Rohini Gupta's Blog, page 4

When the World is Breaking

Its a morning like every other morning and also unlike every other. I am writing, of course, as usual. A cool sea breezes blows, stirring the chimes. A tailor bird sings in the almond tree.

I am writing a novel, and far removed from this day. I am deep in another world, feeling my character’s emotions, seeing her sights. Her world is breaking down and I am making it worse to deepen the story. I will strip her down to her bare essentials and watch her struggle to survive.

She thinks she might not survive but I know she will, because I have already written the ending.

Then, I take a break. I come back, withdrawing from that full immersion. I expect to come back to a room full of books and make a cup of coffee before going back to her struggles.

But.

Now its me, not her. What happened? Is this another novel? This real world too is breaking down. The Chinese virus has locked us down. The whole world.

Mother nature has stripped us right down to the bare essentials. Were we too destructive? Now, she has reduced us to the basics – food and survival. She’s taken everything else, locked us up and left us with only what is in our head and our hearts.

It’s become about the quietude of life instead of the stressful running-like-mad-and-getting-nowhere. Now its the blue sky above and your own thoughts within. Everything we took for granted is gone. 

You dont get what is important, she is saying, fine lets make sure you do.

She did.

What will be the new normal? What world will it be when she lets us limp back to some kind of society again?

In my novel, as all novels need to do,  I took my heroine back to nothing so that she could pull out strength and courage from within. But I know she will survive.

Will I? Will you? Will our way of life? Will our world as we knew it, survive?

If mother earth has already written this ending, she hasn’t told us and we can only find out the hard way. Will we dig deep within and find ourselves now that we have been thrown into the fire? Or will we whine all the way to the end of the world?

Lockdown Poetry Series

Do check out the Lockdown poetry series which my group, Cafe Haiku is doing. Poets writing about the world in lockdown, this daily journey from bedroom to kitchen and nowhere else!

3 posts are up – lovely art and writing. Several more to come, mine too.

The link is here – https://cafehaiku.wordpress.com

Feel free to join the effort by submitting your own. Haiku or related forms and visuals, if possible.

Deadline extended to the end of April. Send to inhaikumumbai.gmail.com

Writing in the times of lockdown

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I haven’t been out of the house for many days since the lockdown began, except to feed the cats who are as demanding as ever. They inspect the empty bowls and look outraged before I can finish putting down the food. It takes time, little whiskers.

The muse is not so demanding – I wish she was. Sometimes she saunters in, sometimes its as vacant as the streets. The lockdown continues. Every day more spring flowers and more virus deaths. The big questions now are where to get bread, is anyone delivering any more? 

It’s spring out there and the birds now own the sky. Some are mating. This morning I saw a crow saunter out into the middle lane of the road to pick up a twig – for the nest. Surely they aren’t nest building so early? They usually time it for just before the rains. Perhaps, they figure its a good time to get supplies which are far more abundant than our own. The twig did not meet his technical specifications. He picked it up and tested it. He left it there and sauntered back. 

I went back to my page. And my writing continues. If there is one thing I have learned in all these decades it is this – just keep going. Every day. Keep writing, keep publishing.

Even when the world is falling apart. That is no longer a joke – it has become a tragic reality. Everything we took for granted – gone. What is left is the most important. Family. Survival. Masks. 

And writing. Always writing, whatever comes, whatever goes. When you reach the end of the world, turn the page and start again. 

What happened to the world??

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Life in the time of the Wuhan virus lockdown. Its the tenth day today of twenty one. I am still here, still writing.

Who ever thought it would come to this? The daily routine is writing desk to kitchen to bed and feed the cats and back. Nowhere to go. The roads are empty. Nothing but fear in the media.

Its a good time to finish my novel which is also set during traumatic times.

Its lovely outside. All day a cool sea breeze blows. The mango tree is dropping tiny green fruits all over the garden and the almond has put out tiny starry cream flowers which can catch in your hair or put stars on a cats dark fur.

The koels are calling and the black kite sends out a long echoing wail from the tower. Its her mating cry. Nature is green and bursting with love and fruit snd flowers.

Maybe nature has decided we are just too much bother. Keep all the humans caged at home so dolphins can frolic off Marine Drive, peacocks can stroll amid the parked cars and blocked lanes of Malabar Hill and the earth can continue undisturbed in her very serious business of springtime.

