Seven Questions on Beauty : Suzanne from Perfume Journal

September 29, 2013 by Lavanya

I am kicking off the conversation on beauty with the responses of dear friend and perfume blogger, Suzanne Keller who blogs at Suzanne’s Perfume Journal. I ‘met’ Suzanne in the comments section of Birgit’s Olfactoria’s Travels. We seemed to have so much in common that we had to move our incessant chatter to email. Here’s how Suzanne defines and perceives somethings beautiful: 1) What do you mean when you call something beautiful? Do you have different definitions when you talk of different […]

Categories: Art, Film, Memories, Music, Scent, Travel, writing • Tags: art, beauty, music, perfume, questions on beauty, writing

On what we find beautiful

September 24, 2013 by Lavanya

As a person who spends disproportionate amount of time contemplating beautiful things, I often discover patterns in what appeals to me.  When I first experience some ‘sensory thing’, I try to let that thing take over so I can hear my immediate visceral reaction to it. However, after the thing and after a while, I realize that the kind of sensoryness that I find beautiful seems to follow certain paths and patterns.  And then of course, I am curious about […]

Categories: Art, Books, Film, Music, Scent, writing • Tags: art, beautiful things, beauty, writing

Blog Birthday and First Scents

August 29, 2013 by Lavanya

I know it sounds clichéd, but I can’t believe it has been four years since my first post in this space ( For, yes, there have been other spaces). I felt awkward writing that post, unsure who or what I was writing to. I am usually uncomfortable writing in a public space, preferring to write for myself or at least pretending I’m writing for myself during the process of writing. Yet there is that unaccountable need to share. What I […]

Categories: Art, Food/Drink, Memories, Scent, writing • Tags: blog birthday, memories, perfume, writing

How to eat a Pani Puri/Gol Guppa

October 22, 2009 by Lavanya

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baklavabaklava/3302910322 via Creative Commons Round and smack A hole and pour Minty water and Chutney, potato pieces Stuff and close Your mouth And wipe the trickle From your nose

Categories: Food/Drink, writing • Tags: gol guppa, pani puri, street food, writing

Happiness and Rain

October 13, 2009 by Lavanya

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eole/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 I’ve been missing rain, green wet leaves and shiny tar, singing hot pakodas, warmed flaky puffs and cold hands touching my cheeks sinking, into a fat book and red razai, soaked in the sounds of my green rainy window It rained today.  And I feel like walking backwards.  Slanting sideways.  And sliding in the rain.

Categories: writing • Tags: happiness, rain, writing

A blank sheet of paper

August 29, 2009 by Lavanya

I realize I find it difficult to fill a sheet of paper/empty blog, with musings  in first person, knowing that people might read it. I automatically lapse into verse, which alternates between being a window and a shield, allowing glimpses of me, yet letting me creep into and hide in its metaphors. The ridiculous thought did occur to me, to write in third person. However tempting, I didn’t pursue that idea. Instead, I just started writing exactly what I was […]

Categories: writing • Tags: writing