Think, write, read, create...

....and live in the moment, all through this new year.

What happens in Goa, stays in Goa.....

........ except for the books!

It is always very difficult for me NOT to buy books while travelling. And more so at a literature festival where there are stacks of books on display beckoning innocent book lovers like me to buy one and then another one and then one more. Which is what happened in Goa where we (which includes a bunch of super talented people) happened to be in the first week of December for the Goa Arts & Literary Festival (read about us at GALF here).

And the beaches do really look like this in Goa, minus the hippie couple.

A postcard from the works of Mario Miranda.

The Outsider & Sadequain - Happy Birthday Albert Camus!

Death, execution, and religion are the dominating themes as Meursault comes to term with the consequences of his action. He is an outsider at his mother’s funeral, at his trial and remains one till the end. 

These were my thoughts when I first read The Outsider (read complete review here). And these feelings are beautifully captured in the illustrations by Sadequain which I stumbled upon while browsing through a copy of the book, Mystic Expressions by Sadequain, published by the Sadequain Foundation.  These lithographic illustrations were made by the artist in 1964, four years after the death of the author. 

The Scene of the Crime

Meursault's girlfriend, Marie, as visualized by the artist. 

Today marks the 100th birth anniversary of Albert Camus and to celebrate his birth month I'm going to be reading his book, The Myth of Sisyphus, which is considered a 'brilliant explanation of the central idea of absurdity which was developed artistically in The Outsider'. 

Quite an existentialist celebration!

Note: All images were taken by me from the book 'Mystic Expressions by Sadequain'. 

Covered in dust and waiting to be rescued!

"The book was thick and black and covered with dust". (Possession – A.S.Byatt)

The above description holds true for my blog, except that you can’t see the layers of dust on the internet. 

The layers of dust that settle down between the pages of a book that lies dormant, waiting to be read and handled.

"Its boards were bowed and creaking; it had been maltreated in its own time. Its spine was missing, or rather protruded from amongst the leaves like a bulky marker. It was bandaged about and about with dirty white tape, tied in a neat bow". (Possession - A.S.Byatt)

[Beanbag tales is going to complete its fourth year on the blogosphere in November. A good time to reflect and analyze if its actually been worth the effort. You can read about its creation in 2009 here].

The Secret Compartment in a Writer's brain...

"In a radio interview in 1970, Roald Dahl described the utmost sensual delight he got when he went up to his hut, closed the door and sat down in his chair.

You become a different person, you are no longer an ordinary fellow who walks around and looks after his children and eats meals and does silly things, you go into a completely different world. I personally draw all the curtains in the room, so that I don't see out the window and put on a little light which shines on my board. Everything else in your life disappears and you look at your bit of paper and get completely lost in what you're doing. You do become another person for s moment. Time disappears completely. You may start at nine in the morning and the next time you look at your watch, when you're getting hungry, it can be lunchtime. And you've absolutely no idea that three of four hours have gone by. So when you meet a musician or a writer, you shouldn't be surprised that they look exactly like ordinary people, because in that part of their lives they are...All the best artists that I've known, like Hemingway and Steinbeck and EB White and Thurber, behave very normally in their private lives...They are ordinary people who have a secret compartment somewhere in their brain which they can switch on when they become quite alone and go to work."

Tomorrow, 13th September, is Roald Dahl's birthday. And the celebrations are going to go on all this month on the beanbag. 

Source: Storyteller - The Life of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock

Picture: Google Images

What did The Bad Girl do?

Some naughty book spine poetry....

Greene in Thailand

"I doubt if one ever ceases to love, but one can cease to be in love as easily as one can outgrow an author one admired as a boy".

Holiday or otherwise, Greene always makes for a GREAT read.