Travel anthology is out

Bigger and better. Our third anthology and it has some of the best writers in the field. Haiku poetry and haibun prose on the theme of travel. Pieces from all

The Anthology is out

Here it is, a big book full of the best haiku from ten years of World Haiku Review. available as an ebook on Amazon, worldwide. A few links are below.

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Amazon.com



Amazon.uk



Amazon.in

Putting this wonderful anthology of outstanding haiku has been a delight. I will blog later about what it was like and some pictures from the book release in Pune.

The title, Fuga No Makoto means “truth, sincerity and honesty which a haikai poet needs to aim at when writing poems.”

Traditionally, Japanese haiku had three lines with 5-7-5
syllables and 17 syllables altogether. However, in contemporary English haiku,
the 5-7-5 is no longer observed and any syllable count is acceptable so long as
it does not exceed 17. This anthology has a select collection with some of the
best of modern haiku.

The World Haiku Review is an online magazine which was a
pioneer in the field of haiku – one of the first and most prominent magazines
to take the Japanese poetic form and put it online for a wider audience. WHR
set the stage for the worldwide expansion of the three-line, highly  imagistic verse form.

This is the Tenth Anniversary Anthology collecting only the
top ten haiku from twenty-five issues of the World Haiku Review from 2008 to
2017. Here are some of the best haiku by some of the biggest names in the
field, from countries all over the world. The poems are collected by subject,
such as Morning Frost, A Cloud’s Drift, the Flower Moon, the Dream of You and
so on. Also included are the Editor’s Choice haiku from each issue, complete
with the notes of the editor-in-chief, Susumu Takiguchi, explaining why that
verse was chosen.

A fascinating journey into a beautiful form of poetry with several hundred of the best international haiku for your reading delight. 

Ten Years in the Making

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Announcing the book release of a big anthology.

This is a big one and has been a decade in the making. This is our ten year anniversary celebration – gleaning the very best haiku from ten years and twenty five issues of World Haiku Review into an anthology. Poets from all over the world.

The name Fuga No Makoto means poetic truth and simplicity.

It’s both a celebration and a lot of hard work. I have enjoyed reading all the poems again and spending time with poems from countries i know little about.

I am still working at the huge and painstaking job of putting the book together. Which involves putting the file together, editing, formatting, creating the cover and eventually, uploading. Its more work than I expected but satisfying at the end of it. It is taking shape slowly but surely. Soon, soon ….

So, the World Haiku Review will begin 2019 with its first book. Some really excellent poetry from some of the best poets in the field. I am sure this anthology will be a great addition to the field.

It will be available by the 1st of February as an ebook on Amazon. Print copies may come later, also on Amazon. And later in the year there will be a second volume, collecting the prose, the articles and editorials of those ten years.

Do look and if you are in Pune, see you there.

 

Narrow Road is up

Our sixth issue is out, better than ever. Its been two years and six issues and its growing.

Do take look.

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You can read it here –

https://www.scribd.com/document/396002803/Narrow-Road-Vol-6-Dec-18

Or download it here –

Exciting news – the R H Blyth Award

The World Haiku Review announces the R H Blyth Awards as part of the tenth year anniversary celebrations. Here are some details.

Submission: Up to 3 haiku poems in English or English translation on any topic, in any style or form, but have not been published or being considered for publication elsewhere;

Deadline: Midnight of Thursday 10 January 2019 your local time.

The Award: The winner will be awarded GBP300 minus money transfer costs. There will be no prize for any other best tens, except for the honour of it, publication and a token in kind.

Check the rest of the guidelines here and send us your very best.

 

The Kumbh of Festivals

My favourite literary festival is the biggest of them all, the Kumbh of literary festivals – Jaipur lit fest. I have attended it in Jaipur, once spending all five days there. If it was closer I would go every year.

One of the advantages of living in a city as big as Mumbai is that everything comes to you eventually! Last year, JLF started an opener in Mumbai.

I went again this year for cheerful Kutch musicians and a talk by William Dalyrumple on how it grew from about 10 people to an astounding half a million this year.

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The big even was a discussion on the Me Too movement which has been raging for a while. The panel was all women and some who were deeply affected by predatory and powerful men. A delightful evening.

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I will miss Jlf this year – too much work to finish, too much to do and very little time. but I will catch up on the videos as I do every year. And go to the Mumbai lit fests, of course.