carrots, cheesecakes, martinis and shooting stars

on sunday morning i had a brain-wave and wrote a poem about something that had been floating around in my brain for a while. now i have had some feedback and tweaked it enough to feel it's finished but i have no idea what to do with it now.... anyway. i got a real high after i'd finished it, and it was a great feeling - for that brief window in time after you've finished something you've made and you're really please with how it turned out, you're just totally invincible... well, this feeling happened to coincide with a monday morning at work, and amazingly, it still lifted me up and sent me soaring... for about three hours. then i was dumped back into reality, rolled and rumbled in the harsh sands of reality, totally winded and dislocated and bruised, and i had to literally drag myself through the rest of the day. what kept me going was the promise of today, of the rest of the week, and a concerted, renewed effort to get back on track with the writing. if a poem can deliver such a potent high, imagine how i'll feel when i blast my way through the current scaffolding around my story? imagine.
that, and i have promised myself a martini on friday afternoon if i am a good girl this week.
hey, a girl needs a carrot occasionally, even if that carrot is a martini. get what i'm saying?

also speaking of things you make that result in a feeling of invincibility, i made this on the weekend and highly recommend it to all and sundry. trust me, you will not regret it.

last night while i was walking from the bus to my house, i saw a shooting star. initially i thought it was a very fast-moving plane, but i realised it was a shooting star when it disintegrated and left a brief but sparkly tail. i stopped and couldn't stop smiling, and actually said 'thank you' out loud. i have not seen one since i used to live in fiji, where the sky was huge and dark, and shooting stars were plenty. it so happened that mark was in our driveway at the same time, and saw it too - his first shooting star ever. special.

far away places, real and imagined

i got knocked sideways by a virus last week, and as a result lost my voice and my will to do anything - apart from housework. i was sniffling and feeling like crap and there i was sweeping the tiles downstairs and vacuuming upstairs, washing the dishes and wiping down the sink. then last weekend i decided that i needed to have soup for dinner, but not just any soup - oh no. i wanted matzo ball soup, just like we'd had in new york. so, with elvis crooning in the midday movie in the background, i improvised nigella's recipe and made matzo ball soup. it was alright, not as good as the matzo ball soup i had at the city diner in new york, but i'm not sure any matzo ball soup i ever have will be able to live up to that one - it was the first time i'd tried it, and i was finally in the city i had dreamed about for so long. i would love to run away to new york alone and stow away for a while... one day. anyway, i digress. i also think the soup i made didn't really impress me too much because i made it. i don't know. sometimes, a girl just wants to be pampered. needs to be. whatever.

writing, writing, writing. yes, must get back into that soon. maybe even today! what a thought. things to look forward to in the coming weeks - am going to the taping of the first tuesday book club at the abc in elsternwick, and if the weather is nice, i might spend the rest of the day at ripponlea, and imagine that i am in a far-away land full of strangers and mystery... until i have to go home and work out what's for dinner, that is. then early next month there are 2 book launches - verandah at the mwf, and a new friend's second novel in the city. nothing like a few glasses of wine and a bunch of reader-writer-types to put a smile on a girl's face, don't you say?

back at it again

it seems byron provided me with the shot in the arm i needed, because i've been writing regularly since i've been back. it also made me realise that even though i thought i never really had a writing 'pattern' or routine, i actually do.

i was getting lazy in the past, sleeping in on my 'days off' (which weren't actually days off at all - they were supposed to be writing days, hence work days), and just whiling the rest of the day away doing housework and organising stuff - one of the dangers of just having moved into a new place. this week, however, i've been waking up earlier, and i think that's made a difference. i usually do the bathroom thing, then have something to eat, and potter round till about 10.30ish, and i find the whole time i'm doing other stuff, i'm thinking about my story. then i come up to the study and i sit here and write till maybe 3ish. then i actively seek distractions (hello, facebook!), and write a little more till mark gets home. then it's dinner prep time. the only problem i have with this is that i forget to eat lunch... maybe i'll bring up some cheese and crackers next time.

i'm really quite happy with what i'm writing at the moment - unlike other ideas i've had since the first novel, this one seems to have a real hold on me. there is danger ahead, this i know for a fact, but i'm looking forward to finding out how my characters will tackle them. my protagonist is a tough little cookie, and it will not be easy watching her crumble - but it will have to happen eventually, and i'm sure she'll resist it for as long as she can. it's a challenge i'm looking forward to.

