Travel travails

After a tiring journey, I din't have enough energy to even pick up my bag from the floor. Looking at it lying there, I felt it kind of reflected my state of mind (& body) too. Well, we where just waiting for the doors to open. the swipe cards given by the reception were not quite working. So I had all the time in the world to click this picture. (Well, the ulterior motive was that I wanted to show off my bag desperately).

My bag crumpled up, jus like me....

Blues and reds

 I have been kind of obsessed with this blue bottle since I saw people drinking from it. It gives off a 'I'm cool' vibe.So I've been trying to photograph it from all angles and all situations possible, yeah , even if it is uncalled for. so this is a pic of it sitting side-by-side with two red apples. I wanted too put a green Granny Smith apple in the pic, but it happened to be resting cozily in my stomach at that moment, so that plan didn't quite take off.

Then I again clicked it sitting quietly by the hotel window. Well , you might have to look that extra bit hard to spot it. But it's there, right in the middle...

Spot the bottle?

Yeah, the answer to the pic above!

The transition from winter to spring is not really a pretty sight for me, who come from places with evergreen forests. The sight of bare trees with not a single leaf on them is depressing at times.

Looks like they are sending up prayers to the sky

The Different colours of Spring

Spring has announced its arrival in Bangalore by breaking out into a melange of colours. The few trees that have managed to survive the onslaught of man;s greed as well as that of the metro rail construction have trumpeted the turn of time by bringing forth the colours they were harbouring in their bosoms around the year.

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The yellows and pinks of Spring

This is just outside my office. The trees are almost bare , no leaves, only flowers adorning their squiggly branches.

The entire ground has become carpeted with flowers...

Floral carpet

Stir fried Potatoes

Yellow, green, brown...

I am posting this just for the sheer fun in enjoying the colours in this photo.
The bright yellow of the potatoes (turmeric is the secret),
The vivid green of the curry leaves,
The various shades of brown of the fenugreek seeds and fried onions, and the coconut coated with red chilly powder,
The occassional black dots of the mustard seeds...

I had added sambar powder to this potato stir fry and it gave a wonderful spicy taste. The onions and the fenugreek seeds were fried to a crisp which gave the occassional crunchy texture too. We loved it and gorged on it.

The shoe repair man

At the bus stop near home, there sits a man who repairs shoes. He has appeared there since the last 1 - 2 months or so. Initially when he started sitting there, I wondered whether he would ever find any customers. But I soon realized my folly and why he was in the right place at the right time. He had very prudently picked his place. It was bang next to a busy bus stop which saw heavy footfall at all times of the day. It was close to a couple of schools and colleges. With that many feet in the vicinity, surely somebody is bound to walk around with footwear which needs mending, broken straps which need a stitch or two, worn out soles which need replacement. Proving his business acumen true, he is quite a busy man these days. Whenever I pass by, I see him stitching or sewing or applying glue, with a customer or two waiting patiently nearby. Even one of my shoes came undone at the sole one of these days and I found myself limping past him in my half-split-open-at-the-toe shoe trying not to catch his eye. Nowadays, it would seem like what our area was doing without a shoe repairer all these days.He has merged unobtrusively into the landscape.

He is a dark and wiry man,always wearing a white shirt darkened with time and dirt. He has a small cloth bundle next to him, which I always imagine contains his life's possessions. I have even contemplated where he was before he came to our area, whether he is remaining thin because of retro infection (stereotyping on my part; it could be a plain and simple case of  no-money-to buy-anything-to-eat), how much he earns per day and so on.

Today as I passed by him, I found my self remembering what someone told me some time back. When asked why we Indians cannot manufacture good quality shoes which wont get damaged within a month or 2 of use, one Indian retorted, "Then what would all the poor cobblers who make a living out of repairing our damaged shoes do for their livelihood?" So true, I found myself thinking today.

PS: I wanted to take a pic of him and all his tools which he spreads out on a cloth in front of him. But I was not very confident of my clandestine photo snapping skills and abandoned the idea. On an ideological level, is it proper to make 'poverty porn' out of someone's struggle to eke out a decent living?

This is how we help our poor countrymen to earn a living!

