debut: Sipra's Diary : Birthday and Mother'sDay 2024

debut: Sipra's Diary : Birthday and Mother'sDay 2024:   Today is my birthday......Mother's Day also falls on this month of May.  What is my birth-right ?.........  Instead I ask myself what ...

debut: Sipra's Diary: For WROV: Women Raise Our Voice

debut: Sipra's Diary: For WROV: Women Raise Our Voice:     Women Raise Our Voice .                    “ I am a woman of colored glass                   Through  whom passes every changing with co...

Sipra's Diary: "To be or............

 

.  To Be Or Not To Be.......

I am a morning bird from my childhood; An unknown competetion with the sun to wake up earlier than it does .Almost every morning  around 5:20/30AM I wake up with the buzzing soliloquy of prince Hamlet 's dialogue  in my mind,"to be or not to be"!
"To do or not to do ,"To go or not to go," finally "To get up or not to get up"for a morning walk; then looking at the time wish a little more sleep... and "we end by a sleep;".....

 No, by sleep I don't mean 'suicide' like Hamlet.  Simply I  sleep  little more to get the sky clear. There are no  hiding characters like  Polonius or claudius for me to eavesdrop; but like a villain the clock hammers my  innocent brain to keep away sleep.

Most of us swing  between this dilemma in the matter of chosing decision;  Our lives  still run through that narrow  half-dark tunnel of "to be or not to be"..........

Hey, Bard of Avon, how did you  tuned in us that hard question in  a simple soliloquy four hundred years ago that perhaps will  eternally run on?.......

debut: Sipra's Diary; MONALISA. as viewed. by me Sipra Roy

debut: Sipra's Diary; MONALISA. as viewed. by me Sipra Roy:                MONALISA:    as   viewed by  me.  Sipra Roy Lines =6o   words=    445     Are you  merely  a portrait? your fame spilled over...

Sipra's Diary; COMMENTARY ON THE POEM "WHY"

      

  Commentary     (On Poem: WHY! )

   Words=459 //page= 2                       

Autobiography or Memoir is written on the basis of one’s ability to collect memories, as one needs to retain or mark the past events and images.

We passed through variety of experiences and covering the whole gamut of emotions in life: Joys and sorrows, love and hate, loss and gain.

 I take part in several memoir classes of seniors.  We share our stories with one another in memoir classes. The focus of most seniors highlight the negative side of life: Such as disease(like cancer),death of beloved near and dear one, neglected and tortured childhood, painful delivery of baby or loss of baby, unhappy marriage ending in divorce, victim of rape, racism, survival of holocaust and so on. These are really hard part of life which is too painful to forget. But isn’t life something more?

    Why fun, humor, at least  experience of occasional stupidity that are experienced in everyday life are so rare to  share  with  the readers to make  them laugh? Bright side of life  remain often shadowed in most memoirs. 

Chirle Chaplin once said,” A day without laughter is a day wasted; laughter is the tonic, a relief from pain. “

    Really, life is a tragedy when seen in close up, but become comedy in long shot; So better to view life not through microscope, but telescope. Memoir is a kind of psychotherapy. Sad moments loose the edginess through catharsis; it becomes metamorphosis in the process of long gap of time !

    In my perception literature is turning to be feminine in gender; female contribution in poetry, fiction, children’s book, and specially cook books and  memoirs  is greater/ larger than that of  the  counter gender. From the latest trend it seems to me that library and bookstores will be flooded with cook-books and memoirs(of the female), except  academic books for the schools and colleges. 

Is it the future of our literature?

It is global pride for the greater participation of women due to the development of  girls’  education..  But there should be balance in every field.‘Law of diminishing returns’ in Economics is not desirable in literature at all.

Then what causes this imbalance or discrepancy?

Is it that interest of male is declining   in literature? Or, piles of cookbooks and personal memoirs are occupying/ (invading!) the intellectual field? In the battle of quality Vs quantity, the quantitative progress should be controlled; so that it does not   supercede  Quality.

It doesn’t indicate the uprising of literature. 

Under the mercy and blessing of internet, number of writers are  growing  more than that of  readers. In this age of Podcast, Instagram,  spotify etc.  people have neither time nor interest  to read lengthy pieces . 

        Literature is same as  the Garden of Eden; Whom to pray to save it from being occupied by weeds and parasites?  To Athena or  to Minerva? or Saraswati  or to surrender  at the alter of AI  or ChatGpt?

                                                End

Sipra's Diary : Birthday and Mother'sDay 2024

 

Today is my birthday......Mother's Day also falls on this month of May. 

What is my birth-right ?.........

 Instead I ask myself what is my duties ; did I do it perfectly at all? .....So many lapses , unwillingly or deliberately............

(I often remember Rousseau's comment :

"Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains.")

So I turn my mind to other direction to avoid regret // lamentation. I remember my mother,  my father which is not novel .Almost everyday I experience so.  In the background of my parent,  I view  Lilliputian image of myself. I am so lucky to be brought up in such a rich joyful environment of parents and extended family, friends.........             What was the source of my home for sustaining peaceful  and joyful environment  in spite of having financial crisis, health problem, maintaining a large family! 

It surprises me that I find my identity  as 'daughter' more strongly. than 

as wife or mother! It is quite unusual.  Just few days ago  we have had  " Mother's Day' of which we never heard of in India.

