RESOLUTIONS 2013 / 11

10 & 11. Well now. Yesterday I was so distracted by the origami segment of my resolutions that I made three altogether and dropped the one about posting a Resolution for the day! All three are from videos posted at online sites. The red and blue flowers are by JO NAKASHIMA while the third one, called "Carambola" is from a video posted by SARA ADAMS, who credits CARMEN SPRUNG with the design. (aside to Biatti: if you want, you can watch the demonstration in GERMAN! This is how I first watched it, but was later glad to find that she has English versions too)

All three were a real delight to create. Particularly the Carambola (which, I discovered by Googling the name, is another name for STARFRUIT -- which I've seen in supermarkets but never tasted!)

One reason it was an unusual and exciting model for me to try was that it was my first ever attempt to follow instructions for creating a pentagonal paper origami base from the more traditional square one
and then to fold something from that point of departure. It does involve cutting -- but then, very often, we start off with a sheet of rectangular paper which must then be cut to make a square. So this is not really that different -- and besides! Isn't it too thrilling to know that you can fold a square sheet in such a way that a perfect pentagon can be cut from it??

So. Well. The day began with origami, with two hours of writing, four glasses of water and ... okay, NO BLOGGING. Also, I went out for lunch at Delhi's Santushti complex, at the excellent BASIL & THYME which was a complete distraction from all resolutions -- even though I did manage not to inhale the bread, to the amusement of my lunch companion.

I must report here that I've been rather lucky in the lunch department: on Monday, I had, if possible, an even more excellent meal at DIVA. Actually, it's not fair to compare the two experiences: DIVA offers Italian cuisine in a style that subtly flatters the diner -- I mean, I felt my host and I had made such a CLEVER choice by going there for lunch! And the food was fresh and creative. I, who don't especially like fish, had a portion of Dover Sole that was exactly right in terms of quantity and flavour, presented with half-a-peach, poached plus just a little pasta and some spinach (I think) for colour and contrast. For dessert -- o yummm! -- a scoop of coconut ice cream, creme brulée and glittering strands of spun sugar. And the accompanying drink was a custom-designed (for my host, who is a regular) glass of prosecco with ginger -- yesss! It was good!

Basil & Thyme is a more familiar hangout for me and I have great memories of long, chatty lunches with just pathé and tiny toasted rolls and Zara Gateau for dessert. This time I had a Chocolate Espresso Almond Gateau for dessert, the Glazed Filo stuffed with Chicken and Mushroom for my main course. All good. Both meals were hugely augmented by great companions ... *grin* They know who they are.

There really isn't space left over to describe the rest of my day -- which included a visit to Jorbagh's THE BOOKSHOP, to buy a copy of Amruta Patil's amazing ADI PARVA, then to the IIC to have another long and interesting chat over tea with yet another clever and interesting friend.

All of these effects resulted in getting home so over-stimulated that, even though I did consider making a late-in-the-day blog entry, decided to be "human" once more and to default a second time.

So what is my Resolution for today? Just this: to take more photographs, because I have a cute little camera that I never use as much as I'd like to -- and to post at least one of them here ... now and then. I am not going to commit to Every Day. What I'd like is to take pictures of the world outside my living spaces, and to post them here. I've not been out today yet! So if I do post one today, it'll be later.

LATER:

RESOLUTIONS 2013 / 09

09: Today's offering appears to be very similar to yesterday's but it was actually rather different except that it is also an "inflatable" model. The difference arises from the two little feet underneath (and an other pair that are hidden underneath). They were rather difficult to fold, or maybe the instructions didn't make enough sense to me. I was sure I was making a mess, but to my surprise, the feet formed quite nicely in the end and, as you can see, the model sits up on its haunches. Nice. Sort of. I would have preferred more explicit final instructions at the feet-folding stage.

Today's Resolution is ... To Relax And Be Human Occasionally, By Breaking Some Of My Previous Resolutions! So I ate a slice of toast at breakfast along with an excellent spinach omelette. It was great and I felt unusually human by the end of it!

My link for the day is to a very good item in the New York Times, by Sohaila Abdulali. She writes
about surviving to live a happy and productive life, despite a brutal gang rape at the age of 17.

