Usually, I do not write about academic presentations on blogs, nor do I mean to begin to do so now, although presenting at Global Ghosts and Regional Hauntologies about Jokhini and Jokhini like figures in India and the West, representations over time, conducted by Manchester University and St Theresa's College, Ernakulam in June on my birthday eve was a fun one. So perhaps special noteworthy things can be mentioned seeing how long I worked over it.
Last year in June on my birthday eve again, I had the happy fortune, the blessed fortune, to meet Martha Nell Smith at the Critical Institute of the Emily Dickinson International Society EDIS (and plus we found she's a friend of my former teacher Mita Bose for whom death's carriage stopped two years ago, weirdly enough-- yes, MB was my first introduction to 'Because I could not stop for death...', the culmination of which was presenting a revised paper in this year's meeting called 'Emily Dickinson Speaks to Neurodivergents'. And Martha Nell Smith (she's a biggie, okay) absolutely loved it, and the Head who chaired my session, Paraic Finnerty, was very enthusiastic and genuine too, so yes, feathers in caps. Reason I'm making a big deal is it's all been uploaded to the EDIS youtube channel so you can hear all their programs including mine. The link to this 90mins session is here. Mine begins at 43mins and continues for about another 15 so almost till the 60 mark, if anyone wants to hear.
The other thing being that the banshee is absolutely in love with a range of women-- yes Dickinson too is one of them... and one of them who has the most beautiful, most exquisite face, one who has the blood of Marie Antoinette herself, is Virginia Woolf. and the banshee who only wanted to draw botanical flowers decided that Virginia Woolf's exquisiteness was no less than the flowers and that she absolutely demanded to be sketched. So I am no portrait artist, and as the picture says, it's a portrait by a Lover, not an Artist. and my Woolf teacher in MPhil Brinda Bose says that this picture is really good and is comparable to several artists' impressions of Virginia Woolf. While making her ear, I was constantly haunted by Dickinson's line "and Being but an Ear". I also felt at a point that she looks like the teacher who taught in Woolf in BA and even told her so. lolol. That was at one point when I was making the contours of the face.
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