A WHISPER IN YOUR HEAD

     Last Tuesday, I attended my first Think Tank meeting at the Writer’s Nook at MCC MRF Innovation Park. The name ‘Think Tank’ seemed to make me a bit worried. The thought being surrounded by great minds thinking, ideating, debating in the same room as you, when you barely try to comprehend the high language spoken by great minds, is quite the ordeal. Reminds me of the time my dad took me to the local book club when I was in school, where I watched serious people talk about serious stuff, which was too huge for me to comprehend.      Jokes aside however, it was a greatly rewarding experience. I got the chance to listen from the experts, the great arguments put forward by the students and even participated in a quiz where I got third! Also, we had a session hosted by the poetry wing, Poetry X of our department. In short, a great afternoon indeed! Hoping to attend their next session soon.      I decided to dig deeper, so I took the opport...

I attended the 13 th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival held today at our college. I was lucky that our college was one of the venues for the short film festival. Since I had never been to a film festival before, it was quite the experience for me. Six films were screened, films made with dedicated cast and crew. The films covered a range of topics and people which I had no knowledge of beforehand. Like I might have said in my previous blogs, my great love for movies is mostly taken up by cheesy popcorn flicks. However, after watching these film productions today, it reminds me of how powerful the media of film can be especially in the hands of a dedicated crew. The first documentary was about a football academy in rural Tamil Nadu. We looked into the lives of the schoolkids and the dedicated coach who aimed to see football as a means to a better life, away from forced hard labour and casteism. I shall be spending a little more time with this film ...

Reading Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury almost immediately reminded me of Orwell's novel, 1984. The reader of today is probably already familiar with the plot or at least the archetype of the plot. So let me give a small (mostly spoiler free) synopsis of the book. The Plot We have the fireman, Guy Montag living in a dystopian future where the job of a fireman is to torch the source of all chaos in the world, books. His life changes when he does the forbidden act of reading the books he was supposed to burn. Followed by desperate efforts to find the meaning behind books and the 'why' of things, he lands up in a deeper rabbit hole which may threaten his freedom and even his life in a seemingly utopian world of ignorant happiness. --------------- More than the novel 1984, the book reminds me of a film that I had watched, Equilibrium (2002). Here,  instead of a fireman we got a law enforcer 'cleric' whose job is to infiltrate and execute sense offenders (...

I attended this writing workshop today. I stare at the sky, my eyes searching for the moon. My eyes fall back to the stars as my quest for the moon on a new moon day was indeed in vain. A military prop plane flies above watching over the skies. Make it two. An airliner approaches to land on the western horizon.  Is that how freedom feels like? Could they see the moon from up there? I attended this writing workshop today. Not going into the specifics but I found myself surrounded by a number of writers for whom writing meant a number of different things. It was an interactive session where I heard many say why they wrote. Some said it was a medium of expression, discovery, therapy, or even for the joy of writing. Although I don't consider myself to be an expert blogger, I do feel like there are various events that could happen regarding writing for an audience as opposed to writing for yourself. Just going to list out some ideas which I learnt today and from personal experiences...

  Dear Reader, Before I start my blog, I would like to say that my words shall never be as poignant or heartfelt as the speech given by Chief Seattle but I shall try my best to blog with the childish fascination and awe that I felt when I came across this book. The powerful words and remarkable pictures in the book do make me envy those who own a hard copy of it. (link to the text) https://archive.org/details/BrotherEagleSisterSky/page/n7/mode/2up   Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: A Message from Chief Seattle is an illustrated book by Susan Jeffers originally published in 1991. The book contains a speech given by a leader of the Northwest Indian Nations, Chief Seattle to the government in Washington D. C. responding to the buying of native land that is considered sacred by his people. Spoken about 150 years ago during the end of the wars between the natives and the colonists, his plea against the robbery and destruction of nature is simple yet moving.    ...

     Recently, running through the pages of my sketchbook which, had coincidentally turned into a journal that had more sentences than pictures, I realised that the spirit of writing has come back. Abstractly recalling the lines of Orhan Pamuk I believe, the angel of inspiration choses to reveal images and dreams only when the writer feels lonely, doubtful in his efforts, his story and the value of his art. Well then here I am running through the words on my blog. Just taking where the words take me.      Why am I here? Why am I writing or blogging again? I am writing for myself. One has to start somewhere, right? I am no expert and I hope to learn as I write away. Oh wait. Here’s something. Our department hosted an exhibition last week. Speaking of writing we put up a stall where the visitors could write a poem, one line per person. When the crowds had slowed down, I went to the stall, reading the lines people had anonymously made. Although I do not reme...