‘Picture Perfect’: Short Stories penned by Anjali Minanath Dhaske

Anjali Minanath Dhaske has done Post graduation in Education and was teaching at teacher training school for 3 years. Post this career stint she decided to enjoy her motherhood. While enjoying her motherhood, she pursued her hobbies. She is the passionate homemaker and Marathi writer. She is well-known for her elaborate Rangoli designs and the writing along side. She creates stories with an intrinsic love of storytelling. Her first story book, which was inspired by her own experience as a woman in modern-day, is proof of her dedication to self-expression.
Her entry in literature world started with her blog “Ashayghan Rangoli’ (आशयघन रांगोळी). She started writing alongside her Rangolis. Progressively she also started her own YouTube channel “Rang Majha Vegala by Anjali M Dhaske” for art, craft and Rangoli. Meanwhile she was also writing short stories on many online platforms.

Order your copy of the book ‘Picture Perfect’, which is a collection of short stories in the form of an ebook and hardcopy on the following websites.

👉 BLUEROSE STORE: https://blueroseone.com/store/product/picture-perfect

👉 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.in/Picture-Perfect-Anjali-Minanath-Dhaske/dp/9359898856

👉 FLIPKART:

https://www.flipkart.com/picture-perfect/p/itm04fbc25771963?pid=9789359898858

My thoughts about the book: Rashmi Malapur

All the stories written by Anjali are simple and so are the characters. You don’t have to stress about multiple characters or complex situations. All the situations or the backdrop are so relatable and true to real life. She makes no deliberate attempt to think out of the box in a bid to impress the audience. The ease in her writing flows seamlessly in the reader’s mind and at the end of each story you wish to get intuitive and reflect on the society we presently live in.

Few stories are about women and the way they try hard to fit into the mold of femininity, culture, and traditions. The struggles of women might seem so insignificant at times but they touch them at a deeper level. Even women shrug them off by saying, “Life is like that” or “Women are bound to face these challenges”.

Now what is impressive is Anjali’s approach, she isn’t criticizing or vehemently opposing the repressive culture. She intertwines her thoughts through the characters that live out of self-realization and progress to a better life. May it be Nisha from the story ‘Chakulya’ or Veena from ‘Teku’.

Deepak or Eshwari’s mother from her story ‘Eshwari: Ek Stri man’ understands her son’s sexual orientation and accepts it gracefully by supporting and making  him feel confident and independent.

Anjali presents the dilemmas we face in our daily life and choose to just ignore. Probably we all have become a little insensitive to observe and ponder. Here Anjali’s stories play that vital role of triggering thoughts that we shrug off, through relatable stories with daily incidences. She proves that while bringing to notice the complexities of daily life and the present society a detailed narration isn’t necessary. Simple short stories can do the job well.

But what I genuinely loved about the book is the thread of positivity that runs through all stories and the maturity with which she unfolds each situation and the characters as well.

Most of the stories are progressive and impress on the reader’s mind in the subtlest way to rethink the present societal norms we accept at a subconscious level.

Anjali avoids stretching the stories too much but that doesn’t mean she fails to take time and effort to weave each story. She is simply brilliant at touching the audience with minimum words.  Infact, some stories are light-hearted yet leave a lasting impression on your mind like ‘Promise Day’, ‘Picture Perfect’ and ‘Healthy Food’.

The book is written in Marathi but it would be great if these stories could be translated into English. Not an easy task though.

‘Picture Perfect’ by Anjali Minanath Dhaske is distinct due to its simplicity, brevity, and intuitiveness.

Copyright 2024 Rashmi Malapur

Is writing a solitary act?

Is writing a solitary act?

Image courtesy: https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/12/10/emily-dickinson-love-letters-susan-gilbert/

It is one of the most immersive experience a writer goes through. All that she watches, observes and absorbs gets assimilated within and is manifested in words. Writers might choose to be silent for a while but that only means something is brewing.

That space becomes so vital for a writer at times that she aggressively defends this right to sit in silence and choose to be away. I think artists are blessed with this space along with the will and desire to turn inwards and reflect.

Coming back to the act of writing being an immersive experience – I would like to reiterate and endorse the thought that a writer or an artist is nothing without people, nature and surroundings.

But, it is solely the prerogative of a writer either go out; step out of the four walls or be in a closed space and write. Surprisingly, Emily Dickinson wrote 1,800 poems in her bedroom. So, she was away – in the midst of the same surroundings.

Image courtesy: https://lithub.com/the-light-as-she-saw-it-on-sitting-in-emily-dickinsons-bedroom/

Thus, an artist is a creator and can imagine so much more – irrespective of the surroundings.

An artist has a world within – so does it mean that when she writes it’s a lonely process and a solitary act?

Still confused!! 🙂

Let us attempt to answer this question!! Hmm…a world within that no one else can see – yes, true.

But when the writer shares this world, it doesn’t remain her own. It is shared with the universe. But the act of writing is surely about being alone and describes the need to reflect and then share.

Conclusively, writing is a lonely process!!

Any thoughts on this? Share them!!

