by | | Her, World
“To be, or not to be– that is the question.” Shakespeare
The world we exist in relies heavily on relationships to make us who we are. Hence the identity of “who I am” is the sum of the characters of our life. Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.”
A misunderstanding starts when a brand new concept of being is introduced into someone’s world. Suddenly, they are challenged to become a new being to fit into a new status quo of what is “acceptable”. Some people embrace change, others, resist change.
My uncle resisted me studying overseas when he said, “don’t bring back your western ideas.” He has good intentions, but he believes that I should be a housewife as a full time career option. Although I had highlighted to him that it is not possible for modern day women to pursue that, he still firmly believes a woman’s place of happiness is at home and men should be providers.
I do look up to him as a Big Uncle and over the years, over many insistence to him that the lifestyle of staying at home to look after the family and not have a job for my generation of women due to the way society is structured is not an option. After much insistence on my part, he finally agreed that women can do both – work in a career and have a family life.
Hence by overcoming that conversation with my uncle over a period of a few years and few encounters, he now accepts that I am a business woman who also is able to have a family life. This has fundamentally shifted his way of looking at modern day women as probably, his previous conversations with my cousins and aunts had not worked either as he had aspired for us to be happy housewives with a great (interior) family life but all of us ended up working and having ambitious (exterior) goals in life. Now that I had shifted that we can do both (interior) family goals and (exterior) work goals, he now accepts that women do both.
Sometimes all it takes is a continuous stand before the relationship shifts from “unaccepted” to becoming “accepted”. An introduction of a new idea or concept causes an evolution of the mind itself to re-define and re-accept the new state of the way things are. The shift is not about “changing” but it is about “evolving”. Hence resistance sets in when there is an evolution happening.
Consider that your immediate relationships is the key to causing your own evolution and the moment that one stops to listen to other characters on stage, the play stops. There is no ACT 2. Life stops at ACT 1 and stagnates slowly till we die. The moment we start listening to others, life moves on to ACT 2, and it becomes a new state of who we are. Now, my uncle is proud of my business achievements and family achievements and shares with other members of the family they should aspire to have both. He has moved to ACT 2 of life and is now is receptive to my “western” ideas as well and that maybe me going overseas to study has allowed me to converse well with him in a way that he has reconciled that old and new world.
My uncle is indeed a Big Uncle.
by | | FlashFiction
Life lines are hanging on electric poles
There is no electricity, just the illusion of electricity
There is no fear, just the illusion of fear
There is no history, just the continuous rewriting of history.
What we believe today, may be changed tomorrow.
The tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.
It isn’t today, today, today.
Fear is the biggest illusion.
We are all free to be.
Make it happen.
by | | Random
Selfie with me and Lee Child at Thriller Fest 2016
The difference between good and great individuals is a subtle line of grey. What constitutes greatness? It is a subjective inquiry itself. I recognize that in the world of Thriller Writers, Lee Child is a great author. There is a defining characteristic that makes him outstanding from the rest of the authors I had encountered in the convention – his acceptance to feedback.
When the topic on the panel turned to reading reviews about their books, Lee Child said, “I read my one star reviews on my books to see what people got to say.” This characteristic of him being coach-able and ready to accept one star feedback is the probably the biggest differentiation factor between a good or great author. When I asked him privately about his decision to include a Chinese Female Detective in his book, MAKE ME. He replied, “I write what people want to read. That’s what the market wants.”
On further inquiry on the panel, Lee Child revealed, “I chose the name Jack Reacher as my wife told me that Reacher was a good name for a character in my book as I was asked on many occasions to reach for the top stands of groceries isles, and it stuck.”
I believe Lee Child’s ready acceptance to feedback is his greatest reason for his consistent success. For an author to consistently hit the best seller lists with no up or downs annually, Lee Child has shown himself to be a consistent performer at his productions. His greatness is his ability to produce a consistent product that delivers on it’s promise.
There are many “good” authors who might have one or two bestselling books at the start but upon their next book release, their rankings and reviews went down. Even at the very top level of authors, most authors do not consistently hit the charts with every book like what Lee Child has done.
At the end of this inquiry, I realised that my barrier to my own greatness as a writer has to do with my acceptance of feedback. I should readily accept feedback and read one star reviews to improve on my craft to move from being “good” to being “great”.
by | | Her
From my observations at the Thrillerfest, it is easy to determine who is a best selling author or mid tier author from the way the author speaks. It doesn’t matter what he or she wears or presents or talks about. It can be a joke, or trivia or some historical or news. It lies with the author’s voice. The way an author speaks is the difference between a good or great author.
Some authors had worked twenty years, forty years or some barely a year before they make it big. So, it is not the case of time spent on craft (10 000 rule does not apply in the world of writing). Neither it is about connections as all writers have to go through agents, who have to go through publishers and then the customers pick out the books from the shelves. There is a lead time from zero to all.
The probability of this game is determined by the market. Hence connections of a writer is not a factor. Neither is inherited background as writers have to create a brand name for themselves and cannot inherit another author’s name. A son of a famous author can write the same kind of books and publish in the same genre, but the market may not respond to it positively and the publisher can drop the son off due to poor book sales. If the earnings cannot sustain the author, the author will eventually quit the business to pursue another lucrative trade.
How the market accepts a writer is the same way on how a country accepts a politician. It has to be in the time frame of the world that they want this genre of writing. For example, the latest trend of best selling books now is adult colouring books which is available in every major bookstore. It is linked to people wanting to return to a time and place where they are children again and free of expression whereby they can create and draw expressively. Hence the trend now is books that allows people to be be free of expression (before the colouring trend was Fifty Shades of Grey).