on a lighter note, after hearing so many authors at the bbwf talk about working on more than one project simultaneously, i have come up with another idea which is completely on the other end of the scale to my current project. it's slightly trickier though, and will be a challenge of a totally different sort, in the way that rock climbing is different to rollercoasters... i'll keep you posted.

byron bay re-cap

i meant to blog earlier than this, forgive me. now i am back at home with both the heater and a load of washing on, i think i'll re-cap the last week or so, with a longer-than-usual post. first up, the byron bay writers festival.

i arrived on wednesday afternoon and met some fellow attendees on the shuttle bus to byron - had some lovely chats and some moments of quiet contemplation. the weather was lovely from the get-go, and we all know how i love gazing out windows when traveling... anyway, was dropped off at accoms, felt immediately alone, so decided to unpack - i actually ironed some stuff and hung it in the wardrobe. i never iron, let alone actually unpack, when traveling - so that tells you what frame of mind i was in. i was a little nervous about what lay ahead, especially with the workshop the next morning... i ended up walking into town with a new-found friend, grabbing some supplies and heading back to my room for a quiet night in.

thursday morning i was picked up by the festival director, jeni caffin, and taken to the workshop venue. there i met my lovely assistant sandra, who took care of registering all the attendees and getting me organised. all in all there were 25 people there to take the workshop - jenni had told me the day before that the session tickets had sold out, so that was exciting. we started the workshop and i think i rushed things to begin with, as i found myself a half hour ahead of my schedule - i slowed it down a bit, and we had a little break before getting back into it. i had decided that the workshop would be very interactive, and that it would be more about doing exercises and discussion than about me talking at the attendees - i took the 'showing, not telling' quite literally. it worked, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and the final group exercise i had envisioned worked really well - though by this stage i was beginning to run out of time and really had to crack the whip. after the workshop was over, one of the attendees came up to me and said she thought i was good at workshops because i could get people to stop writing. basically, little miss bossy. i think i may have found my calling... then, that afternoon i was whisked off to my first panel, a chat about being a writer for the schools programme. here i met the extraordinary alexandra adornetto, author of 'the shadow thief'. she's 15 and already has 2 books behind her, with a third on the way... i think she may have found her calling. she is a beautiful girl and very well-spoken, and her mum grace also lovely. we hung out a fair bit as we were staying at the same hotel, which was nice. that evening all three of us walked in to town for the opening night party, which was great - catching up with deepika, nury and janet, the old ubud crew; finally meeting marieke on the way back from the drinks table with a glass of champagne in each hand (classy look, yes, but i actually was getting one for janet, too);
chatting with the penguin crew and spying jennifer byrne, brian dawes and other recognisable faces from a safe distance; telling a photographer that the writer she'd just snapped was michael buble (for some reason i had his name stuck in my head that night. i wanted to take off my name tag and put his name there instead just to see if anyone would react). all in all lovely night, and seeing as i had the whole of the next day off, i relaxed and enjoyed it.

friday morning i was up early, so hopped on the shuttle bus to the festival site and checked out some panels. i was starting to feel a little lonely as i had no one to wander around with, but there was a lot going on *and* free cookies in the green room, so that feeling soon passed. friday night was the most nerve-wracking experience ever (and i've been in a few of them, let me tell you), waiting to go on stage and perform in a surprise scenario for the 'thank god you're in byron' feature event. i mad the mistake of deciding to sit out the front and watch the first half of the show, and it did nothing for my confidence levels, i tell you. i was on in the second bracket, and my 'costume' consisted of a shirt worn over my regular clothes with a sewn-on patch on the shoulder which said 'northern rivers parks authority', so i got a sense of what i would be doing. this proved more of a hindrance than a help, as my brain went into overdrive trying to come up with witty things i might say once on stage, but i talked myself out of thinking that and tried to blank out everything. it nearly worked. before i knew it i was on stage and i felt like i was always facing the wrong way, and any time i responded to the actor who was 'driving' my performance, i would crouch down and wave my arms about a-la steve irwin (rest his soul). it seemed to work, there was some laughter, though i have no idea how long i was out there for. the whole thing's a bit of a blur. it was fun, though! then, at the end, all us guest star-type people were dressed up as cops and sent back out on stage to try and quell a 'protest' - i was pretty useless in this one - then to cap things off, the rest of the actors tore onto stage minus all their clothes and i don't think any of us were expecting that - i grabbed nury's hat off his head and covered my face with it. i'm glad i did this, it was an absolute rush, and a great challenge.

