Tag: time

Monthly Feature 16: Midnight in Paris

On April 4, 2017

The exam schedule came unexpectedly. There was not a month to study and I had no notes. I took risk. I wrote and wrote and wrote on my notebooks. After two weeks, I was fatigued. I decided to watch Midnight in Paris.
The movie was in my watch list for about a month. And it absolutely refreshed my mind from the first second. The beauty of Paris and the light humour changed my mood, made me more energetic.

The best thing is Gil’s travels from 2010 to 1920s presenting the debate of better present versus better past. I am not writing much about the movie. I just want to share a couple of quotes from the movie (Source: IMDb).

This one is when Gil meets Hemingway for the first time.

Gil : Would you read it?

Ernest Hemingway : Your novel?

Gil : Yeah, it’s about 400 pages long, and I’m just looking for an opinion.

Ernest Hemingway : My opinion is I hate it.

Gil : Well you haven’t even read it yet.

Ernest Hemingway : If it’s bad, I’ll hate it because I hate bad writing, and if it’s good, I’ll be envious and hate all the more. You don’t want the opinion of another writer.

And this is the one which I had previously shared on Facebook as well.

Nostalgia is denial – denial of the painful present… the name for this denial is golden age thinking – the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one one’s living in – it’s a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.

In the end, Gil realises that people feel the past was golden because we think our present is painful. But if we look at the lives of people in the past, their own lives were not easy. (For Gil 2010 was painful than 1920s in the beginning, when he is in 1920s, he knows that people thought Renaissance was the golden age.)

Director: Woody Allen

Rating: 9/10

(P.S.:I have been busy for some months now. First there was a month long field tour. Then the report writing and then exams. I am in the middle of my exams but the immediate cause I have not been able to read or write anything on WordPress is the internet connection.)

How Difficult Writing a Story Can Be!

By Sandeept

On June 28, 2016

In Blogging, Story

It’s been almost six months since I have been working on a short story- “Leave Me Alone“. It is a psychological thriller, where a boy is attacked in his girlfriend’s house. I can’t believe it is taking such a long time to complete!

It’s not that I haven’t written the story. After hours of thinking, I began writing on January 1, 2016. At that time, it had begun with the first person experience of the girl while she finds herself unconscious on a cold night. Then the next chapter would be a continued by the experience of the boy (in first person narrative). I did not write further because I thought there was problem with the plot.

Some months later, I revised those chapters trying to see if I can continue the story. I got stuck again. Several problems arose. The characters were unnamed. They carried on the story with whatever they saw or knew. I got muddled up in my own story. Gosh!

Then again in May, before my exams, I decided to bring up a little twist. I thought of the names of the main characters and separated each of their statements (diary entries, police statements and court statements) in five different chapters. The story seemed complete for the first time. Problem was- nobody spoke, not even once, the title phrase. According to my planning, it would have to be spoken. I don’t know how I missed it!

I started typing that version out. I had already thought of the places I needed to modify. But did not continue because of my exams. And then when I looked at it about three weeks later, I thought, ‘Why not change everything- the beginning, the ending and the PoV?’

So this final draft (until now- I am still modifying things here and there) has a third person limited point of view (PoV, if you had been confused by the abbreviation earlier). Each character got their names (Hurray!) and one of them is going to shout out, “Leave Me Alone”. Finally, I can see it reaching the finishing line. But this particular story has been like a hurdle race to me. The beginning of every chapter is like a hurdle. When I pass one, I can gain speed but another hurdle threatens to break my pace immediately. I guess I only have to jump over the last hurdle now. Once it’s done, I can run fast and end the race.

When it’s done, I would love to share my happiness with you as well.

Have you ever written anything which might have taken you longer than you had initially thought? How often do you modify your work? Would you like to share your experiences? Comment on the box below. Thank you!

मौसम (Weather)

By Sandeept

On August 15, 2015

In Poetry

This is a poem in Nepali. For the English interpretation, please go below the poem.

ऋतुसँगै बदलिने मौसम यो
मौकासँगै फेरिने यस्को बानी हो

वसन्तको हर्षसँग रम्छ जहाँ
रङ्गीविरङ्गी फूल फुल्छन् त्यहाँ

ग्रीष्मको रिस पनि सहिदिन्छ यो
सुकेको खोलासँग बगिदिन्छ यो

वर्षाको पीडा बादल बनी लिन्छ
पीडा धेरै भए आँसु बगिदिन्छ

शरदको सान्त्वनाले दुःख भुल्छ
यसको शितलतामा शित बन्छ

हेमन्तको चिसो मुटु कमाउँछ
त्यो त्यस्तै हो भनी चित्त बुझाउँछ

शिशिरको स्वार्थले पिरोलिन्छ यो
पतझर सरि उजाड बन्छ यो

विचारझैँ हरपल बदलिन्छ
मनका सारा भावना समेट्छ यो

समयसँग सधैँ अघि बढ्दछ
वसन्त आउने आशामा बाँच्छ यो

This is a poem on weather, how it changes according to the seasons and time. When it is spring, the weather seems the happiest of all. Beauty of the world is enhanced. In summer,the heat is excess. It even kills the flowers that had bloomed in the spring. And yet, the weather continues continues hoping that they will bloom again. When the rain comes down, the weather seems in despair. The rain water becomes its tears. At the end of rainy season, flowers bloom again, but it does not last longer. After that, there is a long period of winter in which much of the greenery is lost. The weather is chilly and unkind, and yet it longs for spring to arrive.

Weather can be compared to our emotions and thoughts. We are the happiest in our childhood and our emotions change with time and season. We long for spring- pleasure, and have to go through several other emotions in achieving it. No matter what happens, we evolve and in the process, we achieve happiness again.

Available in Poetry