tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56669760848121625952024-03-11T21:50:58.809-07:00Asha's musings & ramblingsAshahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.comBlogger404125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-29348492014824099092020-10-25T11:01:00.000-07:002020-10-25T11:01:15.864-07:00 Navaratri - Memories from past <p> The below article was first published in ' <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/navratri-golu-celebrations-in-chennais-mylapore-history-and-significance-of-navratri-golu-during-dussehra/2107130/">Financial Express</a>'.</p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-698fbe13-7fff-9dd9-9794-bedb59c6a356" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The year</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2020 has been extremely overwhelming for all of us. A striking effect of this pandemic has been the social distancing and not getting to socialise in person with our family and friends as before. With Navaratri round the corner, it got me thinking how this year’s festivities would unravel. While each region celebrates this festival in different ways, my region celebrates this Devi festival with an arrangement of dolls called ‘Kolu or Golu’ signifying the </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darbar</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of Devi.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The very name “Navaratri” evokes powerful childhood memories in me. What strikes me the most about these memories are that not one of them is materialistic but most of them about social bonding. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With festive time closer, my mind is wandering around Mylapore, an affluent neighbourhood famous for sacred sites and a cultural centre in Madras. Festivals are interwoven into the life of Mylapore and navaratri is no exception. It is in these vacations that I have built many cherish worthy memories which are now my emotional cushions. If you are a person who believes in vibrations and positive energy of a place, then Mylapore is one such divine place. The thought of this magical place beckons me to relive and celebrate my childhood Dussehra vacation and immortalise them in this column .</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Growing up in Bangalore, Dussehra vacation was something I looked forward to during my school years. Like to many, vacations meant no regular routine and festivals meant food and fun but I looked forward to the time with my extended family. The last day of mid-term would be Kannada exam that would end by 10.30 a.m and my train to my grandparents home in Madras, the Brindavan express would be at 1.20p.m. This was an annual highlight — a solo travel where my dad would put me onboard and my grandfather would pick me up at Madras Central and the next 15 days would be at </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">thatha-paati</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s (grand parents) home in Kutcheri road, Mylapore.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At home, a few days before Navaratri, after dusting and cleaning the whole home, the elders would be busy in the kitchen and in their noon day siesta time, they would climb the attic and pull out biscuit tins, planks and clay dolls. I would zealously wait down looking to unwrap the dolls covered in old clothes and newspapers. The musty smell that came with the wrappings remains fresh in my mind even today. The toys were old heirlooms which the family inherited from one generation to another. The dolls would be cleaned and if need be given a touch-up or repainted.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The big biscuit tins and wooden planks would morph into a ‘golu’ display stand. The square tins would hold the wooden plank and thus 11 steps were formed which almost covered half of </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">paati'</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s room on the ground floor. The whole arrangement would be draped with </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">thatha</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">veshti</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (white dhoti) and pinned with crepe ribbons. All the clay dolls and porcelain dolls would be arranged on the steps by elders symbolising ascension of spiritualism over materialism, so the Gods would be at the top and the material world would be at the bottom, but only after placing the auspicious kalasham (holy pot) signifying the presence of Devi .</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My role, every year, was to set up the park on the ground below the mandatory steps. It was a joy for me to remove the toys from my wicker basket, sourced from the makeshift shops around the nearby </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">teppakulam </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(temple pond). Tiny chairs, tiny figurines, miniature coconut trees, hand pump, homes would all be landscaped with the beach sand and the soaked ragi (millets) was sprinkled which by the third day would add beauty with their lush micro-greens and give a lawn effect. The roads were laid with used coffee grounds which would be collected and dried before and match sticks would be used to make a fence. It was always so much fun, as a child, to build this beautiful park, leaving me with a sense of pride to flaunt my masterpiece. Just reminiscing and writing about this reminds me how important it is to create festival traditions that establish such positive memories.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the morning, the pooja rituals were done by the elder ladies; snacks for the invitees would be made in the kitchen like </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sundal (seasoned legumes)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and some finger foods for kids like </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">kai-suttu murukku</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">thattai (savouries)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and laddus.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evening I would go around with my aunt to visit homes to view others golu arrangements, while </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mami</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">paati</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> would receive the guests at home. It was fun hoarding sundal from one home to another with small token gifts for us little girls.