My heart is in exploring our Indian Spirituality and during my lectures on the same, I keep referring to it for the young generation to go back to, so happy to share my thoughts on ‘The Big Bang Theory” and its counter part “Pranava Naad - Om” as well as my journey to inner peace with “Ten Tips on Haiku”.
It also gives me a great pleasure as I share my book’s launch in Odyssey and then talking about something very close to my literary needs - Annual Hindu Lit Festival at Chennai, - The post which was taken up as archive’s ‘go to’ page by Hindu Lit Festival 2017.
Hope you will enjoy this edition of Shadow Dancing. Have a look…
As one of my favorite Czech Author, Milan Kundera once said that every act of creativity, writing or novel should have a purpose. I had decided to write my story in year 1987, when I first visited Rishikesh, finished writing all three parts of "The Monk Key" in 2010 Nov. But still had no reason to get it published other than my ego, I.e. to get to be known as an author, which was actually not on my priority list. But last year, one day I asked my son, have you read Bhagwat Gita and he said, no - what’s the point of reading it. This gave me a purpose, i.e. to make our Vedic / Upanishadic / Poranic scriptures come out of obscure depths of dogmatic beliefs and rituals and become main stream and interesting for young generation. This book "Songs of the Mist" and "The Monk Key" series is my one small step towards that goal.
I have been regularly writing about Hindu Lit for Life Festival since its inception and immensely enjoy three days of festivity along with thousands of Art and Literature lovers of Chennai. So I was thrilled when our book club “Sans Serif” proposed to invite Ms. Nirmala Lakshman - founder of Hindu Literary Festival for a discussion on Hindu Lit Fest. Clearly it was an opportunity to get ‘behind the scene’ of this amazing event that has me wondering about how the multiple celebrity authors, prominent literary figures and iconic artist get together to enthrall the wonderful audience of Chennai. ..
As after many months, I get on again to write about amazing personalities of Chennai that make up the vibrant colors of the city. Today I am introducing a man, whose mantra is ‘We blog, therefore We are’ - a tagline that still greets you whenever you reach one of the most popular and powerful community of Indian Bloggers - IndiBlogger.
A four lecture series by famous Heritage vigilante - Vijay Kumar, organised by Apparao Galleries
Over the years of my association with Apparao Galleries, specially with Chennai’s leading cultural activist, Sharan Apparao, I have learned a lot about South Indian heritage and culture. The lecture series on the Sculptures of South India was one such opportunity, in which Mr. Vijay Kumar - based out of Singapore, took us on an exquisite historical journey among beautiful stone and bronze sculptures.
I have had recently shared my “Ten Tips on Writing Haiku” in Story Mirror Creativity Workshop which was organized in association with Story Mirror, Apparao Galleries and Aspiring Authors Group along with the famous Author, Timeri N Murari, who shared his insights on Writing for Plays. As many of aspiring authors and writers present in the workshop asked me to share my thoughts and tips on Haiku, I am writing this one post so that it is convenient for all to read and share.
THE CREATION OF UNIVERSE: TWO STORIES
In the first one, Roman Catholic priest and physicist- Georges Lemaître was following the recession of Nebulae in the night sky. After long and lengthy vigil over time, he came up with the idea that the recession was due to the expansion of the universe. That particular moment and the place where the fabric of time and space came into existence, he believed to be the beginning of our Universe, as we know it now.
Now here is the second story. Over many generations, our sages pondered over the questions and revealed their thoughts about it all, in their teachings, in their compositions of Sanskrit Shlokas which were handed down the generation by verbal memory - by way of shurtis etc. These were later collated in the form of numerous ancient manuscripts of Vedic culture.
When the Ashvin Ji, owner of the famous bookstore in Chennai - Odyssey called up to inform that they are planning to launch my book, I was pleasantly surprised and happy. It felt like I am making some progress towards my goal of getting the word out that there is more to our ancient culture and heritage.
One of the purpose of my "Songs of the Mist" is to share the story of one young man's journey to 'find the divinity within'. Another purpose of writing this book has been to reach out to the young generation who, in my opinion are alienated from the deep source of our culture, heritage and thoughts - our ancient scriptures. When asked, if they have read our Vedas, Purana's and Upanishad's etc., they typically reply "What is the point of reading them" due the certain biases rooted in modernity. Here is the journey of its travels across India…
An Evening of Art, Music and Writing
Leela Palace Hotel and Perspectives along with Apparao Gallery created an evening of “Art, Music and Writing”, on 14th May, 2016. In the program, I was invited to give my readers an interactive experience to my book "Songs of the Mist" - a reading of the Book, accompanied by the music of Swetha Sriram (Vocal), Vittal Rangan (Violin) and Thanjavur Praveen (Mridangam).
Hope you have enjoyed this edition, look forward to your comments. Please do share...
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Shashi
ॐ नमः शिवाय
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