saturday i had two scheduled events - a panel on comedy in the afternoon, and a comedy performance on saturday night. the panel was supposed to be about 'the serious business of being silly', but ended up rolling right off the tracks and taking everyone on a joyride of laughs that was immensely enjoyable. moya sayer-jones chaired the panel, and my fellow panelists were nury vittachi and charles firth. charles went on first and set the tone, he picked on me a bit but little was he to know i have two older brothers and thus lots of experience with biting back. nury and i ganged up on him a little, we basically sparred our way through the panel, trying to get laughs off each other and bouncing off each other so well, just having an absolute ball. the panel had a pretty chaotic feel to it and we all just went with the flow, at one stage banishing charles into the audience. it was a great mood-setter for the performance to follow, which where charles, nury and i would be joined onstage by brian dawes. nury and i decided to exact our revenge on charles by putting him last in the lineup, and i went on first because there was no way i was going to follow either charles or brian, and as nury was MC-ing, he was cool with that. not having performed stand up for nigh on a year i was a little nervous, but i decided to allow myself to go on stage with notes (for the first time ever, might i add), and i feel i delivered a good set. it was fun being up there, and the crowd was very responsive, which always helps. brian dawes was on after me, and he brought the house down, followed by charles, who was also very good. following the performances we have a q&a session. much of the questions were directed toward charles and brian (which i was expecting), but i was quite happy to listen. saturday was a definite highlight for me, running a very close second with the debate night at the ubud writers festival last year.

sunday i had a reading in the morning alongside james phelan, and it was 'intimate' - i guess 9.30 on a sunday morning is a little early, even for enthusiasts! a merry band of volunteers filled up the front row, which was lovely - and our readings could not have contrasted more, what with my bit on a traditional hindu outdoor celebration in melbourne, full of food and colour, and james' gun-toting, blood-spilling car chase in europe somewhere. we did a q&a at the end just because we felt like it, and it was a lovely, mellow way to start the day. saw some more sessions during the day, and ate some more yummy yum-cha from red ginger (their prawn and spinach dumplings are to die for, i tell you!), then went to my final panel on blogging. got to meet some very interesting people - antony, kate and marieke - and see deepika again. after the book signing tent kate, antony and i gathered our peeps and headed straight for the bar - we deserved a couple of bottles of wine, i tell you! it was time to let the hair down. had a lovely time at the festival site, made a few new friends, then went on to the party at nury, deepika and janet's hotel room - much wine, some spicy pizza, and some singing on the balcony.
yes, i had a hangover the next morning.
yes, it was very much worth it.
thank you, beautiful byron. thank you *theeees* much xox

i should be packing, i should be packing, but i decide today is the day i will re-jig the blog template and so here i am at 4ish in the afternoon on the day before i leave for byron, and my bag is sitting empty on my bed next to the 'maybe i'll take these clothes with me' pile. as always, i will over-pack, i know this - though the weather is apparently little nippy, so i might end up needing the layers. the initial plan was to fold clothes while watching oprah, but the re-jigging fairy possessed me and what can i say - the clothes are not folded, and now i will never know the real story behind the feud between oprah and tommy hillfiger. how will i ever sleep tonight?

updates & technical difficulties

on a general note, you may have noticed that my kai-india website has disappeared, and that you are being re-directed to this site when typing in its URL. apologies for any confusion or disappountment, but it seems that the whole website has been lost. i have it on my list to replace it with something bigger and better, but for the moment, this blog is it. so, if you've read it all before, there'll be more soon, and if you haven't, browse the archives. i'll keep you updated.

i did a reading gig not long ago for the second asian-australian conference that was held in melbourne. i hadn't taken to the stage in a while, and i did a little bit of standup as a lead-in to the piece, which i wasn't planning on doing till a few hours before the gig. it actually worked quite well, and i really enjoyed being up there again - i guess it's all good practice for byron bay. this week i'm putting the finishing touches on the lesson plan for the workshop i'll be conducting there. i'm really looking forward to the whole experience of the byron bay writers fest in general, but particularly the workshop. i'm keen to see if my plan works!

