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Shiva's ArmsShiva's ArmsAn author's blog about Cheryl Snell's new novel, Shiva's Arms, a multi-cultural story about identity, reconciliation, and the meaning of home. 
Articles
Serial Sunday
2009-08-16 03:18:00 Chapter eight, RESCUING RANU Again, thanks to Jennifer Kumar for the wonderful cover photo Nela had had a good day. She walked down the corridor, cradling her books in her arms, knowing that she had taught a good class. The students stayed awake. She tended to lecture too fast sometimes, but this time she carefully reigned in her pace. She watched her charges’ eyes for some light, a sign that they understood. A few students stared at her as if they were in a contest in some bar, but instead of confronting them, she passed a hand over her black bristles, raised her eyebrows, and smiled briefly. She hoped to put them off guard, and the gesture did seem to startle them. They ducked it, misunderstanding its intent, looking down at their books again. Nela was puzzled. Did she have something in her teeth? Maybe it was her shorn head. They were used to seeing her with her hair down to her waist, and perhaps this was the first time they noticed its loss. That must be what all the whis... More About: Sunday , Serial
Independence Day
2009-08-15 17:50:00 Today marks the sixty second anniversary of India's independence. I'm making masala dosas for the occasion. Amma’s Famous Dosa Recipe coming in Shiva's Arms More About: Independence , Independence Day
Gopalkala
2009-08-14 20:16:00 Gopalkala is an interesting part of Janmashtami celerbrations, going on right now. A Dahi Handi, the pot of milk, curd, butter, fruit juices and Gopalkala(Soak beaten rice for fifteen minutes. Melt some ghee in another pan, toss in cumin seeds. Add finely chopped chilies and ginger. Add rice and salt it. Sprinkle it with sugar and grated coconut)is hanged with a rope at a height, and a pyramid of celebrants try to break it. The winner is showered with colored water.
Review
2009-08-10 17:20:00 Have a look at this REVIEW. It's penned by Julene T. Weaver and the subject is Nanette Rayman-Rivera's new book, shana linda ~ pretty pretty published by Scattered Light Publications, my sister's and my new venture. More About: Review
Serial Sunday
2009-08-08 22:33:00 Chapter seven, RESCUING RANU Over the course of a few weeks, Nela began to snap at students, colleagues, and the administrative staff. Trying to reach the students, to prepare them for the next step, demoralized her. Even her favorite old rituals, such as dispensing advice to new students along the lines of “learn something new every day that is disjoint from the problem you’re working on,” seemed pointless now. She began to cancel classes. If the students showed up anyway, she ignored them, and continued to work on her own problem at the board. She turned her back to the confused young people expecting to be taught something else, something that had nothing to do with the scribbles under Nela’s chalk. She dismissed the signs of discontent. The pupils were all sullen, bored and cynical anyway, not worth the trouble. Even the environment she had so carefully constructed lost its aura. The painstakingly arranged bookshelves in her office began to splinter and sag, ... More About: Sunday , Serial
Gayatri Japam
2009-08-08 15:46:00 The day after the annual changing of a Brahmin's thread is a sober one, observed only by men, who repeat the Gayatri prayer at least 108 times with concentration and devotion."Om bhur bhuvah svahTat savitur varenyamBhargo devasya dheemahiDhiyo yo nah prachodayaat"Om: symbol of Para Brahman.Bhur: Bhu Loka or the physical plane.Bhuvah: the astral plane.Svah: the celestial plane.Tat: That; the transcendental Paramatma; God.Savitur: the Creator.Varenyam: fit to be worshipped.Bhargo: remover of sins and ignorance; glory, effulgence.Devasya: resplendent, shining.Dheemahi: we meditate.Dhiyo: the intellect, understanding.Yo: who.Nah: our.Prachodayaat: enlighten, guide, impel.
Happy Rakhi!
