Goodies for sale :)

If anybody needs a car/sofa/other household stuff in good condition, please take a look at this list:

* A lovely 2006 Silver Nissan Micra (Petrol, 8000 miles) in excellent condition: £5500 or near offers.

* A nearly new (2007) 3 & 2 seater brown leather sofa with recliners in excellent condition : (£600 or near offers). See this link for a similar sofa.

* Alba DVD Player in v.good working condition

* Technics Music System with CD player, twin deck cassette player and radio : £100 or near offers. See this link for a picture.

* (spoken for) Silver PC Trolley with castors for easy movement. Trolley has keyboard shelf + bottom shelf for printer or other storage. Comes with matching folding silver chair

* DAB Digital radio

* (spoken for) Delonghi Microwave Oven

* MRCGP study material : Insiders guide to the MRCGP Oral Exam video & book, other MRCGP study material. Also on offer an assortment of books relating to General Practice

If interested, please email with contact details. Thanks!

To give away:
* (spoken for) Iron
* Various Books - hardcover & paperback/fiction & nonfiction
* VHS blank tapes and films
* (spoken for)Plants
* (spoken for) Duvets

Discovering the Terracotta Army and other treasures

Mr. R and I finally made it to the British Museum to see the Terracotta Army.

The exhibition is a peek into one of the twentieth centuries greatest archeological discoveries and the legacy of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi.

The Terracotta Army was buried with the Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huangdi) in 210-209 BC. Their purpose was to help rule another empire with Shi Huangdi in the afterlife.

The Army was discovered in March 1974 by local farmers drilling a water well to the east of Mount Lishan. In addition to the warriors, an entire man-made necropolis for the emperor has been excavated. The Emperor's tomb, however, has been left undisturbed so far.

You can get a glimpse of the actual exhibition in the video (below):



From 210 BC to 1974 AD - the underground city has been secret a long time. We are privileged, I think, to be able to witness a part of something so old.

2nd September : To Do

If you are in London, head straight to Regent Street tomorrow which is being transformed into a mini-India complete with dhol-wallahs and a Goan beach among other things.

If you're game for some thing silly, head to Hampton Court Palace for the first Great British Duck Race. Let me know if you win a prize!

Inspired about Interiors

Reading an interiors magazine always puts me into a get up-clear the clutter-rearrange furniture kind of mood. It makes my fingers itch to clean and tidy up, and I have no complaints on that account.

I love decorating. And that's an understatement. I have often asked myself this question and have been surprised by the answer - I would perhaps enjoy interiors more as a career option than writing. There, I've said it. Writing is what I live for. I breathe words and my brain is constantly occupied with them. There is a joy in seeing your byline in print that is not rivalled by much else. But I feel an equal, if not greater sense of pleasure when I've done a bit of decorating and find it to my satisfaction.

I can spend hours poring over interiors magazines (living in the UK has exposed me to a wealth of titles focusing on every possible aspect of the trade). I look at trends and see how I can use it. Every picture I look at gives me ideas - not just for my home here, but for my maternal home in Mumbai, Mr.R's home in Goa or any of my relatives/friends homes too!!!

One of my favorite sayings is that 'There's always scope for improvement'. My curse is that I can 'see' the possibilities. I can visualise clearly how a room will look like with a touch of color, a change of seating arrangement, the addition of a lush plant. It's maddening, because it's not always within my reach. Not just budgetary constraints, but mostly because it's someone else's house I'm re-decorating in my mind!!

Maybe I can marry the two worlds by writing about interiors...

A Sunday's list of To-Do's

A reminder to myself not to waste this day :

• Write queries as planned yesterday. Send three.
• Install Quark and read through 'Using QuarkXPress' book.
• Finish essay on flowers and submit to Common Ties.
• Write outline for Trisomy Day and first draft of query.
• Come up with angle for Garfield article and draft a query.
• Rewrite an old article for CSM.
• Study Driving Test DVD.
• Church, then shopping.
• Laundry.
• Stir-fry for lunch.

If you can draw...

Punkynews: October 28th
Want to draw new moods for Punkymoods?

For those who know, this site offers up moods drawn by Marc Lutz, but he has stopped drawing :(

The pay is a whopping zero dollars (so far the site has taken in revenue of $6 since it started :P) BUT you will receive the affection of the millions and millions of Punkyusers!

E-mail Peter at peterpunkymoods.com with a sample drawing or two if you are interested!

Nov 18th update: still no takers. There must be some artists out there! How about if I provide you with free web hosting for your blog (provided that it's not a huge, resource-intensive corporate blog) and a free domain name?

VOICES OF BENGAL

A new exhibition brings Bengal into the British Museum. Go take a look.

Program info :

Durga: Creating an image of the goddess
12 August - 27 September 2006

Myths of Bengal
14 September - 7 January 07

The art of peace: Paintings by the poet Tagore
14 September - 12 November 2006

EVENTS
Sandhya Sangit -Images of West Bengal
Thursday 14 September, 18.30–19.30

Images of East Bengal
Thursday 19 October, 18.30–19.30Great Court

Akademi South Asian Dance UK perform a dance and music spectacular
Admission free, no pre-booking

Bengali poetry – Tagore and after (Bengali and English)
Sunday 8 October 14.00–15.00 Reading Room
A special afternoon recitation of poems with Dr Ketaki Kushari Dyson.
Admission free, booking required

More events here and here.
Full events program for Voices of Bengal here.


