Shiva's Arms

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Saraswati
2008-10-06 14:36:00
An especially sweet part of Navaratri is the Saraswati puja. The goddess of learning is worshipped during the last few days of the festival. Books and musical instruments are placed on a wooden plank covered in red silk—-perhaps the family ledger, one of the children’s math books, copies of the Ramayana or Bhagavad Gita. Sometimes a tool or small machine is added.“When you were five, I remember your father helping you to form the sacred letter Shri on your first Saraswati puja. We had chosen the books for the altar and I added a harmonium. The Goddess of Learning loves music! Your aunties and I wore yellow saris and made coconut koyakattai. I was so proud when you were old enough to read at the altar beside your father. But very soon, you would whisper to him, as if the Goddess might overhear, “Is that enough, Appa?” It was the same way Ram always asked Samba.” (from Shiva's Arms) Sanskrit slokas like this one are recited: Shrii Saraswatii Namahstubhyam Varade Kaama Ru...

Cover
2008-10-05 16:19:00
Click on our art and poetry blog,Scattered Light, for a gander at the cover of my sister's and my new book,coming soon!
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More on Navarathri
2008-10-04 16:29:00
I am especially charmed by the custom of women visiting one another to view their Golu displays and chat. This is how I use the celebration in Shiva's Arms: "It was time to light the clay pots along the windows and the porch. Amma bent to her task and Alice worried, “She’s going to burn the house down.” “She has done this for many years. She knows,” Ram said. He tossed a sweet coconut sundal in his mouth. “Are you sure all this visiting won’t be too much for you?” “I’ll just lie down if my hands start to shake, or if the noise gets me twitchy,” she promised. Women from several neighborhoods came to admire the display. They wanted to know where each doll came from, and were eager to compare notes. As they left, every one of them invited Amma and Alice to come see their own collections. So for nine days, mother and daughter-in-law entered houses decorated in the Indian style to celebrate Golu. One woman proudly showed a shelf ...

Q and A with Shobhan Bantwal
2008-10-02 14:36:00
Today, Shiva's Arms welcomes novelist Shobhan Bantwal, touring the blogosphere with her second novel,The Forbidden Daughter, recently released by Kensington Publishing Corp.THE FORBIDDEN DAUGHTER is woven around the hot-button social issue of vanishing girl children in contemporary India, where gender-based abortions and female infanticide continue to be practiced in some areas despite laws to ban the practices.The premise fascinated me,and I was eager to know more about Shobhan, her books, and her process. With all the talk about platform and branding, did you ever consider writing a sequel to your first book, THE DOWRY BRIDE? I get that question from a lot of my readers. They are curious to know what happens to Meghan and Kiran, and whether there is a happily ever after. I could have written a sequel, but unless my editor urges me to do so, it would be a waste of my time to write something that would not see the light of day.You're tackling another social ill in your second boo...

No Man is an Island
2008-10-01 14:21:00
The Nobel Academy's permanent secretary,Horace Engdahl, thinks US writers are "too insular" to compete with European writers.Hmmm. What about Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway? "And if he looked harder at the American scene that he dwells on, he would see the vitality in the generation of Roth, Updike and DeLillo, as well as in many younger writers, some of them sons and daughters of immigrants writing in their adopted English. None of these poor souls, old or young, seem ravaged by the horrors of Coca-Cola," David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, points out.Burn!
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Beltway Poetry Journal
2008-09-30 19:25:00
In my inbox today:Beltway Poetry 's first all-audio issue, co-edited by Kim Roberts and Katie Davis, is now available online. The issue includes collaborations between poets and musicians, recordings produced over layers of sound, and "naked" tracks of poets with distinctive voices that lend themselves particularly well to the audio format. As Katie Davis says in her recorded introduction, these twenty recordings make a "Beltway Poetry Remix" notable for the "pauses, the way a vowel is pulled and repeated, demanding to be reconsidered." Contributors, Volume 9, Number 4 (Fall 2008):Karren L. Alenier * Holly Bass * Regie Cabico * Kenneth Carroll * Joel Dias-Porter * Thomas Sayers Ellis * Brian Gilmore * Michael Gushue * Bernie Jankowski * Rod Jellema * Fred Joiner * Reb Livingston * Greg McBride * May Miller * Miles David Moore * Yvette Neisser Moreno * Gaston Neal * Richard Peabody * Mark Tarallo * Hilary Tham Audio production provided by Alison Gilbert, Grace Cavalieri, Flawn Wil...
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Navaratri
2008-09-29 14:38:00
Tomorrow marks the beginning of a semi-annual festival celebrating female divinity. Nava means nine and Ratri means nights. During these nine nights and ten days, women visit one another in their homes, decorated with lights and Golu displays of dolls. In my novel, Shiva's Arms, I use this celebration of female friendship as a way to get my warring women to come together. "It was late when Alice wandered downstairs. She expected that Amma would have gone to bed, but she was still at her task, busy with the display. She motioned to Alice to help her set up the rest of the dolls. There were brass and sandalwood gods and Malibu Barbies, an American bride doll and Japanese geishas collected one at a time, each one with a history. “We will make kolam on the porch tomorrow,” Amma said. “You have colored chalks. My son is keeping big lamp in Christmas trees?” “In the box of Christmas decorations, yes.” By two in the morning the display was finished, Sam’s toy tr...

