Arts...Travels...Writing

Last May, I went with a group of fellow photography enthusiasts to Bhutan in what proved to be a trip of a lifetime in more ways than one. The place is blessed with well-conserved natural resources, (lush mountains, clear streams, calm valleys),  its distinct culture which is greatly influenced by Buddhism, and the warmth of its people, who are generally ready to share a smile. Aside from these, what sets Bhutan apart from many Asian countries is its unique architecture. I'll be sharing more of my experience in future posts but for now, I'd like to share a few snaps, specifically a facet of Bhutanese architecture, its doors and windows. This window design typical of many houses and buildings in Bhutan Doors are as equally interesting...this one from a temple in Bhumtang Tashiccho Dzong in Thimpu Near Punakha Dzong In a temple complex in Bumthang...this is where the townsfolk light up candles Behind Tashiccho Dzong in Thimpu A prayer wh...

I've never really explored the entirety of Gardens by the Bay, but last week I was delighted to discover a lotus pond near the Marina Reservoir promenade. And it helps that it is in a quiet area too:-) Here are some of my snaps: Lotus is considered a rare gem for its ability to grow out of a mud. It is an important symbol in Buddhism (it can mean purity, fortune, faithfulness, the stages of a Buddhist' life - depending on context and colour)...and many books use the analogy of lotus and mud to explain the role of murk (suffering, etc.) in the bigger scheme of things, i.e., the lotus flower (beauty) needs the mud (suffering, etc) to bloom and grow...one such book is Thich Nhat Hanh's No Mud, No Lotus Bees season! There's a whole stretch of them at Gardens by the Bay The flowers apparently bloom in the morning or with sunrise, and the older ones shed off their petals in the afternoon This is what's left after the bloom...it lacks ...

Last Christmas, I was truly thrilled when I received this very thoughtful gift from a great friend: a first edition of Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea (1952). I'm sure this book has been reviewed countless of times in the past, including compulsory reviews in Literature classes. So I am not going to write a detailed one, but instead I will focus on the experience of reading an old print, which had stirred dormant memories and made me nostalgic.  The book, with its tattered cover leaf, its smell reminiscent of old libraries, and its large font size, transported me back to my childhood weekends of scavenging through old chests or the bottom rung of our bookshelf, in hopes of finding interesting reads. Sometimes I would be rewarded with great finds, including a hard-bound book of bedtime stories (one of the earliest books I've read independently), and over time the great finds started to include the likes of 'To Kill a Mockingbird', 'Catcher in the Rye', et...

  There is this common advice that says the best way to write is to write about something one knows. And I’ve always taken that to mean that one should also write from the same gender perspective; I have felt that a female author writing from the POV of a female protagonist would be more credible. And so far most, if not all, the novels I’ve read by a female author have a female protagonist. But having read Ishiguro, I have no more doubts that even a male author can go into the mind of a female protagonist and be credible at it. Never Let Me Go is the story of a group of students living in Hailsham School, a boarding academy in an idyllic corner of England. At first glance, everything seems ordinary, at least as ordinary as a boarding school could get, until many pages later when one learns that these students are far from ordinary. (If you haven’t read the book yet and are planning to do so later, then please know that there are spoilers in this post). That is, th...

For my February read, I've chosen Patrick Modiano's Suspended Sentences, mainly to quench a growing curiosity about France's 'best kept secret' ever since he was announced as 2014's Nobel Prize winner. And as with the many books that I've picked, I was enticed by the blurbs and author endorsements on the back cover.  Suspended Sentences is a compilation of three short novels; each can stand alone, though together the three can be a seamless read because of common elements linking them like style, theme, character quirks, and nostalgia (such that the book is almost like reading Paris in sepia).  All three are similar in their tapping of seemingly dormant memories and how these continue to cast shadows into the present. Here are my thoughts:  1. Afterimage , the first novel, is the pursuit of an elusive photographer Francis Jansen. The narrator has volunteered to catalogue Jansen's work and in the process learns about Jansen's history and his r...

And here's the continuation of my January reads: 2. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson I like Marilynne Robinson a lot. I delighted in the beauty and grace of her prose in Housekeeping , I marvelled at her deep insights about nature, and I was in total awe at how her sentences sing---they are lyrical even if at times they tackle just mundane things. Robinson is heavily admired by creative writing folks, and she has received many accolades that mere mortals like me could only dream of.  It is therefore with such high expectation that I started reading her most celebrated oeuvre  the Pulitzer Prize winning  Gilead . On my first day though, I could not go beyond a few pages and I thought perhaps I was still too deep into the holiday spirit. However, even when the holiday was over, I was still struggling. Because it is not plot-driven, the story lacks action to carry it along.  Moreover, because the characters are almost uni-dimensional (or as one reviewer puts ...

Chinatown is one of the key heritage areas in Singapore, along with Little India and Kampong Glam. I love visiting these areas and discovering new things each time. Today I had the opportunity to visit Chinatown more leisurely so I took more snaps than normal :-)  I started from the corner of Temple Street and walked straight along South Bridge Road, host to these sights: Lunar New Year buntings along South Bridge Road. The oldest Hindu temple in the country happens to be at the corner of Temple Street in Chinatown... more of the temple later One of the streets, Smith Street, is dedicated to all that we love - Food! I remember having tasted the chilliest crab in town in one of the hawker stalls here After a few minutes of walking, I stopped at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple at the corner of South Bridge and Sago Lane. This was where I spent most of my two-hour "immersion"... I was quite contented simply soaking in the opulence of the place, listeni...