Resolutions

New resolution. I will try to get at least 7 1/2hrs sleep every day.

Not that I have any trouble falling asleep, oh no. In fact quite the contrary. I can sweetly sleep standing, anytime, anywhere. Its just that bed times are a wee bit sketchy for me and me being the night creature that I am, fond of the night as bats are of ripe jackfruit, end up not getting much of sleep.

And yes, its reflecting on me methinks. I am having occasional memory lapses. Maybe its my selective memory (yes, I'm blessed with the ability to completely delete unnecessary memories) but Darling thinks that I should get more sleep. Hence the resolution.

Besides, it'l be good for me, who knows. Maybe I'l be less eratic & random. Well, there's always wishful thinking.

Been thinking quite a lot lately.

I would like to take an entire week off and just read. Just get lost within words, relax, put my feet up and just be so blissfully lost. No obligations, no commitments, no duties nor responsibilities. I'd just like to, be.

To read, to write, to cook & bake, spend time with the loved ones, listen to good music. Life is wasted on zilch these days. And life is just too precious to be wasted on nothing.

There's just so much of things that I want to do and I'm worried that I may not have enough time to do all that. Then I figured, I could just be a vampire. I'l have all the time in the world!

I'l bite all the people I love and turn them into vampires too. Then we will live happily everafter.

Oh and I also decided to take my baking to the next level. Figured as baking is something that I'l always love doing, why not put the stuff that I bake out there and get some feedback. What's more, if I happen to make any cash out of it at all, I can invest all of that in ingredients (ingredients are bloody expensive these days and was the major driving force for this project) and experiment more. MORE quality time burning my fingers! Having grown up with a health freak mother, I too hav grown used to a certain way of eating - No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, just go natural and healthy. I guess with the amount of toxins in the environment these days, the best we can do is not consciously consume toxins, eh?

Time to get off my butt and do something worthwhile. It's now or never.

"Scattered" news and reviews :)

Thought I'd take some time off rambling and post two reviews that had been done on my collection of poetry "Scattered." Click the link below to find the review written by Mrs Vijita Fernando, the venerated writer who is also the current president of the English Writers Cooperative of Sri Lanka.

http://www.nation.lk/edition/literature/item/11356-economically-scattered.html


Then one of my dear friends, Ramindu, a writer himself and an avid reader with immaculate literary taste whose judgement on literature I most vehemently trust was sweet enough to do this wonderful review on the collection. I think he has caught on certain points that most tend to miss out on when reading the work. Click the below link to access his review.

http://lmakuthan.blogspot.com/2012/11/scattered-jayani-c-senanayake.html

And I believe that another review by Prof. Yasmin Gooneratne is to be expected soon. Shall post it here once that comes out.

And then there is the Public Lecture at the American Cultural Center that I am supposed to give this Thursday. I was invited to speak about my work and I accepted albeit rather nervously as I am not very used to speaking about myself. Not a huge fan of public speaking but I shall do it nevertheless, for my book's sake. You are very welcome to attend if time permits.

That for now is all I suppose. Have a great Sunday! Missing the rain though. Things are much more interesting when it rains. Sun has this way of draining the voluptuousness out of life. Its almost sterile like being in a hospital room :( 

Rain, Oh Beloved Rain.................

I know most people like rainy nights so that they could curl up and sleep. I on the contrary, feel more alive when it rains. I like to stay up and listen to the rain. Rain is fascinating, it has a music of its own. I like the sound of the rain on the roof, I like to hear it falling down on the leaves of the tress outside. I love the fluttering curtains in the loud blast of wind that somehow manage to get in through the windows. I love how the rain manages to block all sound out and invade your ears, almost forcefully with its powerful and earthy presence. I love how it would rush up on you and slowly wither away gently, like a wilting flower, yet with the promise to bloom again.

I love the rumbling thunder, the way it sometimes rattles the doors and windows, making the glass tinkle in that pretty way. I like the electric flashes of light from the heavens that appear and disappear again like a dream suddenly and unexpectedly just like it came. I like how after a flash of light you always expect a loud rumble from up above and how sometimes it never comes. I like the unpredictability of it all. Sometimes you just get a little too tired of the predictable formality of the world.  

I like it how rain manages to intensify some smells while drowning out others. For me, rain smells clean, it smells of new unpolished wood, yet to see the likes of varnish and other synthetic things. It smells pure and tranquil like a secluded world, still untouched by vulgarities of the outside. I have never smelt the "smell of wet earth" as many have described it. The closest I've ever felt of it is a mixture of trampled grass and rotting kitchen waste that faintly smelled of puss that oozes out of infested wounds and I cannot say that I like it very much. 

Another thing I love is hot tea or coffee on a rainy day and a big mug of it at that, no fooling around about the quantity of it. I love the almost scalding feel of it in my hands, I love its liquid warmth as it travels down the throat and radiates its warmth like a cosy blanket right across the skin. I simply love the smell of hot tea or coffee with the smell of the rain, mollycoddling in its fumes in an armchair, feet up just like I'm doing now. 

I also love the after-rain sounds. The never ending croaks of the frogs in the garden pond, the soft breathing, heaving sound of the trees, adjusting themselves after the downpour. I like the feel of the departing rain, its like a painful yet necessary act to preserve the beauty of the moment forever. That pain is beautiful, beautifully exquisite. 

I suppose I'm in a never ending courtship with the rain. And unlike any mortal relationship, the romance will never fizzle out.