“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
It's been tough these past weeks, everyone fearful that the virus is spreading again. Confusion reigns. Only six people can meet in doors, is it the same six people in your bubble? Or can you meet with five different people, one after the other? Are children counted as the six? What about restaurants and pubs? The questions that haunt us all in this time of uncertainty. It’s far too complicated. I feel for all the people who had shielded for so long and had met with loved ones again. The people who are suffering from isolation, and the increasing levels of anxiety.
Saturday 10th October is World Mental Health Day. There are lots of events being organised to help keep you buoyant, these are the two I’m supporting.
Join Shruti Shah in a free online Dance Workshop in collaboration with Imperial College and hosted by Bollywood Dance School on Saturday 10th October GMT to raise awareness for UKAFF Talking Therapy service. Click on the poster to register to dance.
Join The Circle’s first ever ‘Girls Global Dance Hour’ on 11 October to celebrate International Day of the Girl 2020. #WeDanceForGirls. Click on the poster to take you to the purchase your ticket.
Setting up for Zoom call for DESIblitz Online Literary Festival
Thank you for everyone who supported me and asked some wonderful questions on why I wrote my books. I’ll add a link to my interview once it's up on my website’s contact page.
We Found Love in the 80s
Artist Dawinder Bansal interviewed me and my other half about how we met 39 years ago and finally became a couple in the 80s. She has paired up with musician Martyn Ware - founder of The Human League and Heaven 17 - to celebrate couples who found love in the 1980s. The initial project was to create a sound scape and an immersive experience, but COVID has put a hold on it. There was a premiere screening at Leytonstone Love Film Festival and a Q&A with Dawinder and Martin. Look out for more opportunities to watch this fascinating film and if you have a story about finding your love in the 1980s, go to their website to add your photographs, videos and memories. She is aiming to collect 80 stories. www.wefoundloveinthe80s.com
Celebrating Navratri at the Krishna Mandir, Coventry 2019
Navratri Festival
Next Saturday the 17th October is the start of Navratri, one of my favourite festivals in the Hindu calendar, us Gujarati celebrate with abandonment, the garba and dandiya raas around the shrine to the nine manifestation of Durga, the all powerful goddess.
I have a favourite song, ‘Ek vanchara jula jumbh thi ja’ roughly translated it’s about a devotee who dances in a trance, well that’s what I think. My Gujarati isn’t pure, a mixture of English, Swahili and Gujarati. In the late 90s and early 00s we used to go regularly, work permitting and then the children had too much homework and we stopped, even at the weekend.
Every time I hear this song it takes me back to Navratri at the Krishna Mandir in Coventry, not the new one but the one on Stoney Stanton Road, the garba sung by JD Panchal, and all the other people that worshipped at the temple. Different caste and community getting together to dance the garba and dandiya raas for the duration of the festival. My sister and I would rush home from school, quickly eat shaak and rotli, get changed into our sarees or chanyia choli, pick up our carrier bag with our dandiya, a drink, a packet of crisps and head out to the temple. We would clap hands and do the garba round the central shrine non-stop. At 9 o’clock we would stop for a prayer to the goddesses with the arti. Followed by dandiya raas, once the Krishna Mandir wound down, a group of us, boys and girls dressed in our flimsy Indian clothes, would walk to the Ram Mandir further up Stoney Stanton Road to continue dancing the night away. Not a night club, no alcohol, just the joy of dancing. We’d get back home at midnight eat dall baath and go to bed to start the same again, school, home, two mandirs, home, sleep. Nine days of freedom and lots of fun with our friends. It’s not the same anymore, the pressure of homework, bedtime routine, and conscience parents preventing the youngsters from staying out ‘til late. The communities have split into different groups and areas. Navratri costs money now, the kids aren’t interested, too busy playing on their PS2, watching TV shows on Netflix. I know there are a group of people trying to revive the tradition in England. Oh, the joy of dancing and waking up the next day without an aching bone. I will try and find a virtual Navratri session on Zoom, but it won’t be the same. Like everything else we’re all learning to adapt to new situations.
Writing Help
So you have a story, it's been buzzing in your mind for years, but you can’t seem to work with it. You’ve tried everything to put it on paper and all you’ve got is a pile of scrunched up sheets in your bin. Maybe you need to think outside the box.
For me I write scenes, see photo for Where Have We Come in its original guise, before it became two books, split into My Heart Sings Your Song and Where Have We Come.
Where Have We Come spreadsheet
I write most of my scenes in notebooks, a dialogue here, a scene there, and then I write on Word on Google drive. So the major thrust of the novel is nearly there. Others create a mind-map, synopsis, the beat sheets, a road map, a character sketch. It really doesn’t matter what you do, but you have to start somewhere. Throw nothing away, keep all of it, the note on a piece of paper, the recording on your phone of a dialogue, everything. If you see something on your walks take a picture.
Once I have my scenes, I jot them on a piece of paper and created a mind - map and add arrows to link them. I create chapters, sent them to trusted friends who give me an honest opinion. I takes over a year, juggling the scenes around, creating drafts. Reflecting on it, this process really helps me.
Made in Heaven for Me, due to come out in December was created like this during lock down, it’s inspired by Jane Eyre, so the rough outline was already there, I just needed to fill in my scenes, my characters, my dialogue. But this time instead of using a general word template I used Reedsy’s romance template, don’t be put off by the title, it can be changed for other Genre too, and you’ll have a cool-looking book, formatted as it should be, with chapter breaks, page numbers, etc. I’m always happy to help set in the right direction so drop a comment below and I’ll try and help.
Upcoming Event - Spread the word
Our Stories, Our Voices will be taking place virtually on the 13th October at 7pm via Zoom and Facebook Live.
Ealing Libraries in collaboration with South Asian Writers & Pitshanger Books present Our Stories Our Voices with Fozia Raja - Daughters of Partition, Sufiya Ahmed - Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan, and me. Natasha Joneja will chair the session as we will discuss the strength and resilience of women and their personal histories amongst other things. Please sign up to join on the South Asian Writers website.