Daughtering

Re: # 7
Saman – teehee! Okay, I’ll confess. I actually wrote this piece because I was in a towering rage with my mom and didn’t want to yell at her. I’d cooled down by the next day, which explains the reconciliatory ending. Why, oh, why are mothers the way they are? I hadn’t thought of this as a novel – I’m too busy banging my head against the one I’ve already saddled myself with.
By the way, keep at it and you’ll eventually finish a piece. If you have problems writing bigger pieces then try for what they call very short fiction – five hundred words or much, much less in which you try to tell a whole story. I can’t do it because I’m naturally verbose :), but you should try.
Thank you for reading.

Re: # 6
Sadaf – thank you! What do I read? Gosh – everything! Including flyers if I’m really hard up for material. So maybe you’d like to know what I would buy.

Hmm, let’s see… my bedside table has Isabel Allende (whose nonfiction is as enchanting as her fiction), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (simple and brilliant) and Rohinton Mistry (why don’t more people pay attention to him?). I’m also a fantasy fiction freak so I have Robert Jordan out as well. Jon Stewart gives me light relief as does Al Franken and a host of other celebrity “funny” writers (I think it’s an American cottage industry). My shelves contain VS Naipaul (let it be a challenge), Nadine Gordimer (you’ll either hate her or lover her), JM Coetzee (who can also write literary crit for the common man which is an uncommon feat), and the usual desi suspects such as Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Bharati Mukherjee and Anita Desai.

There are a number of Brit novels I have come across lately that I enjoyed but have not followed up on the authors. There was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (deserved every bit of praise it got), Politics (really funny and not about politics), and Trainspotting (mildly incomprehensible until the patois sinks in).

If you like romance novels then the only author whom I would spend money on is Linda Howard. She has a certain flair indispensable to pulp fiction that her contemporaries most definitely lack. Be ready for some serious bodice ripping though. The only other romance writer I would buy is Georgette Heyer who died 30 years ago and so doesn’t fall into this group. No bodice ripping there – just good writing and very Jane Austen. In thrillers and such like, I like Dan Brown and Jeffrey Archer but my favorite is again a dead man, Alistair MacLean.

I like histories – ancient, modern, whatever – and travelogues. But those are a matter of intense personal taste. I generally flip through some in the bookstore and see what catches my eye – Alexander the Great, Napoleon, slavery in the deep South, India, religion, politics, etc. My favorite desi in this regard is Gita Mehta because she writes as the outsider with an insider’s view. Good stuff.

These are my favorite contemporary authors. I hope you’ll like ‘em. There’re a whole lot more where they come from.

Amrita,
Shouldn`t have read this when I was already feeling guilty; now I feel even guiltier, ok, more guilty if you like. isniff ):

I think we all have our grudges with our moms and they somehow get resolved; either you give in or more so they become generous and magnanimous.

The ending was reassuring; gave me the assurance that all was thankfully working well at my front here.

I envy you for having such reams and spooles of thought you can weave and interconnect; I fall short after a couple or two. Another isniff, isniff......):
By the way you do have an agent I suppose...
This could flesh out into a novel, you know.
Regards,
Saman.

I loved your style. The story grasped me right away. I don`t think I have ever before read a story with desi characters and mother, daughter conflict. I was not expecting that ending, but when it happened.. it felt right.

I even liked the title. In my opinion, it was really well done. Hope to see more of you.

If you could tell me, who are your favourite writers? If I like your style, I`ll probably like them as well.

Re: # 4
:) Oh, all right - if you say so... :)

hey am
don`t make a sad day
sadder
look out the window
sun is shining bright
the cold will give in
spring will be here
then golden summer
go dream stories
let word rosaries
web an intriguing
tangle
enticing readers
leave me alone
to mourn

---

chalo, ijazat?

A big thank you to everyone who read this short story. Especially,

t - never did I think that the first time someone wrote me a poem it would be to tick me off! sniff, sniff! :)

HN - thank you! Not others, but I have felt that way about my titles though it isnt because I`m not invested enough, it`s because I`m too invested and in a bid to save some hair on my head pitch on the most obvious thing that strikes me. The best alternative to Bubbles was ``One Bride In Delhi`` and I didnt like it all that much.
re: the first person narrative, I`ve never been able to forget that moment in Jane Eyre (``Reader, I married him``) and keep trying to create that kind of intimacy for which this voice is a big help. But no, third person omnipotent narratives dont make that big a break with the reader mainly because readers are used to it, I guess. Somehow I never sent my third person narratives to Chowk. If they ever publish it, you must tell me if it makes a big diff to you as a reader.
Btw, how`s the novel? I`m thinking of using mine for kindling.

Amrita,

I think you are refreshing new writer on chowk. Some fine writing. I have a quible, which is that I find the titles of your work somewhat unimaginative. I do not know if others have told you about this. I often find your titles rather unthought out, uninvested in. Bubbles, and this one come to mind.

This not to detract from some fine writing.

BTW, I believe you use the first person for an added emotional impact. But, on the converse, have you felt that stories where the I is not used, the impact is lacking? Would like to see more writing from you, either ways.

am:

forgive my ramblings;)

fathering, mothering, sistering, wandering, pondering are there

brothering, daughtering, prepondering are not there

will comment on the story later if i survive the fall-out;)

lve

t

ps:

i know, i know
liberty is a statue...
looking out to sea
so we can do things
behind her back

gods of literature
have made a provision
small-time poets
when they hit the wall
or some hard surface
can take liberty
(once in a while
not repeatedly)
with a word here
a word there
but a major aspiring
writer is cautioned...
;)