Koushi Kanada Raga
2008-09-29 02:06:00
From last year's Dabar Festival, Soumik Datta on sarod and Gurdain Rayatt on tabla.

Town Creek
2008-09-27 19:59:00
I have poems up at Town Creek Poetry Journal,here and here

Horace by Juster
2008-09-26 05:41:00
Here's the link to my new review. Hope you enjoy the little satura. That's fruitcake to all you Romans.

...of Commas and Quizzes
2008-09-25 14:49:00
My friend Rachel says it's National Punctuation Day. Yes, people, it's a real thing, God promise!
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College Street
2008-09-24 15:13:00
There's an evocative piece by Emily Wax in the Post today about Kolkata's College Street , aka the "neighborhood of books." This stretch of road, in the university quarter, is famous for its many secondhand bookstalls, and for the renowned Presidency College, where Satyajit Ray studied. A bust of the father of Bengali prose literature, Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, overlooks the area.At the book kiosks, a bookseller will call out the title of a requested book several times very fast, the way vendors of everything do. An employee will appear out of the noise and chaos, title in hand. How do they remember the titles and prices of thousands of academic and technical books? Must be the turmeric.

Fast Lane
2008-09-22 20:28:00
Have you seen the new issue of National Geographic? There's a whole section on India this month, its contrasts and growing pains. Here's a link to the photo gallery.
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Life of the gods
2008-09-21 14:05:00
From the New York Times travel section, a description of the nightly union of Meenakshi and Sundareshwarar in Madurai:"THE god was ready for his night of conjugal bliss. The priests of the temple...bore the god’s palanquin on their shoulders. They marched him slowly along a stone corridor ...to his consort’s shrine... There, Meenakshi, the fish-eyed goddess, awaited the embrace of her husband, Sundareshwarar, an incarnation of that most priapic ofIndian gods, Shiva."
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Donald Hall
2008-09-20 13:27:00
It's Donald Hall 's birthday today. If you click the title, you'll hear him reading a metrical poem about his wife.

Poetic Justice
2008-06-09 15:30:00
“Unless you are educated in metaphor, you are not safe to be let loose in the world.” --From an essay by Robert Frost, read to the twenty five kids who trashed his house recently. They were were sentenced to learn about his poetry.
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What's in a Name?
2008-06-08 17:51:00
In the first novella of Paul Theroux’s new The Elephanta Suite, he introduces the Blundens. Already I see them blundering. Should I? What’s in a name anyway, when it comes to naming characters in fiction? I collected some do-and-don’ts to see how the names in Shiva’s Arms stack up:A name can give clues about your character's background.The Sambashivans are South Indian Brahmins, and the name reflects that. Ask anybody A name may say something about the character's parents.In my characters’ neighborhood, the father’s name and family home is incorporated into the child’s name. So my boy Ramesh, whose father is Sambashivan from Trichur, is called T. Sambashivan Ramesh. A name has to suit the character's personality-- who they are, where they come from or where they are going.Shiva fits the bill here. The matriarch of the family is named for the god of creation and destruction, whose many arms embrace and repel simultaneously. The name underscores the character’s cult...

New Horizons, Tamil version
2008-06-07 15:20:00
I just read some stats regarding the health of the American novel. It amounts to this: twice as many novels, not counting POD books,were published in 2007 as in 2002. Surprised? Maybe it's only book reviews that are in trouble, heh. In a vaguely related story, a Tamil publisher shares the secret of its success in this article.
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"Come, let us make our story one like no other."
2008-06-06 17:51:00
In The Tale of the Genji, Murasaki Shikibu said that the novel "happens because the storyteller's own experience of men and things, whether for good or ill—not only what he has passed through himself, but even events which he has only witnessed or been told of—has moved him to an emotion so passionate that he can no longer keep it shut up in his heart." Words to live by.
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HearArts
2008-06-05 15:00:00
An event not to be missed --Friday, June 6, 7:30 pm: HearArts Poetry SeriesVrzhu Press Reading, featuring Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts. Plus live music by pianist Sue Dale.VisArts, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville, MD (301) 315-8200. Hosted by Phil Wexler - Free Admission.

