tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84985006585433192922024-03-13T01:40:03.149-07:00Notes in the Marginsheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.comBlogger227125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-15426649748276303272019-11-12T23:45:00.001-08:002019-11-12T23:45:57.861-08:00Watercolour memories indeed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Travel has become so stressful. Much as the only joy in life is to, well, get away from your own, the trauma of entering an albeit beautiful country but where people look at you funny because your skin has olive undertones is becoming a bit much. There I was in London, the only city I would live in if people didn't look at me funny, just basking in the even footpaths, the gorgeous stone buildings, train journeys with clean and comfortable trains, an intricate and thoroughly efficient subway system, (I mean there are count 'em TWO railway personnel just standing at every single tube station waiting to answer questions from tourists, what), knowledgeable staff at boutiques, cafes, pharmacies, I've never been so happy. What people in developed nations take for granted is what we in developing (and developing because no one gives a shit, not because we can't, never because we can't) nations stand in awe before; like walking down a sweet alley and emerging into the face of a gothic cathedral which turns out to be a government building, it's all too, too painful because they will only be memories. But I enjoyed it while it lasted. Love London but loved Scotland more, people look at you less funny, and it's so beautiful it looks like illustrations from a book have come alive. And it's there, free, just to please its citizenry. Too, too painful.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fIg_3w5frrg/Xcux47fZ_vI/AAAAAAAAlKE/WpErC-aVjXQYN6w0Heh7_re1L0j7eReOACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/fish.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fIg_3w5frrg/Xcux47fZ_vI/AAAAAAAAlKE/WpErC-aVjXQYN6w0Heh7_re1L0j7eReOACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/fish.HEIC" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fish and chips, steak pie, mandatory at George IV, Edinburgh</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wyKw7TGhsuc/Xcux9ran1sI/AAAAAAAAlKI/atMWUHoE3rwPrQP4nw9UR_Ysk0JpOEt5wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/park.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wyKw7TGhsuc/Xcux9ran1sI/AAAAAAAAlKI/atMWUHoE3rwPrQP4nw9UR_Ysk0JpOEt5wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/park.HEIC" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UP7guwnRK9g/XcuyBg6CRqI/AAAAAAAAlKM/DYlNSywfzbwuanpDZTMNFCrNuqaRZPaAACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/cider.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UP7guwnRK9g/XcuyBg6CRqI/AAAAAAAAlKM/DYlNSywfzbwuanpDZTMNFCrNuqaRZPaAACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/cider.HEIC" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Best cider ever, discovered at the George IV</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MP0OdXwIbaQ/XcuyF51sboI/AAAAAAAAlKQ/82CV_DF4D3QSjQSFFd-BOXGvRUCT79k1gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/chair.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MP0OdXwIbaQ/XcuyF51sboI/AAAAAAAAlKQ/82CV_DF4D3QSjQSFFd-BOXGvRUCT79k1gCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/chair.HEIC" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A man dedicated this to his late wife, hoping she's enjoying the botanicals wherever she is now, Edinburgh</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
.</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-50157995723409268442019-04-12T07:06:00.001-07:002019-04-12T07:20:46.364-07:00Dreaming about a Kiss<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-large;">I</span><span style="font-size: large;">f there’s one thing I’ve
always loathed, oh, ok, you got me, or anyone who knows me has got me, there
are MANY things I loathe, but for our purposes here, it’s people who say, “Oh,
you can get anything in India”. Uh, no. It wasn’t true 10 years ago when I
first heard it, and it ain’t true now. Leastways, not down south of the
Vindhyas.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lancome’s Poeme? Urban Decay
foundation 8.0? Tod’s D Bag? Every single one of the 250 books I’ve downloaded
on Kindle because it’s not in the bookstore? Peace of mind? Pavements? I
digress. But when it comes to the Beauty Biz, it’s a Hell to the No. What’s
particularly galling is when you run to the nearest Nykaa (Sephora’s little
sister, I presume?) looking for Marc Jacobs’s Daisy Dream Kiss and they say
they don’t stock Marc Jacobs. Say what. Look it up on their online store, you
say? When you manage to get the site to open, it will tell you they’re plum out
of stock.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Speaking of Nykaa. They’ve
opened<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3xuQpuiBjRE/XLCePJhp9QI/AAAAAAAAkdc/VyUl0HD0KlItZRrqv1zcpXaGwh1zXtWxACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5964.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3xuQpuiBjRE/XLCePJhp9QI/AAAAAAAAkdc/VyUl0HD0KlItZRrqv1zcpXaGwh1zXtWxACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_5964.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paradise found & the price is just about right</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
in Bangalore’s Lavelle Road, and made the mistake so many companies
make: Starting small, dipping their toe in the waters and seeing how warm it
is. It’s Alaska warm, honey, because the people who walk into Nykaa know the exact
shade, formula and background of the products they expect to see and are willing
to buy big for pigments that go on their skin – only you don’t have what they
want. Even the hugely popular Huda Beauty has just a handful of wares on display. So what happens? You don’t sell much and we all go
back to duty free shopping at the nearest airport. Lose-lose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Having said that, the
Sabyasachi line of lipsticks for L’Oreal (who know a thing or two about
marketing in India, I might add), is sublime. Also noteworthy in the lip line: Bobbi Brown,
Crushed Liquid Lip Bitter Sweet and the always-trustworthy Stila, see Sheer
Splendore, both available at the actual Sephora which, alas, also suffers from a lack of
variety. No, I don't see why the Champs Elysees store should be different from the Lavelle Rd one, sorry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Point to Note: Down South is
admittedly very different from Up North; people here are price-conscious in a
way no Delhi socialite would stoop to consider. But things are changing, a bit.
Women are willing to pay at MAC but the large Bobbi Brown at Garuda mall stays largely empty.
