Kalpana

Millenial. I like reading, writing, old Bollywood movies and overthinking.

[maccreadysbaby]

Some of my favorite words and phrases to describe a character in pain

coiling (up in a ball, in on themselves, against something, etc)

panting (there’s a slew of adjectives you can put after this, my favorites are shakily, weakly, etc)

keeling over (synonyms are words like collapsing, which is equally as good but overused in media)

trembling/shivering (additional adjectives could be violently, uncontrollably, etc)

sobbing (weeping is a synonym but i’ve never liked that word. also love using sob by itself, as a noun, like “he let out a quiet sob”)

whimpering (love hitting the wips with this word when a character is weak, especially when the pain is subsiding. also love using it for nightmares/attacks and things like that)

clinging (to someone or something, maybe even to themselves or their own clothes)

writhing/thrashing (maybe someone’s holding them down, or maybe they’re in bed alone)

crying (not actual tears. cry as in a shrill, sudden shout)

dazed (usually after the pain has subsided, or when adrenaline is still flowing)

wincing (probably overused but i love this word. synonym could be grimacing)

doubling-over (kinda close to keeling over but they don’t actually hit the ground, just kinda fold in on themselves)

heaving (i like to use it for describing the way someone’s breathing, ex. “heaving breaths” but can also be used for the nasty stuff like dry heaving or vomiting)

gasping/sucking/drawing in a breath (or any other words and phrases that mean a sharp intake of breath, that shite is gold)

murmuring/muttering/whispering (or other quiet forms of speaking after enduring intense pain)

hiccuping/spluttering/sniffling (words that generally imply crying without saying crying. the word crying is used so much it kinda loses its appeal, that’s why i like to mix other words like these in)

stuttering (or other general terms that show an impaired ability to speak — when someone’s in intense pain, it gets hard to talk)

staggering/stumbling (there is a difference between pain that makes you not want to stand, and pain that makes it impossible to stand. explore that!)

recoiling/shrinking away (from either the threat or someone trying to help)

pleading/begging (again, to the threat, someone trying to help, or just begging the pain to stop)

Feel free to add your favorites or most used in the comments/reblogs!

[vincaris]

finally finished this painting i sketched out months ago… please click for better quality i know tumblr is gonna kill it (reference used)

[not-so-innocent-bi-sander]

Oh my god this is a painting

[heir-of-the-founders]

Guys its a painting

[freshbaked-bread]

GUYS THIS IS A PAINTING

[shadowrabbit3593]

Me: This is not a painting at all I don’t believe it even though everyone is saying it and the artist themselves said it

*clicks for better quality and zooms in*

Oh my goodness this is a painting

[ghosttownmettie]

Smooch

[coquette-club]

Aishwarya Rai in Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999)

[girlcherrys]

Rekha in Silsila (1981)

[startrekprodigyfan]

I’m going to make one last plea! If you’re in ANY of these fandoms: The Owl House, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Dragon Prince, Star Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Ninjago, Transformers, Gravity Falls, or any other similar series, please give Star Trek Prodigy a watch! Seriously, just answer the following questions:

Do you like episodic content with an overarching story that builds and builds over time like Avatar?

Do you like the found family trope?

Do you like mysteries and science fiction?

Do you wanna try Star Trek but are daunted by it’s enormous history and legacy?

Do you like characters that grow and change between episodes and become better characters?

Do you like dark plot lines, trauma, and existential dread hidden in a kids show?

Are you feeling like there isn’t anything new to watch now that The Owl House is over?

If you said yes to ANY of these questions then Star Trek Prodigy is the show for you! It’s a CGI Nickelodeon show that gradually introduces you to the Star Trek universe in a gentle way through colorful characters and crazy sci-fi exploits! When a bunch of alien kids enslaved on a mining asteroid stumble upon a Federation Starship, they band together and use the ship to escape their captors. With the help of a holographic mentor, the crew of alien kids learn to work together and become a family. Along the way there’s time traveling shenanigans, deadly alien planets, devious aliens, and an underlying mystery about the ship and how it got stuck on in the mining asteroid to begin with!

Please please PLEASE take a look! It’s such s good show with great writing and easily fills the void we’re in for new animated shows! I promise you, it’s worth the time to check it out!