... but i *can* tell you what i'm doing at the end of next month.

the official program for the byron bay writers festival was released today. i will be on two panels, having a chat to some young'uns, doing a reading, conducting a half-day workshop, and participating in as much other costumed and un-costumed frivolity as i can get into. details of my official appearances are as follows:
thursday 26 july -
9.30 - 12.30pm half-day workshop 'showing not telling'
1.45 - 2pm (schools program): 'now i can call myself a writer: first timers discuss their journeys', with alexandra adornetto.
saturday 28 july -
4.15 - 5.30 pm 'laugh out loud: the serious business of being silly' with nury vittachi and charles firth, moderated by moya sayer-jones
8pm (feature event) 'people who take the piss: good fun and big laughs' with bryan dawe, charles firth and nury vittachi.
sunday 29th july -
9.30 - 10am reading, with james phelan
1.30pm - 3pm 'Blogging: why do it, who does it and who reads it?' with marieke hardy, anthony lowenstein, kate crawford and deepika shetty, moderated by fiona martin

if you're there too, pop by and say hi, obvs. laterz!

tell me what you'll be doing this time next year in one page or less.

i have to write a synopsis. i am finding it harder than i thought i would. i mean, i know what's going to happen, in that i sorta do. but to have to write it down in a page? maybe i am making this more daunting than it has to be thinking about it this way. i'm sure if i wrote down one thing was going to happen, then further down the track something else did, no one one hold it against me...
i missed the deadline to apply for ozco funding this year, though those applications mystify me. you're supposed to write an outline of a project you're not allowed to start till november? how does that work? ah well, one of these days i'll work it out.
on the bollywood beauty screenplay front, there's good news - i received a first draft of the transcription of the book to script early this week. it's weird seeing it all laid out in script form like that - much as it was weird seeing my manuscript laid out as pages for the book. well, hopefully in a couple of years we'll have some real movie action to see. my dad was thumbing thorugh the script and was disappointed there was no speaking part in it for him, though... hehe. at least i won't have to go far to look for extras!

a weight off my shoulders...

so, i've been writing (i know, doing actual writing!) and i was worried a little that what i thought was good was actually not too good at all. you see, my next project is taking me on a new and different journey, down the YA (meaning 'young adult') fiction path. while this may sound easier than writing for grown-ups, i don't think that's true - it's a whole different ballgame, and brings its own challenges. i am enjoying it - but i found myself grinding to a halt because the idea that i might not be doing it right had begun weighing heavier and heavier on my mind. so i got my 13 year old nephew to read it and he said he liked it, though a part of me was thinking 'you have to say that cause i'm your auntie and you feel sorry for me because though i'm twenty years older than you, you're so much taller than me'. you know, the usual familial paranoia.
but oh, weight of weights has just now been lifted. my agent thinks it's good! gooder than good, she thinks it's terrific. oh, the joy! (and the relief).
i have worked out a system. it came to me last night when i'd finished watching 'extreme makeover' and the rest of the house was in bed and i was not sleepy at all. i will work at night! the house is quiet, there are no distractions, and then i will have a valid excuse for sleeping in the next day. hurray!it's a win-win situation.

virtual ticking-off

i've been bad lately. i've been letting myself get all distracted by the interwebs. i now have a facebook account (in addition to a myspace page, orkut and linkedin profile). i have also discovered google reader, and have a list of things on there i check every day. one of those things is miss snark, the literary agent's blog (linked form the sidebar over there). not long ago, i read an entry which i had a physical reaction to. excerpt follows -

Your job is to write.
Unplug the damn internet and get to work.
If you need to buy another computer that doesn't actually hook up to the net, do it.
Blogging is not writing.
Looking at MySpace is not writing.
Friending on MySpace is not writing.
Checking site meter stats to see if anyone from NYC is reading your blog is not writing.
There's a lot to be said for sitting down with your ownself and writing.
Nothing, literally NOTHING replaces that. Focus. You're wasting time.

i will try and curb my online wanderings, or at least restrict them to certain times of the day. i'm sorry, miss snark. more ribe tuchus from now on, i promise.

building myself a word-bridge, and getting over it

my 'top 5' bit came out in the age on saturday, though friends have found it, well, hard to find. if my scanner was beside me and not in storage in a box on the other side of town, i'd put a copy of it up here now. in the meantime i direct you to page 6 of A2, under the 48hours 'eat drink cook' section. that's the one, with the picture of the hamburger and fries in the middle and my name at the end. sorted!

