Gloomy Thoughts in Late Winter

Pre-dawn (photo: Josna Rege)

Still another month to go before Spring, though goodness knows I’m not wishing time away. There doesn’t seem to be the time or the leisure for Tell Me Another these days, with so many other pressing tasks taking precedence.

Perhaps, after nearly seven years, I’m done with TMA. Perhaps, come Summer, stories will begin to present themselves again; but just now everything seems stale. Perhaps, with nearly 400 stories set down in black and white, it’s time to stop looking backward and start living life more fully again. Then if, inshallah, I live to be an old woman, there will be new stories to tell.

Just now, the springs of renewal are buried deep. But there is not the luxury of simply waiting for Spring. The Earth is under attack, and all that we hold dear. If we fail to fight for them now, those life-giving waters may never return.

Of course looking backward has value; it reminds one of what is important, what one has learned, and what one must pass on. But with that pivot point, the Vernal Equinox, approaching, it is incumbent upon me to recover the balance I once had between action and repose. It’s both too late and much too soon to rest.

Tell Me Another (Contents to Date)

Chronological Table of Contents

To Dad, with Love

My father has passed away. It is much too soon for me to write about him; I can’t find the words. But over the years he has figured in many Tell Me Another stories. Taken collectively, I think they convey something of his character, personality, and presence. Here is a hyperlinked list of these stories (with favorites in bold), interspersed with some songs Dad loved and some of mine.

To Dad, with Love

The Yogi of Beals Street

Kaun Gali Gayo Shyam

The Kurta Joke

Hai Apna Dil to Awara

Sucking Lemons and Quoting Shaw

Dhitang Dhitang Bole

So Many Things Have Disappeared

Yeh Raatein Yeh Mausam

Flash

Mandoubala

Jaggery Coconut, Nectar of the Gods

Mexican Home

The Bay of Biscay and the Gully Gully Man

Ichak Dana Bichak Dana 

Dolls I Have Loved (and Lost)

Aa Jao Tadapte Hain Armaan

The Long Journey

Can’t Buy Me Love

From a Railway Carriage

Lady Madonna

Greece in the 60s: Expats and Other Animals

O Ymittos

Learning to Swim

`    Synnefiasmeni Kyriaki

Cookbooks, Immigrants, and Improvisation

Mera Joota Hai Japani

Avoiding the Plague

Aaj Jyotsna Raate

Untangling

Lively Up Yourself

Riding Like the Wind

Pre-dawn Adventures

Utha Utha Sakala Jana

Waste Not, Want Not

On Not Knowing the Signs

“Heuch, Heuch!” (and other family lingo)

The Silver Hairpin

What’s in a Name?

An Immigrant’s Reflections on Independence Day

The Mango Room

Across the Miles

The Taste of Home

Doing it Themselves

Inscriptions

Slow Food from Way Back

Tell Me Another (Contents to Date)

Chronological Table of Contents

An Immigrant’s Alphabet, July 3rd, 2016

REUTERS/Neil Hall (from time.com)

It’s the eve of July 4th, Independence Day in the United States, and around the world nationalism is rampant. In the U.S., presidential candidates give license to hate groups by calling for the construction of a wall at the southern border and a ban on immigration for certain groups of people. In Britain and throughout Europe, racism and xenophobia are threatening to become mainstream; the nativist “Brexit” vote on June 23rd, 2016 was a sign of the times. Meanwhile in India, not being a militant Hindu is fast becoming enough to make your national allegiance suspect.

There is nothing inherently wrong with patriotism, but nationalism is a dangerously double-edged sword, and jingoism is nothing but trouble. The anniversary of national Independence calls us to reflect upon these times, and how we may be personally, unthinkingly, contributing to the ugliness around us. Here are 27 TMA stories on my own journey as an immigrant and a child of immigrants, my multiple and shifting identities and allegiances, thoughts on borders and border crossings, reactions to racism, and reflections on nations, nationalism, and war. Why 27? Let’s see: how about one for each letter of the English alphabet and one for luck—we need it!

I leave you with two songs—both from the same album by The Grateful Dead— that together pretty much sum up my feelings on nations and nationalism. U.S. Blues is an ironic comment on flag-waving nationalism and Ship of Fools—well, that speaks for itself. George Orwell once said that Britain was like a family (and a dysfunctional one at that) “with the wrong members in control”; sadly, the same can be said for most of the nation-states in this uneven world.