[bongboyblog]

A walk through Bengal's architecture

Bengali architecture has a long and rich history, fusing indigenous elements from the Indian subcontinent with influences from other areas of the world. Present-day Bengal architecture includes the nation of Bangladesh as well as the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam's Barak Valley. West Bengal’s architecture is an amalgamation of ancient urban architecture, religious architecture, rural vernacular architecture, colonial townhouses and country houses, and modern urban styles. Bengal architecture is the architecture of Wind, Water, and Clay. The Pala Empire (750–1120), which was founded in Bengal and was the final Buddhist imperial force on the Indian subcontinent, saw the apex of ancient Bengali architecture. The majority of donations went to Buddhist stupas, temples, and viharas. Southeast Asian and Tibetan architecture was influenced by Pala architecture. The Grand Vihara of Somapura, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the most well-known structure erected by the Pala rulers. According to historians, the builders of Angkor Wat in Cambodia may have taken inspiration from Somapura. Bengal architecture became known for its use of terracotta due to the scarcity of stone in the area. Clay from the Bengal Delta was used to make bricks.

The temple architecture has distinct features like the rich wall decoration, often known as the terracotta temples, which was one of the remarkable elements of Bengali temple architecture. The double-roofed architecture of thatched huts was replicated by Bengali temples. Square platforms were used to construct the temples. Burnt brick panels with figures in geometric patterns or substantial sculptural compositions served as the temples' adornment.

Dochala style

These served as models for many temples that were built in undivided Bengal. Construction materials used in ancient times included wood and bamboo. Bengal has alluvial soil, so there isn't a lot of stone there. The bricks that were utilized to build the architectural components were made from stone, wood, black salt, and granite. Bengal has two different types of temples: the Rekha type, which is smooth or ridged curvilinear, and the Bhadra form, which has horizontal tiers that gradually get smaller and is made up of the amalaka sila. Mughal architecture, including forts, havelis, gardens, caravanserais, hammams, and fountains, spread throughout the area during the Mughal era in Bengal. Mosques built by the Mughals in Bengal also took on a distinctive regional look. The two major centers of Mughal architecture were Dhaka and Murshidabad. The do-chala roof custom from North India was imitated by the Mughals.

Jorasako thakurbari

The Rasmancha is a heritage building located at Bishnupur, Bankura district, West Bengal.

Influence of the world on Bengal architecture: Although the Indo-Saracenic architectural style predominated in the area, Neo-Classical buildings from Europe were also present, particularly in or close to trading centers. While the majority of country estates had a stately country house, Calcutta, Dacca, Panam, and Chittagong all had extensive 19th and early 20th-century urban architecture that was equivalent to that of London, Sydney, or other British Empire towns. Calcutta experienced the onset of art deco in the 1930s. Indo-Saracenic architecture can be seen in Ahsan Manzil and Curzon Hall in Dhaka, Chittagong Court Building in Chittagong, and Hazarduari Palace in Murshidabad. The Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, designed by Vincent Esch also has Indo-Saracenic features, possibly inspired by the Taj Mahal. Additionally, Kolkata's bungalows, which are being demolished to make way for high-rise structures, have elements of art deco. The 1950s in Chittagong saw a continuation of Art Deco influences. The Bengali modernist movement, spearheaded by Muzharul Islam, was centered in East Pakistan. In the 1960s, many well-known international architects, such as Louis Kahn, Richard Neutra, Stanley Tigerman, Paul Rudolph, Robert Boughey, and Konstantinos Doxiadis, worked in the area. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, the most iconic piece of contemporary Bangladeshi architecture, was created by Louis Kahn. Midsized skyscrapers dominate the cityscapes of contemporary Bengali cities, which are frequently referred to as "concrete jungles." With well-known architects like Rafiq Azam, architecture services play a key role in the urban economies of the area. Overall Bengal architecture was influenced by various contemporaries of their time and continues to evolve.

Gothic architectural style seen in St. Paul's Cathedral in Kolkata.

Zamindar era buildings in ruin.

Belur Math in Howrah

[kymba-ai]

The Hawa Mahal , Jaipur , Rajasthan

[el-im]

[somnolent-scout]

What's happening to AO3 right now?

As you may have noticed already, Archive of Our Own is currently down. This is temporary, but unfortunately.. we now know that this is much deeper than we thought.

AO3 is currently the victim of a DDOS attack orchestrated by "Anonymous Sudan"

Why? Because AO3 is home to thousands of LGBTQIA+ content and lots of NSFW content. They're doing this as an Anti-LGBTQ+ attack. If they're doing this for or from America specifically, we're not sure. But this is what AO3 is facing at this time.

What can we do?

