[A.M. Azada] A Roomful of Waiting and Other Pieces

I am excited about my forthcoming upgrade lecture. I hope things bode well. Feb 8, 2012. Please pray for me. Thank you.

It is such a difficult experience to go on with one’s normal life in public while worrying about people in one’s home region whose lives are at the mercy of natural forces…and there’s nothing one can do about it except hope and pray. The super-tsunami has entered Philippine territory; my father lives in Davao.

Thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers.

I am in the middle of writing a chapter consisting of some 7,000 words of mine and 3,000 words from references. This 10,000 word chapter is meant to be my upgrade paper. Besides this, I need to finish a report about my progress and an outline of the chapters of my dissertation (US)/thesis (UK).

After which, perhaps in July before the summer holidays, I might be scheduled for another talk.

All this sounds daunting, but I’ve lived with two ideas that seem to have worked since I was a kid:

a. Work hard – finish what you’ve started; and

b. You don’t choose a book; the book ‘chooses’ you.

I know I wouldn’t be in London if it weren’t for these two personal directives. The drive behind the first statement is self-explanatory; this is how we get things done. The second, however, is how I manage to spot interesting passages which I can somehow explain while the thought is being illuminated to me as I read. Such practices can take a lot of time, as opposed to locating passages actively. The thing is: if we’re looking for parts and passages that have never been quoted or noticed by anyone else before, we need to feel as relaxed as possible upon reading. Why? Only then will the words that matter–the words that ring true to you, the singular reader–jump out and tell you to take notice.

Locating information and relevant parts in reading material is an initial requirement, but the kind of ‘illumination’ that comes with the great ‘Ah, I see!’ and sudden realisation that something that you didn’t notice before is worth noticing at this moment is what we try to achieve each time we write papers for PhD work.

It seems daunting at this stage. It does.

This is the place I call Heaven.

And this is another place where I feel welcome.

I look forward to signing up for research groups and associations, as well as renewing my membership with my old favourite, IGA.

The 7-day run was a successful one, and the team would not have done it without your support. To our families, thank you for putting up with the late nights, the lack of focus while in your company and the endless nights in which we seemed to have internal conversations with no one save ourselves. To our friends, thank you for understanding why we had to decline your invitations to lunch, dinner, brunch or our usually frequented bar. To our bosses and officemates, thank you for indulging our attempts at being artists in arguably the worst time in financial history to play ‘pretend Patrick Stewart.’ To our beloved, significant others, thank you for being the inspiration of our tawdry lives; without you, our voices would sink, our spirits would weep, and our bodies would melt into sheer exhaustion. Thank you, Mr. Shakespeare, for a wonderfully written comedy; know that your play would not have been fully appreciated, understood and well-conceived until the 20th century, so we’re happy to be doing it in the 21st, which is all too willing to welcome it back to the stage.

To everyone who has lent a hand, foot, leg, arm or cuticle to this production, we humbly thank you; and we hope for your unwavering support in the next productions to come.

Dear friends and family,

It has been a long journey for the ensemble of Measure for Measure, and even now, I shall not warp from the task at hand. Many of you are witness to my anxieties, fears, joys and excitement at taking the helm of ‘Director’ of this wonderful play, and I hope that you would continue to support us (albeit in spirit) with your kind wishes and thoughts. 

I’ve never asked for this before, but please pray, pray  pray for us and with us. Thank you.

And to treat everyone here to a free ‘BACKSTAGE PASS’ for moment to moment goings-on tonight at opening night, I invite you all to…

FOLLOW MEASURE FOR MEASURE ON TWITTER!

A big thank you to everyone who has signed up for the workshops! I’m so happy to have worked with you. Watch this update page for more workshops in the future!

Five copies left on Amazon.com.

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