How Ganesha wrote the epic

Authors site

In high school, our Telugu teacher regaled us with stories of Mahabharata. The stories are rife with references to others. when I read on the book cover that 'Ganesha wrote Mahabharata' I made up mind to write to the author that it is wrong. what did I know? Just one story about how Ganesha was scoffed at by the moon, when his belly was overflowing with sweets. I didnt know that Ganesha wrote down the story while Vyasa dictated it.
Now what did he write the story with? What story that made sweet lover Ganesha forget about sweets?
The illustrations are novel. Simplification of line with geometrical patterns. Repetition of the patterns.
Kids can easily be inspired to make their own creations of characters they like.
Modern techniques are used to solve problems of a different age.
Why would Ganesha need a stapler? To know more, read this amalgam of myth turning mod.

To resuscitate or not

Reading an excerpt of Fragile beginnings, I learnt something of umbilical arteries that arent normally used are needed for monitoring premature babies. The ending of the excerpt has antonyms coexisting.

The article itself has some history on how the research on saving premature babies evolved. All those mothers who cant wait for their baby to emerge, be patient.

Fast forward to the time where I have my hands on the book.

The author provides us with the background of a research scientist who found his passion for helping babies. A brother of a suffering patient is motivated to find the cure for his sibling. Showing these personal connections as the need to push the curing science forward, the author explains the technical aspects of Cerebral hemorrhage. Being an ob intern himself at the time of premature birth of his third baby, he delves more into the literature and asks for his rights to take his baby home. Talking of rights, there is a clear history of Baby Doe Law which was tightened and then released a bit. The courts insistence on life despite not-on-par future normal life. 

The author refers to many studies about life going forward for those suffering with ICH. To resuscitate or not seems to be hanging in the balance in a Neonatal intensive care unit. As if the inherent odds is not enough, studies use lottery analogy to understand the choices of parents.
Neuroplasticity and brain plasticity studies.
With Constraint induced movement therapy, the author's daughter ends up learning to use her right hand whose movement was restricted due to the ICH in her brain. The premature baby goes beyond her diagnosis and bikes.
CIMT was introduced by Dr. Taub, who worked at University of Alabama, Birmingham. All the experts in medicine are all in the backyard of the author converging the research experiments and the improvements with their applications into a closer area.

Guess how much I love you story in Fragile Beginnings.

At the border of real and unreal

Eduardo Corral interview

This is the kind of cover that can be used in therapy for those who hate snakes.
Junot Diaz calls this the book that made him cry.
The book cover says 'seamlessly braiding English and Spanish' writing, but that is so for someone who knows both languages. But for someone who doesnt know Spanish, it is like broken maze.
"Kahlo glaring at a self portait
as if her gaze were responsible for holding it to the wall."
The writing has power to stick with you. There's just enough surrealism to not scare the reader away.
Websters Spanish-English dictionary wont tell me what pachangas means.

But, what they found, it turned out, meant more to them than what they had come to find

- Robert kanigel

To know the story in life, first you have to write it.

On regional news, I learnt that lanka means an island. hence Sri Lanka. The news was about the difficulties faced in islands of Andhra Pradesh when they get flooded and isolated from the rest of the state. This spurred my interest in this ' On an Irish island'.

I wonder how courgettoli will fly with eaters, but the science of it at molecular level is interesting to learn. The author turns these molecular, impersonal interactions into our everyday terms so we understand who is the mediator in mayonnaise connecting the water and oil. 

Syneresis

Thixotropy

Story of Charles Dickens as writer

A while ago, Portico library asked for works related to Charles Dickens. Then I saw a book of letters by Dickens. Archive wise, they are a great treasure. But before you have the key, the context, you cant invest yourself in it. The prologue of 'Becoming Dickens' is engaging. 

How to rev your writing?

Let the words find you

Annie Lopez's work was exhibited as part of  Family Matters exhibition at Tempe Center of Arts Gallery. She conducted a writing workshop too.


