Friday, September 20, 2013

Leela's Republic

As she ferried passengers across the river, Leela sang songs of the great Republics, ruled by women beyond the Great Himalayas.​.
- 'Leela's Book', Alice Albinia

Leela cannot be tamed.

However much you try put her in saris and jewels or cover her with 'hijabs'.
her inner luminosity shines through
beneath the veneers of the masculine.

The society that defines her-- tries to define her, never can tame her.
Leela, whom they all tried to master but never could conquer.
(Like her Republic..)

Leela' of the Buddhist Pali scripts and the Urdu poetry..
Leela who sails down Benaras with her poems and smokes Gauloises in Khan Market's coffee-bookshops.

Leela who listens to rock music beneath thee full moon, as Pink Floyd teaches her 'Learning to Fly'.
Leela whom he tried pin down, but could never the tame.
The "H.." nationalist who spoke of Russia..he may have gagged her for a moment, but he could never silence her.
The 'mullahs' in liberal garb, who tried to 'cover' her like a hausfrau,. but could never hide her truth.

Leela's returned.. with her pen and her scribe.. her long black open hair.. beneath the Delhi sky.. black kohl in her eyes.
to her Republic..
Her Beloved.

 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Warm up before a write up/ or "The Press tag"

So, plenty of things need to be done before warming up, to be a writer. The Serious Kinds.
Supply yourself amply with caffeine, cigs (any Asian lights for "ladies". No American cigs SVP - like their Foreign Policy, they are full of oil and tar), chai, pens, laptop and working internet. A copy of Tejpal.. lying on the desk. providing subversive inspiration. Do not think of men..any kind of men, including GL, intellectual Punjabi men. Pack yourself with an ample of dose of politics, angst and the pain of your personal life.. and why it has made you stronger. Think of the three continents you have lived on, including South Asia, Europe and the US. Continents you haven't lived on - such as Latin America and Saigon and why you still love a mushy Hindi movie with pakoras. Sometimes, the mad teeming chaos of Delhi itself provides inspiration.

The city that is the Epicenter of the Republic, like a bustling behenji (traditional woman) and Begum, rolled into one. She is like a joint in a sheesha bar - as Mohsin Hamid would say. Or the eyes of those intoxicated Punjabi men, walking past Khan Mkt, with their "Hi Yaar", their cologne-infused denim and their hearts full of Sufi nazms. Not all of them are that classy of course, but you get the picture.

Sometimes I just go to Fab India in Khan Market and smell the Khadi and the herbal perfumes of Jasmine and Sandal..soo soothing and then sit on the roofop cafes. And he is with me in those moments..the one who continue to inspire me. La Muse. Why don't women have muses? Mine include the "South Asian" writers like Hamid and Tejpal and Rushdie, but also the chicken tikkas at Karims. Nothing like eating Surkh kukkads or a kathi kakab roll in the epicenter of La Republic, while gazing at GL Punjabi men walking past, rolled like joints - the kind Mohsin Hamid talks abt in "Moth Smoke". This city now has a subversive sheesha culture too. You can go to daytime café, selling cappuccino and kababs and order a sheesha., Even opposite Shaheed Bhagat Singh college (India's legendary, liberal, freedom fighter-revolutionary) there is one. Completely nuts these Delhites are, I tell you :)

So, one thing you get here in ample supply, along with Power and "Sir-jee" is the kababs and sheesha. One side you have portraits of Gandhi and Nehru preaching secularism, on the other, Delhiites walk into paan shops and order 'Leila' tobacco, imported from straight Turkey and Dubai, ji. Thankfully, we are not infested with the kind of violence manifest in Mohsin Hamid's Punjabi Lahore - our Punjabiat is tamed by the secular Lions of the Republic and the spirit  of Gandhi et al. But that is not to say, that Bhagat Singh isn't around.. he lives in the form of the Tejpals and the buzzing, bustling India media aka The Press, however maligned it may be.
My cousin told me yesterday, 'One thing even the policewallahs are scared of in this city and this country, is the "Press" tag. You can drive past a police chowki, without fear, if you have a "Press" tag on your car. I am planning to get one on my mobike." What else can I say - a a country that loves to "hate" itself and doesn't celebrate its democracy.. and its passion for freedom - which lurks under the surface . like the smell of the surkh kukkads and the sheesha, being sold in Bhagat Singh's café. And The Press Tag, I am planning to get for my car..

Monday, September 2, 2013

Home work, Part deux

Now, that I've decided to be a writer - the serious kind. I have to do Homework.
The serious Kind.

Homework for the week is:

Read Tejpal.
Read Tejpal.
Read Tejpal.

Not necessarily in that order.

Love what Le Figaro said about his fist book- mastered and honed and crafted like a Surkh Kukkad, chicken tikka from the heart of the Punjab.

‘This Indian masterpiece is like a voyage down the Ganges, long and infinitely pleasurable; the only thing that worries you is getting to the end too soon’ - FIGARO

And the reason he is such an inspiration..couldn't have been said better than by Paul Zacharia. Qouting two of my favorite writers, both having originally been top-notch journalists.
"Those two journalists, Marquez and Hemingway will be proud of their tribesman, Tarun J Tejpal."

Here is classic Tejpal and why he makes me want to push and write.. and create. A company or a book, its about breaking new boundaries.

"What excites me is still the original mandate of literature -- the pushing of boundaries, the fostering of new ways of seeing, the opening up of new windows. A lot of writing of the last 20 years is descriptive -- one culture describing itself to another culture. That kind of writing doesn't interest me. Safe books bore me. Literature ought to always remain the outrider of society, the advance party of civilization.."

More on his Surkh kukkad compatriot, Mohsin Hamid in the next part. Him of the "Moth Smoke" ringlets, in the city of the Sikhs, kukkads and Anarkali - I.e Lahore.

The Lit List

Authors I like, though not necessarily in that order. Since I have decided to be an author, the Serious Kind.

1. Tarun Tejpal
2. Mohsin Hamid
3. Hermann Hesse
4. Rushdie (some of him)
5. Avtar Singh "Paash"
6. Federico Garcia Lorca
7. Ismat Chughtai
8. "Annie" Aapa (Q. Hyder).
9. Thomas Mann
10. Mr. F. Scott. Fitzgerald - creator of Jay Gatsby

These are writers that have impacted me, moved me, shaken me, brought me the flavor of their lands or angst or quests.

Followers