Nude 5

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 6/16/2013 2:14:00 PM

'I started this Nude series a while ago, intending to do 10. Here's the fifth one of the series and I hope I get around to finishing all.'

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Celluloid Flesh

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 6/14/2013 5:26:00 AM

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Euphoria

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 6/1/2013 4:04:00 AM

'I haven't painted in a long time and few things seem to inspire me these days. But a colleague introduced me to this song a few days ago and it became more than a earworm. Sanam Puri's voice made my heart leap with pure ecstasy and I wanted to dance with joy - or paint it. I made this quick watercolor work in not more than an hour and was quite pleased with it. My long-standing fear of watercolour seems to have gone, at least some of it. I thought it came out quite okay. And you?'

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My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 5/27/2013 4:12:00 AM

'Some books grab you by the throat, some lie next to you under shady trees on summer afternoons in companionable silences, and some, you must coax and cajole into a friendship. My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose started out being the third kind, but by the time I finished, it had become the second. My relationship with this book was one of old school romance - just what the book is about.In the 'literary' age where more people know of E L James than say, Jane Austen, where consummati(...)'

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Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino: Impressions

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 5/4/2013 12:30:00 PM

'WHAT A DRAG!I would begin and end my review with those three words had this not been a review copy. 'Salvation of a Saint' by Keigo Higashino landed in my kitty as a book reviewer as a result of fierce PR activity that this writer/publisher is wont to do. I remember the massive noise Higashino's first book - The Devotion of Suspect X - made in India's blogging circles.I finally managed to finish the book today after lugging it around for a while. And I call it lugging not (...)'

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Neera pays back

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 4/26/2013 9:24:00 AM

'Neera. Where can she go?She is but a line that curves and stretches and dancesto the tunes of your penNeera will go where your nib drags herNeera is a work of art,made good or bad by the way your fingers move.Neera is your food and your hunger.Neera is the fine line between the real and the imagined.Yes Neera is a moment arrested,a breath held (within your lungs)Neera is that stretched sunset you wish for,an evening that never ends.It's time Neera paid back in ink.Passion with passi(...)'

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The Other Side of the Table by Madhumita Mukherjee: Impressions

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 4/22/2013 4:23:00 PM

'There are some books where you are part of a respectful audience and then there are some when you are a voyeur. I felt like the latter when reading 'The Other Side of the Table', written uniquely as it is in the form of letters. Letters, those wonderful things from a bygone era few from this time will know of. Those blue-brown things that smelt of sweat and perfume and musty mailboxes. Those things that made you to learn to wait and be  happy with one little piece of love at a (...)'

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Levitation

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 4/19/2013 5:08:00 AM

'I like how you levitateright here, amidst the throngdaring us all to seebut we are blinded by voicesHow you float in spaceright here, between us allbut not quite hereuntouching, untouched.How you take off into the skyright here, from the couchno rocket propelled shoesonly words for wingsHow you create windowswherever you fancy themand jump off into infinityever so often.(Nidheesh, this is for you.)'

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Ash

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 4/18/2013 1:31:00 PM

'You perhaps do not remember.But how would you?You didn't see it for what it was.A lipstick stained table napkinI left ever so carelesslyon the table across which you sat, drinking coffeeHoping you'd steal it, save itas a souvenir from our last meal togetherYou also didn't seemy heart on your platterSo I put them back in my purse, heart, napkin and hopeAnd left with as impassive a goodbyeas I could manage.Now all that is left,Is a line of ashFrom the cigarettes I (...)'

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Middle of a dream

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 4/4/2013 10:05:00 AM

'We are running, despite no gravityon this road to nowhereWe are in someplace strangethat could be heaven or hellThere's no way of knowingin the absence of signboards. But i'm feeling, i'm feelingfeeling so hard, and fallingand reelingand flyingall at once.My fingers are locked in yours(but who are you, again?)this is surely the middle of a dream.The dream sits heavyon the palm of my hand(so soft, so unbearably soft)and sometimes it cozies upon the tip of my tongue(so sweet(...)'

