Tag Archives: Writing

Siblings Day

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A sibling is a gender-neutral word for a relative that shares at least one parent. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child. Given that most siblings are brought up together, there is usually a very strong emotional bond between them and the relationship between siblings is unique in itself. The word sibling was reintroduced in 1903 in an article in Biometrika, as a translation for the German Geschwister, having not been used since 1425.

With siblings, we can be ourselves. They know all our secrets and maybe some secrets we don’t even acknowledge to ourselves. Siblings shape the person you become because growing up with people of different attitudes, characters and idiosyncrasies, you learn to get along with people instinctively. And of course, growing up with siblings, you have to learn to communicate and express yourself so your voice is heard. If your sibling is of the opposite sex, then you have a live example of how that sex thinks and works. This will stand you in great stead in life. Having a sibling is one of the best parts of life, you have a built-in companion for life. As Dr Terri Apter, the author of ‘The Sister Knot’ so rightly put it: siblings may not always agree with you or even like you, but they elicit a great interest in you that is difficult to replicate in any other relationship.

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Since siblings have such a huge impact on our lives, should there not be a festival or even a day to celebrate this bond? In India, the beautiful festival of Raksha Bandhan celebrates the love and bonds between a brother and sister. But this festival, the oldest festival in the category, only celebrates the bonds between siblings of the opposite gender. What about siblings who are of the same gender?

That’s when Siblings Day comes into the picture. Siblings Day is a holiday celebrated annually in some parts of the United States and Canada on April 10 and as Brothers and Sisters Day on May 31 in Europe. Unlike Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, it is not federally recognised in the United States, though the Siblings Day Foundation is working to change this.

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Siblings Day was conceived by Claudia Evart to honour the memory of her brother and sister, who died at an early age. The Siblings Day Foundation was incorporated in 1997 and achieved non-profit status in 1999. In Europe, was launched in 2014 by the European Large Families Confederation or ELFAC to celebrate siblings’ bonds and relationships. The May 31 feast spread in different ways in the European countries where ELFAC is present. In Portugal, Dia dos Irmãos has become very popular. ELFAC has associate members in several European countries including Austria, Cyprus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Switzerland.

So if you haven’t already done so, take some time to spend time with your sibling/s and enjoy the day, going back to a time when life was uncomplicated and all you needed was the love of your siblings. Happy Siblings Day!

Short Story: The Red Box

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One of my goals this year was to start writing short stories. On my recent trip to India, in the flight from Singapore to Mumbai, I was bored. I didn’t feel like reading or watching something so decided to write something. I had some writing prompts and one of the prompts inspired this story. The story more or less wrote itself and I was able to complete it quite fast. I just edited it slightly for clarity and here it is in all its glory. I would love to hear comments, both good and bad, specially because this is the first time I am attempting this genre.

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Short Story: The Red Box

As Caroline left her office, she realised she had forgotten her umbrella again! “Aiyah”!, she thought to herself, “this is Singapore, surely I will be able to get home under a sheltered walkway and not get wet.” Thinking this, she tried to rush to the nearest MRT station when the clouds opened up above her. Spying an HDB block just across the road, Caroline rushed to take shelter in the block’s void deck.

“This Singapore weather is so unpredictable. It was sunny when I left the office and now suddenly it is pouring” she muttered to herself. “Now I will be late for the high tea party with Lisa and Veena and they will be upset with me again. This is the second time I will be late”. As she tried to dry herself, unsuccessfully, she tried calling her friends, but soon realised she neither had mobile coverage nor data. Wandering about the void deck, trying to get a signal, she suddenly realised that something was not right. Usually, void decks are busy places with people walking, sitting or even chatting around, but here, she could not find anybody.

While walking around holding her phone in various angles trying to get some sort of signal, from the corner of her eyes, she saw something red lying in a dark corner of the void deck. It was as if someone had tried to hide something, but were not very successful. It was a red rectangular box made of Chinese lacquer that seemed to have some sort of a glow coming from within it. The staid Singaporean in her initially resisted going close to the box. After all, she had been conditioned not to touch or take anything that did not belong to her. But the box continued to emit this strange glow and much as she wanted to stay away, it continued to beckon her.

Caroline looked around to see if there was somebody, anybody who would be the owner of the box, so she can, in good conscience pass it to them. But the area was desolate and soon she found herself creeping closer and closer to the box and then almost without violation, picking it up.

She took the box to the nearest seating area and continued to look at it. Outside the rain continued to pour heavily and visibility was almost nil. She tried to call her friends again but continued to not get any reception, both for mobile and her phone data. “ I must complain to the provider”, she thought as she made a mental note. “Now Lisa and Veena will think I flaked out and didn’t go to meet them without a reason. Lisa was angry at me two weeks back for meeting them late, but at least I had a good excuse then. What shall I tell them now?” Upset, Caroline tried to will the rain to stop and while doing that, opened the box.