The author talks about the incident which -- had she been a very different person -- might have been described as the defining/scarring event of her life. I remember reading her account of the assault, many years ago, in MANUSHI, an Indian feminist magazine. The fact that she wrote it under her own name made it possible to connect that story with her update today, following accounts of the recent rape-murder incident in Delhi that has caught the attention of the world's media. At the time I read her earlier account, I was deeply impressed by her honest, uncluttered presentation of the incident. I always wondered what happened to her. It was very good to discover that she continues to be as she described herself in that article of 30-odd years ago, someone who refused to be defined by her encounter.

There can never be any prescriptions for how to respond to the derailments that occur in our personal lives, because each person's situation is unique. However, if choices are possible then, I think, Abdulali's experience shows that a supportive family, absolutely committed to helping the survivor rather than further punishing her with shame/guilt/fear, has to be the best possible approach.

RESOLUTIONS 2013 / 08

08. So ... here are the results of yesterday's and today's efforts -- two failed cranes and one semi-failed -- plus today's model, the BLOW UP BUNNY.

The semi-failed crane came SO close to being successful! But I was impatient. The front leg was perfect while the back leg just refused to fold back on itself in the right way. The real challenge was not the leg at all, but an earlier phase in the folding involving a five-way "sink fold". This is what caused the previous models to collapse in a mess of crumpled paper (there's one more, not featured here, that I simply had to throw away). So when I was finally able to get past that point and arrive at the leg-formation, I should have taken a break. I've noticed that it actually helps to think about the forms and the folds as they turn into recognizable shapes and to take breaks. The reason I could get past the sink-fold phase this morning, for instance, was that I'd had time to visualize what needed to be done after having messed up three squares of paper yesterday.

The choice of paper is important too: it's got to be crisp enough to crease accurately, but thin enough that the paper doesn't bunch solid as the layers increase. Origami paper is always the best, but the sheets I have with me are for very small models, whereas this crane does demand more paper (for novice-folders anyway). The semi-failed crane was made with wrapping paper from the Giftwrap For Artists series.

I plan to continue to work on the crane until I can produce a properly flapping model! But after that struggle, it was a great relief to make the simple little bunny.

My resolution for today is: to do one task around the house -- such as dusting my room -- that I really DON'T want to do. It doesn't have to be a big task, it doesn't have to take very long, so long as I do it. Today's is going to be clearing up my desk!!

RESOLUTIONS 2013 / 07

07: And here now is the infamous, never-seen-before FAILED CRANE! It was meant to be a FLAPPING CRANE, a fancier version of the familiar origami crane and the book's author, Robert J. Lang, warns the reader that it's a "somewhat difficult" model.

No kidding!

So I'll just have to try a bit harder and perhaps use a 10-inch square, like he suggests. It was quite amusing to produce a failure. It was going all right to begin with, but at one point, there was clearly a coloured patch in the instruction drawing that was NOT showing up on my model. A little while later, that same coloured patch appeared in the wrong location on my model and meanwhile the anticipated "five-point square" (yes, it can't REALLY be a square) that was supposed to develop in the middle, collapsed in a squishy mess. You can sort of see the mess, at the centre of the tangle of folds in the picture.

So! Onward. Today's resolution is ... okay, I have a list of resolutions and today's was going to be a more time-consuming one than I can manage, what with the Failed Crane in  my recent past. So today's is going to be: Send More Snail-mail! The idea is, I should aim to send at least one piece of mail BY POST to someone, every day. I have LOTS of post-cards, so that's what I plan to do. I've not done that yet but it's only 11 a.m. I have time.

RESOLUTIONS 2013 / 06

06: And that's my origami item for today, the Flapping Duck. Only a still photograph I'm afraid, because the truth is, my model refused to flap. I don't know why. Actually, I made a previous version of the same duck yesternight, and though it was a mess in several ways (the beak, the tail), it DID flap its wings very nicely. This one, in spite of its precisely folded tail, just won't flap. I will have to fold yet another one ... but not tonight, Josephine. I'm well aware that for the past two days, I've been posting my resolutions rather late in the day. If I'm to catch up then I'm going to have to confine my origami activities to one model a day, as resolved.

So TODAY's resolution is to write for TWO HOURS every day. If any of my publishers is reading this (heheh, I KNOW one of them will be ...) he/she will sigh with relief, because I won't include e-mail and posting to my blog in the two-hour minimum. I mean, two hours of work. I've already done one hour today, so there's only one to go. Right after the blog.