Art Workshop: What's Your Story?
GalleryNoon-4 p.m., Aug. 25
Exhibiting artist Annie Lopez will lead a workshop about art making and writing. Visitors of all ages can bring their own copies of family photographs or use miscellaneous photocopies provided by the artist. First, participants will write short stories, poems or statements about the images and then color and decorate the work to tell a family story. Free

I was apprehensive about the story part. Still I went. Few years ago I had gone for a painter's workshop where the artist made the portrait of a live model's face. 
When I walked in, a granddaughter - granddaughter pair was working on their story. The artist had a couple of pre-made tiny journals tied with colourful strings. She had some family photographs scanned onto white sheets with sample stories on them. That was on her table.
On the participants table were many paper cuttings of texts and pictures.
I took a couple of family pictures with me. One was with my family marking the time when the whole family started to live under one roof. Another was at my cousin's ceremony similar to Quinceanera. I was set to write about how my cousin's father picked us from the hostel to join the ceremony. From the paper clippings a blue butterfly caught my eye. And there I had the concept of morphing into an adult. I kept turning the tiny pieces of paper to find the text underneath. That aimless text guided my story to what I had not planned to reveal. I see the power of words lying on the table like this for braiding the story. Fixed words of Magnetic poetry might not yield good poetry if you stick to using just those words but with a budding story in mind it can add fuel to the fire.
Keep cutting those words out of the paper into your story.

Laugh now

Author: Suzanne Weber

Wow. A kid who chalks off nipple confusion to preformed preferences. The baby cant count but sure can talk you out of all the parenting rules. couple of revenge poems from babies.
When the baby has the say, the poem doesnt have to start with the title. It can be in the middle of the poem.
When the gig gets old, the later poems lose their poetic appeal.

Ailurophobe

eyas

A word a line

Author: Maureen N Mclane

An interview

Hecuba

When sentences are moved word by word onto the next line, the space adds weight to each word. When the word is connected to the next then it is encountering a subset and a superset world without going through big hoops.

In Its not that, 'favelas blasted'. favelas moved for world cup and olympics.

Poetry is like tinted glasses

The being pain is being is you

In A good father, 'bile going to the brain' made me wonder if its a possibility or a poetic leap. This is how.

In 'Mr pain speaks for himself', the metaphor of pain as pervading as a loyal mom and the image/simile of the pained running away 'like a watermelon on stilts' make you forget that it is pain that we are talking of.
Winter Drought and its balladic origins

Michael Ryan's other collection

One word. Language.

Author: Lucia Perillo
nytimes eview

A series of poems on Eve, apple and ribs. 

On the destruction of the mir - This poems reminds me of an article in NatGeo - Hiking 5 ecosystems in  a day.

Reading of gray gum in Nathan's reminded me of Subgum that I read in Oriental Jade menu.
Life pinned me on its thorn and 'let the dirty dishes click like castanets!'

Excuses against house cleaning

Author: Phyllis Diller

Wow.Arm sling really, to hide from house cleaning. I bet in the mess, she cannot remember where she left it last spring. This is dog's toy eating up the homework.

What veterinarians can teach physicians

For once, I feel proud at selecting a book. Every line of this book is informative. When we were in the delivery room, the nurse had asked my husband to grab something to eat. last thing she wanted was a fainting  father. I thought it must be because of starvation but the author tells that the fainting is due to the emotional high point. I once fainted into the rest room. Its interesting to imagine that there was a lag in the blood's difficulty in fighting gravity. While this is the kind of thing that  is easy to understand, as it relates to us, the author shows her path of the commonalities she found in the health conditions of humans and animals. By knowing that we face common problems, we go beyond the 98% common genes in understanding other animals and some day veterinarians will be seen on par with the doctors of human.
An interesting excerpt on fear at work with SIDS for the fatality.
Scoop on intestine and calories.

Lets Go Paris!

The last time I read a book in short posts format, The Rules of Inheritance, I was scared. It is by a cancer survivor. This book too is by a cancer survivor but not full scale. This book is funny. As much as her visit to a breast cancer specialist whose office was filled with Wonder woman memorabilia. 

The format made it easy for the author to continue several stories parallel. You can look forward to what the family eats at restaurants. Whats the big deal about it? The author moved to Paris with her family for a year. Half of her family is of school going age. The children's experiences at school are full of unexpectables as much as the trips they take their parents on.

Di Mezzo Il Mare

A journal entry

bontha

Bontha is  a telugu word for quilt made from old sarees and blankets, sewed together to make a sturdier cold fighter. A while ago, one career services lady was retiring. I asked of her plans during retirement.
'I like quilting' she said. Quilts have something old in them and the patterns in which they are joined make the assortment look complete. 

Author Dinty W Moore has four noble truths of writing just like Buddhism.
corpse meditation

Challenging

Finding the differences between two almost same pictures is difficult, more so it it is in colour. As a kid, the center page of a magazine filled with such puzzles was my favourite. This 'Moshi Monsters' is a collection of such puzzles - trace the maze, find the words, sudoku, match people, match objects. And in the end is an 'answers' section too.
All this activity will aid brain development. There are many exercises where the kids are to share their likes and dislikes with their friends. This will help them understand themselves and their friends and develop their personalities. All this while having fun.