Wet Silence by Sweta Srivastava Vikram

I am a woman
who can be left in a desert,
and I'll come back smelling of jasmine. 

Title: Wet Silence
Author: Sweta Srivastava Vikram
ISBN: 9781615992560
Publisher: Modern History Press/2015
Pages: 72

A poetry collection that hits hard. Gut wrenching emotions pour forth. How do I review it? Being an Indian, I have heard, seen, felt enough. So close that the mind shuts down. 

Widowhood is a curse even now in many parts of India. She is made to shun all worldly pleasures. She can't attend any auspicious functions. Can't wear colours, can't have certain foods. I have heard it all and more. In my paternal grandma, who was widowed at 18, with a two year old son and carrying another in her womb. And then she lost her second child at 28 years of age. She brought up my dad single-handed, with virtually no support from her so-called family. 

When I was old enough, I could even feel her longings, her deep sadness. Yet I also saw the strength. 

When my dad passed away 13 years ago, I saw my mom reach out for white sarees, and shun certain foods. My brothers and I did not allow it. How could we? 

Sweta Vikram has made the women reach out to us. Somehow it saddened me. Her poetry reaches out. Yet I had mixed feelings. Maybe because it was too close to home. 

Posted for Poetic Book Tours:

 https://poeticbooktours.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/wet-silence-by-sweta-srivastava-vikram-blog-tour-aug-21-sept-18/

Sweta's Video:

https://youtu.be/QqbUenw4h58

Saturday Snapshot: Saree posts continued....

39/100

In Delhi schools, Independence Day is celebrated on 14th August. We have cultural events lined up for the day. We, teachers make an effort to dress up in the colours of our flag. It is any one colour or all colours of the Tricolour. Our clothes are pre-decided as we repeat the same every year for Republic Day and Independence Day. We all know about who is going to wear what and it does not bother us.

I usually drape a white Kasavu with orange border with a green handloom blouse. No surprises there. 

Keeping that in mind, I repeated one of my sarees of the pact. ( 27/100. It is 100 days, not 100 sarees, right?) It has all the colours of the flag and goes well with the spirit of the week. 

I paired it with the same green handloom blouse and accessorised it with Silver earrings bought from Fabindia yesterday, their Anusuya range. I fell in love with the earrings and had to buy!

BTW, I couldn't watch the programmes as I was very busy otherwise, although I could hear it loud and clear. The photo are taken at the fag end of the school day in a corridor with four of my tricolour hued colleagues....

38/100

27 years back, my mom and dad were travelling to Bhubaneswar. The worst happened and all their luggage was stolen despite travelling first class. From Bhubaneshwar, they went to Buguda by bus, my dad's native place, where my grandmother lived. (She refused to live in Delhi permanently with us). 

Now, not having any clothes, except for the ones they were wearing, they had no other option except for buying clothes from shops near the bus stand. 

My mom bought two simple sarees, printed cotton ones. She draped one saree only once and the other one disintegrated after many drapings. (She bought more sarees in the ensuing days)

Today I draped that remaining saree, bought near the bus stand. I found it in her wardrobe, while sorting through it, on Sunday. I told her to give it away as both of us preferred Sambalpuris or other handlooms nowadays. Last night I was looking for a saree to drape and I don't know what made me look at it. I picked it up and decided to drape it. It is very soft to touch and easy to drape.

Today in the morning, I changed my blouse thrice as the previous two did not suit the saree. This off white blouse with gold border in the sleeves was a perfect match. BTW, the blouse was a plain one. My mom stitched the gold border on the sleeves. 

My colleagues are used to seeing me draping sarees and don't say much. However, today many came and told me what a beautiful saree!

Needless to say, this saree will not be given away.

37/100

A few saree pacters chose Saturday for the National Handloom Day meet for Delhi. It was a very humid day but commitment is commitment, right? And Dilli Haat, INA is a great venue. I invited a colleague of mine, Sushila Gupta and she accepted. She is not a part of the pact but as she drapes sarees all the time, I thought it was only apt to invite her. 

We really enjoyed. Shopping was not in our agenda although a few did shop. We browsed around. Fooled around. And got ourselves photographed by a lady who was impressed to see us in sarees. Except for one more female, we were the only ones in sarees. 

The best part is, we all gelled. I know Ritu from my school days. I loved meeting Alka Selot Asthana, Rema Srinivas Kamath and the ultimate child, Radhika Rathi. All were in handloom sarees.

I draped a pista grey-green cotton Bomkai with maroon border and anchal. It is another one from my mom's collection. I paired it with a handloom blouse from Nalli. Accessories. ....Pearl jhumkis from FABINDIA and a silver filigree bracelet gifted by my mom....

Posting for Saturday Snapshot, hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy

Monday Mailbox: Posting after so long

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. It has finally found a permanent  home at Mailbox Monday with the following new administrators:

Leslie of Under My Apple Tree
Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit
Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach

I have received a lot of books but haven't done a mailbox post for so long. I am posting only the print copies I received in the past two weeks or so. 