writing-wise, mini crisis and subsequent mini-recovery. i realised last week that the new story had some continuity problems, so called a friend to check dates of things that happen in the real world to which i refer in the book. lo, i had the sequence of events backward. so i sat and stared at much-laboured-over words and felt like crying, then decided to walk away from laptop for a while lest i did something rash. turned out to be a good decision (i think, now at least) for i feel i've found a way to write myself out of this hole. it's tough stuff, though. this new project is a bit dark and sad (at least the bits i'm writing now are). hopefully when i finish it, it will be a story other people want to read.

new news

- i'm going to have another piece in the age A2 on saturday april 14. i realise, as i'm typing this, that having articles published in the papers is not really that exciting for people who freelance for a living, but it's all still quite new to me and i'm still getting a buzz from it, so i'll continue to report publications on this blog.
- i've re-jigged and re-juvenated my manuscript and it looks like it's back on track for the moment. this one's happening a little different from the first in that i have a general idea where the story is going as opposed to just writing and waiting to see what happened next. i'm a little nervous about this new direction, but i'm happy to go with it. we'll see what happens...
- i have an agent. woohoo! i now belong to curtis brown. very happy all round with that develoment...
- i have registered the dot com domain of my name, which currently re-directs to this website. just thought it'd be handy to own... and okay yes i was procrastinating, okay? anyway stop distracting me so i can go back to writing, alright? sheesh! :o)

new acquisitions

yesterday mark had the day off work, so we spent some time together to celebrate in advance of our 7th wedding anniversary this sunday (since i'll be working sunday and he will most likely be working on saturday, we thought we'd take the time while we had it). all in all, great day. i started off calling an old friend to get some tips for a second piece i've been asked to write for the age (woohoo!). then i got a call from another friend, clem, asking if i wouldn't mind popping in to the abc to help with an interview on the breakfast club. apart from being a producer/presenter on in the loop, he has a weekly segment on the breakfast show called 'indian eye'. this week he had in as a guest a girl called corrine davies, who is a performer with jhanak dance company, and who also has aspirations to become a bollywood actress. so i went in, and together with the presenters adelaine and phil, had a group chat/interview with corrine. it was great fun - it was my second time in the breakfast club studios, and i'm telling you, i'm pretty darn comfortable with a pair of headphones on my head and a mic in front of my face...

anyway, back to the day. we spent the afternoon having high tea at the windsor (and constantly comparing it to high tea at the national gallery of london, snobs that we are...). also made a purchase at the hill of content. neither of us has bought a book in a while, not to say that we're deprived of reading material (thank you city library!). anyway, my purchase. it looked good online, but it's even better in the flesh - it has one of those trendy recycled-paper covers and rough, uneven page ends (i once nearly bought a book i knew i wouldn't read just for those things, but now i am glad i saved myself for this one). and it smells great, too. it is the portable dorothy parker, and this is what its face looks like -

and this is what the inside back cover flap looks like:

my dilemma is this - i envision myself lugging this book around a lot, and am afraid of damaging it. but if i put clear contact on it, there goes the lovely feel of the cover. oh, what to do?

article alert & updates

- article alert: melbourne readers, or readers of melbourne news - i have a piece coming out in the saturday age A2 section tomorrow. if it is also published in the age online, i will post a link to it.**
- updates: writing is progressing slowly but surely. can't say much apart from the fact that what i'm working on is very different to the first novel, and as such it is presenting its own unique set of challenges. but it's all good, and we'll see what happens.


**update again: the article is online and can be accessed by clicking here.
post-script - actually the link wasn't working for a while, so after this morning's activities, the tag line should actually read something like this - 'Shalini Akhil's first novel, The Bollywood Beauty, was published by Penguin. She is currently sitting in front of her computer and clicking 'refresh' repeatedly.'