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was also mandatory for us to visit the nearby </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kapali koil,</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to participate in the festival. The whole area around the temple would be festive and matching it on ground , around </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">teppakulam</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mada veedhi (The lanes around temple)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, were hawkers selling traditional </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mann bommais </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(clay dolls) and other small items. The regular shops like Srividya, Giri’s, Sukra’s, Vijaya stores, Ambika would be doing brisk business selling flowers, pooja and gift items.</span><span style="font-family: Arimo; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arimo; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would walk with elders through the narrow streets to reach the Kapali temple and praying to the God was the last thing on my mind. I was more besotted by the festive atmosphere — the peacocks and the golu at the temple and the decorated deities were a visual feast. After the </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">darshan</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> we would sit and enjoy the cultural concert and walk back home with </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sundal </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in our hands.</span><span style="font-family: Arimo; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arimo; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What can be more special for a child than to have delicious food, fun and token gifts during various golu visits. The bonding time at relatives and friends place are all the rich memories that I would hoard as I returned for home, again on Brindavan Express. That was my childhood navaratri. A couple of years when I did’nt make it to Madras, I ended up in Mysore Dussehra with my parents.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Years later, when my daughter and son were born, I started the tradition of keeping golu. Living in a multi- cultural condominium, this pan Indian festival which charmingly links religions, rituals, social and cultural traditions has given my children a lot more memories and exposure to different cultures. Festivals, besides being an occasion to gather and socialise with family and friends over food and fun, for me is to pass on the baton of our rich culture and tradition to my children to assimilate, absorb and bring a smile on their face.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This pandemic festive time with the new normal, things are going to be different. Maybe virtual golu tours and social media wishes to compensate for the social gatherings? Given all, we must take solace in the environmental recovery of fewer carbon footprints, clean roads, clear skies, breathable environment while recalling the whole bunch of memories and keeping the tradition alive with digital vibes. </span></p>Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-67176172375163368832020-03-20T07:10:00.000-07:002020-03-22T00:55:21.744-07:00Once upon a time....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<li>Today on World Storytelling day, I had to share about my journey as a storyteller. Here goes the column published first in financial express.</li>
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Oral Storytelling is one of the oldest and most loved cultural tradition. A tradition that has been passed on from one generation to another. This oral art continues to be relevant, even today in our media-saturated society.<br />
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I believe we are all storytellers and are made up of stories. We have grown listening to them. The stories can be folklore, mythology, fiction or stories of family and friends. These stories besides enriching us are the threads that weave our life and we inherit and leave these as a treasured legacy. We may not remember all the stories but we sure remember how we heard the stories from our family and friends.<br />
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My earliest memory that I recall of listening to a story is from my Grandmom’s elder sister who would lie beside me and tell stories of mythology, tales of common man, folk tales, etc. She would gesticulate with her wrinkly hands and modulate her voice as the story changed the settings from a forest to a Kingdom to a faraway land. The story I was told to was a ‘Kozhakattai’ (modak) story in my mother tongue, Tamil. At that age, though storytelling was a bait to retire to bed, today when I look back, I am able to appreciate that art of storytelling in its purest form, oral tradition.<br />
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My grandparents, parents, and extended family were all my family storytellers. My parents would make up stories during my bedtime, which when narrated made me feel secure and comfortable. Stories involving the members of our family, our ancestors or some living memory, some amusing incident or something about how the ancestors owned an entire village, their contributions were retold in simple unpolished ways. Many family stories like the ‘Dhanushkodi story’, a town on the east coast of India, which marooned when a killer cyclone with a high tidal wave blew away all structures and almost wiped the whole town. A few survived to tell the tale and one of the surviving family was my mom’s uncle. Another favourite - The ‘Burma story’ was about how my maternal grandfather walked from Burma to India through the forests with 3 bottles of Kim (a malted beverage) in his backpack during the war. The other story from my paternal side was how the famous Saint Ramana Maharishi was saved from the thieves by my great grandfather, then Deputy Superintendent of Police. This story although told to me by my grandfather, it gave me greater joy to hear this from the then ashram president, Sri Ramanananda (grand nephew of the saint). These family stories are like the blueprint for our family identities. I have inherited so many such powerful family stories as a valuable legacy.<br />