2009-08-05 09:08:00 Raksha Bandhan, or Rakhi , is the festival for siblings. The custom is for a sister to tie a rakhi (a silk thread) around the wrist of her brother, in symbolic exchange for his protection. To make a simple rakhi, use red or yellow silk, a piece about 30" long. Fold in half. Tie a tight knot with a piece of cotton thread about a quarter down the length of the strand. Cut the loops of the folded thread and fluff the open ends. Divide the longer part of the thread into half, and twist them. Tie the ends with another bit of cotton thread and puff up the ends. Decorate with sequins or beads. More About: Happy
Reinventing Radha
2009-08-04 14:22:00 The gallery is a box filled with gold thread and mirrors. It frames the same old story: Krishna gets his girl back. Radha in her cloak of lotus, stunned in bronze, face turned away. Follow her down the brass river of her hair, or color herwith beetle-wings. Is she one, or is she many?No one is grateful for betrayals she already knows. Throat slaked with the syrup of forgetting, Radha sizzles in my cells like disease, though my hair is gold, and my eyes gray as the headstrong sea.-- Ouroboros Review
Serial Sunday
2009-08-02 02:19:00 Chapter six, Rescuing Ranu Jackson had not left the university. Nela only found out this fact the following weekend, when she collided with him at a department function. “You!” she said. “You look surprised,” he said, assessing. “Didn’t your buddy tell you I’m here for another few weeks?” Nela turned her head to meet Ashoke’s eyes, staring from the back of the room. He dropped his glance immediately, his color deepening. “He said nothing!” “Really? And I thought you were avoiding me!” “Why would I do such a thing?” Nela believed she might find an Ashoke-manufactured reason, if she shook him hard enough. But she could not bear to look at him. She leaned into Jackson, and pounced directly on the point. “Have you given any more thought to our hypothesis?” He looked into her eyes so deeply she shivered. Suddenly, she could not read the slight movement of his head—was it a shake or a nod? All through dinner, they whispered to ... More About: Sunday , Serial
New Release
2009-07-27 15:58:00 Scattered Light Publications announces release of shana linda~pretty prettyshana linda~pretty pretty is the title of a new book of poetry by Nanette Rayman Rivera.Scattered Light Publications announces a new title: shana linda~pretty pretty. This full length book of poetry by Nanette Rayman Rivera is first in Scattered Light's series by women writers.In her rich, inimitable voice, Nanette Rayman Rivera takes the reader on an autobiographical journey through illness, homelessness, and the meaning of fate."This is an intense book," says author Cheryl Snell. "The poems are original, wild, edgy, and beautiful." Nanette Rayman Rivera, an actress and two-time Pushcart nominee, has published work in dozens of literary journals. Her work has been chosen twice for the Sundress Best of the Net anthology. She won the first Glass Woman Prize, and is the author of two other books of poetry.shana linda~pretty pretty is 6x9", 92 pages long, perfect bound with original art by Janet Snell.ISBN: 144... More About: Release
Serial Sunday
2009-07-26 05:37:00 Chapter five, Rescuing Ranu Saturday dawned humid with the promise of hard rain. Nela woke up and, as was her custom, saluted the sun. There wasn’t the visible sun to salute, but that was no excuse to cut the rest of her yoga poses—fish, camel, scorpion—short. “Do you have to do that now?” one ex-boyfriend used to ask her. “What’s in it for you, anyway?” “Yogashcittavrittinirodhah. Tada drashthuh svarupe vasthanam,” she had said. He flicked his wrist in an irritated gesture indicating she should translate. “‘Yoga stills the fluctuations of the mind. Then the true self appears. Any Easterner knows that.” The man had shaken his shaggy head in the condescending way she hated even then. When she was upright again, Nela surveyed her neglected garden through the window. The flowers that had not been choked off had been harvested. They were probably on Ida’s table right now. The old woman had no talent for growing flowers, although she spent year... More About: Sunday , Serial
Krishna Jayanthi
2009-07-22 14:52:00 Today we celebrate the birthday of Krishna , who was born in a prison. In paintings, we see the baby carried by his father across a swollen stream protected by a seven-headed serpent.To observe the day, offerings of butter and yogurt are made in Krishna's image, and footprints made with red powder or white rice flour lead from the front door to the shrine.(You can also buy them readymade). We can imagine that Krishna has come to celebrate with us.
