Akhila Ramnarayan
@akhilar.bsky.social
writer, indie musician, theatre actor, teacher, student, chaos agent
starcracker.substack.com
starcracker.substack.com
I cannot describe how devastating it was to see a lifeless olive ridley sea turtle wash up on the shore this morning in Chennai. I tried to sing a lament over its body to honour its passing, but the words stuck in my throat.
January 28, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I cannot describe how devastating it was to see a lifeless olive ridley sea turtle wash up on the shore this morning in Chennai. I tried to sing a lament over its body to honour its passing, but the words stuck in my throat.
The Indian Ocean all diamond sparkles today, for anyone who could do with some radiance.
January 25, 2025 at 8:18 AM
The Indian Ocean all diamond sparkles today, for anyone who could do with some radiance.
So very proud that Seattle-based poet- translator Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, dear friend of 20 years (we first met as grad students at Ohio State), was recognised by the Tamilnadu government for his Tirukkural translation (Beacon 2024). And so glad I got to attend the award ceremony in the flesh.
January 19, 2025 at 7:47 AM
So very proud that Seattle-based poet- translator Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, dear friend of 20 years (we first met as grad students at Ohio State), was recognised by the Tamilnadu government for his Tirukkural translation (Beacon 2024). And so glad I got to attend the award ceremony in the flesh.
Gaining courage for the battles that lie ahead by reading aloud lines from Arundathi Subramaniam's exquisite preface to her Wild Women (Ebury/Penguin 2024). It takes a poet to craft such prose.
December 22, 2024 at 8:57 AM
Gaining courage for the battles that lie ahead by reading aloud lines from Arundathi Subramaniam's exquisite preface to her Wild Women (Ebury/Penguin 2024). It takes a poet to craft such prose.
December 16, 2024 at 10:18 AM
Entry #26: Nothing/everything stays the same; nothing/everything is different. What matters in the grand scheme of things?
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
December 16, 2024 at 10:16 AM
Entry #26: Nothing/everything stays the same; nothing/everything is different. What matters in the grand scheme of things?
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
December 16, 2024 at 10:13 AM
Entry #24: working in, breath, meta-awareness, negotiating moments of transition.
December 16, 2024 at 10:11 AM
Entry #24: working in, breath, meta-awareness, negotiating moments of transition.
December 16, 2024 at 10:09 AM
Grateful my quadriceps are holding up, not to mention busted patellae I ruined with years of bad road running form. Strength/resistance training actually helps. Go figure.
#theatre
#theatre
December 12, 2024 at 1:28 PM
Grateful my quadriceps are holding up, not to mention busted patellae I ruined with years of bad road running form. Strength/resistance training actually helps. Go figure.
#theatre
#theatre
A snapshot from rehearsal (focused specifically on soundscape) for Gowri Ramnarayan's play What She Said which recuperates women's voices from the Ramayana. Here, my castmate Aarabi Veeraraghavan plays Urmila, Sita's sister. Carnatic vocalist Srividya Vadlamani makes her theatre debut.
#theatre
#theatre
December 11, 2024 at 6:10 AM
A snapshot from rehearsal (focused specifically on soundscape) for Gowri Ramnarayan's play What She Said which recuperates women's voices from the Ramayana. Here, my castmate Aarabi Veeraraghavan plays Urmila, Sita's sister. Carnatic vocalist Srividya Vadlamani makes her theatre debut.
#theatre
#theatre
Entry #22: intense absorption in process, spectatorship, observation - rapt, not finding the words for this feeling.
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
December 11, 2024 at 3:59 AM
Entry #22: intense absorption in process, spectatorship, observation - rapt, not finding the words for this feeling.
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
December 9, 2024 at 8:09 PM
Entry #20: the poetry of in-drawn breath, Tori Amos, inhalation is music, don't forget this.
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
December 9, 2024 at 8:07 PM
Entry #20: the poetry of in-drawn breath, Tori Amos, inhalation is music, don't forget this.
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
Entry #19: crescent moon, Joni Mitchell's Blue, dark streets, the beauty of ordinariness.
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
December 9, 2024 at 8:27 AM
Entry #19: crescent moon, Joni Mitchell's Blue, dark streets, the beauty of ordinariness.
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
Entry #18: to hold on to the core, without self-aggrandisement, to chip away. It starts here.
December 9, 2024 at 8:25 AM
Entry #18: to hold on to the core, without self-aggrandisement, to chip away. It starts here.
December 6, 2024 at 3:55 AM
December 6, 2024 at 3:54 AM
I get back on stage in ten days after a two-year hiatus from theatre. It's pretty intense breathing iconoclastic life into characters from the Ramayana, Surpanakha and Tara. Lots of flinging myself about besides.Trying not to hyperventilate, also icing my knees. 😬
#process
#process
December 5, 2024 at 2:34 PM
I get back on stage in ten days after a two-year hiatus from theatre. It's pretty intense breathing iconoclastic life into characters from the Ramayana, Surpanakha and Tara. Lots of flinging myself about besides.Trying not to hyperventilate, also icing my knees. 😬
#process
#process
Chennai - join us for the Madras Book Club's launch on Sat Dec 7 of Books 3 & 4 of Ponniyin Selvan, Gowri Ramnarayan's English translation (Penguin). Reading of excerpts by Yohan Chacko, Anu Bhaskararaman, and yours truly. Poonkuzhali's song by Uthara Unnikrishnan. RSVP masbkclub@gmail.com
December 5, 2024 at 5:11 AM
Chennai - join us for the Madras Book Club's launch on Sat Dec 7 of Books 3 & 4 of Ponniyin Selvan, Gowri Ramnarayan's English translation (Penguin). Reading of excerpts by Yohan Chacko, Anu Bhaskararaman, and yours truly. Poonkuzhali's song by Uthara Unnikrishnan. RSVP masbkclub@gmail.com
Proud daughter moment: My mum's English translations from the original Tamil of Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan (serialised 1950-54), the historical romance series set in the glory days of the peninsular south and the Cola dynasty, on display at Higginbothams book store in Chennai. 🤩
December 5, 2024 at 2:59 AM
Proud daughter moment: My mum's English translations from the original Tamil of Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan (serialised 1950-54), the historical romance series set in the glory days of the peninsular south and the Cola dynasty, on display at Higginbothams book store in Chennai. 🤩
Entry #15: Breath, power, grace, use of space, matching movement to gesture in a way that seems artless.
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
December 4, 2024 at 12:48 PM
Entry #15: Breath, power, grace, use of space, matching movement to gesture in a way that seems artless.
#blueskythinking
#blueskythinking
December 2, 2024 at 11:45 AM
December 2, 2024 at 11:32 AM
December 1, 2024 at 2:23 AM