Malvika’s Ramblings

Please hit Comment and recommend me a well-written book that I must read.

Two books that I remember enjoying -Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy; Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Full Tilt is autobiographical. It’s about a 21 year old woman’s journey from Ireland to India on her cycle. Roald Dahls have always been a source of great pleasure. Salman Rushdies have helped a lot in long train journeys.

I did not enjoy The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

KiteRunner was so-so. I would love to be recommended deeper books with the stuff of life in them. Contemporary bestsellers have usually let me down.

Recommend me some good non-fictional works!

I am a Copywriter at IllumDesign these days. And here is what a Copywriter does -

Fine combs text for errors
Rethinks every word to think how it could be said better
Knows whether she is persuading, opening the mind to imagination or simply imforming
Understands layers and sublayers and subsublayers of the message
Revises style - elegant informal, elegant formal, elegant snooty, classy but approachable
Rolls up balls of paper and resolves not to think too much and write spontaneously and fluently
Balances mood-creation with information
Differentiates between messages to be sent implicity and explicity
For example, ‘This restaurant is not visited by riff-raff’ has to be implicit
The decor of the restaurant has been done by an Italian designer would be explicit
Dresses and undresses words
Tries not to write in a flow of cynicism
Tries not to sound like the noise and clutter of consumerism
Sits and wonders if the experience being created about a restaurant is really true
Hopes to seek truth and write it
Remembers the deadline, no time to seek truth, opens MS Word and types away furiously
Wants to say the most cliched stuff in the most uncliched manner
Steers clear of cliched uncliches - like writing in third person
Tries never to be apologetic while balancing it all in one sentence - “Inspite of the large restaurant, every customer gets personal attention”
Wonders what the target reader wants to be identified as - customer, client, person, patron ?
Flatters
Always writes one true draft of copywriting that never makes it to the client
Thinks a lot about where hyphens are used and where not
Wonders how ‘Need Not’ is preferred to ‘Do not need to’
Dumbs down
Dumbs down
Dumbs down
Refrains from putting in quotes and well-spoken words by British politicians and American poets
Is worried about using adjectives as nouns, even if the dictionary allows it. Example - Microsoft, IBM and other majors
Tries not to call shops shops, stores stores, outlets outlets
Hates exaggeration but is ok with hyperbole
Sets homepage to thesaurus.com
Adheres to American spelling without wanting to
Hates sentences like ‘creating creative spaces’
Enjoys poetic license but hates purple prose
Takes out sting or anything that hints at negativity in a sentence robbing it of stance and personality and making it such that it couldn’t displease any fucking body (any-fucking-body?)
Always finishes at a nice conclusive note
Enjoys exploring different worlds of cheeses, real estate, fashion collections and writing about them succinctly

Two important questions when you join work
1 Where is the bathroom?
2 When do you guys break for lunch?

A winter afternoon in Delhi, I sat and listened to my Nani, my grandmother. Both of us sat squinting in the sun, while basking in the winter heat like reptiles on lakeshores. She spoke of her childhood days, spent in Ambala and Roorkee. She said, “My mother would give me money to go buy books that we couldn’t afford. I read lots of books and all the copies of Woman and Home, a British magazine stocked in the corner bookstore at Roorkee. Out of 6-7 siblings, I had a music teacher who would come every evening and teach me ghazals and bhajans.” Nani is the kind of person who forgets surroundings when she is in temples, stands up and begins to dance and sway to music. She would spend hours singing alone. “We did plays by Shakespeare. My brothers and sisters would put up a curtain and jump up to perform with their parts. As the eldest sister, I would direct the plays. Days passed in those small towns playing badminton and carom and exploiting a box of water-colours. That was what life was about. The influence of Roorkee University motivated everyone to study hard and score well. I spent my time knitting sweaters I enjoyed creating. We concocted innovative recipes and pampered ourselves with ‘tasty-tasty’ food. There was a buffalo in the house and we would all have lots of milk and butter. We walked in fields, along canals for miles and miles. We would all climb the nieghbour’s wall and jump all over.” And then my Nani got married at 21. She was expected to handle domestic responsibilities and was aghast! So she worked reluctantly like a spoilt girl. Ha ha ha…!

A little part of the fabric of life is understood when you can differentiate and choose between water based stuff and cream based stuff -

Water based garnishing and cream based salad sauce

Water based moisturizers and cream based misturizers

Watery colours like green and blue or cream based like yellow and mustard

Watery people with lilting laughter or Cream based people with rich anecdotes and homes with fireplaces

Watery Earthen pots or Creamy ceramic ware

Today is a wet and drippy day here in Chandigarh. Its been raining and there are puddles. Not so cold though.

A few days ago it was cold but sunny! In Toronto I have felt the sun on me but never the scorching presence of the sun, the way u feel if you stand too close to a bonfire. Unpredictable days..

I used to be nuts about a grey and silver color palette in clothes. Tweeds and plaids. Dark grey and black overcoats with elegant cuts. But on visiting Toronto I realized that these colors really belong to cold countries. You can actually wear black pants and a silver sequined top in Toronto and it would just add sparkle in the coldness, like a christmas ornament. In india, in the hot climate, it would be an eyesore.. like something too flashy..like a bonfire in heat.

So its less cold today. And I feel citrusy. (more…)