2006 : The Year Of Living Precariously (by Vinod Ganesh) (Humor)

2006 : The Year Of Living Precariously (by Vinod Ganesh) (Humor)

Hello critics, should I like you? (Anita Butani)

Hello critics, should I like you? (Anita Butani)
(This was not a piece of writing in the usual sense, but a discussion about criticism)

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Regarding readership that posts get, I think it is the same as books. There's the habit of reading only the genres, topics and styles that we like. In this case, skipping posts isn't about quality. A professional critic would be required to read a lot, but even they aren't asked to read every kind of book; they do specialize in certain kinds of writing.

Sometimes I read but don't comment because the poor quality is not grammar or spelling or clichés, those are simple to point out. Sometimes its more complex - something felt, but hard to explain. Blame my lack of vocabulary for becoming speechless at that point.

If its merely a personal preference, I keep that to myself. I have my dislikes - the maudlin, the cutesy, the grandiose, people who don't revise their work. But its a preference, not criticism.

Criticism from others is a good thing, but one also has to learn to see one's own work critically. Looking in the mirror is essential before we go out of the house and let others see us - catch the toilet paper stuck to heels, mascara on the nose, unzipped fly, etc instead of leaving it to others to point out.

Aparna (milika)

Come to me (Ravishankar)

Come to me (Ravishankar)

I read the first version, I liked it better. It was more ...well, punchy, assertive. It was long, but it didn't lose steam anywhere. You're probably thinking - this goes to prove you can't please everyone :-). I wouldn't understand what you're saying as well as I do now, had I not read the first version.

Aparna

Writing with Humility (Aditya Seth)

Writing with Humility (Aditya Seth)

How true. And how often we forget.
Aparna

Time Wounds All Heels

Caferati link

You left me, not vice versa,
Unrepentant Godbole
Walked straight out of the cafe
Stuck as I was, in a traffic jam
of waiters
And swelling emotions
I failed to register a timely repartee
To the quip:"Cash or Card?"
'Madame' has forgotten her purse
What's worse
You had the Creme Bruleé
On my birthday
And the better view
And an 'urgent' appointment, too.
Allow me to pay
This time- No, no, I insist!
You'll get what you deal
I have it on good word that
Time wounds all heels

:-)

Travelling Together (poem) (Priyanka Joseph)

Thursday night here in the new world,
and outside this train's window
the blinking lights of a city rolling past
is the sky we're staring into.
if I could rewire an entire power grid
right now, before the cops came,

continued..




Its playful tone is very appealing. I hear the love in it.
Great images.
Aparna

Mercurial (Ravishankar C)

Mercurial :
Solar flare one moment,
cozy warmth in the next...

Mercurial :
Dont let me touch you,
golden haired girl,
mercury and gold amalgams
have the shine of neither...
continued..


"Mercury and gold amalgams have the shine of neither" - the best line.

For whatever reason, it reminded me of Gibran's,
"And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow"

Aparna