Taare Zameen Par
2008-06-04 17:49:00
In the Post today, an article about the first Bollywood movie dealing with dyslexia. Listen to the songs and read the lyrics here. You're welcome!

Ganga-Dashahara
2008-06-04 00:02:00
Today marks the descent to earth of the River Ganges. This clip, from portaltoindia's Louise and Stuart, shows the river being worshipped as mother and goddess, in a puja performed with lighted wicks. The lovely ritual is called aarti.

Best of Booker
2008-06-02 20:54:00
On the occasion of its 40th year, the Booker Prize will award a 'Best of' to one of these: Pat Barker’s The Ghost RoadPeter Carey’s Oscar and LucindaJM Coetzee’s DisgraceJ G Farrell’s The Siege of KrishnapurNadine Gordimer’s The ConservationistSalman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Childrenand you can vote for your fave.Once again, I'm torn. What to do, as Amma says.

Poetry Friends
2008-06-01 20:15:00
Susan Culver, formerly of Lily, has a new project called Poetry Friends . My poem "Absence" is the poem for today.Enjoy!

Raja Ki Aayegi Barat
2008-05-31 14:24:00
Click the title to hear a song from the movie Aah, produced in 1953 by Raj Kapoor. It's a song sung often in my house, if you really want to know...
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Never get between an elephant and water
2008-05-29 13:27:00
I just read Paul Theroux’s The Elephant a Suite, three novellas about Americans in India. Aside from a few easy reversals, abrupt transformations, and a sag in the middle, I admired it, especially the ways in which the author links his stories together. For instance,in the first story, the myth of Vishnu and his eagle Garuda is told by one character, full of grief and guilt at accidentally placing his friend Sanjeev in harm’s way—the harm being a herd of charging elephants. “As Vishnu and Garuda entered the House of the Gods they saw a small bird at the gateway. The Lord of Death also entered, and he smiled at the little bird. Garuda was so shocked at this he seized the little bird in his beak and took him fifty kilometres away, to save him from the Lord of Death…When ultimately they left the House of the Gods, Vishnu said, ‘Where is the little bird?’ …Before Garuda could reply, Lord of Death said, ‘I smiled to see little bird here, because he was supposed to be fif...
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Pie-ku
2008-05-28 15:34:00
The Post ran a contest for haiku about pizza, and the winning 'pie-kus' are featured in today's food section.About Donna Adler's winning entry- Rising discs of dough Tossed, twirled, like small planets on A one arm axis judge Robert Pinsky notes "... a nice simile, a play on "rising" and the vivid final image."

The Enchantress of Florence
2008-05-27 19:51:00
Two writers weigh in on Salman Rushdie's tenth novel-- what Joyce Carol Oates andMichael Dirda have to say about it.
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"Memorial Day For The War Dead"
2008-05-26 23:31:00
Memorial day for the war dead. Add nowthe grief of all your losses to their grief,even of a woman that has left you. Mixsorrow with sorrow, like time-saving history,which stacks holiday and sacrifice and mourningon one day for easy, convenient memory.Oh, sweet world soaked, like bread,in sweet milk for the terrible toothless God."Behind all this some great happiness is hiding."No use to weep inside and to scream outside.Behind all this perhaps some great happiness is hiding.Memorial day. Bitter salt is dressed upas a little girl with flowers.The streets are cordoned off with ropes,for the marching together of the living and the dead.Children with a grief not their own march slowly,like stepping over broken glass.The flautist's mouth will stay like that for many days.A dead soldier swims above little headswith the swimming movements of the dead,with the ancient error the dead haveabout the place of the living water.A flag loses contact with reality and flies off.A shopwindow is deco...
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Kali
2008-05-24 18:07:00
Something interesting at the DC Arts Center:Anne Benolken The Apotheosis of Kali May 16 - June 8Opening Reception: Friday, May 16, 7 - 9pmcurated by Carolyn Reece-Tomlin Anne Benolken’s first solo exhibition of photographs is inspired by her artist book “The Apotheosis of Kali.” Worlds collide in Benolken’s boxes, dollhouses and photographs, the fruits of a career-long exploration into how culture intersects with emotion and intellect. Hindu philosophy meets B-movie sci-fi horror backdrops and toy store gizmos, creating a new narrative where we are allowed to peer in on the artist-made figurines of the domesticated goddess Kali as she contemplates the forces of creation and destruction that she holds within her power. Thought-provoking, occasionally humorous, always poignant captions draw us further into Kali’s gray, Peyton Place-esque habitat. It is a world punctuated by the saturated colors of dime store novelties and religious icons that elevates Benolken’s spot-on obs...