As soon as she opened the box, there was a thunder sound and lightning started to strike, just outside the void deck. Caroline visibly jumped and hurriedly closed the box. And as soon as she did that, the rain started to ease. Scared, she hurriedly got up from the seat backed off quickly and go as far as she could from the box. The minute she was as far from the box as it was possible, the rain stopped as suddenly as it started and the sun came out. She even managed to see a double rainbow shimmering just outside the void deck. As she took in this wondrous beauty of nature, she heard a squeal of delight.

“My box, my box! See mummy, someone was so kind to keep it here safely”, a high pitched voice that could only belong to a young child pierced her thoughts. She turned around and saw a young girl, probably about 3 years old skip and come forward to pick up the red box. The toddler saw Caroline and asked her, “Jiejie, were you the one who kept my box?” to which Caroline had to assent. By then the toddler’s mum had come up to Caroline along with the child and told her daughter, “Li-San, did you thank the jiejie for keeping your box safely?” Li-San thanked Caroline in a sweet voice and her mother explained, “Li-San thought she had lost her keepsake box while playing here this morning. We looked all around, but could not find it. We were just coming to make another search before we post a notice asking people to look out for it. This box belongs to her Ah Ma who died recently and Li-San is very attached to it because it has items that her Ah Ma gave her. Thank you very much for finding and keeping the box safely”

Caroline accepted the mother’s thanks and started to move away from the void deck towards the MRT station. Her phone rang and it was Lisa asking where she was. Caroline started to apologise, but Lisa cut her off and started to apologise instead. “Caro, so sorry hor, I was stuck in the office and could not leave until now. I am now on the way to the hotel and will pick up Veena and meet you there in 30 minutes. Please go ahead and order first, it’s my treat for my promotion”.

Bemused, Caroline made her way to the station and turned around to see the block and void deck. She can’t be certain, but she is sure, she saw an elderly lady sitting on the seat she had just vacated wearing a red cheongsam. The old lady smiled a beatific smile and waved at Caroline who could only wonder if this was a dream or if it happened.

In My Hands Today…

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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft – Stephen King

“Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon the publication of Stephen King’s On Writing.

Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.

King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported near-fatal accident in 1999 — and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery.

Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it — fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

In My Hands Today…

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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation – Lynne Truss

In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss, gravely concerned about our current grammatical state, boldly defends proper punctuation.

She proclaims, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. Using examples from literature, history, neighborhood signage, and her own imagination, Truss shows how meaning is shaped by commas and apostrophes, and the hilarious consequences of punctuation gone awry.

Featuring a foreword by Frank McCourt, and interspersed with a lively history of punctuation from the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, Eats, Shoots & Leaves makes a powerful case for the preservation of proper punctuation.

World Poetry Day

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What comes to your mind when the word poetry is uttered? Boring, maybe? Or profound or even life-changing perhaps? It is that and much more. Poetry is literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. Poetry is probably as old as language and history, present wherever religion is present, possibly the primal and primary form of languages. Poetry is the other way of using language.

To celebrate one of celebrates one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expression and identity, World Poetry Day is celebrated annually on 21 March. Practised throughout history, in every culture and on every continent, poetry speaks to our common humanity and our shared values, transforming the simplest of poems into a powerful catalyst for dialogue and peace.

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21 March was adopted as World Poetry Day in 1999, in Paris, to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increase the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard. World Poetry Day is the occasion to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry, foster the convergence between poetry and other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting, and raise the visibility of poetry in the media as well as give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements. It also supports linguistic diversity through poetic expression and offers endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities.

It was generally celebrated in October, but in the latter part of the 20th century, the world community celebrated it on 15th October, the birthday of Virgil, the Roman epic poet and poet laureate under Augustus. The tradition to keep an October date for national or international poetry day celebrations still holds in many countries. In the United Kingdom, the day is celebrated on the first Thursday in October, but elsewhere a different October, or even sometimes a November date, is celebrated.

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World Poetry Day is celebrated around the world in readings and ceremonies honouring poets of high achievement as well as in teaching the craft to aspiring writers. A day dedicated to poetry: an art form that has persisted for millennia and continues to enrich our understanding of the human condition to this day. With the rise of technology and smartphones, some might believe that poetry might be a dying art. However, this very day aims to get rid of these misconceptions. In many educational institutions, poetry competitions are held to encourage young students to write. With the help of other mediums such as theatre, poetry is promoted in different parts of the world. As poetry continues to bring people together across continents, let’s join in by reading some classic poetry in English and other languages and diving into the beauty of the language and word-play.