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Dozakhnama by Rabishankar Bal: Impressions

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 3/28/2013 2:41:00 PM

'Have you ever been burnt by a book? Been trapped between its pages, gasping for air? Have you felt that if you read any more you'd die; but if you didn't read, you'd die anyway? If you've not had the pleasure of such a pain, read Dozakhnama.Page after page of this book, I've been burned. Page after page, I've suffered as a reader. Page after page, I've yo-yoed from heaven to hell and back. I've seen creations divine, and endured the labour pains that every creation demands. Author R(...)'

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The Club

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 3/10/2013 12:04:00 PM

'I've never before seen so many vacant eyes,so many purposeless actions in one place.Like a city of ghosts - full, yet empty as empty can be;like a city of ghosts - frightening.A pitiable attempt by lonely city souls to drown themselves in noiseand perhaps a little alcohol-fueled amnesia.Glassy eyes, hollow words, an obsessive love of the phone,as if looking for a portal to escape this prison of shallow.Music, smoke, the spirits and strobe lights,an army of gyrating zombies in a full(...)'

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Sleep awhile my lovely child

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 3/7/2013 10:53:00 AM

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Line drawing - Parthasarathi and Arjuna

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 3/3/2013 11:36:00 AM

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A River Sutra by Gita Mehta: Impressions

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 3/1/2013 5:03:00 AM

'The good/bad invention/addiction that is Twitter is perhaps the single most influential sphere of my adult life. I've made and parted with friends here, built some real and imaginary relationships, had some genuine camaraderie unnecessary fights; I've generally allowed it to dictate big chunks of my emotional life. For me, Twitter is as real as virtual life can get. Of the most dear people I've met here is @scrollsnink or Reema. I've never met her in real life, but I can claim to lo(...)'

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The 7 Secrets series by Devdutt Pattanaik: Impressions

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 2/20/2013 1:22:00 PM

'I was gifted the 7 Secrets series by a dear friend recently, and I read the 7 Secrets of Vishnu and the 7 Secrets of Shiva back to back. They are both structured in the same way with the author explaining the myth and symbolism of many a Vishnu and Shiva lore. The Vishnu book takes the avataars and forms of the Preserver God (Matsya, Kurma, Mohini, Krishna, Ram, Kalki, etc.) and explains why the incarnation was taken, what it represents, and the common stories associated with it. Th(...)'

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This is love (LOL)

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 2/14/2013 9:24:00 AM

'(Image source: Deviant Art by Yoda13)The summary of all I'll ever have to say to you is I love you.A love that breaks shore over and over at your stone feet, hoping you will feel something; anything.Step into my skin for a day, and know how I bleed for you.It's hard on days when the voice of my love will not be tamed.That helpless, shameless kind of love that I can lay at no one else's altar.My songs are orphaned without you.My heart, a lost child in a fair.My life, an endless (...)'

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Maid in Singapore by Kishore Modak: Impressions

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 2/9/2013 10:42:00 AM

'Despite telling a complex grey tale, Kishore Modak's is one of the coldest voices I've ever read. A lot happens in the 239 pages of this short novel, yet the author remains impassive, failing to draw the reader in. It's more like reading a newspaper than a novel with no emotions evoked, and no connect made. I read the book in a day; not exactly sucked into the vortex of the tale, but like a rooted bystander observing its morbid goings on.But 'Maid in Singapore' has a plot that one w(...)'

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50 Shades of Grey by E L James: Impressions

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 2/8/2013 6:46:00 AM

'I'm very late for the global kinky party, but I finally read 50 Shades of Gray by E L James. And no, I'm not going to act like a literary elitist a-hole and say things like oh, this book is such a load of bull. Because it isn't, and I, ahem, lapped it up while it lasted. That, however, doesn't mean I'm rooting for it to get a Booker. I read it like millions of women (and men) in the world because hey, everyone needs a trashy break. That, and everyone has secret voyeuristic needs to (...)'

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Not a goodbye yet

Author : Urmi Chanda Vaz      Blog : Karma and some      Date : 1/28/2013 1:26:00 PM

'Blow away you say?Blow away all preciousnessBlow away everythingthat truly matters to this heart?Poked, probed, pricked, pinnedBroken, tattered, worn thin,Whatever its state or shape,It is an object of my love.How can I wish awaythe fire to my cold,the rain to my droughtthe rhythm to my heart?The waiting never ceasedThe wanting never ceasedI may have turned my face awayBut I never stopped loving'

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