Why? Their products are great but their prices are sometimes just silly. Think about it this way: there's a reason why retailers say things like it's $9.99 rather than saying it's $10. It's psychology; they should be saying it's $9.99 Psychologically. While I might throw an internal tantrum but cough up Rs 2,500 for a Studio Fix powder at MAC, I will willingly lose the battle when faced with a Bobbi Brown concealer for Rs 3,650. Psychology. And that's just when seeing the 2 and the 3, not even the 1000 rupee difference. Once I see that, it's game over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: large;">But I still believe in
the adage which I will twist because I can: Build your stock, and the buyers
will come. (<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Just</span> don’t be silly about it.) </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-23732749669792614132018-11-19T01:34:00.002-08:002018-11-19T01:38:42.247-08:00Sujatha Gidla wins Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2018<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-8jlLS4u5g/W_KDgdqxeYI/AAAAAAAAjt8/t5DTAJhLJfgffWteGVf4PpAt5Bl-w1NvwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5583.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-8jlLS4u5g/W_KDgdqxeYI/AAAAAAAAjt8/t5DTAJhLJfgffWteGVf4PpAt5Bl-w1NvwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_5583.HEIC" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "baskerville";"><span style="font-size: large;">S</span>ujatha Gidla’s</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "baskerville";"> </span><i style="color: #222222;">Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "baskerville";">(Harper Collins) is the winner of the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2018.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "baskerville";"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sujatha Gidla was raised in the Dalit community of Kazipet, a small town in Telengana. After high school she enrolled in a Master’s program in physics. She worked as a researcher in the department of applied physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, then moved to the United States at the age of 26. She is currently employed as a conductor on the New York City subway system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This year’s panel of judges, Sampurna Chattarji, Raghu Karnad and Githa Hariharan chose Sujatha Gidla’s <i>Ants Among Elephants</i>from a shortlist of six “because of its urgency, its revelations and its understated but seamless match of form with content.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The other books on the 2018 shortlist were: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">We That Are Young</span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">, Preti Taneja (Penguin/Hamish Hamilton)</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "baskerville";"><br /><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Temporary People</span></i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">, Deepak Unnikrishnan (Penguin Books)</span><br /><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Remnants of a Separation</span></i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">, Aanchal Malhotra (Harper Collins)</span><br /><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The Sensational Life and Death of Qandeel Baloch</span></i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">, Sanam Maher (Aleph)</span><br /><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">How to Travel Light</span></i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">, Shreevatsa Nevatia (Penguin Books)</span></span><span style="font-family: "baskerville";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The judges said: “It is a marvel how, with so little friction or strain, <i>Ants </i>absorbs readers into undramatized lives of poverty, patriarchy, and rebellion, and the encounter with subaltern Communism. But quite apart from the rarity and necessity of the subject—Dalit lives—the book is admirable for its clean skill and technical execution. With no authorial flourishes, it allows the story's innate passion and gravitas to display themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "baskerville";">“<i>Ants</i></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "baskerville";"> is a book that teaches, reveals, reminds and remembers. It bears witness, it listens and asks to be listened to; with all these qualities in mind, we'd like to recommend it for this year's Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "baskerville";">While announcing the shortlist in August, co-curator Arshia Sattar wrote: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">“Sujata Gidla’s searing memoir <i>Ants Among Elephants</i>blows the lid off any illusions we might have had about the diminishing importance of caste in the 21st century, even in such aspirationally egalitarian spaces as the movements of the political and social Left. Gidla’s freedom lies in her escape from the existential destitution that such systemic discrimination can induce for Dalit castes in India.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">ABOUT THE 2018 JUDGES<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Githa Hariharan has written novels, short fiction and essays over the last three decades. Her work includes <i>The Thousand Faces of Night</i>which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 1993, the short story collection <i>The Art of Dying</i>, the novels <i>The Ghosts of Vasu Master</i>, <i>When Dreams Travel</i>, <i>In Times of Siege</i>and <i>Fugitive Histories</i>, and a collection of essays entitled <i>Almost Home: Cities and Other Places</i>. She is one of the founders of th<span class="textexposedshow">e Indian Writers Forum. For more on this Delhi-based author and her work, visit <span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #365899; text-decoration: none;">www.githahariharan.com</span></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Raghu Karnad is a writer and journalist, and co-founder of theWire.in. His book <i>Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War</i>(2015) was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar and shortlisted for the UK PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for historical non-fiction in 2016. He has been editor of <i>Time Out Delhi</i>and written for <i>Granta</i>,<i>The</i><i>New York Times</i>, <i>The</i><i>Financial Times</i>, <i>n+1</i>, and <i>Caravan</i>magazine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, fiction writer and translator. Her fifteen books include her poetry titles <i>Absent Muses</i>, <i>The Scorpion</i>and <i>Space Gulliver: Chronicles of an Alien</i>; the novels <i>Rupture</i>and <i>Land of the Well</i>; a short-story collection about Bombay/Mumbai, <i>Dirty Love</i>, and a translation of Joy Goswami’s <i>Selected Poems</i>. She has co-authored <i>Elsewhere Where Else/ Lle Arall Ble Arall</i>with the Welsh poet Eurig Salisbury and is currently Poetry Editor of <i>The Indian Quarterly</i>. You can find her online at <span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #365899; text-decoration: none;">http://sampurnachattarji.wordpress.com/</span></span> and on Twitter @ShampooChats<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-60291214578304169222018-11-08T09:27:00.000-08:002018-11-08T09:31:26.133-08:00A Star is Reborn<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Lady Gaga a possible Oscar winner? Who woulda thunk. But if you have seen A Star is Born, it will be apparent 20 minutes in that there could be no other road for her to take. It is, as she has said ad nauseam in interviews, (almost like she doesn't realise that in a digital age, she has to update every day), Bradley Cooper's genius at work that allows her own genius to come out and play. In the role he plays, his drawl, his sweetness, his world weariness, his pain, is so immediate on screen that when he leaves it, all you feel is his absence. And his direction allows Lady G to show a vulnerability and innocence that makes her character accessible.<br />