In this Pic, I'm trying to show my only 6 month-old shoe which came off at the sole. [I'm also trying to show off my mint green nail polish ;) ]

The search for Inspiration

There was a phase a few weeks back during which I was going crazy about nail polishes! Yes, and that's the same me who did not own a single nail polish for close to three years. Gasp. This time I decided to go online to purchase since the stores often did not stock up on the shades I liked. I decided to do some research before I actually decided to take the plunge and order them online. After all, I have to know if the red nail enamel I am going to spent my money on is actually going to scare me off when I see it the first thing in the morning.

Thus it was quite accidentally that I stumbled onto the huge online community of Indian beauty bloggers and sites like makeupandbeauty.com, peachesandlblush.com, where people have actually posted pics of makeup products which they have used on themselves. It amazes me that there are these blokes who would actually spent time & money buying these products, trying them on, take pics and post them for the benefit of others. It was quite a big help to me to see how the colours would come out, whether they actually resemble the shades as claimed online. After substantial research I went ahead and bought 3 shades (*gasp*), orange (remember, I was crazy), bright red and a beautiful pink. The same day I received the shipment, I tried on the orange enamel. Needless to say, it was as crazy and eye popping as I imagined, but I have loved every moment of having it on. It somehow reminds me of summer, sun, sun light, all things warm and cozy.
This is the pic I clicked of it.

Orange orange...

 For anybody who cares, this shade is called Laranja citrico, from Maybelline colorama series. I was quite satisfied with the result as it closely resembled the pics from real life users which I had seen in other sites I mentioned here.

Yes, now coming to the title, I was going through one of the sites mentioned above and found that it is owned by a lady who also works in an office and has makeup blogging as her passion and hobby. (It is another matter that she appears to have deep pockets too). I was quite smitten by the fact that she could identify what was her passion in life and follow it diligently so early on, in her early 20s. This set me thinking what would I take up as a passion if I were in her shoes, what I would follow as a serious hobby despite all the demands on my time? Hard to tell as of now. Well, its never too late in life to recognize what could be your passion and inspiration. I take solace from the fact that Capt. KrishnaMenon was 65 years old when he started the Leela Palace chain of hotels! So I'll wait and be on the lookout :)

A Coorg Get away - Stewart Valley homestay

It was on a whim that I decided to stay in Stewart Valley home stay in Madikeri. The inner critic gnawed my thoughts day in and day out questioning whether it was right to risk taking my parents to a place which has not been listed in trip advisor or reviewed anywhere. “What the heck? Let’s go and see” I thought. All I knew when we drove into Madikeri was that it is a red painted house in which Mr.Ganapathy and his wife lived. The house is an old but tastefully re-furbished and well maintained ancestral house. He gave us directions to reach the house (past the TV tower) and was waiting outside the house to make sure we dint get lost (which of-course, we did). But even if he wasn’t waiting, I think we would have identified the house, after all who would miss a huge red-painted house bang on the road? 

The courtyard and garden

Gerberas in the garden

The moment we drove past the gate and stepped out of the car, somehow I felt very relieved. May be it was the sight of the smiling Mr. Ganapathy and his wife Veena, or maybe it was the sight of a beautiful portico and a beautiful garden with flowers, or it was the cool breeze brushing our  sweaty, grimy faces. Whatever the reason was, it was a really cozy, homely feeling that swept over me and I felt relieved that I had chosen rightly. The house is sort of in the middle of the town, just a 5-10 min walk downhill (yes, it’s kind of the highest point in Madikeri town) and you will be walking past Raja’s seat, Gen. Thimmiah circle, the markets, the bus stand, good hotels and everything else. Despite being so close to the town, you are never perturbed by the hustle and bustle, being far removed from the noise and dust of the city. You can simply laze around in the veranda surrounded by the garden and enjoying the view of the hillside, or you can sit in their back yard and do nothing and snooze. We stayed in 2 rooms on either side of the house. This was kind of good; being in a house and at the same, not unncessarily bumping into other people. The bathrooms were extremely neat and clean and modern (yes, we are fussy bathroom people), they had also provided soap etc.etc. The rooms aren’t that big as you would expect in a hotel, but then who would want to remain cooped up indoors in Coorg, when there is so much to see outside?

