brown girls in the ring

last night i attended formal dinner at my old residential college, mannix. i was a resident there in my first year at monash, way back in 1994. mark was along too, as were three other of my fellow '94 freshman friends, and it was an excellent evening full of reminiscing and meeting new people. it was international night, and there were a few salwaar kameez about, even a ghagra choli. after dinner we went up the the senior common room, where some staff and students had gathered, and there was a general q& a session, followed by a couple of readings. it's funny, but i think the readings i did last night were performed the best out of all the readings i've ever done before. i slowed down, did all the voices, and changed my pace according to what was happening on the page. i really enjoyed the whole experience last night - and it felt really great to be welcomed back by the college. so thanks for that - you all gave me a real boost! i also met a crew of 'brown girls' from all over the place - dubai, kenya, mumbai, ballarat! - who all told me how much they identified with my story. in my book, that has got to be the definition of 'buzz' - i love it when that happens. college is definitely more multi-culti now than it was when i was there.

i have been having second thoughts about the proiject i've been concentrating on recently - but that doesn't mean i'm going to give up on it or anything. i still like the concept and think it has potential - but it's not really exciting me at the moment. i don't know if that's just a cop-out or if it actually means something, but i think i'll put it aside for the moment and look at some other things. i have a couple of ideas for short pieces which i've jotted down, and another longer piece i started on a while ago then, for some reason, stopped. maybe it's just what happens - you get excited about an idea, launch yourself into it, then run out of steam. if it is, i'm willing to file the ideas for a while and just wait to see what happens.

today i am quite excited because i book i requested is waiting for me to pick it up from my local library. i saw a copy of this book at mary martin's on the weekend and had to stop myself from buying it (because we're supposed to be saving and all that), so am happy i will have a copy in my hands this afternoon - it's called londonstani, by gautam malkani also on the go at the moment is alain de botton's the romantic movement, which i am really getting in to. i have been meaning to read his stuff for a while. one question - exactly how do you pronounce his surname?