The British Museum is open daily 10.00-17.30 late Thursdays and Fridays until 20.30

And oh, while you're there, go look at the Rosetta Stone as well.

Reach out

For those of us fascinated with the idea of projects like bookcrossing, here are a few others that I've discovered. What fabulous ideas! Go on, participate!

- Post crossing : Register to send/receive an actual (not e-mail) postcard from a random postcrosser somewhere in the world. My first one is to send a postcard to a 15 year old girl in Finland! Great if you're into stamps as well. You can choose how anonymous you want to be.

- Toy Voyager.com - Share a toy. Each ToyVoyager has a travelog on the toyvoyager website which becomes a history of its journey. The idea is that anybody who finds a ToyVoyager adds to its adventure by taking it places, updating its travelog and then releasing it to somebody else. Toys are usually handed over to someone personally or left in a public space like a cafe, with permission. They are not left in random places to avoid security scares.

- http://travelinghope.blogspot.com/ : project to make journals travel around the world to make people more aware of the the problem of cancer.

- The Wandering Moleskin Project : Moleskinerie is a blog dedicated to the proposition that not all notebooks are created equal. Its impeccable provenance notwithstanding this site talks more about the places and adventures, life's little dramas and other forgettable events that otherwise would have been lost were it not scrawled between the pages of these little black books.

- The 1000 journals project : The 1000 Journals Project is an ongoing, collaborative experiment attempting to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels.

- Phototag.org : The original sharing project that sparked the rest.

For lots more , click here : http://www.bookcrossing.com/links

Calling all MW's: The CHOICE Program

The CHOICE programme is being held at the Diocesan Pastoral Centre, Bandra (W), Near Mt.Mary's Church from 9 am on Sat 9 July 2005 to 5 pm on Sunday 10 July 2005. This is a residential workshop.

The programme aims to help participants develop their relational skills - commmunication, commitment, etc to achieve belonging within family and close relationships. Registration is open to only 25 persons (either college or working); charges are Rs 450/- for working persons, and Rs 400/- for college students. (for course material, boarding & lodging)>For more details, e-mail thechoiceprogram@yahoo.com or call 9820001439 (no missed calls, please!)

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Attending the Choice Programme has been a turning point in my life. The programme came to me at a time when I needed it. Twice. First, in 1989, when I, along with my long time school friend, now psychiatrist Deepak were sponsored by our parish priest to attend. I went back in 1998, when I felt I needed to experience it again. And this time, I stayed back after the weekend ended to be a part of the team that conducted the program. For me, Choice was more than just a weekend experience of meeting new people, making new friends and sharing life stories. Choice changed something fundamental in me. It rooted me, in a way; gave me a sense of balance, of being, of belonging, that I've rarely found elsewhere. Choice, is not a religious workshop, although it originally was (and mostly, still is) run by Catholics. If you are a Mumbaiwallah who would like to make some sense of your life, spend a weekend with the Choice Team. I wish I was there at this time to participate..... maybe next time. Make the most of it and go register!

The postman rings twice

The one good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters.

~Svetlana Alliluyeva

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Perhaps I have more time on my hands than most people I know. Which perhaps explains why I feel the desire to take up my letter-writing again. Okay, so there's email to keep in daily touch with family and friends. And there's this blog in case anybody is even remotely interested in my daily doings. But letters, aah, there's a joy to writing and receiving letters that email can never rival. When was the last time the postman left a envelope for you with a distant stamp postmarked a week or more ago ? When was the last time you gleefully opened a letter or read a postcard with eager hands, knowing the news (old already, through email!), but relishing each written word, watching the scrabbly writing change as the page progressed, knowing that fingers used to a keyboard took the effort to shape words out of ink and put them on paper, merely that you can smile?

It's a wonderful feeling receiving letters. I remember the sheer amazement I felt when Mr.R and I started corresponding through snail mail. We were in constant touch through email and chat. And yet, every few days, the postman (grumbling, I'm sure) brought another envelope postmarked and Air-mailed. It was a peculiar joy to come home from work and find either a letter, a card, a magazine on writing or perhaps even a little book waiting for me, with (old) news, or just a line penned on a train. Receiving, usually means writing back too. It's difficult at first - fingers not used to writing long pages with pens suddenly find themselves struggling to keep pace with the flow of words. One can't edit (scratches look terrible!), one can't spell-check after it's done, one can't even change the font or emphasize with italics unless one's calligraphy is very good. Apart from that, writing a letter and posting it secretly (ah,imagine the look on the receiver's face!) is fun enough!

Anyway, now that Mr.R is right here, looking over my shoulder, I'm not posting to him these days. I'm going to, instead, write to people back home - friends and family. Letters, postcards from where ever I go....can't wait to get started! Never mind the postage, never mind if nobody writes back to me; I'm going to enjoy myself doing this! Any wannabe pen-pals out there? Email me first (he,he!)

For those already on my mailing list (sounds like spam!), watch out, the postman may ring twice! :)

In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing,
we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives.
~Anatole Broyard