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In early school days, we had an exclusive oral storytelling period. In English, we listened to fairy tales like Thumbelina, folk and mythological tales and; during Kannada class we heard stories of powerful women like Onakke Obavva, Rani Abbakka of Ullal, the poignant Punyakoti’s story. At the homefront, besides family stories, I was dragged to the traditional storytelling sessions in temples like pravachans, Harikathas and kathakalakshepam (stories and lectures on mythology) by Paati. Our Sanskrit pandit would narrate stories from Malavikagnimitra, Abhignana Shakunthala, Kumarasambhavam, etc. So many oral story listening and hearing opportunities when mass and satellite communication was not popular.<br />
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My storytellers must have had a profound influence on me that even today wherever I see the word “Storytelling” in print or in e-media my eyes stop there and throw me back in time. The morals or values did not sink into my little brain then, it was more entertainment, but I guess, I was besotted with the art of storytelling like gesticulations, the emotions, body language, expressions, the bonding, etc.<br />
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I was educated for a career in electronics but these storytellers somewhere must have left such a deep influence in me that many years later my passion for stories lured me to take up a profession of a storyteller. When an opportunity came my way, I grabbed it. I practiced voice diction, modulation, body language and with experience, I built my repertoire and slowly found what stories made an impact on young, evolving minds. Gradually I developed into a life-skill facilitator (visiting faculty) which involved teaching life skills through interactive stories, conducting theatre workshops for children. My students taught me more than what I learned in my student life.<br />
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I found the choice of the stories was important, while I chose simple interactive stories with repetitive lines for lower classes. Little children loved hearing the same story and would even mindlessly repeat the catchy words as they skipped and hopped out of the class. Middle school children were more interested in fun stories and stories of wisdom but honestly as a storyteller, I let the magic of the story unfold, I never put forth the moral or made it sound preachy, the moral was always brought out by the children and not all stories had to teach or have a moral. They were inquisitive and were open to thinking out of the box. Teenagers in higher classes were interested in historical stories and real-life stories. They were able to empathize and understand the stories better.<br />
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The stories I told them not just entertained, enchanted and delighted them but the ideas molded the young minds. The children would embellish the sessions with their own experiences, thoughts, and ideas. The storytelling sessions in fact, turned into story listening sessions for me since the communication became two way. I believe stories have that power. Apart from teaching and enriching with tangibles like vocabulary, expression, modulation; they teach values like empathy, perseverance, to inspire, to dream, and to imagine possible worlds. We cannot evaluate them in grades but they add value to their living to raise them as empathetic and compassionate humans.<br />
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It is often said that that today’s children rely more on visual mediums and refuse to sit and listen. From my experience, I have seen children and even elders to whom stories are told, sit and learn to listen. An invaluable skill that will see them through school, college, work, and life. Storytelling is all about communicating, listening, interacting which are important ingredients of a healthy family or community. Besides family and educational institution, today storytelling is also part of organisations, corporates, associations. They improve social inclusion, people management, team building, leadership skills. Oral storytelling is a fascinating art to bring people together. I believe it enriches family life, fosters communities and fraternity.<br />
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Here is the <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/world-storytelling-day-2020-a-treasured-legacy-how-stories-bring-people-together/1904281/">link</a>.<br />
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-5287097371403110682020-03-07T05:08:00.000-08:002020-03-07T05:08:18.357-08:00My love for strung words<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The below column was first published in the Financial Express dated March 5, 2020 for World Book Day. Link at the end.<br />
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My mother's library book lying above the newspapers pile is due for exchange. In fact, it has been due for the past three weeks.<br />
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It is close to three weeks since dear appa passed away peacefully. The ever active selfless, generous, helpful, people's person, charmer (the adjectives awarded to appa by his relatives, friends & neighbours), Appa, would go all around the town to buy groceries, pay bills not only for his family but also for his neighbours. He would zip off on his Scooty Zest to the library 2 kms away to exchange the book, & come back home in the noon with bags of groceries. He would lay the grocery bag on the dining table, while Amma would be ready with a hot cup of tea for him. While it was Amma, a voracious reader who inspired me to read, it was dear Appa who introduced and encouraged me to the world of books.<br />
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I still remember the day I picked up my first comic book at the IBH exhibition in glass house at Lalbagh in Bangalore. I was around 6 years at that time. My appa, amma and I walked to Lalbagh which was a few metres from home. Appa got me my first Amar Chitra Katha - ‘Lord Ganesha’ and it costed just Rs. 2 back then.<br />
From then on, whenever I passed by the book store near my house or the Higginbothams store at Railway stations while travelling, I would buy them and add it to my personal collection of ACKs. Even the gift money that I would get from family elders would be spent on buying books. I believe, ACKs are windows to our culture and our Indian kids must be brought up on this pictorial and word diet.<br />