A what's- its-name climber in the garden with beautiful pink flowers

They give complimentary breakfast and we had kadubu, sambar and a delicious coconut chutney to go with it. R also had some bread and honey. It was a welcome break after all the hotel food we were eating from outside. Veena aunty was always ready with coffee or tea whenever we requested.

Kadubu with sambar

My father had interesting long chats with Mr.Ganapathy. My mother was happily doing rounds of their beautiful garden with vibrant flowers. R even managed to try his hand at Mr.Ganapathy's airgun. He gladly regaled us with vignettes of Kodava culture. He was more than ready to tell us how to drive to Abbi falls, Talacauvery and other places, where to buy wines from and so on. We also had a tryst with Blacky, the family dog who was in a playful mood and had to be dragged back into his cage. We had to leave at 5.30 in the morning and Aunty graciously offered to make breakfast that early also but we declined. I can confidently say that one of the highlights of our trip was our stay in Stewart Valley.

[ PS: the credit for the pic below goes to R, he hinted he would kick my a*# if I dint mention him in the credits ;-) ]

A night view of Madikeri from Stewart valley

A Coorg Getaway- the Tibetan settlement in Bylakuppe, Kushalnagar

We decided to put the series of holidays in this week to maximum use and head to Coorg or Kodagu. The taxi driver pulled out at the last moment and we gingerly took up the gauntlet to drive the odd 270 kilometres all the way to Coorg. It was a decision which sparked much concern and confusion from R and me; ours is a 10+ year old car, nowhere near top condition, never taken for such long rides, lots of dents, bumps and scratches, and to top it all, no A/C!.  On the pros side, we both could drive in turns and the car was our trusted foot soldier since our courtship days and it would be our first road trip. Thus at night 10'o clock, we finally decided to take the plunge and place our trust in our rickety car to take us all the way to Coorg. At night 10.30, we were frantically looking at Google Maps, Google Earth and all other possible resources to identify the route; yes, we dint know the 'how to' part of the getaway. I searched and searched for a good free GPS app and finally gave up.

We set out before the crack of dawn at 5.00. The road was smooth and devoid of any traffic. Till Srirangapatna we had absolutely no confusion, it was a straight road. After that at major junctions, we asked the locals for help whenever in doubt. I learnt that the best GPS is to ask around! Never once did we lose our way till we reached Madikeri. We reached the Tibetan settlement  in Bylakuppe at around 10.30. Bylakuppe comes 4 kms before Kushalnagar. It is home to the second largest Tibetan settlement in India.

Bylakuppe, of the Tibetan settlement

 We headed straightaway to the Golden temple and the Namdroling monastery. It is a 4 Km drive  from the main road.The place was swarming with visitors. The Golden temple is an imposing structure, visible from a long way off. The monastery has monks of all ages staying and studying there. Inside the temple, there are 60 feet tall idols of 3 Buddhist gurus. The walls are decorated with murals depicting the life of various gurus. The paintings are intricately done beautifully in vibrant colours.

The first look

The 60 feet tall idols of 3 Buddhist gurus

Young monks in prayer

The intricate doors with murals of guardians on either side

The interplay of light and colours

A female deity

There were two things about the paintings which struck me. One was the depiction of female deities in the paintings. The second thing was depictions of evil spirits/ deities in some of the murals. Both these are owing to my ignorance of Buddhism, but from a layman's point of view, I was quite struck by it as I was unaware of  any female Buddhist goddesses. Also I also associated Buddhism with peacefulness
and hence was surprised to find depictions of menacing figures on the walls.

A mural of one with a fierce countenance

Purple through and through

We did see this interesting plant on the monastery grounds. It had purple leaves in addition to purple flowers.












Within the monastery compound there is a shop selling curios, Tibetan fans, trinkets, hangings etc. It is managed by 2 monks.

Trinkets, I wanted to buy every one of them!

Good luck charms

The Tibetan houses within the settlement prominently display multicoloured Buddhist prayer flags. I thought they were simply plain flags but a closer look showed they had prayers written on them.