About keeping up with the resolutions so far, I'm not doing too badly: I've stayed away from the Web for the first two hours of every day; have posted to this blog; made new resolution; made a daily origami item; and not eaten any bread since the night of the 31st. Tonight, I have two more glasses of water to drink to complete my quota. So, not bad. Not especially great either because of course I chose easy resolutions! We'll see how long I can keep up.

Meanwhile, here's a link to a SALON article/interview about sexual violence against women with special reference to the recent brutal gang-rape in New Delhi, resulting in the death of the victim.

RESOLUTIONS 2013 / 04

04: Today's resolution is that I will NOT surf the net until two hours after waking up. This may not sound like a particularly difficult resolution, but it sort of is. The reason I sound diffident is that even while recognizing that I may have an internet addiction, I don't like admitting it.

The fact is, I often reach for my iPad even before I've got out of bed. So it's a problem.

Sort of.

I mean, I believe if I can't maintain this resolution, then I will have to admit that it IS a problem. It's been four days so far and I've managed to keep to the schedule. So I'm telling myself that it isn't really a problem. That's where doing the origami comes in too -- it gives me something to do immediately after waking up, something that does not require turning on the computer.

Today's model is a variation on yesterday's butterfly and -- as may be obvious -- I managed to make a brief video of it. Then I attempted the next model, but it was a disaster. Hmmm. I will have to try harder tomorrow morning, I guess!

Anyway.

The other item I'd like to offer for today's amusement is DAVE BARRY'S Year In Review 2012 from the Washington Post. It's really very funny, especially considering that most of the events he refers to are and were pretty grim.

RESOLUTIONS 2013 /3

03. Today's resolution is to make one piece of origami every day for this month. If I manage to keep this resolution, I may continue it for another month. Or year or whatever. The resolution only covers this month however or else I will lose nerve and fail right away.

Why origami? Because it's a great way to focus the mind. If you pay close attention to the diagrams and instructions, it's usually very easy to get a reasonably good result.

The book I'm following is one that I bought several years ago: ORIGAMI IN ACTION, Paper Toys That Fly, Flap, Gobble and Inflate! by Robert J. Lang (St. Martin's Griffin, New York). As its title suggests all the models are created with the capacity of flapping or twitching in some way. The reason I made three models today is that ... well, today's the THIRD! So at least for a few days, I'll have one new model a day. Of course, after a certain point in the book, the models become rather difficult and I may need to spend a longer time practicing simpler models for a while before I'll be able to make the Strumming Guitarist and the Fiddling Bassist (probably never. They're really tough).

I've always liked origami -- who doesn't, after all? -- but last year I watched a documentary on Netflix called BETWEEN THE FOLDS (by Vanessa Gould, Green Fuse Films) which showed truly breathtaking examples of origami. I mean, origami bordering on sorcery. I realize that ordinary mortals aren't ever likely to achieve that kind of mastery, but it re-ignited my latent fondness for the art.

There is something extremely satisfying about producing small, three-dimensional objects out of paper, using just one's fingers and a blade to cut the initial squares and sometimes rectangles required as raw material. In the past, I've rarely been able to remember how to make a model after having made it once, following the instructions. The only one I've been able to store in memory for many years is the so-called "water bomb", which is kind of cool, because it puffs open to form a cubic shape and can hold a small amount of water.

Anyhow, so one of my aims, currently, is to be able to recall the steps for making the simple models. I do really love to make things that can do something -- I mean, something more than just look like a crane or a flower -- so I'm already enjoying this book. All three models in the picture do indeed flap and if I were a little more organized, I could make a 5 second video to prove the point but ... my resolution only covers making the model! And posting a new resolution each day! And updating my blog!

So I'm done for the moment.

RESOLUTIONS 2013

02: For the whole of this year, I'd like to eat more consciously. It's no longer about losing weight or how I look but just about being more thoughtful about what I eat. For instance, I plan to keep one favourite food item off my plate for a month at a time. This month, it's going to be bread. Why? Because I eat bread like an addict -- it's not about taste or flavour or texture, it's just about shoveling processed wheat-grain down my gullet.

Now maybe this is just the way I am. If so, then a month of abstinence will mean a pleasurable wallow when I dive back into the bread bin. Or maybe, who knows, I will get to the end of the month and not feel I missed anything. Either way, it's a journey of Discovery! All from the confines of my own dining table.