The next trend is not predictable, only the writer can produce that creation he sees that the world needs. Hence the key lies in the writer’s voice as it is linked to the soul of the writer and his greatest authenticity. Sad to say, most great writers will never be acknowledged in their lifetimes like most great leaders. I loved the Great Gatsby and I was sad to hear the writer did not get that acknowledgement that he wrote the great American novel before he died. His voice was pure and it has resonated with me that I had to check out the Long Island mansions of his vision way past his time.
At the end of this post, I realised the detriment of quality of leaders and writers is due to the detriment of the market who do not support great works, neither they support great leaders of our time. We currently live in a civilised world lead by puppets who are trying to appease everyone, but they do not have a stand of frontier for humanity to reach to next. In my lifetime, I would like for the world to unite as one and end all wars and suffering. By doing this, we can finally travel to outer space and explore the universe beyond this world. This is my greatest dream and writing about this makes it possible for others to believe in this vision once again.
by | | Features
It is no secret I love cats, and anything to do with cats, including humans acting as cats in a musical. I probably wasn’t born when it first premiered on Broadway, but I believe I had seen the video version when I was a child as certain scenes and songs are familiar to me. My mother would take me to the theatre every weekend, and surround the house with music from those plays that she played on the piano from day to night. Occasionally, she would break out and sing. I remember some of the songs she liked are from this play. Anyway, I was curious to watch Cats as I had heard and listened and been surrounded by it but I haven’t watched the actual play. I believe Catwoman from Batman is partially inspired (or the other way round?) from this play.
After watching Cats and Phantom of the Opera, I believe I have sufficient evidence that Andrew Lloyd Webber is kinky. Firstly, in Cats, ALL the actors are wearing collars! That’s seriously OMG how interesting! That is the first sign of an imprint of kink in a play indirectly caused by the person who created the musical himself. I LOVED the costumes, they are very gothic. There are human cats in corsets, leather boots till the knees, high collar fur coats, and lots and lots of fur of course! The play is worth watching just for the costumes. The music varied and it shifts from contemporary to classical with lots of dancing and no dialogue.
I haven’t quite figured out the storyline towards the end of the play because I was paying too much attention to their dance moves and elaborate cat like behaviour. I must say, if I ever have to choose to act in a broadway play of my choice, I would choose to be in Cats for the reasons above. I will kill myself than act as bimbo-tic Christine (WHY DIDN’T SHE CHOOSE TO BE WITH PHANTOM!) in Phantom of the Opera although that’s the leading female role. I don’t mind being a minor dancer in Cats for the pure ecstasy of dancing, crawling, behaving like a fully expressed human being in the role of a feline creature.
Back to the review, it exceeded my expectations. The set was very modern and unexpected. Some scene changes were unpredictable and I couldn’t predict the story, which is a good from a storytelling perspective, because I have been able to guess the ending of 999/1000 stories I come across. Andrew Lloyd Webber is indeed a genuis for his productions, other than him, I personally like Tim Burton’s movies as well. It’s not by coincidence that I like gothic stuff, because simply gothic is kinky, and kinky is fun.
As I attended the premier night, most of the audience I believe are family and friends of the performers and they were queuing up outside the theater from 7pm on-wards in a queue that extended two blocks. The performers indeed put up their best performance (they will dance at their peak if their family is watching) for their special audience, and knowing this secret now, I will try to catch premiers of any opening shows in future. I spotted a child wearing a feline costume with hand drawn whiskers on her face. Another person was watching a big black CATS T-Shirt. I semi regret not wearing my cat ears, I should do totally do that!
I loved the part 
when the actors would randomly come to the sides of our chairs and prowl and sing and dance so we can look and listen to them upclose. They call this method of acting “breaking the fourth wall ” which means basically the actors are aware the audience are watching them. Since Deadpool inception and welcoming of breaking of the fourth wall, I believe we will see more of this type of productions in future.
by | | Random
Fame came too early an age
Melchony was the cure
For many years there was
No poetry
The rebirth of being invisible
Yet famous
On this virtual wall
Sometimes
What is caged
Is meant to be free
by | | Random
Anxiety burns into the chest in summer
Ultra violet blinding light hits the eyes
The gloom hits on the subway
The machinery runs on un-oiled wheels
The dread sets in the morning
Yet another day in this dysfunctional city
by | | Random
Lifelines are hanging on electric poles
Urban guns and innocents
The state of warfare is the empire of greed
The descent into fear and anarchy
Why, why, why?
The agenda is on the cards
Yet do you know we are one and the same?
New York, why do you make me cry
For the love of the world
You had became a monstrous being
That eats the souls of its inhabitants
Till they are zombified
Lifelines are hanging on electric poles
Save no one, not including yourself.
by | | Random
Lifelines are hanging on electric poles Of course it’s better to avoid them
Urban guns and innocents
The state of warfare is the empire of greed
The descent into fear and anarchy
Why, why, why?
The agenda is on the cards
Yet do you know we are one and the same?
New York, why do you make me cry
For the love of the world
You had became a monstrous being
That eats the souls of its inhabitants
Till they are zombified
Lifelines are hanging on electric poles
Save no one, not including yourself.
by | | Random
I am on the verge of the cliff facing the abyss.
There are no safety nets Jumping into the matrix of oblivion
Death is the beginning of rebirth
I had found and lost my self
time again and again
A life of dreams
Of risks and forgoing what is acceptable
What is right, what is wrong
Conditioning of the mind and body
By constant exercise and redefining limitations
I am not who I am
Not a single cocktail touches my tongue
You know what is the hardest part?
It’s that people don’t understand
What is it like to live in your head
And reject the hopes of what you believe
Of course this is not a suicide note,
It’s my message to the virtual fake world
“Get out there and do something!”
I am here
Closer to my impossible dream
Yet the taste of fruition lingers
In my tongue.