Love,

Rashmi Malapur

PIFF Diaries Pune International Film Festival

As an artist, it’s imperative that I ponder over social sensibilities, diversities, upheavals, economic challenges, social structure, cultures and customs. Movies reflect all these aspects through storytelling and visual aesthetics, which consume me.

I’ve been attending Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) for the past 3 years. In a span of 3 days, I watch 9 movies and still don’t feel satiated for the simple reason that these movies awe me. I carry these movies with me through the years, the stories, characters, locations, countries, emotions, cultural references so much more that cannot be expressed in words. This year too I’m here at PIFF for my sheer love for movies.

Hats off to Jabbar Patel sir and his PIFF team for their consistent, and sincere efforts to plan and execute such a well-organized event that brings the best movies around the world on a single platform.

The movies that I saw at PIFF 2023 screened at the Pavilion Mall, PVR Icon, Senapati Bapat Marg:

Day 1 – Monday – 7^th February 2023

Movie: Minsk

Director: Boris Guts

Estonia

Image courtesy: https://t1tallinn.com/en/film/minsk/

The movie is about the August 2020 street protests in Minsk, Belarus and the movie turns violent in the latter part.

It’s a single-take movie and was created without any editing cuts.

Reflections:

Though the movie gets violent and stuns you at the end, it is a must-watch for the way its shot and an understanding of the political scenario in Belarus. Democratic rule is what people wish but dictatorship is thrust upon them by rulers who refuse to acknowledge the right and the intellect of the people to believe that they need to be ruled, not empowered.

A series of mass protests were held against the Belarusian government and President Alexander Lukashenko. Protestors faced violent persecution, torture, sexual abuse, and rape. Viasna Human Rights Center has documented 1,000 testimonies of torture victims by the end of 2020.

Amidst the heightened emotions and violent scenes, I was pleasantly surprised to listen to a song by my favorite band Radiohead in the movie.

Reviews on IMDb – some reviews shared by Belarusians have criticized the movie saying that it is not the true picture of what happened during the protest.

Read more about the August 2020 protest: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/11/belarus-violence-abuse-response-election-protests

You can watch the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSVLFu4a9-A

Read more about the film: https://minskfilm.com/

Movie: The Blue Caftan

Director: Maryam Touzani

Morocco

Image courtesy: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17679584/

The movie centers around Lubna Azabal (“Adam”) as Mina and Saleh Bakri (“Costa Brava, Lebanon”) as Halim. A married couple owns a store in Morocco’s oldest town in the city of Salè.

It’s a caftan store meticulously made by Halim a traditional art that seems to be challenged by machine-made embroidery. They try hard to catch up with the customer demands though Halim is passionate about the art and hardworking. They need a helping hand thus, hire a young apprentice Youssef (Ayoub Messioui). Halim is involved in Youssef and their life changes.

The movie is about the compulsion of concealing homosexuality since same-sex involvement or sexual acts are illegal and can be punished with imprisonment.

Reflections:

It’s a sensitive movie with superb performances by the artists. The scene where the three actors dance to the tune of a song being played in their lane is fantastic. The bond that the married couple share is so deep and beyond all practicalities. The intimate scenes are shot well.

I loved the music composed by Kristian Eidnes Andersen and Cinematography by Virginie Surdej.

Excellent work by Maryam Touzani!!

Movie: The Star is Moving –

Natchathiram Nagargiradhu

Director: Pa Ranjith

India

Movie Courtesy: IndiaGlitz

Image Courtesy: Movie Crow

It’s a Tamil movie set in the backdrop of a theatre group and weaved with complex thoughts about social issues pertaining to love in Indian society. It touches on many aspects like honor killing, arranged marriage system, casteism, the generation gap, transgender individuals and gay relationships. The theatre group is run by Subeer played by the actor Regin Rose.

Rene (Dushara Vijayan) and Iniyan (Kalidas Jayaram) living in a romantic relationship break up and the movie begins by stating ‘Love is political’. Rene is a Dalit and Iniyan makes her realize it which she despises. Later on in the movie, Rene speaks her heart out to Kalaiyarasan who plays the character  Arjun and transforms as the movie progresses from an orthodox person to a more receptive and open-minded person.

Reflections:

The opening scene begins with references to casteism and orthodox values that are losing their relevance among the young generation. Though it’s tough for the young generation too to live with the changing scenario of Indian social structure and rebellion. Biases are a result of our upbringing and education. Well, it isn’t that simple too. It’s a complex mesh of thoughts that we all prefer not to untangle. I like the fact that the movie is hopeful about the changing social scenario but the onus should not lie on a few.

I loved this movie the direction, acting, and dialogue.

Special mention about the music composed by Tiburtius Vinodh Rubin, better known professionally as Tenma and the leader of the indie band ‘The Casteless Collective’. Music is foot-tapping, melodious and fresh adding to the vibrance of the movie.

You can watch the film on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81594244

That was about my Day 1 @PIFF2023.

To be continued….

Peace – Energy

Making peace with myself has been the toughest thing to do for me.

