Anu Lal's Blog, page 35

Tue-ti-ti….tue-ti-ti—The Boy and the Maths Teacher

Image Courtesy: fineartamericaIn 1995, at an Upper Primary School, in a countryside in Kannur district, Kerala, South India, a young boy felt the dire need to know what mutiny was. They had History as a subject, but as the tradition of that school was, the teachers for some subjects would always be in ‘coming soon’ mode, as some of those Bollywood movie posters read. The History teacher was on leave forever, and a substitute teacher, who generally taught mathematics, was called for.
The m...

Jodi Picoult and The Storyteller

Here is a guest post from Lit Pet Boww….Bow…wooww….
When I came out of the circus show, it was six in the evening and everyone was turning their butts opposite their home. All faces toward home, and I, the lone dog, skidded and wobbled around their massive treading on the flat ground, outside the circus tent. I might have managed to move a few feet through the crowd, when the sound of some quality came to my ears. My ears stood up and like a dart missile, pointed at the location where the...

Coming Fresh on Hartal

Image Courtesy: GoogleThe daunting task of opining anything fresh on Hartal brings us to its origins. Although there is nothing, much new or seemingly ‘fresh’ about the origin of Hartal, at this time, when in Kerala Hartal is taken up by the opposition, against the ruling party’s adamant stand on keeping its Chief Minister on the chair after the allegations against him on corruption, it will be interesting to notice when and where it was born.
The political system, currently, is maneuvering th...

Saritha S. Nair and the Mutiny 2013

Image Courtesy: GoogleDoes what happen now in anyway correspond to what happened before? Let me put the question another way—is our present influenced by past or history?
Let’s buckle the seat belt, here we go.
Much like any other democracy, in Kerala too, it is very common among people to come out on the streets to protest against the policies of the government. On a moderately bright day in June, in the year 2013, a large crowed swarmed on to the streets in Trivandrum, the capital city of Ke...

Is your Love Blind?

On effective writing Image Courtesy: GoogleWhat’s your best chance of surviving as a freelance writer? Before answering this, let us tie this question up with the time and space in which we live. In the present world, earning money from writing words is one of the most difficult jobs. That is what makes at least some of us wish, if we could live in the 19th century when you didn’t have such competition.
Don’t click the corner button please; I know the reason why you went through the first...

Need Kidney

From what I understand, a healthy human being can survive with just one kidney. However, any living organism requires something else, more than an organ, air, or food. It’s kindness.
Someone’s heart needs a kidney.
Larry Swilling is an American, from South Carolina. His wife, Jimmie Sue has a failed kidney. She was born with only one kidney, which started slowing down the December of 2011 (some say, from 2012). Those of my readers who are from America must have heard this story, already. I do...

Wall of Colours and Other Stories

Thanks to my cover designer, Kate Martini,  Wall of Colours and Other Stories looks marvelous and charming. Many people, through Facebook, commented about its so being. I am grateful to Kate and her designing skills. I am also grateful to all my readers, friends, and family, for being patient with me. I can very well understand that your hearts are big, and love unfathomable, and so is my book. I can tell, without any speck of doubt that there is a story for everyone’s taste, in Wall of C...

Wall of Colours in Kindle

Teaser: Back-cover preview of the paperback.
Cover release will be on 1 July 2013June 25th was a Tuesday and I was required to visit the college I work at, in order to attend a meeting there. My classes only began on 26th. I teach English, and English classes are required only for the first year students. The college was dedicated to applied sciences; therefore, there is no English major course at the college.  
I still remembered from the previous day’s call from the college that the meet...

Monsoon in Syria

Image Courtesy: The Atlantic.comI wrote a very romantic piece on Monsoon, towards the end of May, by which time Monsoon had just started to make its presence felt. Rain clouds were arriving in the sky in bundles. It suggested the end of the rudeness of summer. However, I could not publish the article. Why? It was too romantic, for the reality that followed.
The following reality necessitated the pondering of the pre- and post- Monsoon social life in India. I realized that as the saying goes, t...

Admission

Image Courtesy: N Y times.comMovies with moderate sounding titles don’t do much business. Or so do I think. Of course, I am no Stephen Hawking. I can’t churn out universal principles from my study. So maybe they do well, sometimes. Admission, however, even with that unnoticeable title, came to me like a surprise. It was like finding chocolate in a pack of Milk Bikis. Who would choose a title like ‘Admission’ from a pack of DVDs with titles as sexy, delicious and violent as ‘Sex and the City’,...