Birds

Shot near Kumartuli

Self-Portrait

canvas and mirror

by Evie Shockley

 

self-portrait with cats, with purple, with stacks

      of half-read books adorning my desk, with coffee,

 

                  with mug, with yesterday's mug. self-portrait

            with guilt, with fear, with thick-banded silver ring,

 

      painted toes, and no make-up on my face. self-

            portrait with twins, with giggles, with sister at

 

                  last, with epistrophy, with crepescule with nellie,

with my favorite things. self-portrait with hard

 

head, with soft light, with raised eyebrow. self-

      portrait voo-doo, self-portrait hijinks, self-portrait

 

                  surprise. self-portrait with patience, with political

            protest, with poetry, with papers to grade. self-

 

      portrait as thaumaturgic lass, self-portrait as luna

            larva, self-portrait as your mama. self-portrait

 

                  with self at sixteen. self-portrait with shit-kickers,

with hip-huggers, with crimson silk, with wild

 

mushroom risotto and a glass of malbec. self-

      portrait with partial disclosure, self-portrait with

 

                  half-truths, self-portrait with demi-monde. self-

            portrait with a night at the beach, with a view

 

      overlooking the lake, with cancelled flight. self-

            portrait with a real future, with a slight chance of

 

                  sours, with glasses, with cream, with fries, with

a way with words, with a propositional phrase.

 

 

Pic Credit: Frieda Kahlo’s Self Portrait with Bonito (1941)

Bhubaneshwar Vignettes

Marigold garlands at a flower shop

 

Marigolds of different colours

Yakshi Sculpture at a local crafts store

Radha and Krishna

Ganesha

Beauties by the roadside

Life is a box of chocolates

India celebrates her 61st Republic Day

I am sure that everyone feels this way about their own national anthem... just listening to (and singing) the words to Jana Gana Mana and even the music itself fills my heart with this tremendous feeling of joy and pride. We are so lucky to be a part of this beautiful country with her magnificent past and a future filled with bright prospects - let's try and make things better this year. Jai Hind.

Art Focus: Matisse's Goldfish and Palette (1914)

A spectacular new show opening at the Art Institute of Chicago, "Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917" focuses on four critical years in the artist's development, when he began to produce pictures based on what he called the "methods of modern construction." The exhibit illustrates how the artist struggled to mount a personal response to the challenge of Cubism, during which he approached the very edge of abstraction. Things and people were reduced to concise signs of themselves, but in the end Matisse always remained attached to the visible world. In Goldfish and Palette, for example, light and shadow, form and space, are distilled into ambiguous stage flats. The planes of color press tight against the surface of the picture, and those passages of black, white and blue, don't so much depict light and shadow as conduct their essences into the canvas. At the same time, they act as compositional load bearers, structuring the picture into geometric zones that frame the fish bowl, the highly abstracted orange fish and, to the right, the painter's white palette with his thumb stuck through it.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1976768,00.html#ixzz1C2DhpnuG

 

America's Top 10 New Sandwiches

Here’s what the New Luther from ChurchKey is supposed to taste like!!

 

“Named for its alleged creator, Luther Vandross, the original Luther sandwich consists of a bacon cheeseburger wedged between two halves of a Krispy Kreme donut, but that now seems rather simple in comparison. At ChurchKey, a house-made brioche donut is glazed in savory maple-chicken jus and topped with warm pieces of oven-baked pecans. While that sounds like a meal already, the brioche is cut in half and stuffed with a hunk of buttermilk fried chicken and wedges of applewood smoked bacon.”

 

Find out about this and more from the link below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/endless-simmer/americas-top-10-new-sandwiches_b_813034.html#s228776&title=10_The_Spuckie

 

As if supersizing wasn’t bad enough, most of these “new” sandwiches really pack it in!

Though to be fair, there are some healthier options – the Brussels Sprouts and apple sandwich and the Bulgogi sandwich for instance but most of these sandwiches are heavy with the fancy meat stuffing on the artisan breads.

