Unannounced Hibernation

Hello there - Happy New Year 2021

Photo by Hans-Jurgen Mager on Unsplash

I know, I know it has been a while I have been writing and sharing my posts. But, you see I had to take a hibernation from my creative writing to keep me going in this period of the pandemic. I needed a change of routine & plans. I put my mind on a hiatus, no more thinking of ideas to write, edit & edit over & over and then bring a piece to life to schedule publishing. 

The last couple of months has enmeshed our lives, with the new challenges thrown at us by pandemic, and it still is in various parts of the world. We all had to re-think our priorities & pay attention to tiny bits of our day to day life which never crossed our mind, demanding more attention than ever before. More to a point, where we were getting our butts kicked and our hats blown, so much so that I needed some time to breathe. To soak in the change in my reality. 

So, I had to take a step back from my writing and refocus my energy and set the course of the wind to see how this site and my passion for words could thrive as a parallel universe outside my steady life. 

This was not a ‘good-bye’ but only ‘so long’ — for a short time.

I cannot express adequately how much I appreciate and value your time, patience and your support. It is in this spirit I took the liberty to best serve my well being by taking care during these extraordinary times as I hope you are doing the same & did the same last couple of months.

I intend to keep this rhythm of writing going. 

Till then, keep your spirits high, be kind and live to your fullest each day! :)

©Shweta, 2021. All Rights Reserved.

From the Dragon's Mouth: 10 True Stories that Unveil the Real China

Source: Shweta's Phone

Title: From the Dragon's Mouth

Language: English

Genre: Non-fiction

Pages: 288

Rating: 4/5

Excerpt:

Fuentes spent a few years living and working in China as an international journalist. The 10 short stories are portraits of citizens of the country she met during her stay. The book is a panoramic view into the psyche of the people, circumventing censoring authorities, about Chinese culture, history since the Chinese Cultural Revolution, etc. The book project began with a series of interviews with the locals Fuentes takes on. They talk about family, power, and the rest of the world; what makes them who they are; why they live in a dictatorship & why they are anarchic.

My Thoughts :

The book is an eye-opener to a world unknown to us, proving how fact reads better than fiction, claiming my attention for reading non-fiction yet another time. The book is an intimate sneak peek into China through the eyes of its people, voices of everyday people victims of all the ill fate. It a book unlike any other I have read thus far.

I found it interesting to read such differing accounts of life in China from rich, poor, migrants, journalist, an entrepreneur, a taxi driver and much more. The book captures the lives of different classes of people thriving there. For anyone interested in China or for anyone who just like well-written non-fiction, this book is for you.

©Shweta, 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Off the Traveler's Track

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

In the time before Great Pandemic in 2020, I was a frequent traveller. I received my first passport stamp back in 2016 To Europe and before 2016 my travel dominated in exploring my country in domestic travel. 

I recently finished reading Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. It was a trip down the memory lane on how it felt like to travel endlessly. Much of the book is an insight & fact-based research on trying to make sense of marriage while on exile from her own country with her lover Filipe. They lived as a nomad moving from one hotel to another, one city to another. They did miss their real life, in a home, a stationary home. Travel and real-life give rise to a potent realization. The book is good, insightful & heavy on research than personal essays. 

I took thousands of pictures in varying locales over the years. It is a bliss, a ticket to the past, as I was conjuring up potent remembrances. Yet countless other photos are mere background noise, long expunged from memory, a placeholder of life on the move.

Then, the pandemic put a stop to most travel around the world. During the mandatory lockdown, I only went outside for essentials & food, not even for exercise. I’ve spent countless hours in video calls with family & friends. I embraced my hobby to keep the creativity flowing, started experimenting with colours & dabbling with brushes more than ever before, and read books rather voraciously. Kindle came to my rescue during the complete lock-down! I could buy ebooks since the shipping services had all come to a halt. 

How we all miss travelling, going around making memories. Even stepping out to a cafe. Seeing new places & learning about a new culture. And that’s the beauty of travel — it forces us outside our comfort zones & pushes us into the unknown sphere of our lives. Our lives are ceaselessly unspooling stories. How we make sense of them tells us about ourselves. Humans are eternal explorers, endlessly curious about life around them. On an eternal quest to look forward to keep moving. 

Much has changed, while other things remain the same in our lives. We can no longer hop on a flight or train to a new place without being fearful. We can no longer plan our vacations we grew up thinking — One day, I’m sure I’ll visit this place for the requisite sightseeing and explore a new side of life. In our hearts, we are so eager to go someplace new, beyond the grocery stores or workout, for mere entertainment. Feels like the 2020 pandemic has pushed us back in time before the world had so many different sources of entertainment, not to forget, we still have our internet keeping us connected. 

As I go through the old pictures, taking me back to the places I once visited, surfacing in my thoughts ever so fresh, like it was the only yesterday. 

I wonder when will it be next?

Droplets of Magic - A poem

Photo by Philippe Tarbouriech on Unsplash

The speedy winds

Whistling through the leaves

There is no echo but only 

Psithurism and nothing before it rains

Thick dark clouds blanket the

Light blue sky

Waiting to weigh down on us

Spurt out nothing but rain

Sitting by the door, with a book in my hands

Smelling the petrichor come through

Pages soaking up the mist sprayed

Curling in nothing by natures love upon us

As it continues to rain, the nature bellows

Making us verve & dreamy, comfortable & gleamy

Seeking coverture in the comfort of homes 

As we wait for the tumid clouds to pour love upon us! 

©Shweta, 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert — Book Review

Source

              Title: Committed By Elizabeth Gilbert
Language: English
Genre: Research-backed Memoir
Pages: 320
Rating: 3/5

Excerpt:

This book captures the writer's life after she sets off her life after the "Eat Pray Love" comes to an end, the solo journey she took to find herself. Towards the end of this self-reflecting journey, she meets a Brazilain man, Felipe, she falls in love with & they have their seismic rhythms all tuned in to the frequency that works for both of them. But their rhythm was soon hit by turmoil. The American government Department of Homeland Security officer detains Felipe for violating the visa rules. The book captures the "exile" and uses the experience as a point of departure for delving on different aspects of marriage. the time and great detail of socio-historical aspects of "Marriage" in various cultures & of also the journey they both lived as they figure out an arrangement that is satisfactory to the government & themselves.

My Thoughts :

As I picked up this book, I believed it will be deep dive into the psyche and interpretation of marriage from Gilbert's point of you. But no! The writer has shared personal experiences here and there between a lot of research-based insights into marriage in various cultures and plunged into the history of marriage. With her sharp, witty writing the book was engaging enough & also to make you feel she's talking just to you. Like having a one to one conversation. The book even though it was too meandering moved me with insights & details of research rather than her own personal essays. The research insights running parallel with personal anecdotes are all in her voice as if she was convincing herself to marry for the second time & why. It was aptly pointed out that the book is "rather chatty and personal to be so heavy on research, but it’s rather researched to be so chatty and personal" by the NY Times.


Decent read! A book to read for anyone who wants to understand various cultural aspects and nuances of marriage or closely witness a clear-eyed celebration of love with all its consequences of surviving, in the real world, actually entails.

©Shweta, 2020. All Rights Reserved.