Are You Black or White?

Balancing My Three Halves

Censorship at Bedtime

Common Sense

Cookbooks, Immigrants, and Improvisation

Dogfight

European Border Crossings

The Highlanders

The Hundred-Foot Journey After Charlie Hebdo

An Immigrant’s Reflections on Independence Day

It’s Only Temporary

Jai Jagat

Lessons from a Historian

The Nation

No, It’s Not Political Correctness

On Not Knowing the Signs

Palimpsest

Quest

Racist Bracist

The Silver Hairpin

Songlines

Southbound

Stereotyping

Walls

What’s Wrong with “Oriental”?

Xenophobia

The Yogi of Beals Street

Tell Me Another (Contents to Date)

Chronological Table of Contents

Reflecting on the April Challenge

I made my way through the month of April in a kind of blur, and somehow managed to complete my fourth annual A-to-Z Challenge. Because April was going to be a particularly  busy and difficult month for me, I knew that this time I needed to keep the entries brief and upbeat, without being Pollyannaish. I needed to remember the small, simple joys and pleasures of everyday life. The list wasn’t very well-planned or coherent. About  half of the entries were on subjects that I had come up with in advance, in a quick brainstorming session when I first decided on the theme, while the rest were thought of as I went along.

I wasn’t able to visit and comment on many other blogs regularly or consistently, and still haven’t got around to responding to the fellow-bloggers and other readers who generously posted comments. If I haven’t yet responded to one or more of your comments, I promise that I will do, eventually. As soon as I had pressed Publish on my entry for Z, my workaday life took me back over with a vengeance, and I’m still in its grip.

I wasn’t able to seek out and follow many new blogs, in large part because I didn’t have the time, and to a lesser degree because, I think, the Challenge has got so huge that it is tedious to scroll down the long list and find new, simpatico blogs and bloggers. As a result, many of the people who “Liked” my posts and left comments regularly were bloggers with whom I already keep up and correspond, some of whom I had met in previous years of the Challenge. These included Finding Eliza, Aotearoa Seasons, Modhukori, My Ordinary Moments, Wangiwriter’s Blog, Calmgrove, Nina Grandiose’s Blog, and galeriaredelius. But there were some new discoveries, blogs and bloggers whom I visited and who visited me in turn. These included (and forgive me if I leave out one or two inadvertently): To Wonder at Beauty, Chez Shea, Punarjanmam, The Life of Ordinary Me, Islam on my Mind, Enchanted Forests, The Widow Badass Blog, The Shameful Sheep, Weekends in Maine, The Incoherent Ramblings of a Moose, and Laughing Tree Space. It was a delight to receive a comment from Arlee Bird, the founder of the A-to-Z Challenge, who blogs at Tossing It Out. And as always, I treasure the visits and sustaining comments from friends and family: Hayat, Jaya, Sartaz, Lesley, Jude, Norah, Sarah, and Asghar.

Did the writing bring me joy? I think so, at least momentarily, for the time I was actually caught up in it. Did it bring you joy, or at least a smile to your face from time to time? Do let me know if there were particular posts that moved you.

Thanks to the hard-working organizers of this annual blogging binge, and here’s my A-Z list for 2016, hyperlinked for your convenience.

Bringing Me Joy: Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016

The Pursuit of Happiness

Accomplishment

Bookshops

Chillies and China

Darjeeling

EastEnders

Friends

The Guardian

Henion’s

India

Jai Jagat!

Kindred

Lemons and Limes

Movement

Night

the Outdoors

Pre-dawn Raga

Quirks

Real Country

Singing

Thrift Stores

Unions

Verandas

Writing

Xýpna / Ξύπνα

Young People

Zoe

 Tell Me Another (Contents to Date)

Chronological Table of Contents

Bringing Me Joy: Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 Theme Reveal

This will be my fourth year participating in the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Unlike last time, when all my entries were focused on graphic design, letterpress printing, and typography, my 2016 theme will be much looser and more personally idiosyncratic: creatures and things great or small, concrete or abstract, cerebral or sentimental, animal, vegetable, or mineral, that bring me joy. Because April is a cruel month even without the daily Challenge, and this year it’s shaping up to be worse than ever, I will try to keep the entries short—always a challenge in itself for me, since I do tend to go on. So I’m in with some trepidation this year, and can only trust that, as it has in the past, the Challenge will increase the sum total of my joy. I hope that Tell Me Another will likewise bring a bit more spring into your step.

