Pensiamento Fantastico: Travel

There are so many self-help books that tell you to make a list of all the things that you want to do in life, ‘goals’ as the terminology goes. These books even make a distinction between long-term and short-term goals detailing ways in which you can turn them into reality. 

Most  of us fall into three categories: the ones who have no such dreams or the ones who have long lists of wishes that are too unrealistic or the ones who have lost this habit of having wishes, a classic case of dreams deferred. But many, I would say many are quite contented with what they have. 

Earlier, from an overdose of reading positive thinking books, I had this habit of writing down my wishes, so many of them that even ran in contradictory directions, like travelling and staying just here in my good old Thiruvananthapuram. However, the experience of adulthood taught me to live in a world where I had to be grateful at the surprises that life throws in my direction. 

This year, though I did not take any New Year Resolution, from the first week, my decisions have been quite contrary to my usual nature. I decided to go on a study tour with the students from the college where I teach and it was a risk provided the fact that it involved a week of moving around with my twenty odd companions. 

I think I camouflaged myself pretty well in the crowd, so much that in Wayanad, our tour guide was so surprised that I was the lady teacher in the group. In the middle of the forest after his strange discovery, he went on endlessly about Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree, probably with his failed English papers in mind. After listening patiently, I finally admitted that I've never read the book, which shocked him considerably. 

The most amazing thing that I experienced was the perfect silence inside the Buddhist temple at Coorg; it was always in my wishlist to visit a Buddhist temple. The blessings from the journey is the joie de vivre that I felt after a very long time, may be caught from my young companions who practically had to hold me by the hand at times especially when we went for canoeing in Coorg or for the watershow in Mysore (where Falguni Pathak’s ‘Meine Payal jo Jhankayi” was playing when it began). 

This shot of wanderlust has given a surge of positive energy, a stretch of some mental boundaries, and a feeling that anything is possible.  On a different note, I feel that I have some clue as to why exactly Chaucer must have composed his tales about his Canterbury pilgrimage! 

Photo: Kamal Varghese

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Yom Ha'Shoah

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day is the day designated by the United Nations Organisation to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. It falls on January 27^th on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of concentration camps for Jews in Poland under the Nazi rule. The UN wants every member state to pay their respect to the victims of the Nazi era and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides.

The word ‘Holocaust’ originally meant the animal sacrifice offered to the Gods in burnt form but during the 1950s, it acquired a very specialised meaning of the genocide of the Jews under the Nazi rule. This mass extinction of Jews was initiated by Hitler’s belief in the superiority of the Aryan races. The Nazis were of the belief that their race, the Aryan race was superior and that all the other races had to be exterminated using different methods.

The Holocaust began in 1933 when Hitler came to power and ended only in 1945 with the defeat of Germany by the allied forces in the Second World War. Though the extermination of the Jews was happening at a huge scale, the other countries of the world did not come to know about the concentration camps until it was too late. 

The Nazis wanted to keep the fate of the Jews a secret and they destroyed all evidence pertaining to the mass killings such as the crematoria, gas chambers and people. But the truth is that the existence of concentration camps to annihilate the Jews was something hard for the allied powers to believe in.

When survivors who escaped described the Holocaust based on their experiences, most of listeners were full of disbelief at the cruelty of the Nazi soldiers. Many survivors went through this experience and were crestfallen when nobody wanted to believe them.

The Jews were subjected to unnameable acts of torture and many of the survivors are of the opinion that this enormity of their trauma made their memories and testimonies incoherent and unbelievable. Even sharing of these testimonials was a difficult act for many of the survivors.

The horrors of this historical event have been portrayed in historical documents, survivor testimonies and memoirs. But the Holocaust was a not single event but an annihilation process that had many locations across Europe and millions of victims who were tortured and killed. 

One common thread that runs through survivor testimonies and memoirs of the Holocaust is the hunger that the Jews suffered in the ghettoes and in the concentration camps. They were given soups that were more like vegetables in hot water. The physically weak, the old and children were immediately sent to the gas chambers.