***

Here are links to two articles I enjoyed today:

THE PEACE PILGRIM

and

PICKPOCKETING AS AN ARTFORM

The first is about an American woman who decided one day to walk for peace, carrying nothing but the clothes on her back and "— a pen, a comb, a toothbrush and a map. That's it. " Her name was Mildred Norman and I first heard about her many years ago, from a newspaper cutting a guest who came for dinner left in the house. I always wanted to know more about this oddly interesting story and here it was, at NPR's website.

The second is the fascinating story of Apollo Robbins, a pickpocket who appears to be supernaturally skilled. He steals for entertainment, not as livelihood. From the New Yorker.

Resolutions UPDATE; Travel; AVATAR (the movie)

RESOLUTIONS

Well, here we are sailing past the first fortnight of the year and it seemed a good time to review how my resolutions are doing: not bad, but not great. The main thing is that I HAVE stopped playing Mahjongg Solitaire*. I am almost up-to-date with my diary and I've certainly been plugging away at my book projects. But I'm still traveling in short gasps, and several of them and I've been avoiding the careful-bill-stashing altogether. (*About the Solitaire, I must admit it wasn't a smooth transition: I spent the whole of the year's first week playing games at the LUMOSITY site instead! My justification was, of course, that my brain's power was being significantly boosted, as evidenced by the sharp angle at which all the scores were rising. But at the end of the week my free membership came to an end. I had to choose whether or not to crawl my way out of the swamp of moronism all the way up to Einsteinhood for the mere pittance of $5 a month. And I decided to take my chances with moronism. Since then, NO GAMES)
TRAVEL

Thursday night, I pulled up stakes and flew to NYC on Jet Airways. It was a close call, getting to the airport on time because the Season Finale of Boston Legal was being aired and I was determined not to miss it. So instead of leaving the house at ll.30, we left at 12.00, which was the time I should have already been at the airport, checking in. I kept calling the Jet Airways Fog Delay number, hoping against hope that the flight WOULD be delayed -- in which case I could watch the season finale in peace -- but oh no, of course THAT never happens, right? Just like the watched pot that never boils, a flight is never delayed if you WANT it to be delayed. Anyway, I watched finale and arrived half an hour late at the airport and it didn't matter much at all. We boarded at the correct time only to wait an hour on the runway. Still, we DID take off (rather than be delayed for nine hours which is what routinely happens during Fog Season) and that was a relief. I had a great seat -- an aisle seat in the front of my section, excellent leg room. I give Jet Airways service high marks -- next only to Virgin Atlantic, in my experience. On Continental the hostesses behave like wardens in an asylum for retarded war criminals ("... please remain seated until we allow you to move around and oh by the way there will only be two meals served on board for the full duration of your 16-hour nonstop to Newark and if you can't shut up and watch your movies quietly, we'll sedate you and flush you down the toilet.")and on Air India, the flight crew all behave like contented tabby-cats, waddling about in their saris and dispensing greasy meals with a homespun cheeriness inappropriate to hurtling through the upper atmosphere at 500 KPH.

However in Brussels, where there was a halt and change of aircraft, our flight arrived one hour late and that, combined with the one and a half hour hold up on account of enhanced security for all flights to the US meant that I caught my onward flight with seconds to spare. AAAAARGH. I absolutely detest having to run for anything, but the prospect of missing the flight (to be stuck in Europe without a Schengen visa would certainly have qualified as junior membership in Hell) had me sprinting the last five hundred yards. It didn't help that the man behind me in the queue insisted on repeating over and over, in Hindi, "These people are all COWARDS -- cowards, cowards, cowards --" ("yeh sab darpoke hain, darpoke, darpoke") meaning, Americans in particular and all westerners in general, were foolish to be afraid of a few innocent travelers arriving from the Third World. I can't be sure that I was the last passenger to board my flight, but it seemed to me they sealed the hatch minutes after I got to my seat. PHEW. Major panic stations there.

Other than that, it's been a great trip so far. Was collected at JFK by friends, had a very pleasant evening with them and the next morning was really grateful that they dropped me all the way to the Port Authority Bus Station from Long Island -- it's a 20 minute journey by car, but about an hour and a half by commuter train and subway. Caught the 10 a.m. bus to Binghamton and my sister collected me from there, at one o'clock. And then we sailed off to see AVATAR in glowing 3D ... but before I move on to my next topic, i.e., the movie, I must mention the outstanding dinner we had at home, Sunday night : lobster-stuffed steaks with baked potato. Unbelievably tender and delicious meat, outstanding dressing on the potatoes, everything cooked to perfection. My sister is a genius cook aside from all her other accomplishments, and that's final.