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My fond love for ACK, was followed by Champak, Gokulam and Tinkle. One of my favourite places to read the book, was under the shade of the gooseberry tree in my house in Bangalore. It was in the corner of the compound and under that was a granite stone. I had formed my own book club in which I was the lone and founding member. I would take a fallen gooseberry and write ‘TINKLE BOOK CLUB’ (TBC), the acidic berry would leave its mark on the textured compound wall. I would then sit under the tree, open my book, stamp them as TBC with ink and continue with my reading. Besides the shade of gooseberry tree, I would sometimes also sit on the door step, by the bed room window, under the dim lights of the kitchen dining table or under the covers of my blanket with a torch light.<br />
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After comics, Enid Blytons and classics followed. My mind wanders to those times when Appa took me on his Enfield bullet or Crusader bike to book stores to buy new books or from road side book sellers.<br />
Oh, the joy of discovering Pickwick papers, Pride & Prejudice, Little Women! I recall reading passages aloud, relishing the sentence construction, new words, experiencing and traveling to new worlds that I had never seen.<br />
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Further to encourage my reading habit, Appa enrolled me in the City Central Library in Bangalore. I vividly remember the hard bound, well- worn books neatly stacked on the metal shelfs creating an enchanting space that draws you. I would pick the book and wait excitedly to get to the end of the book to unravel the journey of the protagonist or mysterious plots.<br />
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All these books I read, introduced me to fancy words like blitzkrieg, stentorian, fusillade, treacle tart, marmalade, promenade. I would attempt to decipher their meaning in that context and very often I would make up those meanings myself. Many a times, I have also underlined those complex words to hunt for their meaning in the dictionary later on, which helped me expand my word bank. And yes, these additions to my vocabulary made me feel like a slightly smart child in school.<br />
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I realise a lot of my growing up years have featured books and it is all because of my parents. I have always been a voracious reader, devouring books.<br />
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Studying away from my home state, my mother language was not part of the school curriculum. Appa would buy me the Tamil newspaper 'Dina Thanthi' so that I could learn the language. So grateful for that, today I can speak, read & write Tamil fluently. My knowledge of current affairs and other general affairs were periodically updated, a lot of which I owe to my Appa who got me news papers and general knowledge books regularly.<br />
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Of late, my genre has narrowed. What absorbs me these days are the historical or surreal spiritual books. These books are not light racy reads. There are times when I pause, read, re-read to understand. They make me re-think my existence, helps me to stay grounded & contemplate.<br />
Reading isn’t like before now, my reading is shifted to the screens. Yes, Kindle has replaced the physical books. Right now, ‘The Ivory Throne’ by Manu Nair is flickering on my screen, while the book ‘Thus spake the Divine' is beside me.<br />
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On this World book day, can't thank enough my appa and amma who encouraged me to fall in love with strung words.<br />
<br />
The link to the paper is <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/world-book-day-2020-the-joy-of-discovering-amar-chitra-katha-enid-blyton-books-classics-like-pride-prejudice/1889958/">here</a>.<br />
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-30249476310109572582020-03-07T01:44:00.000-08:002020-03-09T19:53:46.197-07:00My dear appa!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dear Appa!<br />
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I wanted to store my column written for world book day on my blog....suddenly I remembered how I write less about my love for loved ones. All the letters & words in English language are not enough to express my love for loved ones illaya pa? I am so protective about you all, that you & Amma often tell me my love chokes you all. So you know I have never made posts for father's day or mother's day or whatever day. But I have shared a few anecdotes & you have also read my blog posts. I scrolled back to read the post I wrote about all you men folk of our family. I remember I got a Bottle green T- shirt with ' 'soldier for women' written over it. It was one less size tight T-shirt & yet you proudly wore it telling everyone about the <a href="http://shreshar.blogspot.com/2013/04/an-ode-to-male-architects-of-my-life.html?m=0">blog post</a>.</div>
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Appa, you know words fail me, but I have so many anecdotes to share. I can't write about you in the past tense dear Appa, I am tearing up. </div>
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One of my biggest fear of my life is losing you appa. You know what a sensitive person I am & I would be shattered to pieces if ever I lost you. But,you prepared me for the eventuality yet you were stronger & active till the last hour.<br />
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Appa, I will not frame you in a photograph as our relatives & friends suggest. I will not garland you appa, you will live with me in spirit.</div>
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You were a lovely role model who was always flexible , & adapted to changes easily so much so that you were comfortable with people across all ages , one can find you playing cricket with kids on the street as well as talking to old people & comforting them in their homes or with young men & women. You shared such a beautiful rapport with your grand children, teasing, playing , guiding them and you would wish them teacher's day as they taught you to handle mobiles & gadgets. You would Pride in your children's & grandchildren's talent so much so that my kids would tease me. I chuckle whenever I think of 'Edward Iyer'.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTuTrvJkI8gqMnO1vyzTjMRIyqcBG0dq1NZZF5XuO64kmjfZ0DndPC2A4yCXC-CI1WC0QHpJr9kzDnmaZcX0yl7YvWKUNNDEkP77eRKjPtL268kUTmyALQkTaKEzHUzwf8n20_e6A7SGw/s1600/Screenshot_20200227-213029__01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="1080" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTuTrvJkI8gqMnO1vyzTjMRIyqcBG0dq1NZZF5XuO64kmjfZ0DndPC2A4yCXC-CI1WC0QHpJr9kzDnmaZcX0yl7YvWKUNNDEkP77eRKjPtL268kUTmyALQkTaKEzHUzwf8n20_e6A7SGw/s320/Screenshot_20200227-213029__01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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While tears welled up, Did you notice appa, I stood a proud girl beside you ,when people paid glowing tributes to you as selfless, generous, people's person, friendly, adaptable,helping tendency 'jaasti' but all people shared one common thing that you would never let go of whoever visits home without giving them to eat or drink, and you would make them yourself many a time .. & much much more with anecdotes. Many people tell how they were inspired by you to take up a career in Sales , Marketing & people management because of you. Many talk of how you got them their career breaks. generally people say glowing things after people pass away, I was surprised when all friends, neighbors took leave from work, pitched in to help and ensured smooth functioning of rituals, till yesterday's 13th day.</div>