Pensiamento Fantastico: Bibliophile

I have always wanted to read more about the craft of writing as my ambition during my college days was to become a writer. Earlier, the idea was to tell everyone of my dream books and plans about writing a novel. The novel never materialised nor do I hope to live by writing alone but I have managed to write in my blogs whatever I have wanted to write. One serious consequence of this hobby is that since 2006, I have managed to accumulate a pile of books on the art of writing. 

Many of these sit gathering dust on the bookshelves and I can’t find all of them but here are a list of books that have definitely had an impact on me. Rather than becoming a writer per se, I have become a bibliophile of books on writing. Here are a few of the books in my collection:

• Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury: From the author of The Martian Chronicles comes this beautiful book on writing published in 1990, where he highlights the importance of writing with Zest and Gusto. He is of the opinion that the greatest reward that a writer can have is a positive remark from an admiring reader. He advises that a writer has to practise frequently and work hard to learn the rules of the language yet find new ways of using them.

• Delighting the Heart: A Notebook by Women Writers edited by Susan Sellers is a book on writing by women writers who share their experiences- starting from the process of inspiration to publication. Susan Sellers shares in the Preface how she was inspired by a visit to Jane Austen’s writing space, which was a table tucked behind the main door to the family room. It is strange to note that she deliberately left the hinges of the door unoiled so that she could stop writing whenever someone came in and she could resume her role as the mistress of the house.

• Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul: Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit of Writers is a book that I really love except that I do nothing but read my favourite stories again and again without even thinking of writing one single word. The book has inspirational stories about writers who have managed to get published despite of getting rejected countless times.

• Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke are a collection of letters that the poet Rilke sent to a young soldier named Franz Kappus who wanted to be a poet. This book is a beautiful read as it offers much for a beginning writer. Read More!

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Pensiamento Fantastico: Coverstory

Dear Reader

This blog has always been a personal space for me and its contents have a mixed potpourri nature. This New year, (though we are almost into the second month), I have decided on entering the TataZica Blogging Marathon.  So, the intensely personal whine of a poetaster will be replaced by that of a breezy know-all who might authoritatively speak on a few topics that I know about. 

There are a few limitations to writing with an intention in mind as opposed to the wild and complete haphazard manner of gathering words for a blogpost. Anyway, one of the rules in TataZica Blogging Marathon is that it should focus on five keywords: Fantastico, Impact, Peppy, Music and Navigation.  I am not a fan of keywords but I guess if there is a prize to be won, I should give it a try. 

Another requirement is that a blogpost should have around 450 words. I think it is a challenge for anyone to write around 450 words a day and when I looked at the site, fellow Indibloggers are writing as much as 450X6 posts per day. So, I doubt whether I will ever write the much-required posts but then what’s the harm in trying! 

For anybody who is wondering about the title, I thought of choosing the word Fantastico as my keyword. The word is from Spanish and when used as an adjective it means fantastic or really great or unbelievable. When used as noun means a ridiculously fantastic individual (and though I could call myself that I have decided not to delve into dangerous terrains).

After a little googling, I have decided to add the noun thought to the adjective fantastico, thereby hitting upon the beautiful title Pensiamento Fantastico, which means "fantastic thought". Anyone who really knows Spanish, do forgive the liberties taken with the language. 

Not that I would have entered this contest but last night I could hardly sleep a wink after my one-track mind was trawling on possible topics for blogposts. Nor did it spare me in the morning, when I watched a woman with a long broom raking the dry leaves from the huge campus where I work. 

So in the year 2016, on this twenty-fifth day of the month of January, this blogger Maria has decided to embark on this writing marathon with the view of winning the contest and also of reviving a lost habit of writing a post a day. Though she doesn’t know how long she will be able to keep up the writing spree, off we go with the coverstory of the admirable venture known as Pensiamento Fantastico. 

Do wish me good luck and post a few comments,

Maria :-)

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Cat stories

My mother has never been a big fan of cats but since an year or two, she has been accosted by a family of cats. The mother cat is all white; one kitten resembles the mother; while the other is black and white. Anyway, these two can smell food from far off and I have never seen a cat eat cauliflower fry or chapathi or grated coconut with so much relish! 

May The Light Of Your Soul Guide You!

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work
You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
Who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
Possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you

John O’Donohue