AVATAR
What can I say? I enjoyed the movie, in spite of myself. I was convinced I would find it unbearably soft-centred and sentimental -- and even though I wouldn't howl to the moon about it or anything, I have to admit it had moments of stunning beauty; and the mushy bits were not so deadly saccharine as to drown out the good bits (I didn't like the TITANIC, for instance, because of the utterly improbable-for-that-era romance). I knew I would not be especially wowed by the scenic sights coz I've already been wowed by MYST and I was certain this would be a MYST-like environment. And it was -- but the N'avi were beautifully realized, perhaps the smoothest transition from live-action to CGI that the world has seen so far (well, in mass-distribution media, anyway). So that was fun to watch. The romance was irritating, of course, but inevitable and thank goodness, not over-emphasized. And there was always Sigourney Weaver to link back to, every time we returned to the human dimension. The story was never going to be of much consequence, so heavily larded with guilt as it was bound to be, but within its constraints (i.e., the constraints of History and Reality) it did manage a generous portion of dignity.


However, there's another piece of fiction that has been tweaking my brain -- more engaging by far than AVATAR -- and that is Paul Theroux's A DEAD HAND. It was what I read on the flight out of Delhi, with the result that my arrival in NYC was distinctly Theroux-flavoured. I really enjoyed it and plan to devote my next bulletin here to it -- aside from being too sleepy to continue this blog-item right now, I want to dedicate a whole post to the book, rather than a mere section.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

RESOLUTIONS:

* At the top of my list: Stop playing MAHJONGG SOLITAIRE. I probably spend an hour of every day with this wretched thing. It's true that it "clears the decks" effectively -- but it's too time-heavy. I'll just have to find another way to clear my mental decks.

* In terms of work, I've got two picture books and one novel on my desk. I wish I was the sort of writer who could post daily progress reports. But that would freak me out so much I'm not going to even begin thinking about it. My typical work day begins at 9.30, when I wake up and 3.30 a.m. when I crawl into bed (it's 2 a.m. right now). In between, there's an endless struggle between dabbing at the key-board -- a few paragraphs -- and everything else: meals, cups of tea or hot-water-and-apple-juice (this is my current tipple of choice), chats on the phone with my sister/my mother/friends, solitaire, naps, TV. It's disgusting. I listen to other people say they work for 18 hours at a stretch and already I feel tired. I've also got paintings on the agenda and maybe a show. Or two.

* Fewer trips, longer stays. This resolution is going to be very difficult to keep. Especially as I'm starting the year with a shorty-short expedition -- just one week long. But I need to stop that.

* Stash my bills in an orderly way; currently there's one big padded envelope into which every bill gets stuffed and since I can never face opening the envelope the pile just grows bigger and more unmanageable until one weekend I spend the entire 48 hours struggling to make sense of the whole thing. If I would only stash them neatly to BEGIN with, there would never be that wasted 48 hours -- which I could otherwise spend napping or drinking hot water. *sigh*

* Post Ms Malcontent regularly. Like maybe every Sunday? That would be SO cool. I see that as a direct result of not playing solitaire any more. Maybe I'll get HER to play! Ha. That'll be fun.

* Keep a diary once more. For most of 2009, I failed to do this little thing that I've pretty much done most years, particularly since the late nineties. Everything depends on having the Right Diary in which to keep the record. It's especially important to get the Right Diary BEFORE the year begins. Which is currently the case: I have TWO diaries, actually, both very attractive. One is the WelcomGroup diary with contemporary art and the other is a spiral bound diary containing the wonderful drawings of the American artist CHARLEY HARPER. His Golden Book of Biology was something that grabbed my attention when I was 8 years old and never let go: I think my interest in both biology AND illustration was hugely augmented by his work! He died a couple of years ago, but his work has suddenly become highly accessible. My sister Su keeps me well supplied. Recently she gave me the Charley Harper MEMORY GAME set (you know, the game in which pairs of cards are placed face down and you take turns to expose them in pairs? Also called CONCENTRATION or PELMANISM) and I played endless rounds of the game with my niecelet in Madras. Outstanding.


LINK:
This isn't a resolution but a link to TULIKA's blog, where I wrote a short piece for them, about putting together the I AM DIFFERENT book.