100 Happy Days: Day 70 café and verse

Happiness is meeting writer friends over coffee and verse.

The idea is to meet and share our written work. We met this afternoon, just four of us to share our work: poems, fiction and some beautiful ideas on how to add colors to our poetry verse

I read my work on Kay Mukarni, which is an interesting genre of riddles played between two people, where one describes something in the way that is mistaken by the other as a reference to the first one’s beloved, but which finally turns out to be something completely different. 

My friends loved it and they have promised to write one on this genre too.

I love listening to people’s work and I like to hear the critique that follows and guides us on how the work can be improved. Although I may not have much to contribute, I come home packed with new ideas and enough inspiration to write more.

Its always a fun afternoon.

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I am posting pictures each day here on my blog then sharing the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World

100 Happy Days: Day 44 Read Meet.

Happiness is sharing your writings with friends.

I am an active member of 'Caferati read meet'. We meet every month and share our prose/poems with friends. Every month, there is a theme to trigger our writing. A positive feedback is given which helps us improve our writings. Read meets have helped me a lot and these are much better than attending an organized workshops.

This week, we met at our friend’s place at Versova. The theme was ‘epistolary’. I have never before attempted this format. I googled to read various writings on this format and then attempted one story. I wrote the story in the series of letters written over one year. I have posted my story ‘Postcard From Spain’ on my blog. 

Do visit to read my story, you will love it.  

One friend wrote the story in a telephone conversation format, other had email snippets and then there was a story in series of telegram messages, I never knew that story could be told in this format too. It was interesting to listen at different perspective to a common theme.

Well, everyday is a learning experience, and so much joy in exploring new themes.

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I am posting pictures each day here on my blog then sharing the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World

Yay! Award is an award, and I won…..

I was qualified for Grand Prize Judging of my Quatrains and I receive a new year gift..


Okay 2010 was not so bad afterall, cause I won the poetry contest and received a prize too. What else would I want?

Seventeen individual “Quatrain City Poetry Contests” were held from the end of March through November on Ryze network at forum called ‘Wordmeisters, Poets and Writers-Unite!’, where by a picture was posted and members would post a quatrain inspired by the picture. I had participated in thirteen contests and had won six of them. Quatrains were judged on creativity, poignancy, format (if applicable) and content. Each Contest resulted in a winner and runner-up, both of which qualified for Grand Prize judging.

In Grand Prize judging, my poem was qualified as second runner up.

For my quatrain called ‘Criss-Crossed’

Hushed voices trapped behind colored frames
Criss-crossed, the thoughts rotate from side to side
Silence speaks under the pillars of courage
Whispering gently under its beams with joy.

Inspired by this picture

picture by Jack Huber

Now awaiting anxiously for my well earned gift: a copy of "A Poet's Primer" and one more book which will be either paperback copies of Jack Huber’s "Aspects Long Forgotten" or an electronic copy of Diane Tegarden's excellent "Light Through Shuttered Window."

Details of all winners here http://www.jackhuber.com/quatraincity.htm

Open-Mike Poetry Performance

Every fourth Tuesday of the month, Prithvi theatre café is not just a meeting place to romance over a cup of coffee, it is a special venue for poets to perform their poetry.

Yes, I do like to write poems but performance for me is light years away.

When I reached at Prithvi today, my friend asked me to recite a poem. Now, a shy person like me, who hates to be stared at, can I ever perform my poems in front of strangers?

Nah! I just cannot.

I like to sit there and listen to other poets, while sipping coffee. Most of the poems today were in Hindi and I find Hindi poems very different from English. I mean to say that English poems have meter and form and they are more chiseled, where as Hindi poems are very free flowing and quite dramatic. Well, that’s performance, I guess. People enjoyed and hooted at shayaris but during English poems, they just nodded their heads.

Maybe I should write something in Hindi too.

Caferati Read-Meet (23rd May 09) at Belapur

There were no Samosas this time, but still I enjoyed the read-meet like I always do, but then, who says that we go to eat Samosas?…it is read-meet, right? So, you are supposed to meet and read.. get it? Also, when somebody is reading in this group, then, you are supposed to listen carefully, and not allow your mind to wander away, looking around, admiring the paintings on the walls, or clicking pictures because, at the end of each read, you are expected to give a feedback. (think! think! did you like it? what did you like? what doesn't work for you?) everybody is expected to participate(Imagine, if ever body gave the feedback then who would be the just listener? not allowed huh?) Now, giving feedback is such a pain...Grrrhh! (array baba, giving feedback is also an art na, that has to be developed,) you need a loud voice and confidence to speak your mind and, and, of course, you need to have editorial qualities to comment on some body’s else’s work without getting punched back on your face….. (I am afraid if they say, "you think you know better than me? huh? How dare you strip my work!") Okay. Okay, I will need to work on giving feedback too….But I just need time….Actually, I am not used to making personal comments unless I am asked to (I think people are noticing that I hardly ever comment at the read-meet and that, I am told is ‘not fair’, to get a feedback, we must learn to give it first....point noted... :) Anyways, this month, the read meet was organized at Menka’s beautiful garden behind her house, in the interiors of Belapur, way far from city of Mumbai. We sat under bougainvillea trees, to the back ground music of water fall, so close to nature, surrounded by the sweet fragrance of flowers. While we waited for the members to arrive, we had a small informal chat. We were discussing about the demography of the people of Mumbai verses people of Delhi and their behavior pattern, their habit of staring too much, their ability to cheat and lie and finally, we arrived at a conclusion that 'Delhi sucks'…… (sorry) Next, a formal read meet started with a small round of introduction, disclosing our ID and our nature of writings. And then the readings of fiction and poetry began. There were a long discussions after each reading, on points that were important for good writing, such as, making the fiction work more expressive, to show and not to tell, to chop off all the unnecessary details that are not important to te story, and to create a drama in order to get the attention of the reader/listener. There was much discussion on the usage of words such as editorial/reportage While editorial can be bias and can be just an opinion, reportage are pure facts and are written in formal accounts with correct details. For example: A RICH Man wanted to tell a certain lie, but the lie was of such monstrous size that it stuck in his throat; so he employed an Editor to write it out and publish it in his paper as an editorial. Policeman, on the other hand, will give the proper details to a reporter. Since the group was small, (only twelve people attended this month’s read meet). It ended early. Then came the best part…chow chow..peet puja…(I was hungry too) .there were (vegetarian and non vegetarian,) puff pastries, wafers and cake. The meeting lasted for over two hours and the group dispersed by 6:30pm. I was lucky, I got a lift back home, thanks to Menka, who had meeting to attend at Hotel Marriot and she would drive through my route (passing through Bandra)… I feel blessed, travelling in style…back home.