The music is astonishing; the last song and the breaths through which it is sung is the reason why Lady G should be nominated. But is it really fair that just when you thought Cooper speaking French in real life was enough to bring you to your knees, he lets you in on the little secret that he can sing like a faraway dream?<br />
Great movie also because it teaches you a horrible lesson about life: When you get your heart's desire, you realise that odd taste in your mouth is not drinking from the cup that has run over, but tasting the dregs. It's not enough to have ambition, you must know that every day with its tender mercies (now where have i heard that before) is a pure, never-to-be-repeated and therefore priceless gift. You'll never become jaded when you simply have to remember that it all ends. No need to rush the ending either, it comes for us all.<br />
I'm off now to try on that gorgeous indigo nail-polish I just got from OPI. Toodles. </div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-62836181952968356112018-06-25T03:16:00.002-07:002018-06-25T03:17:55.324-07:00Cut above, cut below<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--ZEGkt3Vbic/WzDA3bM4azI/AAAAAAAAf2o/cycSTySPFFQtn3LdupHCi3AHF4eSuGJ_QCLcBGAs/s1600/PG.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--ZEGkt3Vbic/WzDA3bM4azI/AAAAAAAAf2o/cycSTySPFFQtn3LdupHCi3AHF4eSuGJ_QCLcBGAs/s320/PG.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
Having been a reader all my life, I like to think I get why JK Rowling is a cut above. It took me some time to appreciate Harry Potter before I too became a fan like everyone else on the planet, but then she went and did The Casual Vacancy and then the Cormoran Strike series and it is now clearer than ever that she is in a class we have had to invent. She isn't a descriptive genius, or the wit at the party but if she is in a room with you, beware, because this woman understands people. Good and evil, betrayal and pettiness, the limits of love, it comes together best in CB Strike, the name for the TV series based on the books. Alas, while the books are pretty near perfect, the TV adaptation, clever, subtle and often brilliantly directed as it may be, lacks a certain something.<br />
Tom Burke is excellent as Cormoran, shaggy, weirdly handsome, paradoxical, as nuanced as Holliday Grainger who plays sidekick and braveheart Robin Ellacott. Their chemistry translates well on screen etc etc but.<br />
If Burke is in a scene with Killian Scott as DI Wardle, it's Scott who has your attention (woefully miscast as he is, Killian should have been the killer). This is the kiss of death for an actor, when your X Factor only hits W.<br />
Let me put it this way, if you watched Ghost in the Shell there is only one actor you notice immediately, waiting for him to return, and that's Pilou Asbaek (you will remember him in Game of Thrones as the extremely untrustworthy (but then who isn't in GoT) Euron Greyjoy). Asbaek has charisma up the wazoo, especially when set against Scarlett Johansson whose bewildering Hunchback of Notre Dame shuffle is only offset by her unfortunate footwear (oh, Rupert Sanders, you lost more than your moral compass in recent years, didn't you?) in failing to hold the viewer's interest. Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux already had the character and look nailed for this role.<br />
But I digress.<br />
I wait with bated breath to watch all episodes of CB Strike, yet since I missed my calling as casting director, <br />
I wait without fully committing. Story of my life, come to think of it.</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-8586276847091879062018-06-05T23:49:00.000-07:002018-06-05T23:49:11.197-07:00Royal fiasco<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I’m used to life’s disappointments but this was a bit more than I could take. Is it too much to ask for that the royal wedding be, well, royal? Instead of a solemn, beautiful ceremony where the bride and groom conducted themselves with style and grace, we were treated to a reality show, Yankee-style. A quite mad minister went old-school Revival in his sermon, an all-black choir attempted to make an inclusive statement, and Harry talked, made faces and giggled. Ms Markel, meanwhile, looked like she had gotten the role of a lifetime, which she, of course, has.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But the wedding dress. Here is where the battle lines were drawn. MM on one side trying to show the world what a simple soul she really is, and the fashion-savvy staring goggle-eyed at what can only be described as a travesty. There is plain and then there is plain. This gown from Givenchy was plain dull. It had no embellishments, no style, no creative touches and was, quel horreur, ill-fitting. Was the wedding a surprise? Did the House have no time to get it right so that the bodice was made to fit the bride, like Kate Middleton’s was? There we were waiting to see the entire point of the show and what a damp squib it turned out to be. I kept staring thinking, surely she’ll turn around at some point and we will see the most stunning detail which would make up for this cinched curtain drape but alas. I’ve seen runway show finales with more stunning wedding dresses, but then what could you have expected when they get political instead of personal? At a royal wedding. Is nothing sacred?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The only thing that saved the entire fiasco was Zara Phillips’ stunned face, mirroring our own, albeit less publicly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-71697782132456319972018-05-01T04:41:00.000-07:002018-05-01T05:04:11.520-07:00I sang a new tune...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TTHxYU4DKr0/WuhRadeoK3I/AAAAAAAAbPE/CSjTR2It848u_L5kiMVQZTVVZelSJRM2QCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG-20180313-WA0032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="1160" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TTHxYU4DKr0/WuhRadeoK3I/AAAAAAAAbPE/CSjTR2It848u_L5kiMVQZTVVZelSJRM2QCLcBGAs/s400/IMG-20180313-WA0032.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">I</span> </b></span>don't drink. Imagine my amazement, slight horror and hidden glee when I discovered Sangria in Barcelona. Wherever you go, that's what you get a jug of, and before you know it you're thinking, <i>Oooo, that satisfies my sweet tooth</i> to <i>Oooo, I'm kinda stoned</i>. It's mandatory to then feel relaxed, cool and understand why the siesta was invented. It would be insulting the drink to feel any other way.