Monday 27 January 2014

Swaaaati gets insanely moody.

So, I was looking up things and quotes relating to 'Never settle'. I am taking that one like very seriously. I looked at my choices of the past. I have settled way to many times. Made my peace with pieces I was given. I am going all philosophical. I swear to you I am not smoking up. Not just yet. 
So. I read like these awesomely confusing "motivating" quotes of why I have been single. 
Get ready to be amused.

1. Never settle for anything less than butterflies.

I love butterflies. I love when it's all tingly and happy and my stomach is on a constant roller-coaster and I feel so poetic and happy. Yes. But, do butterflies always mean like fireworks? 
What's better fireworks or butterflies?
Or both? Or are both equally foolish? Because fireworks are for a few moments and the way you feel when you had them, you never forget. Inever forget I have never felt that way. It's not sad. It's just I like stupid boys. 
Butterflies are however not very different. Yet different. 
Or somersaults? I am very confused.

2. Never settle for less than what you deserve. 

It's a rather elongated version for 'Never settle'. I mean, doesn't never settle say it all already? Why add other 6 words that make it longer. Younever hear anyone say, those 8 words changed my life. Two words. 
Or, three words. Say it. And I am yours. (Ch-air reference.) I am really going to start watching Gossip Girl again. That show is full of worldly nonsense and over-dramatic-love. I love it.

I don't understand the point of this email.
It's like word vomit.

I am dying to write something. Dying to make myself feel things that helped me vomit words that came out like poetry. Writer's block? Perhaps. Or just absence of something. Possible. 




Swati Jain
During her phase of writer's block 

Saturday 25 January 2014

Waiting for Romance


Wandering on these lonely roads,
Looking for solace,
Lying low.
Spurting with idle thoughts,
And rhymes of a lonely love,
Dawdling under the dusk.
With scattered thoughts,
Of all romance,
Nothing to break my reverie.

The soothing sounds of the sea, found me,
The softness of sand, beneath my feet.
Strolling at a slower pace,
Staring out at the water.
A mirage of my dreams,
Appearing in the water.
A blank lonely canvas,
Waiting to be painted in red.
A mind in its trance,
Dancing to the tune of its own making.
For a lover of romance,
Romance, I am waiting.



Swati Jain
January 25, 2014

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Lost in Translation

Yeah, so I attended the Jaipur Literary Festival (or is it Literature Festival? I could never remember). As usual, the event was heavily commercialised and I don't even know why some of the people were speakers at events at which they were speaking. But this can always be found in every JLF you attend. However, another thing that can also be found always in JLF are ideas. The speakers might not always be that good, but sometimes, they leave you with terrifying ideas. I attended 7 events, out of which one managed to ignite something in my brain.

On Sunday, there was a session on translation. I've had a teacher who takes translation very seriously, so I was very interested in this event. This event ended up being a disappointment in terms of its content. However, just thinking about translation got me wondering: Suppose I was writing in English about something and I'm not able to express it properly. So, my narrative has the chances of being broken, insufficient, and wanting of something. I've read texts which present this wanting in all its beauty. Now, my narrative can have this wanting deliberately or accidentally. Deliberately in the sense that I want to create this sense of wanting. Accidentally in the sense that I want to convey something to the readers but I can't because of reasons that could include me not knowing the words to describe what I want to perfectly, the words not existing in the language I'm writing in, etc. If someone was to translate my text, and they were translating it in a language that had the words to describe what I wanted to convey in my text, assuming that the translator knows those words, should the translator use those words or leave the narrative wanting?

Personally, as the author of the text, I wouldn't want to erase the sense of wanting that my text creates. However, as a translator, I'd want the text to reach its full potential, which it can if I use the words available to me in the language I'm translating in. 

What would you do? Would you capture meaning or would you let it go?


Until next time.
Yours, 
Orange


Friday 17 January 2014

The Road Not Taken

So. 2014 is turning out to be a pretty good year for me. I mean, I quit the course I hated, I got a job I love, and then there are more romantic opportunities budding in this year for me (and not just because I joined a decent dating site where nobody asks me if I want to have sex with them, thankfully).

With topping my class in the semester, I was finally tired of being overvalued. The reason why I don't like topping is because it makes me feel like I have nothing new to learn. So, I quit that. Then I got my job as an editor in a commercial fiction publishing house. I wrote 25k in a week. Yes, believe it. :D :D

And then there was this incident yesterday. I was going to my college for a lecture yesterday. So, I went into the metro station, put my bag (which had my laptop) in the scanner, went in for checking, came out, saw that the bag was coming out just as I did, picked it up and went on my way. When I reach college, I open the bag to find out it's not mine. I start freaking out and my friends ask me to be calm. We search the bag for any information on the owner of the bag. We come across a booking of an airline ticket. We contact the agency that booked the ticket. We got the number of the guy. We called they guy. Apparently, he didn't even know that our bags had been exchanged because he hadn't opened the bag yet. So, we meet at a metro station and exchange our bags. Then we go or own ways. A while later, he texts me saying that we should meet some other time too. And then he starts flirting. To my horror, I start flirting back too. Then I tell my friend that they guy's flirting with me. She tells me to block him. Good sense prevails over the desire to have a life that resembles a romcom movie. I block his number.

These are the roads taken and not taken till now.
Stay tuned to find out what 2014 brings for me!