Inktober musings, counting playlists and a viral tweet... 🐒
Getting into the groove - Write Click Edition #2
Hello hello, I am back! :)
Finally caught a few flights and felt alive! Went to Delhi, Gurgaon, Kochi & Munnar. Clicked a few surreal photographs. Got some cinnamon incense sticks, and gosh, they are fab!
Sharing the best: Wings in Harmony ft. Indigo 6E (Kochi to Bangalore, 4 Oct, 2023)
I am currently amidst the Inktober challenge - I chose to write every day. Here’s the link to this year's collection.
I started Inktober in 2019, and in 2020 - coupled it with Taptober, writing and painting every day for 31 days straight. Painting is easier, I must say. With those 31 paintings, I hosted my first fundraiser amidst COVID-19 in partnership with Give India. Here’s an article I wrote about the experience and later, my withdrawal symptoms! Haha!
I often say how reels are the new radio. And I stumbled upon Avanti Nagral and Sanjeeta Bhattacharya’s rendition of Ami Chini Go Chini (cover). It is a Ravindra Sangeet - a musical based on a poem written by the legend, Rabindranath Tagore. There are a bunch of, a bunch of renditions of Ami Chini Go Chini - and I believe the one by Kishore Kumar is the oldest. Here are the lyrics with English translation.
I had passed Ravindra Sangeet's music exams in my secondary - and missed my Bengali music teacher a lot that day. I guess I should visit my parents and find all the old classical music and tabla classes notebooks, and touch base with my musical roots. Very serendipitously, I recently bought a tabla in Gurgaon with an acquaintance too.
While we are on a melodious topic - tell me, how many playlists are you?
A few weeks ago, very unexpectedly, my tweet went viral: I expected 5-6 responses max. Wasn’t ready for such an overwhelming response.
I am still yet to write a culture essay on this - but I can for sure say- a handful of people are moving past the social/societal norms of ‘getting married’ and ‘having children’.
The times, they’re a-changing. Like love marriages were a big deal for the parents of our gen, choosing to not marry/date would be a revolution of individualism in ours.
A lot of thoughts are intertwined, and a lot of aspects are interconnected - patriarchy, caste, religion, education, financial freedom, health and more…
The COVID-19 outbreak has changed a lot of socio-economic behaviours too. While companionship is a ‘good to have’, it is not a ‘must-have’. I will explore more as I sit down to write this piece.
Inkspirations this month:
Conducting an online workshop on Introduction to Neuromarketing in collab with the great team at Saleswomentoring on Oct 28, 2023 from 11 AM onwards. Know more, and don’t forget to register! Here’s a quick link. :)
Currently reading: User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play by Cliff Kuang & Robert Fabricant
A big big fan of Arsh Raziuddin for designing a fab fab cover for Salman Rushdie’s next. So simple, yet so impactful!
Also a big, big fan of audionotes.app - enhancing my productivity since June 2023 - Have been using the pro version for quite some time now and have found immense value - made my life easier, especially with the index finger fracture.
Did you know the very first Google server was enclosed in a case made of Lego bricks? Yessss, here’s the story!
And yes, a friendly reminder, with festivities around the corner - don’t wait up to book your tix! :)
Keeping it raw -
Until the thirteenth,
Writeously yours,
Shalaka Kulkarni