Tempting nevertheless…

Tiger Mom: Parenting Memoir Raises American Fears - TIME

Interesting forward on mail today...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2043313-1,00.html

When the National Football League postponed a Philadelphia Eagles game in advance of the late-December blizzard on the East Coast, outgoing Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell was left fuming: "We've become a nation of wusses," he declared on a radio program. "The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China, do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium. They would have walked, and they would have been doing calculus on the way down."

 

Suddenly glad that I am not in China (my ma is so much nicer and i can't bear too much cold and i hate doing calculus!!)

Salute to Netaji

Salute to a great son of India.You live on in our hearts and minds. 

Bittersweet

Reached home pretty late last night. I was soooooooo tired. Almost as soon as I opened the door, Ma excitedly showed me a gorgeous off-white and red benarasi, exquisitely worked all over with gold and silver. Apparently she had been saving it to wear it on my wedding.

 

Anyway, she has decided to wear it for my cousin’s wedding instead. Nice to know that Ma has accepted my fate in life.

 

Felt a little guilty that I did not show enough enthusiasm.

+ve thought of the day: "Something good falls apart so that something even better can fall into place."

Image credit: http://www.artificialgallery.co.uk/shared/assets/ART001/6154/GirlwithBalloon.jpg

The little things...

It’s the small things you miss when you’re no longer in a relationship. It’s not so much the big boyfriend or girlfriend issue, but also the little things which make a relationship special. Of course this is not just true of a romantic relationship but any association.

A touch, a smile, a word, a glance… that’s what special moments are built of…

Somehow she retained very distinct memories of certain instances and remembering those made them come alive in a very vivid manner. It was as if fireworks suddenly went on all around her - all bright lights and buzzing noises, strong scents and intense feelings which came rushing in... as if she had swum into a pool of golden memories…

The other day, she was in a cramped auto with a couple. It was rather windy, as is the case if you ride an auto in the evenings in Salt Lake, usually… She loved the way the guy put his arm around his girl; all protective and possessive at the same time. While normally she sneered at PDA, sometimes it was just plain sweet. And bitter. And then of course, she looked the other way and pretended not to see anything.

She was often bothered with the distinct smell of a certain brand of cigarettes that made her remember with aching detail how he would stop, mid-conversation, to light one. And the taste of his mouth after the smoke.

Or a certain place would make her recall how they had rushed into a derelict doorway, out of the rain and kissed there. Or how they had held hands at a movie. And across a table. And on the ride back home.

And then the other evening, when she was riding back home with friends of hers… he was in the front seat and she was at the back. And she loved how her friend suddenly touched her husband’s arm resting on the back of the seat. Or when his hand gently covered hers.

She nearly sighed aloud. In a flash, she went back years to a cold evening. As a nervous girl on her way to visit the boy’s family, clutched the auto rail tightly. And the boy, who out of courtesy to various senior citizens had chosen to sit up front with the driver, reached out and covered her cold hand with his warm one.

 

Image credit: http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Holding-Hands-Kayleigh-Bluck.jpg

Lunch w/ Girl Pals today

Thanks to two of my favourite girls (A & S) for the wonderful lunch and the adda that followed!

We should do this more often! J

 

 

DO U HATE SOMEONE???

A Nice story with a good moral.   A kindergarten teacher decided to let her class play a game.   The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes.   Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates.   So the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.   So when the day came, each child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes; some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go (even to the toilet) for 1 week. Days after days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After 1 week, the children were relieved because the game had finally ended.... The teacher asked: "How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?". The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go. Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. The teacher said: "This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime???"    Moral of the story: Throw away any hatred for anyone from your heart so that you will not carry sins for a lifetime. Forgiving others is the best attitude to take! True love is not loving a perfect person but loving an imperfect person perfectly ! !!

 

Shine and Sparkle!