- confession: i bought three copies of the age at at the servo very early this morning, and the indian behind the counter stared at me quizzically and demanded, 'where you taking?'. i told him i had an article in it and he softened and said 'ah, you buy for your family?'. i said 'yes, one for mum and dad, two for me...'

you know... stuff...*

that's the answer to the 'what's been happening?' question, at least. some things i can tell you about (yet), and some i can't. so, let's start with the can, shall we? you may have noticed some changes to the sidebar on the left there. i have updated my links to blogs i like to reflect my recent reading and a couple of new friend blogs. also, on the top there, you may notice i have included a link to a site called show and tell promotions. that's cause i now have a speaker's agent. it's exciting and scary at the same time... i'll keep you posted on how that goes.

writing-wise i have been plugging away, having cleared myself some space on the spare desk in mum and dad's computer room. it gets a little hot in there - though these days in melbourne, where doesn't it? - so i have been blaming my distraction on the weather. i have another little project that has a deadline though, so i definitely will not be able to use that excuse for that... i'll tell you more about it when it's in the bag.

i have been invited to be a guest at the byron bay writers festival later this year and i must admit i'm already quite excited about it. i met a whole host of writers at last year's ubud festival who had just attended the byron festival prior, and they all loved it. ah, ubud... fragrant memories. wouldn't mind going back as an attendee this year. well, you never know what might happen. i do know that instead of dreaming of more travel, i should be dreaming up story-lines...

speaking of which, an old favourite short story i wrote a while ago has finally found its way to print - in the latest sleepers almanac, 'the family affair'. in true shalini style i was so excited to see it finally fly the coop... then my parents read it. will i never learn, i wonder. intrigued? well, you'll just have to buy the book now, won't you?

* yes, confirmation for you eagle-eyed movie buffs... that's yet another quote from clueless.

... and we're back! (again)

hello there faithful friends. it has been a while, but we are back on home soil. and i say (again) because we got back from the big trip a couple of weeks ago, we spent the past weekend in sydney. i know, i know. what's with all the travel, right?

the big trip, as you know, was around the world from the end of october last year to the start of february this year. we explored parts of the usa, canada, europe and south africa. you can catch up on what happened at my other blog, but i'll give you a run-down of the writerly things here:
- whilst in new york, we caught up with ron mclarty and his lovely wife, kate. we met them both at the 2005 melbourne writers festival, and they invited us over to their gorgeous pad for dinner one night. it was an excellent evening in which we met lots of interesting people, drank much wine and talked about everything. thank you ron and kate for a lovely evening!
- we went on a tour of bbc tv and i met a guy who used to work on the sketch show 'goodness gracious me'. not really writerly, but i gave a few business cards and like to now think of self as at one degree of separation from meera syal and sanjeev bhaskhar.
- not much else - apart from the fact that for most of the trip, i kept taking notes on an idea i think might develop into a manuscript. i'm working on that now.

they sydney trip this weekend was all about participating in a talk and a forum at the liverpool regional library for an event titled 'chutney generations'. it was all about indo-fijian diaspora and identity, and was very enjoyable. again i got to meet a lot of people who had read the book, and even got to sign a few copies. it was a great way to get back into it.

now i am hoping to settle down and get some writing done. we're staying with my mum and dad at the moment and yesterday i cleared the spare desk in the computer room. now, with lakshmi, ganesh and saraswati watching over me, i hope to get some words down. happy new year all, and see you later!

autoreply:

me 'oosband and i will be out of the country from tuesday the 24th of october 'til feb 01, 2007. we're going round the world, and as i have been saying, i;ve never been before. no, we have not packed as yet... we'll be updating my other blog with travel tales, though any specifically writery-related news or views will as always find its way to this blog. in the meantime, please enjoy a piece of short fiction called destiny which has been published in edition two of an online journal called peril. the artwork which accompanies the piece was created by artiste extraordinaire (and a friend of mine) stephen devlin. hope you enjoy it - drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

updates

i haven't put up pics for a while, so i thought i'd do a little photoblog entry for you all. here we go:

picture 1 shows that shalini is still a little obsessed with checking bookstore shelves for her book. most times she finds nothing, but sometimes she hits jackpot: case in point, virgin megastore at melbourne airport international terminal: woohoo!

picture 2 shows myself and anita desai. at the same table. need i say more. picture 3 shows me standing between tarun tejpal and kunal basu, after we won the debate. just for the record, who does 'love' better? according to audience vote, novelists, that's who.

picture 4 (not from ubud) shows me doing a reading earlier this year at my old residential college, mannix. they had me over for formal dinner, and there was a talk and reading was in the senior common room afterward.
picture 5 shows the gathered listeners - i managed to keep them awake, which is always a good thing.
picture 6 shows me doing a book signing at mannix college whilst the college dean and librarian look on.

also, deepika shetty from channel news asia's prime time mornings made a report on the ubud writers and readers festival - to view, click here.

