Read the lines, not between them

Don’t bother about the commas which aren’t there, read the words. Don’t worry about the sense that is there, read the words faster. If you have any trouble, read faster and faster until you don’t.

- Gertrude Stein

to my swit

Jun 22, 2010
Paris, France

My house owner here got two humongous Malaysian Pandan cakes, which looked highly suspect. I have gone through them like an earnest rabbit looking to make a home and turning up at the bright end of the tunnel. Burrowed is the word, I think. It's awesome, and it's so light on the stomach, at least when you're in the process of eating it. You don't realize until 500 gms of it is comfortably on its way down the digestive tract.

the whispered sounds of silence

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Sources 
Exhibit A -https://www.facebook.com/evolversocialmovement/photos/a.346958347730.154009.309517367730/10153568228847731/?type=1&theater

Exhibit B - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP025m9-orE

Facts About Fairytale Spiders

Alternate title (because I like alliterations): Some Spiders Smile 

People are taught to believe that all spiders have eight legs, eight eyes and no smile. While this is largely a fact for regular spiders – here’s a small list of facts that I know to be true only for fairytale spiders.

Just as regular, everyday people are different from fairytale people, so are regular, everyday spiders different from fairytale spiders. Fairytale spiders sometimes have six legs, and many times seven.

Fairytale spiders never climb walls - because they wouldn’t be able to do an eight-legged handshake with the regular spiders, and this would make them seem rude; and they really are very nice.

Fairytale spiders only ever build their houses in and around lavender pots or rosemary shrubs. The thin, spindly leaves and the deeply aromatic fragrance from both plants help fairytale spiders not care about the fact that they are a limb or two short of being regular. Who would care to be regular if they could live in lavender all day?!

Guess what colours fairytale spiders love? Every shade of violet (from a pretty and pale lilac to a rich and royal purple) and green (light and lovely jade to a deep and delicious emerald), of course!

Fairytale spiders can be shy since they have only ever known lavenders, rosemaries and other fairytale spiders. So, if you ever come across a fairytale spider, remember to be brave and start a conversation. They love talking to little children, and will never scurry away, pretending to have other more important things to do, like regular spiders.

They love a good story and they’d gladly accept a drop or two of grape juice (anything purple and sweet, really).

There is one thing to remember, though. Fairytale spiders can never keep a secret. Since they were born in fairytales, they’ve always had their tales and adventures shared. This makes them believe that no one wants to keep anything private.

Fairytale spiders love symmetry - especially the seven-legged ones.

However, they are wise enough to know that while the grass looks greener on the other side, it will never smell as wonderful as home. This is also why fairytale spiders always have wide smiles across their furry faces.

~

Fairytale spiders never climb the wall,

And so, are rarely scared of having a fall - great or small.

Fairytale spiders love to hear you tell tales,

Of anything, from castles and dragons to ships and sails.

So pick up a book, and read aloud to your fairytale spider friend,

But remember that if ask them to keep a secret, you will drive them ‘round the bend. 

-----------

Roundly panned by three literary type critics (two of whom I completely trust) with the same feedback: The story requires character development or it needs to be a collection of stories to make it worthy of consideration for an established publisher. So, if you're a pre-aspiring children's writer bird, take these wings and fly. 

love is not

Love
isn't something
that is meant
to be difficult.

You shouldn't
give someone
a handbook on how to love you.

That would be a bit much.

Love 

isn't something

that is meant

to be difficult.

You shouldn't have to give.

Love
isn't something
that is meant.

But then again,

that's all it can be.

Love 

isn't something 

that is meant

to be difficult.

You shouldn't have to

give someone a handbook

on how to love you.

A word should do just fine.

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/evolversocialmovement?fref=ts

Flutterfly - Review

What would you do if you saw a brilliant orange butterfly? I followed it right through the pages of Niveditha Subramaniam's Flutterfly, just like the book's excerpt suggested, and left thinking of a poem. Who knows where it might take you!

Do you think it could distract you from a marvellous moustache you were trying to draw over an indulgent thatha's grin? Or would you go on instructing your "classroom" undeterred? Do you think it could turn a sibling squabble into a roomful of smiles? 

The wordless format gives a new strain of free rein to an imagination that we so love letting loose when we engage with words in books, stories and songs. 

Flit through Flutterfly to see if you can spot yourself, your pet or someone you know in its pages. And then, go back to it every time you feel like you have some time to stand and stare. 

If I could leave wordless reviews (no, not emojis), I would. Instead, here's leaving you with the poem that's on my mind now, one that has kept coming back to me since I was in high school,

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.  

- Leisure, W.H. Davies

Book: Flutterfly
Publisher: Tulika
Author / Illustrator: Niveditha Subramaniam

The Last Blooms of Winter

Master Gardeners and volunteers get together every Wednesday for a workday at the Woodlands Garden on Scott Boulevard, Decatur. For the last week of March, however, the Garden Committee had a different sort of Wednesday planned for the Mid-week Gardeners. A small troop of us got to visit Camellia expert Jim Pruckler’s garden, which he maintains with his wife in their lovely Tucker home.

While it would have been just fine by us to visit a garden filled with nothing but Camellias, Jim also happens to be a Rhododendron, Azalea, and general plant expert. So you can imagine the sight that greeted us with Spring just around the corner in these parts – a burst of Forsythia, clusters of Candytuft and Phlox, apple blossoms, and an abundance of Camellias.