</span></div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-12750994827829242042018-03-31T09:19:00.000-07:002018-03-31T09:22:59.933-07:00A taste of Lisbon <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4xr6QgQziQg/Wr-ylM8buTI/AAAAAAAAZdo/095QM0Ox0VY__SmfWuavH8uB5LohHg9HQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG-20180316-WA0005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4xr6QgQziQg/Wr-ylM8buTI/AAAAAAAAZdo/095QM0Ox0VY__SmfWuavH8uB5LohHg9HQCKgBGAs/s640/IMG-20180316-WA0005.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lisbon, March 2018. LeConsulat bar where I discovered a drink that I could claim as my own, finally, after years of not getting into any type of alcohol. It's almond liqueur served with a twist of lime and ice and tasted, frankly, like redemption.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pn-ga_4ZOHY/Wr-ylBsXKxI/AAAAAAAAZdo/MqjKor6QRfIvI_A958cfjyZUBZgCJMvrwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG-20180315-WA0017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pn-ga_4ZOHY/Wr-ylBsXKxI/AAAAAAAAZdo/MqjKor6QRfIvI_A958cfjyZUBZgCJMvrwCKgBGAs/s640/IMG-20180315-WA0017.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Typical Portuguese square where the tile is king.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2NE8Bk9l6OQ/Wr-ylO7D5jI/AAAAAAAAZdo/v4FNbqHwQgEvoVslhDciGSDaw8nxOiRNQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG-20180315-WA0013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2NE8Bk9l6OQ/Wr-ylO7D5jI/AAAAAAAAZdo/v4FNbqHwQgEvoVslhDciGSDaw8nxOiRNQCKgBGAs/s400/IMG-20180315-WA0013.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just a street, you say?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-caUd1tItzrU/Wr-ylE2NgTI/AAAAAAAAZdo/Gnkz5vDImMA50ay98_6WdqxieZRrZZwMwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180315_160323.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-caUd1tItzrU/Wr-ylE2NgTI/AAAAAAAAZdo/Gnkz5vDImMA50ay98_6WdqxieZRrZZwMwCKgBGAs/s640/IMG_20180315_160323.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kind of time-tested but so beautiful.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E7ocAqIVXWE/Wr-ylDRkl_I/AAAAAAAAZdo/qDA5f27nrZMJMd2E5sAt530rWEmAwxhCgCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180314_145339.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E7ocAqIVXWE/Wr-ylDRkl_I/AAAAAAAAZdo/qDA5f27nrZMJMd2E5sAt530rWEmAwxhCgCKgBGAs/s640/IMG_20180314_145339.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Le Consulat hotel, locally-sourced art, and light fixtures that you wish you could tuck away in your suitcase<br />
but your parents brought you up to know better. Damn it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o0G6JOV05LU/Wr-ylJkn_lI/AAAAAAAAZdo/EHzuJK8twNwbpUkXs6szQebBVf_fokeTwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180314_144454.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o0G6JOV05LU/Wr-ylJkn_lI/AAAAAAAAZdo/EHzuJK8twNwbpUkXs6szQebBVf_fokeTwCKgBGAs/s640/IMG_20180314_144454.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It came with the room.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-80843855847476676602018-03-31T09:04:00.002-07:002018-03-31T09:04:48.138-07:00Tai & Tinkerbell<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Big Reveal: I've been watching Tai Beauchamp switch up women's personal style, or lack thereof, on her TV show Dare to Wear on TLC. The shock and awe she inspires in the viewer has nothing to do with the often hideous makeovers the women on the show undergo, but in the way their whole personalities light up, almost literally, when they see what they can be and not what they have neglected for too many years because somewhere along the way, they lost a belief in themselves.<br />
One woman, with gorgeous thick red hair and a fabulous figure, said she didn't want to wear outfits that showed her legs because they were "too pale". When she finally wore a tight, pencil skirt and stripper heels (tut tut Tai), we saw that what she actually possessed were perfect legs, in shape, in tone, in colour.<br />
She finally got it. Her face at the end of the show was that of an entirely different person from the one who wore nothing but tracksuits as a school coach. She glowed, and it had nothing to do with her make-up. She even gave a shimmy while throwing that glorious mane over her shoulder.<br />
Imagine living your entire life in the shadows as some kind of Frankenstein's monster when you're really Tinkerbell, but busy throwing magic around so carefully that none clings to you.</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-57003587691192328932018-02-13T03:24:00.001-08:002018-02-13T03:24:44.607-08:00Pretty Boy, Baybay<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SIbHVVi6w-I/WoLI-BcBBWI/AAAAAAAAW1A/Fnq7KjCfORkHPQBhtzgLBnMpuOh_2JpvQCLcBGAs/s1600/mal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="770" height="301" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SIbHVVi6w-I/WoLI-BcBBWI/AAAAAAAAW1A/Fnq7KjCfORkHPQBhtzgLBnMpuOh_2JpvQCLcBGAs/s320/mal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>o Maluma wakes up in the morning and looks at himself in the mirror and sees that face every single day, 365 days of the year? How is that even possible? In fact, how is that fair? We look at him in his iconic music video <i>Felices los 4</i> and think "Wait a minute, is this dude photoshopped? That cannot be real." Then we listen to his interview with Ryan Seacrest and he is charming, genuine, bubbly and, what the hell. Then he damn well takes his shirt off with Shakira and goddammit, it's game over. Oh, and that's a nice voice, too, all smokey and beckoning and naked and hot and sweaty and sorry, what was I saying?</div>
<br /></div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-42769725006975032192018-01-02T23:42:00.000-08:002018-01-02T23:42:44.629-08:00Asians v Asians<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Growing up an expat in Hong Kong, I learned about racism first-hand. Over the years, I had forgotten how Asians treat Asians. This Christmas I went to Bangkok and rediscovered it from the minute I stepped off the flight. There was this guy with Immigration Help emblazoned on his shirt so I approached him for some. He dismissed me with a wave of the hand, grunting Go, Go. I got the pen I needed from an Indian woman wearing a churidar amidst a sea of other Indians off the Bangalore flight. In the days that followed, I was stared at (no churidar?), talked to rudely by cabbies (although to be fair they're rude to everyone), and noticed that stony looks sometimes slowly gave way to a surprised friendliness. I was wondering what the hell was happening until I had my epiphany at a shoe store. There I was, in my zone, having left the mothership, aka Victoria's Secret, and now browsing for sandals when I heard this woman talking like she was on a loudspeaker, to her mother. "Is this the one you like? What colour do you want? This will not go with what you want to wear in the evening. Wait. Let me find out." And then she goes to the Thai shop assistant and roars: "Do you have Size 7? Size 7!" Before turning to her mother and yelling, "You have to ask them for everything, everything! They're just dumb! Really, really dumb!"<br />