But why we never celebrated mother's 'birth day' in her whole life ? Why it  never    stroke our mind though we all loved her !.........         My mother lost her mother when she was only eighteen months !

..I wrote an article about my experience of FIRST 'Mother's Day' in  US, 'celebrated by my son. I will try to add that piece if I can do .

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FIRST GIFT ON THE  "MOTHERS’ DAY"

 

 

 

As I grew up in India I did not know or hear about   anything  such as  'Mothers’ Day'. Perhaps all days  in India are considered as Mothers’ day ; Or importance of mothers is taken for granted  without any celebration.   Home.  is not a sweet home without the presence of mother .

      Anyway I came to visit my son in US first on May, 2001.  He lived in Austin . When the  wife of my son ‘s friend asked him what was his plan to celebrate Mothers’ Day ,I thought  it to be celebration of my first visit to him. My son only  grinned vacantly and reply "so far nothing  decided .Nina with  shrinked  eyes ,"O, no; you must plan something ." Perhaps that triggered him.

Next day we had a plan to visit San Antonio, the old capitol of Texas.  On the way there was a great Factory Outlet. I had no interest to halt there because I had no idea that it was worth of seeing.  All the  branded rare articles of the world were available  there and in cheaper price.  It was somewhat like exhibition. My  son bought  a beautiful lemon color coat for me and  a shaving set  for his father  who was very happy to get it. 

I said,” Why, a coat in summer! Now here it is hot as hell !”

My husband said with little  irritation ,” Do you think winter will never come in your life ?  He is giving this   as 'gift' for a special occasion .”

“ Yes ma, it is for the Mother’s Day; you won’t get this brand anywhere at this price! You are free to buy some other items of your choice; but I will not change this one.” said my son.

“Ok, Ok, it is really nice, as I realized  vaguely the occasion ”

That was the first gift of Mothers’ Day in my life. It is still with me .

 

 I asked  often myself why a single day in calendar was not marked  in India to be celebrated for mothers?

  

 While my mother celebrated the birthday for  everyone of us including father without  break! OF course there was no B-day 'party' ;but my mother used to had special  "puja" wishing God's blessing and cooked "Rice Porridge"(which is equivalent to CAKE  in the West)    and gourmet preparations.  Why it didn't   strike ever that mother     also had a birthday ?  She was born someday to bring us all on this earth? 

 When I told this to my brother he also lamented  for this  unintentional  lapse of  our feeling for mother ! Though we all loved our mother.  My other brother  consoled me "here in India  we live in closely-knitted family in much healthy society. we  owe  to  only one mother , and one father ;whereas  in the West most children have  more than single parent ;Some children are away from their biological parent ;so they need  'Mother's Day','Father's Day' for the  recognition  and  renewing  the relationship.We  felt the presence of our parents in    our everyday life  as breathing air ;So we never felt to a single day to be celebrated for them. 

From when this "mothers' day happened to be celebrated. throughout   US as well as the West ?  Perhaps, with  advanced civilization and women education, as women stepped out of home for earning  money  to add prosperity to home!  The absence  of mother created an emptiness at home and wanting the motherly warmth and affinity   to their children .The new prosperity and  long   absence   from home both jointly made new valuations  to the importance  of absentee mothers.  .....Also it may be a successful outcome of feministic movement .

Out of 365 days offering a single day in honor at the alter of pain-taking mother's womb.......some flower bouquet, perfume , fancy dress,  cosmetics or shoes and favourite  dishes or dessert from  gourmet confectionery. and exchanging the warmth of heart with the warmth of summer ;lastly to post  snap on Facebook with cheese smile of happy mothers !  A Country-wide tribute   of US   festival  has become  now global !(but not in our time.) 

Indians are excellent than ape to adapt the art of  imitating .  Some Indian boy, after his arrival in  US, wished  his mother  and sent gift on this particular day,  Mother was very happy to  know the custom   as extra bonus .  Then  the  son  was out of touch for a long time.  

Mother then called her son to say,"Kya beta, Mother day ke bad vul. gaya apne ma-ko?"   

"My son , did you forget your ailing mother who is suffering from artharitis   and loneliness   since  you left  India for job in US and your father passed away on sudden cerebral attack?"

Basically all the festivals ,whether Mother's Day or Valentine's or Thanks Giving are always commercial  with charming gifts, social clothes, shoes ,bags , cakes ,going  restaurant for gourmet food who can afford ! 

 

The motive behind all festivals, either social or religious,  is  more   marketing  of business, more  flourishing  of   finance and   the channeling  of money. 

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Sipra's diary: Reposted>. MIRROR. [modified]

 

                            

 MIRROR   by Sipra Roy

Mirror is an useful glassy object  for reflection.

From my childhood I was too fascinated

To move away from mirror, like Nercissus.

One of my favorite game was to caricature  odd faces 

In front of the mirror  to enjoy the distorted images.

I was crazy for  having some full-sized large mirror .

For frequent transfer, my father avoided fragile furniture.

In those days, at night mirror was covered with lace  

So that it doesn't dazzle, and disallowed us looking own face.-

 Superstitious elders terrorized that  face would be  distorted

 We were innocent to. believe that  and obeyed .

Beauty  would have remained unexplored 

In the absence of mirror .

But mirror is a. deceiver ;

It has the power to distort image,

It is used as great metaphor in literature.

Enid Blyton made  world-wide famous  

In the Rhyme, "Mirror ,mirror on the wall,

Who is the prettiest in the world? 

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