I received the following in my mailbox, thanks to publicists/Authors:

 Hello, My Love! (Book 1) by E Journey:

Beyond broad shoulders and heaving bosoms.

This thoughtful woman’s romance novel explores the inner life (thoughts, hopes, and doubts) of a couple as they contend with the realities of compelling relationships.

A modern-day pastiche of Jane Austen novels. Elise is a bright, beautiful law student, focused on a career and distrustful of men. She butts heads with Greg at her parents’ dinner parties. Dark, good-looking, internet-business owner, he finds Elise intriguing, so unlike the dark-haired seductive beauties he used to escort around. 

Specter of revenge. Unable to deny their attraction for each other, they spend an unexpected night together two days before he is to wed someone else. Lori, the jilted fiancée, exacts revenge, tearing Greg and Elise apart and forcing them to face who they are and what they really want.

An accident. Older and wiser, Greg and Else reunite two years later. He is in for a surprise. Later, their lives are thrown again into disarray when Elise becomes the victim of a hit-and-run. Is Lori back to haunt them again?

A delicious romance with a literary slant, spiced with a twist of whodunit.

Hello, Agnieszka! (Book 2) by E Journey:

A raw tale of early love, rivalry and betrayal. Her oldest son’s suicide attempt shocks the Halversons and forces Agnieszka to reveal a past she has kept from her children. 

Passion for music. Hearing her talented, irrepressible grandaunt Jola, a concert pianist in Poland, give a piano recital, young Agnieszka discovers a passion for music. Jola hones her talent and feeds her dreams.

Shattered dreams. Real-world problems, thorny relations with a mother tied to her roots and betrayal by Jola shatter her dreams.

A 70s love story. Agnieszka falls in love, but fate deals her first love a death blow. She rises from the losses she has suffered and gets a second chance at happiness.

A mother’s youthful dreams thwarted and renewed, amidst the exciting promise of the 70s.

 Welcome, Reluctant Stranger! (Book 3) by E Journey:

Frantic flight, peaceful life. Act of treason on an island country. Cauldron of warring emotions. Exotic beauty, ace with a gun. Hunk with gifts for mockery and cooking.

Nine-year-old Leilani and her family mysteriously flee the island country of Costa Mora, leaving her father. Years later, her peaceful solitary life in California ends when she rescues Justin Halverson from thugs and she learns a devastating truth about her father. As she agonizes over her father, Justin comforts her, and they’re drawn closer together.

With Justin, she returns to her birthplace to get her father quietly out. There, she reconnects with her past, but can she forgive her father and accept him for who he is? Can she finally be at peace with who she is? Welcome, Reluctant Stranger interweaves a love story into a tale of past political intrigue and Leilani’s inner journey, accepting her past.    

About the author:

​E Journey is a realist who thinks she has little imagination. Credit that to her training (Ph. D., University of Illinois) and work in mental health, writing for academics and bureaucrats, and critiquing the work of others. She’s been striving ever since to think and write like normal people.

She’s a well-traveled flâneuse—a female observer-wanderer—who watches, observes, listens. And writes. A sucker for happy endings, she finds enough that depresses her about real life, but seeks no catharsis by writing about it. For her, writing is escape, entertainment. She doesn’t strive to enlighten. Not deliberately. But the bias of her old profession does carry over into her writing. So, instead of broad shoulders and heaving bosoms, she goes into protagonists' thoughts, emotions, inner conflicts, insecurities, and struggles to reach balance and grow.

The Arithmetic of Breasts and Other stories’ by Rochelle Potkar:

A cluster of 7½ literary short stories presenting the romantic-sexual facets of: Narain who lusts for Munika, Old Jaganlal who wants a favour from young Dia, Jackie who is in love with Nic, a surgeon who is changing more than a patient s hairline, nose, lip, and chin, Shonali and Neel who are realizing that infidelity might not be such an easy thing, a woman who walks the tight rope between tradition and sexual exploitation, and Sunil who meets the woman of his desires through an adult dating site. Through these stories, Rochelle Potkar explores the intensely personal unrelationship that exists alongside its conventional and socially articulate twin, the relationship.

Brutal by Uday Satapathy:

Brutal is the debut novel of Uday Satpathy. Two ace journalists—Prakash and Seema stir up a hornet's nest as they chase the story of a schoolteacher who murders 11 of his students. Their pursuit of the truth takes them to the ominous forests of Bandhavgarh where an eerily similar incident had occurred 8 years ago. One by one, their leads end up dead and they soon realise that they're pitted against forces more evil and powerful than they could have ever imagined.

Wet Silence: Poems about Hindu Widows by Sweta Srivastava Vikram

Wet Silence bears moving accounts of Hindu widows in India. The book raises concern about the treatment of widowed women by society; lends their stories a voice; shares their unheard tales about marriage; reveals the heavy hand of patriarchy; and, addresses the lack of companionship and sensuality in their lives. It’s a collection of poems that covers a myriad of subjects centered on social evils such as misogyny, infidelity, gender inequality, and celibacy amongst other things. The poems in the collection are bold, unapologetic, and visceral. The collection will haunt you.