Prayer flags fluttering in the breeze

Prayer flags in close-up

 The Tibetan cause invariably finds resonance in the minds of the settled people, as is evident from this girl sporting a t-shirt with 'Save Tibet' logo.

Championing their cause

You can spend hours together inside the various temples which are less crowded by tourists. The grounds of the monastery are vast and fit for a peaceful stroll.

Another look at the temple

The Final word: It is a must see for any tourist to Coorg.

Another Dasara festival, that means its been a year nd more

I was clicking pics of the Dasara celebrations in my office, suddenly I realized that I had put up Dasara pics of the 2011 Dasara. that means this blog has been around for more than a year now... I'm thinking to myself, "wow, that's amazing". I dint really think I was going to persevere so long with this blog!

The ladies in the office were generally busy; cooking lunch, tidying up the place, applying vermilion on everything in sight, decorating the goddess' picture. The men were busy getting the 'take home' sweet packets ready and decorating the vehicles.


Here,our office assistant is applying vermillion on the cupboard. When she came in, there was already a vermillion mark on it and she was offended that someone beat her to it. We informed her that it was there from last year's Dasara and she happily rubbed it off before reapplying this year's mark.

This is the one on the door...

Well, nothing much is spared, even the vehicles. This one's got it on the tyres too...

The ladies were busy applying rangoli..

 .... and this is how it finally turned out...

...they had a busy time decorating the place....

The mango tree leaves are strung up for auspicious occasions, this time accompanied by a garland of chrysanthemum flowers

No 'Ayudha puja' is complete without the cucumber. So innocuous looking, this one, but its fate later on is interesting.

As you can see, there is a triangular cut made on one side. A triangular wedge is cut out, the resulting hole is filled with pink 'Kumkum' powder and 1 or 2 rupee coins. a piece of camphor is placed on the top, which is later burnt, as we will see later....


Another important player, the lemon, which is placed under the wheels of all vehicles. After the pooja, the vehicles are made to run over the lemon. The driver in the pic is placing a lemon under the wheels of his vehicle.

The 'David and Goliath situation', going down under.....

The bikes are also given their turn at this face-off.

The pujari takes his time with the puja, first the goddess....

...then her other instruments....

Now comes the times the much anticipated time for the kids who had assembled... He looks to the skies with a small prayer to appease the goddess with the cucumber and the lighted camphor.... (if you look closely in the pic, you can see the flame of the camphor burning on the cucumber)

The kids are getting ready too...for the coins inside the cucumber...

Now's the moment...he raises his hands dramatically and smashes the cucumber on the ground...The kids pounce on each other to collect the coins...

All this was topped with a sumptuous lunch afterwords, prepared by Shobha and co. ... too bad my hands were too engrossed in my plate to hold a camera :).

This pic is the cooking team at work.


Happy Dasara to one and all...

From light to darkness, lead me

"Tamaso maa jyotirgamaya"

(Lead me from darkness to light )

This famous part of a sloka I already knew from my childhood. I was surprised to find that this mantra was used in the soundtrack of The Matrix trilogy. This kind of piqued my interest and thanks to wikipedia, I read about the various Vedas and found that this sloka is from Brhadaranya Upanishad. And these were composed in the BC period, before 5th Century BC, tentatively around 1000-600 BC! (source- Wikipedia).
It is thought that even Plato and Kant's have been influenced by them (source- Wikipedia).


Having learnt a little bit of Sanskrit in school, I can pick out the words, thought not really string them together. Tamas - darkness, Maa -I/ Me, Jyothi -light, Gamaya - make go/ lead.

 Coming to think of it, it has a meaning at different levels; physical and philosophical- from known to unknown, from ignorance to knowledge.

On a lighter note.....a 'before'  and 'after' pic led me to this post. We had a power outage. Just as I finished clicking a pic of the candle and make-shift candle stand, the electricity came back on, giving me an 'after' pic.

 

The candle stand is actually an upside-down penstand :)

It was a gift from my BIL, from Singapore.

The design looked kind of garish and pretty and I clicked a few more from up-close. You can actually see the melted candle on top!