She was Indian.<br />
Who can blame the Thais for hating us if this is what they meet? I was to hear more horror stories later. Is this what Americans feel like these days, tarred with the same Nutjob brush their President represents? Time to buy that travel Tee: <span style="color: red;">Don't Shoot, Just Quietly Visiting. </span></div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-56343062387524814232017-11-23T19:40:00.000-08:002017-11-23T19:54:10.746-08:00Anuk Arudpragasam wins<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1xGmu4SdIkw/WheUW3M6UPI/AAAAAAAAR5k/l6rWZ__d3qsVwcvYS26exq108zBfXsf3gCLcBGAs/s1600/anuk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1xGmu4SdIkw/WheUW3M6UPI/AAAAAAAAR5k/l6rWZ__d3qsVwcvYS26exq108zBfXsf3gCLcBGAs/s320/anuk.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>nuk Arudpragasam’s novel <i>The Story of a Brief Marriage</i> has won
the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2017.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A native of Colombo, his
work, according to shortlist judge Arshia Sattar, “presents the civil war in
Sri Lanka like never before. Writing from within the debris of Tamil lives in
prose that can pierce your heart, Arudpragasam’s protagonists find dignity as
they piece together strategies of survival. The story is about the human spirit
in the most desperate of times. It sings not as testament of glory but as a
dirge of despair.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Judges Kamila Shamsie, Rohini
Mohan and Margaret Mascarenhas were unanimous in their decision.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222;">“Anuk Arudpragasam has written an
extraordinary novel that is timely, timeless and universal in its depiction of
the possibility of tenderness and love blossoming in the midst of the
mind-numbing carnage, suffering and horror that is war. The Story of a
Brief Marriage is mesmerizing from the first paragraph, and remains delicately
poised between life and death from beginning to end,” said </span>Mascarenhas.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shamsie added,<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> ‘It’s an exceptional accomplishment for
any writer - for a debut writer it’s near miraculous.”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mohan, winner of the Shakti
Bhatt First Book Prize 2015, for her own Sri Lanka-based novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Seasons of Trouble</i> said, “<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Anuk has taken what is actually a sliver
of a story, the briefest of moments, and suffused it with meaning. His spare,
meditative writing lets the pain and delirium of conflict unfold, sometimes
just through an injured bird.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Author and translator Sattar
and poet and novelist Jeet Thayil chose this year's Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize
shortlist from forty-seven titles submitted for consideration. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-2014336228992194022017-08-20T23:45:00.004-07:002017-08-20T23:46:37.969-07:00Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2017 Shortlist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Prayaag Akbar, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leila</i>
(Simon & Schuster) <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Hirsh Sawhney, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">South
Haven</i> (HarperCollins)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Anuk Arudpragasam, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Story of a Brief Marriage</i> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">(HarperCollins)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Sumana Roy, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How
I Became a Tree</i> (Aleph Book Company)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Tripti Lahiri, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maid
In India</i> (Aleph Book Company)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Tejaswini Apte-Rahm, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">These Circuses that Sweep Through the Landscape</i> (Aleph Book
Company)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Author and translator Arshia
Sattar and poet and novelist Jeet Thayil chose this year's Shakti Bhatt First Book
Prize 2017 shortlist from forty-seven titles submitted for consideration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Judges Kamila Shamsie, Rohini
Mohan and Margaret Mascarenhas will announce the winner in November. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Arshia Sattar writes:
"The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize is ten years old this year and even a
quick glance at previous winners will show that the Prize has celebrated
writing across genre, gender, age and nation. Our oldest winner so far was in
his 70s, and the Prize has been awarded to Pakistanis, to writers of both
fiction and non-fiction, to men and to women. It has been a pleasure to
acknowledge the wealth and diversity of South Asian writing in this last decade
and a privilege to spotlight new writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">"This year’s shortlist
of books and writers continues our commitment to finely-crafted writing and
sophisticated thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">“Prayaag Akbar’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leila</i> is the heart-breaking story of a
lost child and a shattered society. Entirely dystopic, it haunts not simply
because it presents us with a terrifying future but because that portrait of unfreedom,
inequality and brutality seems to already be part of our lived reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">"Sumana Roy’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How I Became a Tree</i> is an exquisite
meditation on a personal decision to step away from a life that seemed to have
everything but time. Roy shares what she has learned about and from trees
through gentle essays that explore the natural world and reflect upon the human
condition in the Anthropocene Age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">"Writing from the point
of view of a young boy whose voice has not broken but whose heart has, Hirsh
Sawhney’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">South Haven</i> tells the
poignant story of an immigrant family, its men unable to cope with the death of
their mother and wife. Father and sons drift away from each other as they seek
solace in new people, new ideas and new activities. But things fall apart and
the centre cannot hold. Sawhney relies on the pathos of his characters to reach
the persistent melancholia that so often succeeds the sharp grief of
bereavement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">"<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maid in India</i> by Tripti Lahiri eerily echoes Prayaag Akbar’s
fictional dystopia as she goes deep into the multiple worlds that domestic