Saturday Snapshot: Celebrated Handloom week with Handloom Sarees

36/100

National Handloom Day, August 7, 2015

This saree belongs to my mom and is a much draped one. A Sambalpuri with floral patterns and paisleys and temple border not so common. I think most of the "not so usual" Sambalpuris we have, are due to my second mamaji. Whenever my mom visited Cuttack, and wanted to shop, he used to take her to all those shops which kept only exclusive stuff. She used to buy two, for herself and me. And my mamaji also gifted a saree or two. Now, no one remembers if mom bought this saree or was gifted. I have always loved her in it and got to drape it today for the first time.

Paired it with a printed maroon blouse. There are tiny multi coloured hearts all over the blouse. What else, but pearl earrings!

One great saree to celebrate the National Handloom Day...

August 6, 2015

35/100

I had bought this saree some 20 years back from the Exhibition in C R Park. It is a very soft cotton, batik print. I had draped it a few times.

My saree is NOT handloom but my embroidered Khadi blouse is! Counting it towards a handloom wear leading up to August 7.

A few years ago, I told mom to give it away along with a few others as I was not going to drape sarees any more. My mom being mom, knows me better that I do myself. She simply kept those sarees away from my eyes. When I started this pact, she quietly returned the "give away" to my wardrobe!

Mix and matched with a Khadi blouse. My mom is a wizard, she fixed that blouse such that it fits me again after many many years....

Aug 5, 2015

34/100

This Beige-Pista shade cotton handloom saree belongs to my mom. It is a Dhakai saree and was gifted to mom by her younger sister. It has booties all over and anchal is very pretty. I have eyed this saree for a while now and finally got around draping it. 

Paired it with an Andhra handloom blue ikat blouse. 

Photo credit: Pooja Dhamija / Sushma Mahajan

August 4, 2015

33/100

My saree is a Coimbatore cotton characterised by the typical 'plain body , relatively small borders and rich heavy thread worked pallu' . The saree is finer than its Kanjivaram or Chettinad sisters , as its woven in finer count yarns . The motifs are achieved using slightly heavier yarn to get that raised dobby effect .. 

It belongs to my mom. But it is a handloom. The aanchal and the border are very good. I find the colour very soothing. One thing that I noticed today that the patli portion has lines. The body has booties all over. 

Blouse is handloom from another saree. And jhumkis bought from local market.

Photo credit: One of my students

Aug 3, 2015
32/100

#100sareepact 

I visited Bangalore in August 2013 to celebrate my eldest brother's birthday and Rakshabandhan. I and my SIL used to go shopping everyday of my stay. At that time, I had a saree phobia and was into casuals only. I did not buy any saree for myself but we bought sarees for my mom. 

My mom is into cotton handlooms and drapes only unstarched sarees. (I have inherited that particular trait). My SIL bought two sarees from Tamilnadu Emporium. A Madras check and another one with tiny checks. Both in different shades of green.

I am draping that Madras check saree with another of my khadi blouses. As I woke up late, I had no time to accessorize. The rings you see in the pictures are my daily wear. I never take them off.

Posting for Saturday Snapshot, hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy

Saturday Snapshot: Never ending saree dates

31/100

Today I deviated from my usual. Draped a plain Georgette. Nothing special about this Garden Vareli saree. I bought such sarees when I started working. Both in printed and plain. I used to drape those sarees with contrast blouses.....mostly printed ones.

Today I have matched the blouse in the exact shade of the saree, a rarity for me. I accessorized with tiny meena-work jhumkis bought locally.

My saree was a huge success.

30/100

Last day of July. End of a horrible month. We had a retirement party for one of the class 4 staff. Long speeches, gifts, food...it had it all. I wish him well for his future..

I draped this dark blue taant saree with an embroidered khadi blouse. I had bought this blouse piece long time back from Khadi Gramyod Bhavan. My mom stitched the blouse only recently.

Right now everyone seems to be going gaga over Kalamkari blouses. However, give me a Khadi Blouse any time. I can mix and match it with anything.....

About the saree, my youngest SIL had gone to Kolkata for a Seminar when she was working in C-DOT. She bought taant sarees for all of us. Mine has since disintegrated and this one belonged to mom. As she does not wear dark colours anymore, she gave it to me. I draped it for the first time today. I had planned on wearing a red ikat kurti blouse with it but that blouse turned out to be too loose.

My earrings are bought locally for a pittance.

29/100

My mom had bought two such sarees from Odisha, this one and a navy blue one. My SIL has the navy blue one. I have draped this Sambalpuri cotton saree lots of times and loved it every time. I had also stitched a Sambalpuri blouse to match it but that blouse disintegrated long time ago. Today I matched it with a handloom blouse.

The highlight of my ensemble was the pair of earrings I had put on. Cane ones, very light weight and bought from Dilli Haat in May 2015. Also I am a no accessory person, most of my colleagues were surprised to see me such earrings.

Posting for Saturday Snapshot, hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy