a one line review of Truelies: a.show on CBS..

Hey guys. 

The story: has theme, and keeps building each day, with a make believe worklife and home life.. 

The action: protagonists try to put up a 007 kind of action in a 40 minutes show, absolutely Truelie. Neither can they deliver the product nor can they pretend without pretension..yeah. that is how tautological it is... yeah. That too...

Direction: actors chip in a whole bunch of words, all at a time. Music is not blended. It is inserted, haphazardly.  Scenes of action ditto.

It could have made a better audio or podcast show... not audiovisual... 

Action, trying their best but so are other academy awardees.

Overall rating

***.... ok *. (3+1, in all i.e.)

No more.

A Review: Independence, A novel

I was trying endlessly to read the book, since the day it arrived, preordered on Amazon! It is none other than my favorite author’s latest epic of lives of women, this time again hailing from Calcutta a dream city and mother of millions! Yes, this is about Dr. Chitra Divakarini’s novel, Independence! I realized, it is not me trying to read or unable to proceed or any such thing. I found it very interesting, but my eyes, as they are growing older, could not read much with the artificial light the Utilities are offering! Then it was serendipity as I sit myself down over the straight chair on the patio and set myself up to read the book, starting once again from page one.

Is this a book of sorts or what? It isn’t ! It is like the silver river shining in the moonlight throwing the bright moonlights of October, on a broad spring day! The Lines are so amazingly flowing like the stars from the heavens, stuck together on a beautiful Bangal Silk saree with Kantha work that is showing new meanings and beauty every time you look at it. The way story is designed, and the words from stars are borrowed from the magic finger tips of the creator no less than a student who learnt to play the Veena of her words, right from the fingertips of Mata Saraswathi and whose lyrics shine even the darkest of darkness staying within the deprived heart from light of knowledge or love or empathy and brings home that miracle of words as they are played on the exquisite hands of the maestro, who can tune the hearts of the readers and play the divine music of eternal travelers from yonder and ancient!

I love the way the mood is created as I read in this bright light amidst quietness despite the rustle on the highway as the fresh air touching the greenery in the backyard, along with a baby Neem tree, curry tree planted in the pots and surviving few seasons of frosty winters..

It is not just the light that is helping me read, it is the content and the story starting with young girl Priya, winning over the zamindar’s chess game and realizing the gifts she is receiving despite tough times at home, by her father treating their patients with love and without returns.. if not for the artistic works of their mother quilting those magical stars for the weddings, as she remembers her mother Bina..

O my loving lord of the words! I still need to read more but, being an artist it is difficult for me not to relate it to the pleasant sound of the sparrows, robins blue Jays, mocking birds conversing loudly as if saying ”teacher teacher” and the aura it creates inside one’s heart as they get to seek the ambrosia these feelings of one generation people come alive again and again every time one reads. Let me not stop here. I will return later and share the joy again, as you share yours, by reading the book Independence, now on Amazon, and wondrous bookstores near you and originally released in India and published by Harper Collins! Ladies and gentlemen and readers all over the Universe, here is Dr. Chitra Divakarini’s latest wonder of a story that is always magical from their pen, Independence! 

For someone who is an audio person, Audible is an excellent answer!  Couple it with read along you would enjoy twice as much fun! Now if you are a visual media person, I would say you gotta create it asking your students to perform, nay?

Part 2

I promised you, I would update how I respond as and how the story goes forth for the novel Independence: a novel, by Dr. Chitra Divakaruni ji.

Ages have passed, not only since I promised, but also since the story of Priya has moved forward. 

I would not reveal the length and breadth of the extent of story that took place, but I can tell this much: You would not want to stop reading, from. Where you were to reach almost four or five chapters into the story.

We find the greatness of humanity and human spirit as we see the ups and downs of politico-social upheavals back at the time of Independence and National Movement in India, how right from going to participate in Dandi Satyagraha to make salt, to full fledged riots across the city of Calcutta have brought changes in the lives of people who went through these. People, young and old, men and women, have experienced the plight of losing a friend a near or dear person and life cannot be the same but it has to go on, no matter what.. 

Later,

We also find how sentiments and family dramas shape the lives.. although, I do know people have better opportunities and encouragement available in these days, than back then.. Thanks to so many people and organizations that bring forth the spirit of Independence not just to individuals who appear to be hail and healthy but also others of special needs and care required, and this movement is not just momentary, but very precious and ever going, for the flower of Independence designed, dreamed and lived, cherished and brought into a reality by all.. I was going through some of these strong responses my heart was feeling and without sharing these, I cannot hold on to go on listening or reading longer than where I am at.. Now I can move on … into the quest of finding the more of what…

Later,

-Uma Jiji!

Instinct, Reasoning, Rationalization... Is it Science?

When it comes to understanding science, nature, behavior and other aspects What is your favorite style?

Is it what you have a hunch, that helps in theorizing?

Do you believe in whatever gut feeling you have, and can you generalize, based on that unspecific thought, and take action?

Do you always think, whatever one says is an end all and be all?

What is it that motivates you to think of something and enquire the truth?

if you think someone is an expert, do you take 100% of whatever they say is true?

Do you share your work with others and allow them to examine?

Are we talking some sense?

Think!

Is quality better than quantity

We learn about creating value to the consumer, by companies.

We also see that many a population of the world is having lack of resources.

So, is creating value by specializing in the utility of a product, so much wrong that it is catering to the 1% of wealthier, rather than the 99% of common person?

Is producing art so illogical?

Just a thought... Jiji is now chewing over a chewey....!

Some Thoughts On Progress And Motivation

When we came to USA in 1990 and reached TX in 1991, after a 10 day warm welcome by my brother Vijay and sister in law Gretchen and their two beautiful cats, a golden Tabby and a White darlings, for Christmas during 1990, it was so beautiful, going to the park hill, some old classic homes that stood test of time over 200 years and kept alive to show the world how it was back then, we were back on earth at College Station and the reality dawned after a few days or weeks with Anirudh having culture shock to use the western water closet and it was not understood why for two weeks to come he had to withhold bowel movement.. he was hardly 4 years old.

On Jan 2, 1991, he said first thing in the morning, "ee chali deshaniki naanna endukanna vachcharo emo" (Wonder why has my father come to this very, cold country..)

 Fortunately, with lot of medical bills aside the insurance and worry, he was slowly back to normalcy as he began schooling in Head start at South Knoll school, and got fantastically adjusted. He was up, energetic, enjoyed the buckets of new Lego toys Vijay mama and Srinivas uncle gave and used to construct rockets, break them and remake them, everyday. He would first make airplanes with legos, and hundreds of them draw them on papers with crayons of all colors, 48 or 64 of them Vijay mamayya got for him. Vijay anna, bought not only those, he also bought Microwave, dinner set, silverware, making sure we got the basic home set up, from service merchandise. As for some basic groceries, we bought on our way from Houston to College Station stopping to shopping at Houston, that was only possible when we could get a ride from Shravan mama. (my cousin)

I had difficulty in adjusting to stay 24/7 home while Balu was at school, however come Summer, I was enrolled in one basic course in Sociology, just so I could maintain my student medical/health insurance.

Fact to remember was, how the airplanes turned to rockets as our stay progressed and watching News over TV brought about knowledge of Space ships, which Sriram also used to draw as a kid. both boys would spend hours in constructing planes, rockets and break them again, and remake painstakingly and not caring even if they worked almost until the end of the day, as the Lego pieces got tinier and their fine motor skills improved. And in 2003, they had their first Nintendo, that was returned and PlayStation was bought from Xmas bonus from 2002. was it 1997? not sure. Yes, we were in Houston by that time, dad graduated with his PhD in one hand, holding two year old Sriram in the other who pulled his cap away! They said, “you guys at that time were the youngest ever Aggies in the campus!” While back in Sugarland both of you going to Colony Meadows and First Colony MS back then... I tried to do substituting...