workers inhabit. Lahiri also examines the employment and training agencies that
keep the systems that supply and demand human beings well-oiled, and provides,
in lucid prose devoid of emotional rhetoric, a picture of a society that
thrives on entrenched structures of inequality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">"Anuk Arudpragasam’s
novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Brief History of a Marriage</i>
presents the civil war in Sri Lanka like never before. Writing from within the
debris of Tamil lives in prose that can pierce your heart, Arudpragasam’s
protagonists find dignity as they piece together strategies of survival. The
story is about the human spirit in the most desperate of times. It sings not as
testament of glory but as a dirge of despair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">"Tejaswini Apte-Rahm’s collection
of short stories, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">These Circuses that
Sweep Through the Landscape</i>, is deceptively quiet in a literary world of
noisy entries and exits. Alternately hyper and surreal, Apte-Rahm’s canvases
are small. On them, her people and events are like ikons–they gleam with gilded
details even as they occupy the darker recesses of contemporary life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">"Together, this year’s
books remind us that in an increasingly brutal and fragmented world, families,
communities and societies no longer provide safety nets, that individuals often
feel stranded on the brink of an abyss. And yet, it is through literature that
we can search for each other, it is in writing that we can create meaning as a
bulwark against the tides of untruth that thunder on our shores."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-21031141164327670412017-06-30T03:33:00.001-07:002017-06-30T03:33:50.621-07:00Drinking deep<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When you're young, you're so eager to inhale the intellectuals like Dostoyevsky and Sartre and de Beauvoir and then Donleavy and John Irving and even, godhelpus, Ayn Rand, but as life grips you by the balls, so to speak, you gotta get some release. Which is why my books are for my emotional pleasure only these days and my movies are of the John Wick variety.<br />
Isn't Keanu great? Personal suffering seems to have taught him to be a nice guy and one of the things about nice guys is that they don't take themselves too seriously. Perfect casting for Wick, then. In the sequel (we wait with bated breath for the third instalment), there are 2 bits I particularly liked. The one with his new dog, where the dog and the concierge stare at each other ruminatively in the hotel lobby, and then where Claudia Gerini plays out a near-Lady Macbeth death scene that was gorgeous, rich in tone, rich in setting, rich in life lessons.<br />
How Gerini combined dignity, grace, guts and a middle finger raised for all us chumps out there made for some perfect cinema.<br />
Rapper Common added something to the mix as well with that hard, dangerous edge we love in both our heroes and our villains, and I was just happy-happy to drink deep for a little more than 2 hours.</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-8914234070814596202017-04-27T06:43:00.000-07:002017-04-27T06:44:13.118-07:00Life as we know it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I adore sci-fi movies. Alien and Predator being two of my favourites you can imagine my elation when they made Alien v Predator, shiite though that was. Life was something else entirely. The movie, I mean, the other is so ghastly the last thing I would do would be to bore you with it.<br />
I like me some Ryan Reynolds and Jake G like everyone else but the movie was less thrilling and more disturbing because of its last scene. That was horror like they don't make 'em anymore. Whoa. No, I lie. The most awful thing I've ever seen on screen has to be Old Boy, worse than Clockwork Orange, worse than Caligula, the stuff of nightmares because some men actually sat and wrote that screenplay.<br />
The movies are wonderful to people who don't have lives, I would think. If you read Roger Ebert you would know he lived fully through fiction. Like we now live through social media. I reach for my phone in the midst of insomnia, and reach for it again before I open my eyes in the morning. I know Brooklyn Beckham is at the gym after a skiing injury, that Skam has uploaded a new clip, that Sean Lowe's baby is the cutest thing on God's good earth, that Grigoriy Dobrygin's redheaded GF is beyond kooky, that Trump is straight up the Fifth Horseman of the apocalypse, that journalists in Syria keep me human and that Sweden has run out of rubbish. Like there's anything else I need to know.<br />
Gotta go. Final episode of The Night Watchman just downloaded.</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-31009826354076824932017-04-16T08:12:00.000-07:002017-04-16T08:12:47.584-07:00Pure instigation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Oh, No, I'm going to have to visit MAC again and brave the salespeople! It's not my fault. They've got a perennial lure line called Punk Couture, names like Instigator and Pure Heroine and Studded Kiss. I can withstand anything but temptation, Oscar, how well you knew.<br /></div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-47164050098969308932017-04-16T07:39:00.000-07:002017-04-27T06:10:13.002-07:00What just happened<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
You can't help but fangirl JK Rowling for her tenacity, her talent and fighting the crass and the crazed (see her Twitter), but this morning I mumbled Oh Joanne, Joanne and did the whole SMH thing. I had reached the last page of Career of Evil, you see, waiting for the sexual tension to be cut by a knife, with the same precision rendered to the limb that arrived on a secretary's desk and started the novel off. I waited. And I waited. And in the last line of the last page I realised that either Rowling has reached that stage of fame where editors are afraid to touch her, or she has lost her touch. It was all wrong.<br />
The relationship between Detective Cormoran Strike and his partner, (we won't demean her by saying his Girl Friday), Robin Ellacott is one of the best things about Rowling's crime series, possibly better than her denouements and her sometimes too-populated pages, (I sometimes had to backread to keep track of who was who and what heinous crime each had committed), which nevertheless make for fun times. Characters like Shanker is a case in point, and no it isn't pronounced the Indian way, who reminds me of the wonderful Bubba in Dennis Lehane's Kensie and Gennaro books; how I would love to have one of them come charging over the hill to my rescue, no questions asked. Am I the only one with a Bodyguard on my wishlist?<br />
But the genius subtleties between Cormoran and Robin, that's the thing. So to have it fended off time after time and then end on the worst possible note was aggravating and bewildering.<br />
Do we finally look at the hitherto willow-in-a-typhoon Cormoran as broken in a battle between his head and his heart (i.e., the wuss of all wusses, make up your mind, for god's sake, Corm), and Robin as the kind of weak-willed character she herself despises, when they have been our heroes for 62 Chapters? Wtf.<br />