ubud update 2

panels are going great - i've officially finished my business here, but i invited myself onto another panel this afternoon - all about blogging, which is going to be fun. i just came out of an 'in conversation with' session between anita desai and festival director janet de neefe - i think it's safe to say that everyone in ubud at the moment has totally fallen for anita desai. i was on a panel about identity between cultures with her and meira chand on saturday. they were both gracious, but i have a definite soft spot for anita. at one stage, when responding to an audience question, she turned to me and said 'maybe shalini would be the one to answer this'. apparently my face lit up enough to risk a power outage (of which there are many - though i'm not sure how many of them can be traced back to anita).

last night was the one session i'd been a little stressed about - a debate titled 'love: who does it better, poets or novelists'. i'd been a little worried about what angle i should take, especially on finding out that my fellow team members were to be tarun tejpal and kunal basu. i met some of the poets beforehand and gathered that they were going with a historical argument, that poets invented love, and that novelists really had no business even trying. so, in the end i decided to go for the pop culture angle - i thought i'd stay close to the ground and go for maximum audience impact. it turned out to be the right decision.

i used wide-ranging references to play to different generational ideas of 'love', and with some great suggestions from mark, i picked four points and expanded on them, pretty sure that they would get me through. i decided to open with a quote from an 80's song by the masters of yacht-rock, toto - 'hold the line, love isn't always on time'. it seemed like a good idea then (it all worked out in the end, as it happens) but when we got to the venue, and as it slowly filled up to capacity (and then some), i started having second thoughts. as in any other pre-performance nervy situation, i located the bathroom and locked myself in it for a bit. now, don't worry - i won't go into too much detail here - but as i turned to grab some paper off the roll, there it was - a sign. the loo-roll dispenser had a silver cover, and on the cover was etched the manufacturer's name - toto.

the debate itself went great - funniest bit was when i mentioned mr. darcy. all the women in the audience glazed over for a bit (imagining colin firth emerging from the lake, i assume) and went 'oooh' at the same time - their combined swoons ended up sounding like a large cat purring. but on the table behind me, apparently all the other debaters - including the rest of my team - all looked at each other and said 'who's mr darcy?'. it was great fun. the novelists won in the end, and even though i had a few people come up to me and say i won it for the team, i'd like to think that tarun and kunal helped us across the line somewhat... i jest! we were a great team. after the debate we went to a poetry slam at another restaurant, m-c'ed by morganics, an australian hip-hop artist. it was an amazing evening, and it took me a while to come down... actually i think it will take me some time coming down from this trip in general. so many good things have happened here, so many new connections made, i have a feeling ubud will be in my heart for a very long time after i leave.

writer no. 46, reporting from ubud.

today was the opening day of the ubud writers festival. i had my first panel, and got to sit at the same table with anita desai and meira chand. the first session on monday morning is the festival director, janet de neefe, in conversation with anita desai. we anticipate that the queue will stretch out to the street and beyond. anita desai is a bit of a legend, and an absolute joy to listen to.

ubud is beautiful - it is a very picturesque town full of art - carvings everywhere, and many, many temples - religious ceremonies seem to be happening at one of them almost every day. we went to a temple perched high on a cliff yesterday, and monkeys roamed free in the grounds. 'make no eye contact with them' was one piece of advice - 'make sure there's a man in your group' was another. on thursday night we were treated to dinner at one of the most extravagantly gorgeous resorts i have ever seen. anita desai and william dalrymple did readings, and four courses and countless glasses of wine later, i felt like i was walking on a cloud.

the resort we are staying at is very beautiful, set high on a cliff amongst coconut palms and rice paddies. it is serene and quiet apart from the occasional motorbike engine noise from the road below. this morning, we saw two lizards - one in the garden, smooth as a skink with streaks of yellow from its armpits to its waist, and one earlier, stealthily sneaking across our ceiling as we lay slightly pertified in the bed beneath it. last night on our way home from the opening ceremony, our driver pulled over on the way home and turned off the headlights, saying softly 'you want to see kunang-kunang?' as our eyes adjusted to the darkness we were amazed to see flitting sparks in the rice paddies, as small as christmas lights and twice as bright, flashing noiselessly through and up out of the dark fields.
fireflies.

i've read about fireflies, and i thought they'd be like candles, yellow and pale in the darkness. not as sharp and as brilliant as lone fireworks at ankle-level. but i was happy to be proven wrong in my assumptions - much as i feel about bali in general. it's a whole lot more than i ever expected it to be.