Day Dreaming
2009-07-21 16:37:00 Some interesting stats from the Art Market blog. More About: Dreaming
Review of Memento Mori
2009-07-20 15:26:00 MEMENTO MORIA Cache of Fireflies and other Joys 'Memento mori' is another term for still life which is another way of describing observed carefully arranged items worth remembering, Memento mori is a particularly apt title for this collection of poems and paintings by the sisters Snell. Cheryl Snell, the writer poet, combines her sparkling little observations of life and ordinary things such as childhood reveries and mental notes of things/incidents/people she has observed and transformed into poem form: Janet Snell, the visual poet, continues to create aqueous paintings of expressionistic nature that pull the eye into worlds of fantasy and illusion. Part of the joy of the collaboration of the two artists is that they resist the temptation to 'illustrate' each other. That would be the expected result in a collaboration - one artist has an idea and the other elaborates on it.Not so with MEMENTO MORI. Opposite Janet's wonderful little painting 'Gorkyesque' Cheryl places 'Poem... More About: Review , Mori
Serial Sunday
2009-07-19 02:21:00 Chapter four, Rescuing Ranu Back at the office, Nela took a paper down from her shelf, on the logic of animal conflict, by Smith and Price. She knew about the hawk-dove game. With Ashoke, she sometimes felt she was a player in it. She read for a few minutes, and hardly heard the knock on her door. She lifted her head and marked her place on the page with her finger. How had she managed so many pages in so little time? She called, “Enter!” and a girl of about twenty, very thin, stood in front of her. The girl’s skin was damp, hair standing up at all angles, and she was nervously chewing her pierced bottom lip. She reminded Nela of a hatchling, another of the small creatures designed to make adults feel protective. “Yes?” said Nela. “How come you didn’t show up for class?” the girl asked, almost inaudibly. Nela glanced at her watch. “Oh no! I must have lost track of time. Sorry. Is anyone still in the classroom?” “No, they all bailed after ten minutes.... More About: Sunday , Serial
Brahma
2009-07-18 22:54:00 If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain,They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again.Far or forgot to me is near, Shadow and sunlight are the same,The vanished gods to me appear, And one to me are shame and fame.They reckon ill who leave me out; When me they fly, I am the wings;I am the doubter and the doubt, And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.The strong gods pine for my abode, And pine in vain the sacred Seven;But thou, meek lover of the good! Find me, and turn thy back on heaven. --Ralph Waldo Emerson More About: Brahma
Summer Reading
2009-07-15 13:51:00 I have electronic versions of some of my books up at Scribd, including THIS ONE. Some are free to view, a few cost pocket change. If you'd like hard copies, click THIS and you'll be hooked up. More About: Reading , Summer
Bloggy Birthday
2009-07-12 23:49:00 Two years and 516 posts for this author's blog, but who's counting? More About: Birthday
Serial Sunday
2009-07-12 00:06:00 Chapter three, Rescuing Ranu “Anywhere but here,” Nela grumbled as she picked through the flagstone minefield of toys and tools that led to Ashoke’s house. Untrimmed shrubs hung over the porch, and a sharp piece of peeling bark stabbed Nela’s finger. She took it into her mouth, and punched the buzzer’s eyeball with her elbow while she sucked the sore spot. A dog barked on the other side of the door. Nela cursed. “Dirty animals!” It was still barking when the door opened, the sound at odds with its wagging tail. A graduate student opened the door, leaning across another hill of toys to let her in. He mumbled an offer to get her a band-aid, which she waved away. Ashoke’s wife, a thin woman with thick glasses that made it hard to read her face, thought the wave was meant for her. She waggled her fingers, and gestured for Nela to come all the way in. Easier said than done. A trampoline was set up for the little kids in the middle of the room, where two of Ashok... More About: Sunday , Serial
A New Story
2009-07-11 18:15:00 Closure Dad was not dead, but Mom decided to give him a funeral anyway. “He’s dead to us,” she said. We were sitting in the back yard at the ragged end of the day, watching the darkening sky toss up handfuls of stars. Mom shook her red halo of hair, and gathered the edges of her blouse together with her fist. “I’ll stuff a coffin with clothes and fake-books. I’ll slap the lid shut with some double paradiddles.” She drummed on her glass. “He’ll get tired of her.” I offered it like a prayer, prayed without faith. It had been two weeks since he’d taken off, and it didn’t look like he was coming back. “Not this time,” she whispered. “Look, a liar’s moon.” A hoarse laugh died in the long, smooth throat that always smelled of lilies. She stared with her wide green eyes at the badminton net Dad had put up the summer before last. My friend Carrie and I had played every evening as our parents watched us, drinks in hand. Dad kept his sungl... More About: Story
Kind Words for Memento Mori
2009-07-07 17:59:00 "Cheryl Snell is a mysterious poet, but not too--Her poems in this collection have an air of other-worldliness, just off kilter enough to make you read them over and over. There is also a lovely aura of danger that you can't quite make out, which makes the poems that much more lovely.My favorites are Hope and Skin Hunger.And her sister Janet's artwork is also lovely and matches the other-wordly quality."---Nanette Rayman-RiveraThanks, Nanette! More About: Words , Mori
