शुभ दशैँ

आजको खाजा – गुन्द्रुक

यस ब्लग हेरिरहनु भएका सबैजनालाई विजयादशमी २०६८ को हार्दिक मंगलमय शुभकामना ।

Gravity

This is a collage of pictures I took some weeks ago. The hands and hair belong to S and B. All thanks to them for allowing me to experiment on them The song playing in the background is Gravity by Sara Bareilles which helped me create a story out of nothing…

Kovalam

Holi in Delhi

 

HOLI: A little boy seen in Asaf Ali Road

Jaipur Literature Festival 2010: A belated entry

It’s exactly one month past the Jaipur Literature Festival and I haven’t posted anything about it. But I can’t let all the photos, videos and notes I took at the festival go to waste. Thus this entry:

Day 1 @ JLF : ( It was the second day of the festival.) Jaipur Literature Festival might actually be ‘the greatest literary show on earth’ (last year it was ‘Asia’s Leading Literary Festival’) but I had never heard of it until I came across the Jan 8-21 issue of Time Out Delhi. I am sure it was in the news in Nepal but I have absolutely no memory of it. A few Nepali journalists seem to be regulars at the festival. On the other hand, quite a few people in Jaipur were clueless about it too. And the credit to this finding goes entirely to my ritual of asking directions. Pedestrians did show us the way to SMS hospital road nearby but they didn’t know their city was hosting a ‘world class’ literary show.

We reached the festival venue on the second day (Jan 22) and I knew what I wanted to do: Attend a session called Travels with a Typewriter in the Mughal Tent. I had done a bit of homework on the festival before leaving Delhi and the realization was disheartening. I had read the works of only two of the 200 authors who were to be attending the festival- Chetan Bhagat and Shobha De. I could not bear to make it to the end of the list because I was frustrated by seeing the names of so many people I had never read! Shobha De was a huge hit among us girls back in school (pre-S.L.C.). It was a book where she talked of her relationship with her young daughters. I don’t remember a word of the book now, nor the title. I read Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Five point someone’ in 2007 and ‘One night at a call centre’ sometime later. I am actually ashamed to admit I have read such books! No offense to Bhagat fans but I can’t understand why he is such a huge hit in India. A recent Tehelka survey of bestselling books in India reveals that the first 4 out of 10 bestsellers in India are by Bhagat….simply unbelievable!

Getting back to the festival, I presumed ‘Travels with a typewriter’ to be a session which would discuss the art of writing travelogues. I later realized the session was named so after one of the speaker, Michael Frayn’s book . It was a pleasure listening to the British writer. He spoke well and the best thing he had to say was this:

Travels With a Typewriter By Michael Frayn

Barakhamba Road, New Delhi

After completing exactly one and half hour of driving lessons over a period of 3 days I decide it’s time to practice. The maroon car parked outside the Nepali embassy in Barakhamba Road looks tempting. The Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) library on the opposite side looks equally tempting but I have made up my mind. It is an opportune moment for practice. The road was empty and there was no danger of traffic as it was only a parking space after all. There were no people in sight either so it had to be done. I slip into the driver’s seat. And everything feels different. The gear, the clutch and race (that’s what the instructor calls the accelerator) all have a new feel. It is a different car after all. I want to drive the vehicle straight till a certain point. That’s the plan. But as soon as I start the vehicle and let go of the clutch it heads right towards the wall.

Clutch and Braaake, I use my feet just in time.

Three boys who I’d seen inside the embassy witness the drama. Obviously I am embarrassed and by the time one of them knocks on the window and says ‘Reverse Gear’ I have forgotten every single thing the instructor has told me. And I do not know what Reverse Gear is! A bespectacled Nepali guy gets into the car and parks the machine straight. I thank them profusely and explain my lack of driving skills at the same time. I don’t think they made any sense of what I was saying. They keep glancing back at the car even until they cross the road. I feel like hiding under the seat but I sit up straight. I turn on the radio and the 95.0 FM is playing ‘Runaway Train’ by Soul Asylum

Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I’m neither here no there

Just the perfect timing. Finally, the wait is over. It’s time to walk. Thankfully, I KNOW how to WALK.

Barakhamba Road

Barakhamba Road is best introduced by Sam Miller in his Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity as ‘Central Delhi’s only true street of skyscrapers’. And it’s true.

City of lights: an evening out in New Road

The lighted street in front of Pashupati plaza

Kathmandu Mall

( Saw em but didn’t take these pics! )