At present, I fail to understand why?

I’m quite receptive to energies, rather extremely sensitive.

I pick and absorb both negative and positive energy easily.

Working on myself is the toughest thing since it entails changing myself. But it is the best investment you can make.

Everything else will start falling in place automatically.

The awareness that I just absorbed and received negative energy is the first step to happiness.

Thanks, Riya Gaonkar your powerful sessions have made me aware and conscious.

Gratitude to everyone in my life!!!

Online theatre festival by Theatre Management Company

A few days back I received a message on Instagram from Theatre Management Company requesting me to participate in the online theatre festival. This was totally exciting – an online theatre festival? Wow!! I recited my poem and totally enjoyed the experience. The team is dedicated to art and I love the fact that they are so warm and comfortable to be with.

Well, I wished to know more about TMC and how it all started. So, here we go!!

The team: Theatre Management Company

Sikandar Khan, Muneera Surati, Anuj Khandelwal, Tanuj Khandelwal, Salim Parvez Khan, Shubhangi Shah, Anchal Agarwal, and Ruchika Rai.

Ques. What was the thought behind launching TMC?
I. Theatre Management Company was founded by Mr. Sikandar Khan who himself is a theatre artist and an evolving actor. The thought came when he realized the concerns like the improper structure of Indian Theatre, the burden on a director’s shoulder to market his play, and many more. When everyone else was saying that “Theatre is dead”, an idea struck him. He decided to organize Indian Theatre in such a way that it creates a win-win situation for artists, directors, and event organizers. That is how TMC was born.

Ques. Share with us the recent events.
II. Since TMC has just begun its operations in 2021 August, 2 Online Theatre Festivals have been organized under its banner. The third festival, however, is going to find its ground from December 24th.

Ques. Why online festivals? How do they contribute to art?
III. The idea behind an online festival was to make theatre accessible to its audience. It should become like a habit just as daily soaps have become a part of our daily routine wherein every month there will be new performances with different languages.  

Online festivals were started for an entertainment purpose for our audience. It was the response from the audience and performers that prompted us to think in a different direction of promoting Indian art and culture through online festivals. We have performances in Hindi, Urdu, English, Malayalam, Tamil, and the newly added Sanskrit that reflect the rich cultural heritage our country has. It hence becomes important for our new generation to interact with theatre in the form of Urdu Mehfil, Poetry Sessions, Short Plays, Folk Stories, Musical Performances, and many more.

Ques. What does art mean to you?
IV. Anything which is done with perfection subconsciously is art. We cannot grasp concepts of performance, it is something that comes from within. The art forms performed in ancient India are fairly rich.

Ques. Is regional art dying; folk music, affinity towards regional languages, and poetry in regional languages?
V. The regional art forms are not dying per se, but yes they aren’t demonstrated and marketed than often as much as other modern content is. The change of interests in people and lack of knowledge of regional art creates a gap between art and the audience. It still can be relieved if we start practicing and promoting these art forms individually. We all can join the movement started by the Theatre Management Company.

Ques. What are your future plans? Where do you see TMC 3 years from now?
VI. This is just the beginning and we wish to see Theatre at the place it belongs to and with the love and affection of the audience, this can certainly be done.

© Copyright 2021 Rashmi Malapur All rights reserved

Genom parken. / Through the park.

Lovely Yolanda!! Visit her site and do follow her!!

Yolanda and her creative scream

View original post

Fåtölj-vy / Armchair view

Check out these pictures guys. I love them all!! Yolanda!!

Yolanda and her creative scream

View original post

Mary Oliver and Life (1)

words and music and stories

Mary Oliver (10 September 1935 –2019) was an American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984 and The National Book Award for poetry in 1992.
Her poems are meditations on nature, spirituality and the human experience in a straightforward language that makes poetry “look easy.” However, if this gift appealed to the public, it attracted the derision of those who consider poetry as a more intellectual practice, consisting of layered allusions and complex symbolism.
In a 2012 interview the poet dismissed such erudite concerns, maintaining that “poetry, to be understood, must be clear” rather than “fancy.”

Here’s how she talks about life in a passage from her poem “Sometimes”, belonging to the collection “Red Bird” published by Beacon Press, 2008.

§ 4

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

Mary Oliver (10 settembre 1935 –2019) è una poetessa…

View original post 124 more words

Happy Teacher’s Day

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan – Picked from https://www.brainpickings.org
Every artist’s art is their coping mechanism for the extreme sensitivity to aliveness that we call beauty — the transcendent and terrifying capacity to be moved by the world, to let something outside us stir deeply something within us. All great art — and only honest art can be great — is therefore the work of vulnerability and all integrity the function of fidelity to one’s fragilities.

That is what Bob Dylan (b. May 24, 1941) addresses with his penetrating poetics of insight in a 1977 conversation with Jonathan Cott — that uncommonly sensitive and erudite investigator of uncommon minds.

Image source;

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2021/06/double-life-bob-dylan-clinton-heylin-review?amp

Emotional tug a war

Copyright 2021 Rashmi Malapur