Sharath Komarraju's Blog, page 65

Love and Longing in Art: Demeter and Persephone

When we think of the phrase ‘love and longing’, we often just think of romantic love. In today’s post we’ll look at one of Greek mythology’s most famous stories – about the love of a mother for her daughter. Demeter is the Greek goddess of the harvest. If there is a mother-goddess in the Greek […]

2 Different Ways to Achieve Self-Confidence

One of the entries to my contest on mythological characters spoke about conformity and individual expression. Here’s an excerpt from the comment: The character is Tyler Durden, the protagonist of Fight Club. He is an anarchist who believes that society conditions us to abandon our dreams in favor of conformity. He builds a secret club where […]

Novel Excerpt: Man on a Bike

Some scenes have a way of sticking in the head, like signposts. This one, taken out of Banquet on the Dead, is one that is close to my heart. My father, after having read the novel fully, said, ‘This is a bad book. You goofed up in many places. But that scene in which the inspector goes […]

The Great Amazon-Hachette Debate: Why Should Readers Care?

  Debate? What debate? If you’re a reader, you probably asked that question as you opened this post. Most likely, you’re not even aware that as you read this, Amazon and Hachette are locked in a rather nasty battle with each other on how high (or low) e-books ought to be priced. To give a […]

How The Exponential Function Flummoxes Us

First, a fable. A long time ago, pleased with one of his courtiers, a king offered him any present he would ask for. The courtier said, quite modestly, that he was not a material man. But if the king was to insist, then he should order his servants to get a chess board. ‘A chess […]

3 Kinds of Marriage in Hindu Mythology – and what they tell us

I think it’s safe to say that marrying for love is a recent phenomenon. Traditionally, marriage has always been a coming together of two individuals with the intention of having children. Love was neither necessary nor sufficient. Things like social standing, material riches, and good genes (read beauty) mattered a lot more – not only for […]

Photo Post: Still Life

She walks in beauty, Shades of starlight and dusk chase each other in circles on the playground of her skin, Circles form fire-eyed spirals, Dangling centres of turbulence framing the stillness of her face, The stillness of trance, Of slumber, Of death, Of birth, Of awareness, Of the universe… Different currents that intertwine around the […]

Meetup 144: Spoken Words – Dialogues and Monologues

Last Saturday, Aravind MJ, one of our oldest members at Write Club, hosted a session on spoken words in writing. I wasn’t there to experience it first-hand, but if the following notes he sent me are any indication, it must have been a smashing session. More than anything else, fiction writers have to master the […]

The Trouble with Bollywood

At the outset, let us admit something. Cinema is art, craft and commerce, all rolled into one – it has always been so, all around the world. It may have begun as pure art, but had quickly taken on essences of craft (it had to), and gradually morphed into a form of business. Now, wait […]

Contest 2: What are your thoughts on Patriotism?

Note: This contest is OPEN. The last date for entries is  Wednesday, 20th August, 2014. The winner will be announced on Friday, 22nd August, 2014.   How do you enter the contest? It doesn’t get simpler. You leave a comment to this post. If you leave two comments, they will count as two separate entries. The maximum number […]