Spread the word. Spread the fucking word. I'll be providing updates to my Tumblr page directly from the r/AO3 subreddit. I know that not everyone here is comfortable using Reddit, so I'm taking the blow for you. I cannot access Twitter though.

And please, whatever you do...

Stop using the Archive of Our Own website at this time.

The moderators, showrunners, and service providers all need to repair the damage done by this group. The amount of data flooding in from people trying to log in will cause more problems. Keep yourselves off of the website.

Edit:

Confirmation for those who need it:

[wandererinthestacks]

“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”

Rumi

Instagram: @solitudeismyeuphoria

[kymba-ai]

The Amber Fort , Rajasthan , India

[dathen]

Still obsessed with Arthur Conan Doyle’s letter to Bram Stoker gushing about how wonderful a book Dracula is, but particularly how it makes such a good template for leaving fic comments, so I’m gonna to a BREAKDOWN:

Just say you loved reading it - “I am sure that you will not think it an impertinence if I write to tell you how very much I have enjoyed reading Dracula.”

Comment on a detail of the craft or structure that impressed you - “It is really wonderful how with so much exciting interest over so long a book there is never an anticlimax.“

Comment on how it emotionally affected you - “It holds you from the very start and grows more and more engrossing until it is quite painfully vivid.”

SHARE YOUR BLORBO FEELINGS - “The old Professor is most excellent and so are the two girls.”

Show appreciation for them as an author - “I congratulate you with all my heart for having written so fine a book.”

Next time you don’t know what to say on a fic you enjoyed, just use the ACD method~

[only-tiktoks]

[legendary-scholar-deactivated20]

Jaswant Thada and Nenrahgarh Fort, Jodhpur, India.

The Jaswant Thada is a Cenotaph (A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere) located in Jodhpur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It was built by Maharaja Sardar Singh of Jodhpur State in 1899 in memory of his father, Maharaja Jaswant Singh II, and serves as the cremation ground for the royal Rajput family of Marwar.

Nahargarh Fort stands on the edge of the Aravalli Hills, overlooking the city of Jaipur. Along with Amer Fort and Jaigarh Fort, Nahargarh once formed a strong defence ring for the city.

[systlin]

I honestly always find the term ‘spinster’ as referring to an elderly, never-married woman as funny because you know what?

Wool was a huge industry in Europe in the middle ages. It was hugely in demand, particularly broadcloth, and was a valuable trade good. A great deal of wool was owned by monasteries and landed gentry who owned the land. 

And, well, the only way to spin wool into yarn to make broadcloth was by hand. 

This was viewed as a feminine occupation, and below the dignity of the monks and male gentry that largely ran the trade. 

So what did they do?

They hired women to spin it. And, turns out, this was a stable job that paid very well. Well enough that it was one of the few viable economic options considered ‘respectable’ outside of marriage for a woman. A spinster could earn quite a tidy salary for her art, and maintain full control over her own money, no husband required. 

So, naturally, women who had little interest in marriage or men? Grabbed this opportunity with both hands and ran with it. Of course, most people didn’t get this, because All Women Want Is Husbands, Right?

So when people say ‘spinster’ as in ‘spinster aunt’, they are TRYING to conjure up an image of a little old lady who is lonely and bitter. 

But what I HEAR are the smiles and laughter of a million women as they earned their own money in their own homes and controlled their own fortunes and lived life on their own terms, and damn what society expected of them. 

[janglingargot]

Just wanted to add that the suffix -ster was originally specifically feminine, a means of denoting a lady known by her profession. Spinster = female spinner, baxter = female baker, webster = female weaver (webber), brewster = female brewer. If one of the ladies named Alys in your village was known for selling her excellent weaving, you might call her Alys Webster (to differentiate her from, say, Alys Littel who was rather short, and Alys Bywater who lived near the pond).

This fascinates me for many reasons, but especially in the case of modern families with last names like Baxter or Webster or Brewster. What formidable and well-known ancestresses managed to pass on those very gendered names to all their descendants, when last names were changing from personal “nicknames” into indicators of lineage among the middle and lower classes? There’s a forgotten story of a fascinating woman behind every one of those family lines.

[wasureneba]

Resource for the history of the -ster suffix here.