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Appa, I am so glad you helped me & your younger one to conduct the rituals comfortably. I will not miss you,we are from the same gene pool & we miss only those whom we lose. you will bewithme in spirit , while you are happy on the other side of rainbow with your parents & elders and I sure will look for you amongst the stars till we meet again.</div>
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Your words to me when I argue with you while you dole out things was 'Dharmam thalai kaakum' & ' oorar veetu kozhandail valartha than kuzhandai thaana valarum'. ( Something like you rise while you lift others)</div>
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Everyone says I already have inherited your values like punctuality, being organised, munkovam (anger) , will try to be like you appa in helping , feeding others, donating & in generosity. you will guide me dear appa<br />
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Always your<br />
Kutty</div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-91215681788691791572020-02-21T05:57:00.000-08:002020-02-21T09:32:44.733-08:00 Call of the Lord !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We all know Shiva, from whom Yoga originated, the first Guru of Yoga, Adiyogi, symbolizes the balancing and calming effect of all Yoga practices.<br />
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Yoga as a spiritual practice rests upon building the Shiva consciousness of the awareness and bliss.<br />
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On the night of Mahashivratri, as a yoga practitioner & spiritual seeker, I recall my tryst with the Lord. #Don'tYawnTillDawn<br />
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The below article was written for & first appeared Financial Express dated 21 Feb.<br />
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There are times in our life when we plan much, and work hard but things don’t fall in </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
place and then there are times when things effortlessly fall in place. Our recent trip to </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sringeri in Western ghats was one such. It was not in our itinerary when we left home, </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
but the spiritual monastery beckoned us and we drove from Chikmagalur through the </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
hairpin bends flanked by scenic coffee estates to Sringeri.<br />
<br /></div>
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It was sheer grace that we had a comfortable vision of the beautiful deity of </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sharadamba and other shrines within the complex. After the darshan, we were heading </div>
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towards the exit to our room, suddenly my children decided to take a look at River </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tunga. We walked by the beautiful 14th century Vidyashankara temple and reached the </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
bridge over the river. Soaking the beauty of the moonlit river under the star-spangled </div>
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sky, we walked on the bridge aimlessly in silence not knowing where we were heading. </div>
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We saw a handful of men in traditional wear of dhoti and a few women in nine yards </div>
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saree walking ahead of us. We followed them on the bridge into the woody orchard </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Narsimhavana and saw it opening into the portico of Guru Nivas. Traditionally dressed </div>
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devotees, less than 100 in number, were seated in a well- lit hall. Unknowingly, we had </div>
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walked into the home, where the spiritual head, His Holiness Bharati Theertha Swamiji</div>
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was to begin a pooja in a few minutes.</div>
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What followed after that was one of the most divine experiences I have had in recent </div>
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times. It was a surreal feeling to watch the Chandramouleeswara pooja in the night to </div>
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the invigorating Vedic chants by the young students of the Vedic school. The </div>
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Chandramouleeswara is a crystal linga, the principal idol of worship not only in Sringeri </div>
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but also the other monasteries — Badri, Dwaraka, and Puri established by Adi </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Shankara. Legend has it that this spatika linga along with the other three was handed </div>
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over by Lord Shiva himself to Adi Shankara, who in turn gave to his 4 disciples, one of </div>
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whom was Mandana Misra, his first disciple and the first Acharya of the Sringeri Mutt. </div>
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Since then, the linga has been propitiated by the various Acharyas who have adorned </div>
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the peetams and what I saw was the pooja performed by the present Acharya, a </div>
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renowned scholar, the 36th in the line of Guru Parampara. The ambience, the rhythmic </div>
