I attended Karen Swenson’s showing of slides from her travels to India.  Swenson, the author of A Daughter’s Latitude, spoke on her slides and of her experiences as a free-lance writer.  She has written travel articles for the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as books of poetry.
      I found her comments on India very interesting, because I know little about the country and its customs.  Her slides were mostly from Bombay, Delhi, and a town commonly known as Little Tibet. Most pictures focused on the architecture of mosques, temples, and monasteries.  She explained that this interested her because her father was an architect.  I was amazed by the intricacies of the murals and carvings in the slides.  The artwork made an impression on me, because it made me realize that the architectural works of many religions are leaving out the “small” details of beautiful art in their attempts to modernize and rebuild.  I think that detailed art in religious places gives them a sense of reverence and respect.  Swenson also showed us a slide of a more modern Hindu temple that was extremely gaudy and ornate, which only reiterated my thoughts on religious art.  I also found the diversity of India interesting.  I originally thought of India as being mostly Hindu and Muslim, and was surprised at the large number of Christians and Buddhists there.  These religions have vast differences, whereas in the United States the prevalent religions are somewhat similar.  Other examples of India’s large acceptance of diverse cultural aspects, made me realize how unaccepting our country can be at times, even though we often exploit our “diversity.”
     Swenson’s experiences and advice concerning free-lance writing caused me to respect writers and their drive to succeed and make their talents known to others, but also turned me off to the political side of writing.   Swenson spoke of the importance of having some type of “connection” in literary circles and of having to write, at times to please others and their requests for superficial articles.