 There is a reason I was recollecting this: as I was reading about a study on progress, the author watches his young grandson(?) Nathaniel, play Legos, as he was constructing rockets and space ships, making and remaking even better ones as he went on reshuffling the Lego pieces in a better way. He finds it interesting and intriguing and wants to find, what was the motivating factor, for the boy to repeat doing that. One of the boys, Caleb, in a different study was struggling hard to touch the ceiling with his balloon, and keeps falling down as he moves from a chair or table or bed as his launch area, so that he could send his balloon to touch the ceiling above. If he did not succeed, he would try over and over.

Remembered the poem, Try, Try Again, that we read as grade school students in 6th grade or so..

No matter how old you may be, your dreams are the motivating factors, so dream big!

What was the factor, that motivated that boy, even when it was not possible to reach his imagination, and did not let him settle to meager ones, as he tried over and over to rebuilt a better rocket?

Is that what creates and makes progress possible… I wonder, as I sip my morning coffee..

S2 Writing Series With Uma Jiji

Series: 2 How do I write?

 

Writing for some is a catharsis, they say.

Some say it is a panacea, and they are penchant to write, lest they be lost in the burden of the thoughts raking waves of disturbances, that may affect their mind, and suppress toxins which otherwise might injure their health as they conjure them souls that are gone away, and may return to as well as dwell on them to feast.

So a seed of thought might turn itself into a tree of creeps of sorts and build a nest so humongous that even the Mongols may have never imagined as Kublai khan inheritor of Zenghiz khan’s dynasty and empire and at one point suppressed the Wuhans by fighting them, despite the fact that his brother, who he was assisting on force, has died..

Did the Wuhans souls who died reincarnated as the viruses? Is it why they cannot be controlled in one form or the other.. Ahem.. more cryptic sciences if one may…

So, you have a thought, a seed and you drill it, a dozen times and create a cryptic thought or whatever you may, apply it to the present situation, add more cryptology science and crates of sciences and design a book, a novel, a study or think what you may..

And then, as your cryptic thoughts are functioning, your anticryptic positive side of brain takes charge and drives you away from getting yourself into nuts and may be throw light on what may or may not work and leads you to further progress until you may pause ..

Do not let it stop you! Now tell yourself to wake up and proceed further!

What are you working on now?

Let me hear too! How is it going for you? XXOO

Uma Jiji

A Series On Writing, No!? Seriously !

How do I write?

When I question myself, how do I write, the first thing that comes to my mind is why do I write?

Why do I write of songs so lost

Why do I sing those songs oh so lost…

If it is a poem, I write what my heart feels, mind perceives or words convey, my feelings of lost, that first and foremost may convey that there once may have been a sense of belongingness.

Once Srirama is said to have told his brother Lakshmana, Hey brother, Lakshmana, no matter how loving or close a relationship be, one day or the other, or one time or the other, it will be broken, it will be lost.

If the Lord has said something in those lines to the brother Lakshmana, what product are we to know anything else?

Despite a loving relationship all along in one’s lifetime, all through, when the life is lost, there is no more togetherness. Every soul leads an independent journey to seek Him or their mission.

Coming to the point of writing, it is thought that runs ones life, or leads one to write.

These thoughts can be generated through processes that may be generated due to activity or feeling, or necessity or care or any other umpteen reasons.

The seed is the thought.

Once a thought is generated, an idea takes form.

You would churn on the idea so much that it will evolve further.

If you keep churning the idea and not take any further action, but keep boiling the thoughts over and over again, what would happen?

Think about it until next and let me know what would or might happen, as a response.

May be you could let us know other things that might interest you… what may or may not work in your case..

Or perhaps, what you may want to pursue, or advise or go after..

Until later!