Cormoran is sexy, imperfect and adorable; Robin is gorgeous, feisty and uncaring of gender when it comes to getting down and dirty in a fight, literally. But her last words show her to be indifferent to vows that are not to be taken lightly, in a setting where real love, which she has already found (and the way Rowling shows that without ever saying it is brilliant), should triumph. Well, I'm just lost.<br />
Will I buy Book 4, Lethal White? Sigh. Of course.</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-63535784871570043452017-02-14T23:17:00.000-08:002017-02-14T23:17:24.587-08:00The Lady's Gone Ga-Ga<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Watching Adele beat Beyonce three times made you think FAKE GRAMMYS! Beyonce is an outofthebox performer, she thinks, conceptualises and then uses costume and dance and vocals to give you an experience you never forget. Adele has a good voice but she is unremarkable, and then she messes up not one but two Grammy Live shows; one is forgivable, two is just being careless (much like second marriages).<div>
Then there was Lady G. What in the world has happened to her? She was pure pop entertainment at one point, now she's wearing pink hats because she was "wearing a hat in the bathtub when she was writing" her Joanne album, or wearing nothing and singing with Metallica, unintelligibly. She's done things to her face - no, she was not born that way - and is trying too hard to be Real. That was when she was singing Bad Romance, or was with Tony Bennett, or doing a Julie Andrews homage. Now she's becoming a caricature, trying to "find herself", (no doubt we'll bump into her at an ashram in Pondicherry soon), and it's embarrassing to watch.</div>
<div>
Talking about Real, that was Gary Clark Jr and William Bell doing Born Under a Bad Sign, which was my anthem growing up and even more relevant, alas, today. No histrionics, no epilepsy-inducing light shows in the background, no wearing a boob-baring male equivalent for attention - an embellished jockstrap perhaps? - it was just great, cool music.</div>
<div>
But my favourite of the night was James Corden. What an entrance. It's not just that he's funny, he's genuine when dealing with others. I can't tolerate the Jimmys and their talk shows; you can tell they want to be more memorable than their guests. Like journalists who try to be more on-the-page than the people they're interviewing. </div>
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Ego is something you have to own very delicately: It can be the gift that never stops giving in terms of creativity, or you can be Lady G.</div>
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sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-50177260451096266222017-01-26T06:31:00.001-08:002017-02-04T23:59:21.511-08:00Dear Leader<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It never ceases to amaze me how in any given situation, put 5 people in a room and there will be 5 opinions. How can there be another opinion on Donald Trump? He's barking mad and he will finish this world off. Sad. I mean, 'Sad!' His Tweets are so depressing. He's juvenile, egoistic, misogynistic, doesn't know his own language and lies as though he invented the concept. And he is a mirror of the nearly 63 million people who voted for him. 63 million.<br />
You think he's scary, Dear Leader's counsel Kellyanne Conway is more terrifying. That rictus makes me think she's about to rip aside the shower curtain, go Psycho and knife my naked ass.<br />
They've even made news out of Melania, her expressions, her clothes, her blahblah. The only thing I remember about her was, years before her current infamy, when she was asked, "Would you have married Donald if he wasn't rich?" Her answer: "Would he have married me if I wasn't beautiful?" No and No, and there's nothing surprising about either, knowing the human species.<br />
What was fun was social media, as always. There was one photo of Michelle and Hillary looking at each other, grimly, at the inauguration and the caption read, "Girl, I know, girl".<br />
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sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-69968308314408986832016-11-23T00:58:00.001-08:002016-11-23T00:58:37.055-08:00Saddest story I ever heard<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There I was, doing what I do, checking into social media every 30 minutes (come on, there are more interesting people on Twitter than I've met my ENTIRE life), when I came across a YouTube comment that broke my heart. It was under a love scene from an interesting TV show, and this stranger wrote something on the lines of "I wish I was one of them, either one. But since I'm almost 80 years old, I guess that will never be. Young people don't seem to understand that sex is something older people can still be into. I'm on YouTube because I like the music I find, and for the porn."<br />
I had to go and sit down for a while. Of course, young people will find the truth of what he said - if they live to be almost 80. They will also find the honesty to admit the truth in everything he said if they live to be almost 80. But I swear, it was the saddest slice of life I've heard in a long, long time.</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-8741352821490271152016-11-21T06:56:00.001-08:002017-01-26T06:07:05.219-08:00Akshaya Mukul wins Shakti Bhatt prize<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_6aN4AaGpDY/WDMLE3x0PdI/AAAAAAAACGs/eTWo3XqC8j8aPEhRg2woIKvotxABOe0twCLcB/s1600/gita.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_6aN4AaGpDY/WDMLE3x0PdI/AAAAAAAACGs/eTWo3XqC8j8aPEhRg2woIKvotxABOe0twCLcB/s320/gita.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><b>I</b></span></span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; text-align: left;">n its ninth year, the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2016
has been won by Akshaya Mukul for his book “</span><i style="color: #0d0d0d; text-align: left;">Gita
Press and the Making of Hindu India”</i><span style="color: #0d0d0d; text-align: left;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Judges and authors Samanth Subramanian, Mahesh Rao and
Janice Pariat chose Mukul’s work for its</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">
“eye-opening and captivating exploration into</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">a parallel literary culture that can often feel at a great
remove from</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">English-speaking metropolitan India.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">They added, “Mukul’s painstaking
research</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">tells the story of a publishing house
in the Hindi heartland, which,</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">through
its output of religious texts and magazines, achieved enormous</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">influence to become the vehicle of an intensely focused
political</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">project. The current overseers of
that regrettable project – of</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Hindutva,
