dark times, travels, meeting people from all walks of life, experiences and relationships. All this influenced me tremendously in my blog writings and non- online writings. Especially the "imagination- killer"; I love fiction, fantasy and everything beyond this world, that keep us locked in a so called reality with rules and such (law's of physics, science, religion, politics, civics etc.). This person was so grounded, that he condoned my imagination, that "pretending" was silly. However all thinking is imagining anyway, (later I realized). For a while though my imagination was killed, and I sought to be grounded in reality (which I might say is boring, and can make you age faster than the higgs boson!).
This is my choice. This is what I will do.
I will write.
Breathe
PS: found this when I was researching short life spans (reference, see last paragraph of blog)
Animals with short life spans - http://akorra.com/2010/03/04/top-10-shortest-living-organisms/
This happens to humans when they tune into "Reality" too much.
So what should I write?
The catch is, being a writer is like being an artist... you might as well be a poet or a penniless sitar player (Moulin Rouge reference). The profession of being a "Writer" was not in my parents vocabulary. Like all Indian parents, the idealized profession for their kids is: Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer. So hackneyed, so trite, yet it is the norm; so sad. However other occupations that lead to an abundance of wealth, and a "normal" life is acceptable, in example - business person, computer technology, research, etc. As long as you are able to follow the formula- Graduate, Get a Good Job (which pays enough to sustain you, parents, spouse and children, accomplish the following- buy house, car, get kids college educated, paid time off etc.). Cookie cutter houses, cookie cutter lifestyle. Life pattern: set. This is the best and safe route: take it. Best advice ever?
I like being safe, but I don't want the above. I've been searching my whole life, for more than what is presented to us by society, family, media, popular culture... There is more, but it's a risky jump away from my clutches. My family and society have never accepted this route/ idea, it's not safe, we don't know where it will lead, it is unconventional. (Just a tiny insight into my inner struggles with identity, family, cultures, life, and self).
Writing, though many a writers do exist, is still an unconventional career. How will I make it work? I am used to a certain lifestyle. Am I willing to give it up and live below my standards to become that independent yet awesome writer I yearn to be. No one believes I can, but I believe in me. Yet I have been seeking support for years now. That is the path I need to take, when no one has faith, I do, and I go with it. I know people who believe in God know God believes in them and it makes it easier. So I will just have to create my own imaginary being, maybe it's gonna be Higgs.
Writers need time, and space, and that's another lifestyle change most families have a hard time accepting. The aloofness, the quiet, ie. why would someone want to go solo, away from family and friends? Especially for a very chatty/clingy/emotionally dependent family. It is funny cause we start out life as us, and then we mold to our families, and then realize we have to become us again. I always was quiet, shy, introspective, and friendly; somewhere that changed and I became social and chatty, and now I long to revert back to default settings.
I want to write, I can't wait to. My mind is a mess, 29 years of ideas floating around, unharnessed, connecting at points, needs filing and organization so bad. I wish I could hire an assistant to help go into the deep dark cupboards in the back, which has fresh ideas locked away, and bring them to the forefront. I need to grease up my writing hand and pick up a pencil, eraser and sharpener and draw the thought flows down
In the middle of the 29 years of mental story planning and building, a lot happened - personal growth, life, college, education, college English classes, artistic influences, dark times, travels, meeting people from all walks of life, experiences and relationships. All this influenced me tremendously in my blog writings and non- online writings. Especially the "imagination- killer"; I love fiction, fantasy and everything beyond this world, that keep us locked in a so called reality with rules and such (law's of physics, science, religion, politics, civics etc.). This person was so grounded, that he condoned my imagination, that "pretending" was silly. However all thinking is imagining anyway, (later I realized). For a while though my imagination was killed, and I sought to be grounded in reality (which I might say is boring, and can make you age faster than the higgs boson!).
This is my choice. This is what I will do.
I will write.
Breathe
PS: found this when I was researching short life spans (reference, see last paragraph of blog)
Animals with short life spans - http://akorra.com/2010/03/04/top-10-shortest-living-organisms/
This happens to humans when they tune into "Reality" too much.
So what should I write?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)