Tell Me Another (Contents to Date)

Chronological Table of Contents

Taking a break: bear with me

Much as I love writing Tell Me Another, I’ve decided to take a break from it for a while. Many other tasks are pressing themselves forward ever more insistently, and writing a new story on my blog, being the most enjoyable, ends up being the default selection on my To Do list, trumping (oh no, terrible word choice, given the current array of U.S. Presidential candidates) more urgent items. If TMA weren’t an option, would I turn to these other items more readily? Perhaps I’ll let you know when I find out. Wish me luck!

Thank you, dear readers, for our virtual community. Our conversations have been very important to me these past nearly-six years. Wishing you a peaceful holiday season. Until we meet again, let the storytelling continue!  J

P.S. In case you’re a new reader, I thought I’d leave you with a selection of my current personal favorites:

Lively Up Yourself

Hidden Places

His Master’s Voice

My Grandmother

Grandpa Victor and the Story of the Tomatoes

From a Railway Carriage

Sucking Lemons and Quoting Shaw

The Mango Room

Trouble

Getting Out of Silver City

October Rains

Feasting or Fasting?

My Uncrowned Queens

Paharganj, January 1984

Untangling

Slow: Salamander Crossing

Personal Space, Indian-Style

I once was lost (and wish I still were)

The Taste of Home

That Funny Accent

The Yogi of Beals Street

Get Me to the Church on Time

Just Empty your Mind

Watching the River Flow

In the Bleak Midwinter

Con Men, Card Sharks, and Playing a Different Game

Talkin’ ’bout My Generation

The Magic of Found Objects

The Iliad at Bedtime

¡Viva La Literatura!

Darn It!

No, It’s Not Political Incorrectness

Doing it Themselves

Correspondences and Convergence (“Chicks Can’t Dig!”)

Krishna’s Butterball

All the World’s a Stage

Against the Grain

 

 

Reflections on my third A-to-Z Challenge

Click to read more reflections

Well, I just managed to get all the way through to ‘Z’ in time, although I fell behind along the way and seemed to be scrambling to catch up all month. Thank goodness for Sundays, when there was time to write an extra post and visit other people’s blogs.

I’m afraid that I didn’t discover as many new blogs this year as I did in my first two years in the A-to-Z Challenge, mostly because I was perennially behind on my own posts. I did take the advice of the co-hosts and visit blogs near mine on the dauntingly long list. Otherwise I scrolled down, clicking on names that intrigued me or somehow struck a chord. Some of them didn’t seem to have A-to-Z posts on them and a few were clearly commercial. Perhaps more of these blogs could have been eliminated, along with those who never got past the first couple of letters of the alphabet. As the Challenge gets bigger, besides being stricter about eliminating inappropriate or non-participating blogs, it might be helpful to come up with a new system of organization that makes it easier to find like-minded blogs.

This is by no means a criticism of the organizers, who were more diligent than ever this year. Three times over the month, when I was flagging and becoming discouraged, I had a visit from a co-host cheering me on with a few words of appreciation. Thank you for your hard work—your visits certainly helped me get through to Z, as did those of a few supportive fellow-bloggers.

Although I discovered only a few new blogs, I’m happy to have found them. These were: modhukori, The View from the Top of the Ladder, Wanna Buy a Duck, Islam On My Mind, Jenn Lost in Chaos, and Kiwi with an orange flavour.

The blogs I visited and commented on the most regularly were ones I first discovered through my first or second A-to-Z Challenge and who participated again this year, Finding Eliza, Wangiwriter’s Blog, and aliceinbloggingland, all of which I follow year-round.

Then there were the visits from bloggers whom I met through the last Challenge but who didn’t participate in it this year: calmgrove, galeriaredelius, and undercovermole. I missed their participation but appreciated and enjoyed their “likes” and comments. I’m sorry that I didn’t always have time to write back to people who were kind enough to post a comment. I hope to get back to at least some of them belatedly, now that I have a bit more time.

Finally, thanks to TMA’s regular readers, who cheered me on through the alphabet and suggested topics for the letters that had me stumped. I’m glad I participated for a third year, and that the idea of A Printer’s Alphabet came to me, since it allowed me to write about things I love, not only letterpress printing and typography, books and independent publishers, but the inexhaustible subject of language itself.