[hindisoup]

Library Vocabulary

पुस्तकालय - library (masculine), also लाइब्रेरी (feminine) सार्वजनिक पुस्तकालय - public Library (masculine) राष्ट्रीय पुस्तकालय - national library (masculine) बालपुस्तकालय - children's library (masculine) चिकित्सा पुस्तकालय - medical library (masculine) विश्वविद्यालय का पुस्तकालय - university library (masculine) अनुसंधान पुस्तकालय - research library (masculine)

Role of Libraries

संकलन, संग्रह - collecting, gathering (masculine) संकलन, संग्रह करना - to compile, gather (transitive) संगृहीत, संकलित - archived, collected (adjective) संगृहीत, संकलित करना - to store, archive (transitive) संरक्षित रखना - to preserve (transitive) सुलभ करना - to make accessible (transitive) शिक्षित करना - to educate (transitive) साक्षरता - literacy (feminine) साक्षरता बढ़ावा देना - to promote literacy (transitive) समान सुविधा प्रदान करना - to provide equal facilities (transitive)

Library Collection

ज्ञान - knowledge (masculine), also जानकारी (feminine) सूचना, जानकारी - information (feminine) शिक्षाप्रद - educational, instructive (adjective) पाठ्य - educational, related to learning (adjective) स्रोत इबारत, संदर्भ - source text, reference (masculine) संदर्भ सेवा - reference service (feminine) ग्रंथसूची - bibliography, references (feminine) ग्रंथ - written work, text (masculine) हस्तलिखित ग्रंथ - handwritten text (masculine) दस्तावेज़, पत्र - document (masculine) सामग्री - material (feminine) * पठनीयसामग्री, पठनसामग्री reading material (feminine) * अध्ययन सामग्री study material (feminine) पुस्तक, किताब - book (feminine) विश्वकोश - encyclopedia (masculine) शब्दकोश - dictionary (masculine) कोश - thesaurus (masculine) अखबार, समाचारपत्र - newspaper (masculine) पत्रिका - magazine, journal (feminine) * newspapers and magazines can be दैनिक (daily), साप्ताहिक (weekly), or मासिक (monthly). मानचित्र, नक़्शा - map, chart, blueprint (masculine) सरकारी प्रकाशन - government publication (masculine)

Literature

साहित्य - literature (masculine) लेखक - author, writer (masculine) कवि - poet (masculine) महाकाव्य - epic (masculine) नाटक - play, drama (masculine) कविता, शायरी - poetry, poem (feminine) कथा, कहानी, दास्तान, गाथा - story, tale (feminine), also अफ़साना, क़िस्सा (masculine) उपन्यास - novel (masculine) लघुकथा - short story (feminine) शैली - genre of literature (feminine) गैर काल्पनिक - non-fiction (adjective) कपोलकल्पना, काल्पनिक साहित्य - fiction (adjective) प्रेम की कहानी, प्रेमाख्यान, प्रेमगाथा - love story (feminine), also रोमांस भूत की कहानी - ghost story (feminine) आत्मकथा - autobiography (feminine) जीवनी - biography (feminine) सत्य कथा - true story (feminine) पाठ्यपुस्तक - textbook (feminine) चित्रकथा - comics (feminine), also कॉमिक्स (masculine) अध्ययन मार्गदर्शिका - study guide (feminine) युवा वयस्क - young adult (adjective) भाषाविज्ञान - linguistics (masculine)

In a Library

पढ़ने की अभिलाषा - desire to read (feminine) अपनी रुचि का साहित्य - literature of one's interest (masculine) पढ़ना - to read (transitive) पाठक - reader (masculine) अनुसंधान - research (masculine) अनुसंधानकर्ता - researcher (masculine) अंतर्राष्ट्रीय आदान-प्रदान - international exchange (masculine) बालविभाग - children's department (masculine) भाग - section (masculine) विभाग - department (masculine) किताब उधार लेना - to borrow a book (transitive) किताब लौटाना, वापस करना - to return a book (transitive) पुस्तकालय जुरमाना, विलंब शुल्क - library fee, late fee (masculine) जुर्माना वसूलना - to collect a fine (transitive) जुर्माना भरना - to pay a fine (transitive) पुस्तकालय कार्ड - library card (masculine) कार्ड के लिए आवेदन करना - to apply for a card (masculine) पढ़ने का क्षेत्र - reading area, room (masculine), also कक्ष (feminine) संचलन डेस्क - service desk, circulation desk (masculine) देय तिथि - due date, return date (feminine) चुप रहना - to keep quiet (intransitive) पुस्तकालय अध्यक्ष - librarian (masculine), also लाइब्रेरियन शोर न करें - please don't make noise शांति बनाए रखें - please stay calm