or Hindu nationalism -- have only become bolder and more</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">powerful, which makes "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gita Press</i>" challenging, timely and</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">provocative. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">“Mukul's book was a highly original
and commendable work</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">involving a dogged determination to set
out the many particularities of the Gita Press and the colourful personalities
that drove its agenda. It is also a book that is relevant to cultural homogenization
across the ages, since at its heart it reveals what it takes to be a cultural
mythmaker, and how a specific nexus of religious, caste and linguistic
considerations have reaped extraordinary rewards.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">As
shortlist judge, author Arshia Sattar said: “This year’s shortlist for the
Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize reminds us that the diaspora is writing hard and
writing well. Four of our selected writers live and work outside the
sub-continent. But their exceptional work is counter-balanced by equally
noteworthy books written within India. All the books this year should make us
reconsider what we think we know but have either forgotten or not acknowledged:
the long (and often sinister) shadows of particular events and people, the
individual lives nestled inside large histories, lives that shimmer on the
margins of our vision and as always, the darkness hidden inside families.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Shortlist<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Manu
S Pillai The Ivory Throne<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Madhu
Gurung The Keeper of Memories<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Sophia
Khan Yasmeen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Nisid
Hajari Midnight’s Furies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Akshay
Mukul Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Kanishk
Tharoor Swimmer Among the Stars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize is a cash award of 2 lakh
rupees, and a trophy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">It is funded by the Shakti Bhatt Foundation and Priti Paul
through the Apeejay Trust.<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-3677824875246292072016-09-09T12:53:00.001-07:002016-09-09T12:55:42.536-07:00Need my Stash<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KNcicQCYfL4/V9MSJwD3PjI/AAAAAAAACDA/uK7cq9dUG_4brHv7SBWBcFUdsJaBOJ_9QCLcB/s1600/stash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KNcicQCYfL4/V9MSJwD3PjI/AAAAAAAACDA/uK7cq9dUG_4brHv7SBWBcFUdsJaBOJ_9QCLcB/s320/stash.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I never buy fragrances until I've tested it about three times but my favourite scent (since I fell in love with "Babe", modelled iconically by Margaux Hemingway before she went grandaddy's way), is Sarah Jessica Parker's "Lovely", so I'm just going to try and procure her new "Stash" sight, and smell, unseen. "Lovely"'s bottle is shaped like a woman's body, mine holds pale pink liquid and the aroma reminds you of spiked ocean breezes; there's never been anything quite like it. SJP was personally involved in its debut so I would trust her when she says "Stash" will also be worth my while. There was a run in the Ulta online store, a little bird told me, (oh, ok, I read it on Instagram), and SJP has had to rush in fresh stock. I feel like a junkie waiting for a fix.<br />
On a side note, Narciso Rodrigues' "Her" is too close to "Lovely" to not warrant an eyebrow raise. Originality can never be prized highly enough so while I'll give NR his due for those band dresses, this is a bit much.<br />
"Babe", another birdy told me, (oh, alright, I read it online), has been relaunched. That sweet, innocent, hopeful, young aura could me mine again? Say it's so.<br />
Also, bloody hell, why am I so far from civilisation?</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-60024763940935659822016-08-29T00:32:00.001-07:002016-08-29T00:32:31.130-07:00Birthday cake<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I9SrGdRbVvQ/V8Pj-eRhyeI/AAAAAAAACCM/urPvdQ5KOCQheiJEwGeEdwKiZCzO9B01wCLcB/s1600/20160829_094159-1-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I9SrGdRbVvQ/V8Pj-eRhyeI/AAAAAAAACCM/urPvdQ5KOCQheiJEwGeEdwKiZCzO9B01wCLcB/s320/20160829_094159-1-1.jpg" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The tattoo I dare not get on my arm.....not THAT feisty!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-68915849377509151912016-08-20T11:37:00.000-07:002016-08-26T01:12:17.354-07:00Rio grand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Went online to see which medal Tom Daley had won - and screamed. How could he bomb out? Is that even possible? FOUR YEARS of trying and then not qualify?? How he resurfaces from this will be the real test, of course. He's an idol especially to young divers so to show true grit when you fail spectacularly will be much more significant than grinning at the camera holding your gold.<br />
They say character is destiny but that's not entirely true: The universe spins on a roll of the dice; your character is all you're left with after destiny flips you the bird.<br />
Not that I feel too sorry for Tom. A passion that is the singular focus of every day, fans worldwide, a supportive family, great friends and the love of his life. Also, does he have a mirror? Come on. So when he gets over the trauma of the semi-finals, he should be alright. And I hope we see what he's made of when the glory misses him by the curve of his back for one miserable moment.<br />
My other all-time favourite was this Indian girl who none of us had heard of because she's not a cricketer but who showed us with an adorable swagger and grace under pressure what she's made of. P V Sindhu may have got a Silver in Badminton at Rio but she's a 24-carat star in the homeland today.</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8498500658543319292.post-66795811770860856322016-05-31T00:38:00.001-07:002016-06-11T22:56:17.944-07:00Dear Johnny<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Poor Johnny Depp. Didn't he know that trophies are sometimes heavy to carry? There he was with the sublime Vanessa Paradis for decades and then he simply had to answer the call for a younger model on his arm, although it's ok that HE's become portly and a bit of a caricature of himself. Fortunately for the woman, no one dares call her out on the timely photos of her bruised face, (without Snapchat, what is this, 2010?), except for the Internet commentators - and as we know the Internet Always Wins. No one dares to say that women cannot always be trusted when they yell abuse, just like men can never be trusted when they swear undying love. Recently read a tweet where some wit said he would rather be happy than write. Happiness is for cats and dogs, as the saying goes, Humans should aspire for something more.</div>
sheba thayilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839014559269509358noreply@blogger.com0