Here’s a hyperlinked list of the whole month’s entries:

Back in the Challenge Again: A Printer’s Alphabet

304. Against the Grain (G)

305. Bed (G)

306. Composition

307. Deadline

308. Ems, Ens, and Endpapers

309. Folding, Flying, Bleeding, Pieing. . .

310. Godine

311. The Hogarth Press

312. Impression/Imposition (Kiss or Bite?)

313. Job Printers

314. Kern(ing)

315. Ligatures

316. Of Matrices, Magazines, and Melting Pots

317. The Nick

318. Out of Sorts

319. (Mind your) p’s and q’s

320. Quoin that Phrase

321. Recto

322. Stereotyping

323. Tympan and Times Roman

324. Upper Case (and lower case)

325. Verso

326. Whetstone Press

327. x-Height

328. Yellow Journalism

329. Zapf, Zubaan, Zinc-etching, Zzzzz . . .

Back in the Challenge Again: A Printer’s Alphabet

This is to let Tell Me Another’s regular readers know that, for the third year running, I’ve gone and signed up for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, which involves writing a daily blog post throughout the month of April that corresponds to each letter of the alphabet in turn. It remains to be seen whether I’ll manage to finish, but I just couldn’t resist.

This time I’ve chosen the language of typography and printing, particularly letterpress printing, for my theme, which I shall follow loosely, and depart from when I feel like it. I’m no expert on the subject, but did work for a small publishing company in my teens and early twenties, and then shared in the running of an even smaller letterpress printing business for several years in my mid-to-late twenties. Ever since, I’ve appreciated typography, graphic design, and the feel of books printed on high-quality paper, and enjoyed using the specialized lingo of the trade. Although the experiences in this period of my life were formative ones for me, I’ve hardly mentioned them in Tell Me Another to date (with two exceptions, Gas-Station Shirts and Turning Towards the Light).

A whole new era—arguably, the modern era itself—began with the invention of movable type, so it is no wonder that hundreds of words, phrases, and idioms associated with printing have entered the language. Every day of the Challenge I’ll choose one or more of these to match the relevant letter of the alphabet. When time is short I may post just the term with a  definition, and on particularly hectic days an illustration may have to suffice. I dare bet that many book-loving readers will know more about printing and typography than I do, so your comments, additions, and anecdotes will be especially welcome.

For International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! Here is a bouquet of a dozen stories from the TMA archives, honoring women in my life and beyond.

My Grandmother

St. Catherine’s and Miss Tutte

Sisters, Pick Up Your Sisters

My Uncrowned Queens

Correspondences and Convergence (“Chicks Can’t Dig!”)

Marathon

Remembering Mrs. Metzger

Rest In Peace, Doris Lessing

A Chip Off the Old Block? If Only.

Welcome Home

Gauri Deshpande: A Distinctive Voice

London Without Lily

Five Years!

It was on February 28^th, 2010 that I wrote my first story for what would become Tell Me Another at the instigation of my son, whose idea it was that I should start a blog and who set it all up for me. Here it still is, 300 stories later. Hardly a day has passed these five years when I haven’t enjoyed an exchange with a friend, a far-flung relation, or a hithertofore complete stranger, sparked by a story that struck a chord with them and prompted one  of their own. Wonderful things have happened as a result of sending these stories out into cyberspace like messages in a bottle (a nod to you, Bottledworder), including reconnecting with long-lost friends and family and enjoying members of the Indian and English branches of my family meeting cross-continentally, albeit virtually, through a conversation on the blog.

What do I have to say for myself? Honestly, I’m at a bit of a loss for words; perhaps I’ve used them all up. As for TMA, it is what it is, as my son would say in the zen-cryptic language so masterfully employed by him and his peers. And what is that? Again, I don’t know. It’s not quite a memoir, neither is it pure storytelling, nor is it a series of wise reflections befitting someone who has unaccountably attained my advanced age. The blog is a strange animal, and I suppose I’m discovering its possibilities and limitations as I go along. It’s an ungainly word that will never sound noble to my ears, but there’s no denying its pleasures.

I have my favorite TMA stories, but I would be delighted if you were moved to tell me yours. You can see the full list, both in the order in which I wrote them and the order in which the events unfolded, by clicking on the links below.

Thank you, dear Nikhil, and heartfelt thanks to all of you, especially my regular readers, who have commented on Tell Me Another.

Tell Me Another (Contents to Date)

Chronological Table of Contents