“I have about 260-300 (Camellia) varieties here,” Jim said, walking around a rhododendron that was waiting to bloom. At Woodlands, we have around 70 varieties, many of which were brought in by Jim to add to Dr Morse’s collection.

“This one looks like Christmas,” whispered Quill, a master gardener and Woodlands Garden volunteer. And it did! She was referring to the Bob’s Tinsie Camellia.

He showed us around the garden, reeling off the names and characteristics of each variety like they were friends he’d known a good while. Jim picked up a gorgeous Camellia edithae bloom, explaining that it was the only variety with a hairy stem. We noticed that it also had a pronounced leaf vein pattern, different from most of its species.

We saw a ‘preview’ of varieties that Jim was planning to introduce into the Woodlands’ collection, including the candy-striped Betty Foy, the Diddy Pink Organdy, popular since the swinging 60’s, the delicately pink Mrs R.L. Wheeler, and Tinsie, named for its small size.

“I don’t know if I should introduce this one in the (Woodlands) Garden,” he said of Black Magic. “It’s a beautiful, intense flower, but I haven’t seen one that doesn’t have a weedy-looking plant.” Some of the others that are currently up for the debate (of being introduced into the Woodlands collection) are the hardy April Rose with its never-ending petals; Emmalene, a swirl a variegated combination of light rose pink and white; Mrs Lawrence Bradley, white with tiny pink flecks; and a pretty Marie Kirk, all white flower except for a shock of red right at the center.

The standout Southeastern Flower Show bloom, however, didn’t make it to the list. “The one in your hand is the best bloom of the year. It’s a spectacular flower, but it’s just not a vigorous plant that will stand out in a public garden,” he explained. When our garden manager Ruby read this piece, she was vigorous in her nod of approval for Jim’s picks.

With names like Desire, Cinnamon Cindy, Governor Muton, and Black Magic, there’s a little something for everyone. “If you happen to air layer a Taylor’s Pride for the plant sale, I’ll buy one. It’s my favorite,” said Ruby, when Jim made a visit to the Garden the following week for an Air Layering Workshop.

Back in his charming home garden, Jim was holding up a loud bloom with red and white stripes, and brilliant yellow anthers. “This one doesn’t deserve to be in the Garden… it does and it doesn’t. It’s called Clown,” he told us. He’d got the plant several years ago from Reverend Bono Dickson, who had introduced Jim to Camellias and trained him in plant propagation techniques that include air layering and grafting. “It’s really unique, but it’s always… sort of weird-looking.” “But it’s the Clown,” Janice, our Garden Committee head, chipped in, defending its right to be weird. “I really like the stripes,” said Tonya, our summer intern. It was clear that if Jim left the choice to us, we’d just vote “yes” on every one of the lovely varieties that he’d spent years cultivating and preserving.

“(The number of)…varieties (I have here) are hard to come by. I have more varieties here than any ten nurseries put together,” he smiled. As he turned our attention to a blushing Grace Elberton, he said “If this one isn’t already in the garden, I’m definitely bringing it.”

We wrapped up our field trip with Camellias for boutonnières, saplings for our home gardens, and a smile on our faces.

Woodlands Garden will be hosting a Plant Sale this Fall. We’re hoping to have some charming Camellias and native plants set out for your home garden. For volunteer details and events at Woodlands Garden, visit woodlandsgarden.org.

get back (to where you once belonged)

Gentlewomen, gentler-men, and my 4 readers,

Hello.

I'm back after a good while, so the first thing I did was to check if it had been 'while' enough to break records. Unfortunately for you and me, it hasn't. Unfortunate because I had this fantastic, succinct and wonderfully witty first line that I just can't use now. A line that might forever be lost in time, space, and all those things that either end in an abyss or whirl endlessly in a vortex.

I've had some time for the past two years, during which I managed to convince myself that I am capable of attempting a book. I'm here this time around because N, the only fellow to have had the privilege and pain of reading one of the shorts I'd written, said something that got me back here. She's a celebrated illustrator and children's writer now, and a someone who I can confidently send things to with a "don't reply" or "I have nothing to say" without having her read, analyze or give me meaningful looks when we meet. Speaking of celebrated children's writers, GB, is right up there with a slew (and I mean slewwwww) of new books out this year, apart from being a general loudspeaker for gender awareness on several different platforms.

My message to N was clear, I didn't want any feedback. She obliged, neatly side-stepped my request, and said something along the lines of, "I liked that thing you'd written before.. about the garage and the man..." She didn't need to say anything more. I got here, read about the man and felt better for no reason at all, at least none I could explain without having to evolve into a mini-thesis.

So, what's the latest at my end, you ask - I now cook. You may be kind and remind me that I've been sharing my intense culinary knowledge with you since you've known me, at which point, I'll bow my head down, smile humbly and mumble, "I've since made a mean chicken tikka masala, an outstanding marble cake, chocolate chip muffins, butter chicken meatball spaghetti, and a bunch of stuff." My star dishes, however, are something we call a beggar sandwich and a 'four sauce' sauce. Your appreciation of those recipes, I feel, would be directly proportional to your enthusiasm for a good, steaming cup of Maggi Masala that has been allowed to cool to just the right temperature.

Well, that's about all I had to share today.

That, and this

True, it's dance, we know the moves

The bar, the dip, the woo

Love,
a non

(Just to continue keeping our relationship transparent-ish, we all know I don't have a line, right? I'd have dropped it right at the top and drawn the damn thing all over this post if I had.)