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Living on the intersection of India and The Netherlands – learning from Erin Meyer’s “The Culture Map”
This is a post about an article written by Apoorva Mathur that throws light on work place cultural nuances along with disparity between the Dutch and Indians. I enjoyed the manner in which he places emotions alongside tasks and relationships, without dealing with them as the “other” or the “elephant in the room” or something that is…
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The Miscarriage by Amit Majmudar
Some species can crack pavement with their shoots Source: The Miscarriage “if I consoled you it would make the loss your loss” —– How can Amit Majmudar’s words so relentlessly tangle the insides? Each line comes loaded, “his wealth of heartbeats.” I am currently reading his collection Dothead (2016). It has two ghazals. One of…
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Of Diaries & Essays: meditations on memory, what have I lost?
On A Train for A Personal interview. 10 Jan. 2015. 8:33 am train from Schipol to Paris Nord, announcement: “you can travel in this train only if you have reservations.” There is no sunrise yet. The sky is grey; the green of the fields, streetlights, and darkness hangs over the landscape, the train is rushing…
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To tell you the truth
I have been writing poems a lot more than I usually do and reworking drafts of old poems. Perhaps due to my PhD work on the ghazal I tend to spend more time on structure and sound. Strict metrical scales and working with rhymes, refrains, provide me with an effective tool to have a dialogue with…
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Graphic Novels in the Classroom
Experiencing Fun Home by Alison Bechdel in Prof. dr. D.M. Oostdijk’s class, October 15, 2015. By Amrita Das “What’s lost in translation is the complexity of loss itself. In the same box where I found the photo of Roy, there’s one of Dad at about the same age” (Bechdel FH 120). Alison’s Bechdel’s graphic novel…
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Poem Unlimited, Augsburg
Over the weekend I attended and spoke at the Poem Unlimited Conference at Augsburg. The venue, the Augsburg University, has a beautiful campus. The trees were in Autumn hues. I was narrated the story of a duck family in the University pond. A ledge was removed from one of the campus buildings so to lessen…
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Being a strong woman isn’t remarkable, it’s normal
“Please do not twist yourself into shapes to please. Don’t do it. If someone likes that version of you, that version of you that is false and holds back, then they actually just like that twisted shape, and not you. And the world is such a gloriously multifaceted, diverse place that there are people in…
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Paris in the rain
Saturday, January 10, 2015, I was to be in Paris for the day to meet poet and translator Marilyn Hacker. I had many questions about her experience with the ghazal and ghazal poets; she was generous enough to offer her day to me. On Monday 5th I booked my tickets to travel by the Thalys…
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Is my uneasiness nurtured or organic?
The past few weeks I have been toying with the idea of getting an e-reader. Many of the books I need for my research and some of the books I want to read are located in and sold from places where shipping and handling charges are way over the price of the books themselves. I…
