How Could I Forget?

It seems like a century has slipped past since I last looked at this blog! So much has happened in the past few days - my first poetry reading and wine dinner, countless business meetings, making new friends, Silverfish's looming short story deadline, yoga philosophy classes. It's been a rollercoaster of fun, frenzy and fatigue. But until two days ago, only one item on my to-do list was brandishing the Worry-Incessantly-About-Me-Now placard. My impending yoga trip to India.

How could October 2005 be six months ago? It feels like the ink hasn't even dried on my application form and I'm already dusting off my backpack. I leave in exactly 2 weeks. The very thought makes me freeze momentarily.

I've practiced yoga for over two years, I have a daily one-hour home practice, I've read countless books, my teacher has been generously 'tutoring' me in yoga philosphy for the past few weeks, I can chant the entire 24 lines of the opening prayer in Sanskrit by heart...and I'm not ready for this trip at all. Each time I have a bad practice, I ask myself what made me think I could be a teacher. When I have a good practice, I ask myself if it will be good enough for THEM. I wonder if I would be the only one there who can't nestle my head in my feet in a backbend, stand motionless on my head or stay awake during meditation. Each time these thoughts race through my mind, I feel my excitement draining faster than KL's irrigation system. It came to the point where I almost regretted enrolling.

Then, two days ago, I was given the priviledge of reading a new friend's book manuscript. The author is an Ashtanga practitioner and the book, It's A Long Way To The Floor, details his yogic journey. I read the book in record time, partly because the writing flowed so well and mostly because it summoned every one of my insecurities to the surface. The author had battled with the same issues I did when I first started - competitiveness, pride, frustration and disappointment. Over time, these negative emotions were replaced by the same emotions that spurred me to walk this spiritual path - patience, acceptance, humility, surrender, peace and pure happiness. By the time I reached the tenth chapter, I remembered why I fell in love with yoga in the first place. Because of how it made me feel, not because of what it made me do. I realise that I will never be completely ready for this experience and perhaps I'm not supposed to be. After all, I'm going there to learn and if I think I already know everything, then I will miss out on everything.

My excitement has begun slowly creeping back and now, I can't wait to get on that plane. I am ready now. So thank you David Byck for reminding me of everything I briefly forgot.

Feng Shui For Writers

Something I found on www.about.com that relates to my previous post. Perhaps one of these might work for you!

Never sit with your back to the door. 

If you can’t see what’s going on, you and your work will suffer. Instead, face the door and have a solid wall behind your back so that you feel supported, protected and in a position of power.
The reason my writing takes so long is because I CAN see what’s going on!

Create a clean environment.
A cluttered, messy, or dusty workspace is a distraction from your work. You should always be able to find what you need when you need it.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think my mother slipped this one in.

Add a small plant, aquarium, or fountain in the southeast corner of your office.

The southeast is the corner of creation and writing. Adding a plant, water fountain or aquarium here will help you grow as a writer by infusing this area with harmonious elements. The southeast is also the wealth sector, and by enhancing this area you might just also earn more from your writing.
Does a coffee pot with plant motives count? It’s still liquid, what!

Use a crystal for concentration.
Place a quartz crystal in the northeast corner of your desk, which is the direction of study and wisdom, to help your concentration and focus.
I have to figure out where to move my twin tower of unread books first.

Boost the south wall of your office for fame and recognition.
If you are trying to catch a publisher’s eye or market your articles/book, place work you’ve sold, prizes or awards you’ve won, diplomas, certificates, or pictures or letters from famous people on the south wall. Be sure to have a light positioned to shine on this wall and the accolades hanging there.
Carson Kressley would pass out from the sheer tackiness.

Keep open space on and around your desk.
Good feng shui is like creativity - it must be flowing. But, creativity and good energy cannot flow if your desktop is overly crowded or you can’t walk around your desk easily. Keep an open space in front of your desk so good energy can accumulate here, and around your work area so that good energy and creativity can flow easily around it.
My writing desk is like Shah Alam during a downpour. Nothing can move anywhere.

If you must stack up your work, stack it up behind you or to your left rather than in front of you on your desk where it will appear as something insurmountable.

L-shaped desks are very inauspicious (they look like a cleaver), so avoid these desk configurations.

Where Writers Write

Last month, I struggled with a major upheaval in my life. I had to evacuate my current favourite writing spot because sitting on the floor was too uncomfortable and after tolerating my indifference to for a few weeks, my back retaliated with vicious spasms. Following Thom Felicia’s advice to get rid of furniture you don’t use, I banished my dining table to the balcony, threw out the coffee table and bought a low-rise Japanese-style dining table, which I use for dinner, writing and displaying unread books. It didn’t take me long to realise that such tables are NOT designed for the creation of long or short stories. So I had to move. But where?

The balcony table had been subject to hail and high water and now resembled a volcanic landscape. The side table wasn’t big enough to spread out all my stuff. That left the proper writing table in my study. It’s a decent size, with three drawers and ample surface space for four piles of books, a stationary holder, a pile of notebooks and a vase. The only problem was that I didn’t like its location. My study is the 1 bit in the 2+1 apartments. Cosy but devoid of my much desired no morning light, wonderful sights and welcome distractions.

As I grouchily resigned myself to it, I thought about how every writer deserved to have a scared space where they could create great literary works to bestow upon the nation and world. Apparently, The Writers Room thought so too.