Serial Sunday
2009-07-04 23:45:00 Rescuing Ranu: Chapter twoEngland may have been the death of Ramanujan, but it had saved Nela. Once she was back in her own English cottage, she could forget the man, her mother, and the demands of her various personae. She could be herself, unobserved for the first time in months, out of the spotlight, a fugitive from the fishbowl. She opened the front door quickly, in hopes that no neighbor would stop to make her talk. Taking the stairs two at a time, she unwound her sari as she went, tugging off her gold bangles. She was aware that the air was stale, and that dust and the mail had piled up. She would take care of all that later. For now, what she wanted most was to stand in the doorway of her bedroom, that haven of blue silk walls, and let the fluttering sensation of homecoming come. She opened the window, her eyes half closed. This was her ritual. Whatever the weather, no matter how jet-lagged she might be, the scent of her garden always brought her to life, like a new... More About: Sunday , Serial
Our New Book
2009-07-04 01:23:00 Introducing my sister Janet's and my newest duet, a collection of oil paintings and poems from Scattered Light Publications called MEMENTO MORI. It's a 48 page, 6x9 inch paperback on sale now for $13.00. If you'd like to try before you buy, there's a preview on the left side of the Scattered Light blog. More About: Book
A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts
2009-07-02 15:28:00 The difficulty to think at the end of day,When the shapeless shadow covers the sunAnd nothing is left except light on your fur—There was the cat slopping its milk all day,Fat cat, red tongue, green mind, white milkAnd August the most peaceful month.To be, in the grass, in the peacefullest time,Without that monument of cat,The cat forgotten in the moon;And to feel that the light is a rabbit-light,In which everything is meant for youAnd nothing need be explained;Then there is nothing to think of. It comes of itself;And east rushes west and west rushes down,No matter. The grass is fullAnd full of yourself. The trees around are for you,The whole of the wideness of night is for you,A self that touches all edges,You become a self that fills the four corners of night.The red cat hides away in the fur-lightAnd there you are humped high, humped up,You are humped higher and higher, black as stone—You sit with your head like a carving in spaceAnd the little green cat is a bug in the grass.... More About: Ghosts , King
New Review!
2009-07-01 19:20:00 OUTWARD BOUND “Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.” *But for mystics, the disabled and convalescent, those in enclosed orders, those dedicated to fulfilling their genius, those in jail and those who exist in a mental straitjacket, whatever the cause, there is always a conundrum:Does the elusive Truth exist on the Inside or Outside?Hostages like Brian Keenan, Anne Frank, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, all attested a life of the spirit and the imagination that would not and could not be limited by physical and ideological constraints.So does narrowed focus confer a sharper and profounder vision, offering its compensations? Or is Freedom only to be found upon the exterior, in the prolix toil and muddle of human activity where opportunities for discovery abound? Even where choice is possible, aren't these states mutually exclusive?Cheryl Snell in a new chapbook, Prisoner's Dilemma, explores this theme in situations concerning many kinds of effacement. Each short poem is ... More About: Review
Ouroboros Review
2009-07-01 16:15:00 The new edition of Ouroboros Review is now live, and I'm in it, there on page 41.
Skanda Shasti Vratam
2009-06-30 02:50:00 Today marks the Skanda Shasti festival, celebrating another instance of the victory of good over evil. According to Skanda Puranam, demons had taken over the earth in a rampage that crushed anything that belonged to Devas. Devas sought help from a distracted Shiva, who burnt Kamdev to ashes for creating in him lustful urges.Shiva's seed flowed into Goddess Ganga, and six children appeared. Goddess Parvati molded them into one being--Skanda (AKA Lord Muruga, Subramanya, Kartikeaya, Kartik). He annihilated the demons using his ‘Vel’, and that's how Skanda Shasti came to be.
Serial Sunday
More articles from this author:2009-06-28 18:26:00 ...in which we follow Nela Sambashivan out of Shiva's Arms into her new adventure: As long as the man kept his sunglasses on, Nela could assume he was asleep. This was a man who knew how to keep still, hands folded in his lap, his breathing even and slow. Maybe he was meditating, or praying. Perhaps he was afraid to fly, and intended to keep his eyes shut for the entire trip. She had had enough of talking to strangers. Leaning back in her seat, Nela adjusted her sari, angling her body toward him for a better view. She examined him like a bug under glass. Tall, long, lanky. Strong legs. Sinewy. Ropy arms not developed through hours at a gym, but through actual work. The long dark hair looked as if he cut it himself. The rough hands and grimy fingernails told the truth. But she was not getting the full gestalt. She needed to see his eyes for that. Twenty years before, when she first arrived in England from India, she was not so particular. She would leap to the same conclusion ... More About: Sunday , Serial 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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