I checked in the dictionary (which admittedly is not as extensive as I would like) and find that 'Serendip' was an old European name for Sri Lanka. No mention of treasures beneath the sea, though Sri Lanka as a source of gems might carry that connotation. 'Serendipity' is described as the faculty of discovering unexpected treasures or pleasures. The stress is on the unexpected, like rounding a corner of a slum and finding a beautiful building.
It is always interesting to see how words carry their own baggage, which will vary according to the reader's culture and upbringing as well as the writer's. For this reason it is worth getting a really comprehensive dictionary that refers you to the origin of the word as well. Also worth remebering that in India we are using a form of English that was in use in England almost fiftyyears ago, as my mother continually reminds me. For this reason the baggage carried by a word or term, if understood, can make it sound curiously dated, if not old-fashioned - which can be serendipitous in itself.
It is always interesting to see how words carry their own baggage, which will vary according to the reader's culture and upbringing as well as the writer's. For this reason it is worth getting a really comprehensive dictionary that refers you to the origin of the word as well. Also worth remebering that in India we are using a form of English that was in use in England almost fiftyyears ago, as my mother continually reminds me. For this reason the baggage carried by a word or term, if understood, can make it sound curiously dated, if not old-fashioned - which can be serendipitous in itself.
Jane
siva_ramanathan04 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
-Jane ,
sorry for the late response.Nature,yes you are able to hold it like
capturing a butterfly in a net.serendip also means treasures beneath
the sea?
Sivakami
bet-- In [email protected], jane bhandari <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
>
> For that compliment you get a brand-new poem. It will undergo some
revisions, and in fact has already lost about ten redundant lines in
the first ten minutes of its life.
>
>
> Between the first red flush
> Above the humped hills
> Of the mainland
> And the pink and gold clouds
> Feathering a turquoise sky
> Is but a few minutes:
> The sun's red balloon
> Soaring out of the haze
> Transforms the sky,
> Shrinks to a sphere
> In a white-hot dome
> Bleached of all colour
> By its intensity.
>
> Far above, a plane
> Scrawls a brilliant line
> Through evaporating clouds,
> Underscoring my thoughts
> On the rapidity of change.
>
> Jane Bhandari
>
> I love serendipitous, it has a magical sound. To me it has the
connotation of a felicitous surprise, an enchanted event or place that
you had not expected. Wasn't Sri Lanka called 'The Isle of Serendip'?
>
> siva_ramanathan04 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
> What language Jane--no wonder your poetry soars! I remember the time I
> first used ,'serendipitous'i had used it in a poem and i was sending
> it to kamala das,and assuming she would not know the meaning i added
> ,'p.s. and said something like,'treasures found underneath the sea.'I
> must have been in middle school.
>
> --- In [email protected], jane bhandari wrote:
> >
> > Why is this out of place? I remember similar visits with my
> sister-in-law, whom I met for the first time eight years after she
> married my brother, warmed to instantly, and meet as often as my rare
> visits to UK permit. Somehow we pick up the loose ends exactly where
> we left off...serendipitous.
> > This fits in with my loose and impromptu anthology because it is
> about relationships, as are the mom-pop poems.
> > I liked it very much.
> >
> > Just watching an amazing sunrise over Bombay harbour go from deep
> red and diffuse to specifically flamingo clouds in a turquoise sky.
> Pure Hollywood. An early morning plane has left a gleaming white
> contrail just above the clouds, a comment on the magnificence below it.
> >
> > jane
> >
> > siva_ramanathan04 wrote:
> > EDITING
> >
> > From mid morn till evening I felt
> > free, using your
> > computer and well living
> > basket of flowers sitting under 40watts light
> > and as we shortened the space between words
> > you walked with your maid and I checked mail.
> >
> > Warming up was a delight just watching colourful
> >
> > oven friendly glass and pastel plastics,
> >
> > and cutlery like those designer
> > magazines.
> > When you came out of your bath I
> > could speak to you
> > with out shifting my gaze-or not watching you choose
> >
> > your perfume ,not even attempting to guess
> >
> > and I think how neat and dirt free each nook is.
> > And your food, organic vegetables and spice
> >
> > in dishes that sit unused in my showcase
> >
> > and you talk of squirrels in eaves in their square plot
> > and we are two women with spines talking about a spineless
> > female , measuring her mental horizon and level of sickness
> > and
> > then all of a sudden we have cleared her off
> >
> > like how we have
> > cleared our plates and washed the dishes
> > down
> > the sink .All the time , you repeat lessons of two
> >
> > golden words, and you din
> > them ,two silver words, the same
> > copper words into
> > me ,saying, be selfish
> > as you
> > scrub the metal coir with soap suds
> > and your daughter comes solely with me upstairs to show
> >
> > how lovingly you have preserved her baby teeth.
> >
> > in a round plastic see through box. I plan mentally
> >
> > to be rigorous and brisk . And do up my neglected house
> > even if it means breathing like a furnace
> > and not to think it menial, or to feel superior
> > just because I do not know anything but to make
> > journal
> > entries I mentally plan my house work
> > thoughts come and go like poems in the folder.
> > I show you my collection, you yours ,and we talk
> >
> > of bad grammar, and a lady who has had
> >
> > an overdose of men. I remember asking
> > Papa,
> > why do we say
> > have you had breakfast?
> > why not have you eaten your food?
> > what are the refinements of the English language?
> > And he would say there is this polished sophisticated
> >
> > speech, and sometimes even American slang, like
> >
> > don't go into the first chapter, hit
> > the sack, kick the bucket,
> >
> > water under the bridge, but she went to an ordinary school
> >
> > and the society's cultural stock
> > was the crust she never knew.
> > and I too walked the dais in my twenties with high heels
> >
> >
> > but when I served food to my in laws my fingers trembled.
> > The joy of serving to loved ones is more than
> > the joy of cooking or fixing up a drink.
> > I return with delicacies from your side
> >
> > payash and egg and potato curry,
> > plus a kith and kin feeling of sturdy spines and feathers
> >
> > that flock together ,of having turned back page
> > of childhood
> >
> > doled out its fragments between sensible editing
> >
> >
> > and a feeling of working
> > towards a focused goal,
> >
> > knowing full well I have set the ball rolling.
> >
> > Sivakami Velliangiri
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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