The Writers Room opened in 1978 to provide a workspace for urban writers in New York, who don't always have a quiet place to write at home. For a fee of $350 to $550 every half a year and a one-time $75 initiation fee, writers get one of 39 partitioned desks in the large loft, a separate typing room with four desks, a library with approximately 1,000 reference books and Internet access.

Why don’t we have something like that here? A better question would be, what would happen if we have something like that here? Would it really be used as a sacred writing space? I have my doubts.

Anyway, to make myself feel better, I poked around in a few writers’ lives to find out where they sow their creative seeds. My nosey questions:

1. Where is your favourite writing spot and do you have a proper writing table there?
2. If you do have a writing table, where did you get it and why do you like it?
3. What's the first thing you do when you sit down at your writing table?
4. What's on your writing table right now?
5. What would your dream writing spot be
6. Do you think writers should have a proper writing table or should creativity flow anywhere and everywhere?

Sharon Bakar, Teacher, writer and reader extraordinaire
1. A beautiful teak writing desk in my bedroom for the creative stuff. Articles get written in my "work room" on her computer.
2. Hand-made by Ching Lee in Taman Tun.
3. Close my eyes for a few seconds and take a few deep breaths to iron out any kinds of tension.
4. Writing books which make myself
5. Outside ... in a garden or by the sea
6. Both ... you should take advantage of time to write wherever you are ...

Hisham Harun, Editor
1. Strangely, I like doing work at the internet cafe near Mid Valley (so that when I get tired, I'd just walk over to the Mall) Sometimes, it's at Baskin Robbins, Jalan Telawi.
2. I have one at home. Got it at a furniture store. But its become a CD/Karaoke CD and DVD rack. It's difficult to get work done at home.
3. In the office, I just switch on my computer and get on the Net to read my mail.
4. PC, Books, Files, papers strewn all over, calendar....
5. Preferably at home, but can't seem to find the right spot. Or it could just be me... I'm a little odd.
6. The latter.

Janet Lee, Copywriter
1. Table in my room facing the garden. I go there when I want ideas to flow. The I have my computer table, in another room, my office-at-home. It is on the other side of the house, facing the front garden.
2. My beautiful round creation table was painted for my by my cousin David, who’s a brilliant artist.
3. Put some blank paper in front of me. Maybe light a scented candle. Wait for a cat to jump up and plonk himself on my blank paper.
4. Aaarrgh! It’s a mess. All sorts of junk is on it! I haven’t been working here for a while.
5. That is my dream spot. I feel so at peace there.
6. It’s really up to the individual, I think. I love my round table in my creation room, but I can also work anywhere – just need a notebook (real one, not a laptop) and a purple pen.

Marisa Misron, Associate Editor
1. Since I write on my computer, it has to somewhere on a proper desk and comfortable chair. I have a computer table, does that count as a writing table?
2. N/A
3. Read that last thing I wrote.
4. Magazines, dictionaries, pens, books.
5. In a shady, breezy spot on a white, sandy beach and there's wifi.
6. I think writers should have a proper space to work in so that they know if and when they're in that zone, they are supposed to be WORKING and not WAFFLING. having said that, I waffle all the time!

An Unexpected Climax

I’m currently working on a book project, which is a collection of short stories on life in the hotel industry. The tales are courtesy of housekeeping, concierge, room service, porters, waiters, chefs and even restroom attendants from a variety of hotels in South-East Asia.

My client, a hotelier himself, has been busy collecting these stories from current and former colleagues, and each time we meet he regales me with the Story Of The Week. We met again recently and after talking shop, he leaned forward with grin and said, “I just heard this from a friend in X Hotel.”

An attractive local woman had checked in and ordered room service. When the boy/man brought up her meal, she demanded a snog. The boy/man refused. She replied that if he remained a stubborn mule, she would slap him with a molest charge. So he conceded, one thing led to another and Durex’s had yet another satisfied client. After that, they parted ways.

However, Madam Seductress slinked about the hotel for a few more weeks during which she blackmailed two more employees into doing the karmasutra. Eventually this word leaked out and for some reason, the hotel's management decided to spot chekc her room. They found a hidden camera. Madam Seductress was filming a DIY porn movie. What happened next, only the corporate communications and CEO knows.

But I wonder how those three guys feel. I'm sure they never expected a climax like this!

It All Started With A Book

So Brokeback Mountain didn't make a grand sweep. I'm still trying to get over the disappointment. Especially since I haven't had the opportunity to enjoy Crash yet and am terribly biased in my choice of 'Best Motion Picture'. But there are some consolations.

Ang Lee's triumph, for one. If only one person from the Brokeback team landed an Oscar I would have wanted it to be him. He truly deserved it for (as Proulx) herself put, 'making the screen better than the page'. Courage, faith and love. That's what he truly won the Oscar for.

The other sweet moment was Larry McMurtry's speech, in which he reminded the hundreds of millions of Brokeback fans that it was a book first. I felt a deep gratitude towards him for acknowledging the invisible and often forgotten creators of the many magnificent adapted screenplays, and for also paying tribute to the wonderful culture of the books.

And as I watched the nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film category, I made a little wish that one day, Malaysian filmakers the likes of Yasmin Ahmad will see their works of art vying for the golden statue. Who knows? Sometimes wishes do come true.