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chants, the vibrations I felt here are inexplicable. </div>
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After the pooja when we crossed over the river bridge, I felt I was charged with supreme </div>
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bliss. It is what one calls as a spiritual moment that has to be internalized. Spiritual can </div>
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mean many things to many, it is a broad concept with room for many perspectives, as in </div>
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connecting with the self, the supreme, blissful solitude, a belief that tells you to give up </div>
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your anger, ego, hate and many more.</div>
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Though temples are God’s abode, there are a few temples where one has that feeling. </div>
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The older the temple, the more such intangible feeling. I sense such vibes in a few </div>
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ancient temples which are built according to Agamic principles (temple architecture). </div>
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Here I would like to recall a visit to an old temple again by default.</div>
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One of my favourite travel routes is the Thanjavur-Trichy belt in Southern Tamil Nadu. </div>
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The numerous criss-crossing canals and the tributaries of River Cauvery which </div>
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meander around the little villages adorned with lush green fields are a sight to behold. </div>
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The river banks are home to many world heritage sites like the Brihadeeswarar temple, </div>
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Gangaikonda Cholapuram, Darasuram etc., </div>
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I have often traveled this route and each time I visit, I am enriched. It was during one </div>
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such travel, on the main road from Kumbakonam to Thanjavur, we found a temple arch </div>
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with 108 Shiva temple written on it. Intrigued, we stopped by the temple. At first glance, </div>
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it didn’t seem like a big temple and did not have a ‘tall temple tower’ characteristic of the </div>
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other temples in the region. We walked into the temple and saw the main deity named </div>
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Ramalinga Swamy, another one called Hanumathlingam and the rest of the 106 lingams </div>
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were in 3 rows.</div>
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The temple priest in the unpretentious temple where only we were the devotees said </div>
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that worshipping Lord Shiva here would remove one of all sins, hence the name of the </div>
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place, Papanasam. </div>
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He went on to tell the sthala puranam (history of the place). Lord Rama, after </div>
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worshipping at Rameswaram to ward off the evil effects of killing Ravana, found the sins </div>
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were still following him due to the killing of Kara and Dhooshana in the war. He </div>
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instructed Lord Hanuman to bring one Shivalinga from Kashi. Since it got delayed, </div>
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Rama and Sita themselves collected sand from nearby river Kudamurutty (a branch of </div>
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Cauvery) and made 107 Shiva lingams under a vilva tree. Meanwhile, Hanuman </div>
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brought the Shivalinga, it was named Hanumanlinga. Thus the total lingas numbered </div>
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108. This place is also called Keezh Rameswaram and possibly the only ancient place </div>
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in the world where 108 big separate lingams are present in one place. It is believed that </div>
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one’s wish is realized if one circumambulates the outer praharam by 108 times and </div>
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during Mahashivarathri nearly 10,000 people circumambulate this temple. </div>
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The idols in ancient temple built according to agama shastra are said to have esoteric </div>
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power due to chantings than the newly constructed designer temples. One need not be </div>
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spiritual or a theist to visit such temples, but if one loves history, art, heritage, </div>
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architecture, such temples will be deeply appreciated.<br />
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The link is <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/mahashivratri-2020-celebrating-shivas-night-on-the-banks-of-tunga-and-cauvery/1874849/">here</a>. <br />
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(Will adjust alignment when I touch my base)</div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-73613156520557063642020-02-17T03:51:00.002-08:002020-02-17T05:47:06.063-08:00Stop and smell the roses!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Valentine's day - some company decided to sell their greeting cards and the idea turned into a good business......seriously, it has done our economy well.<br />
<br />
The below article was first published in Financial express dated 12 feb,2020<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Stop and
smell the roses – </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">I literally follow </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">this</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> age old good advice</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> when I travel to Hosur via Bangalore or Salem. Every time I
travel this route, I stop by the many rose farms and poly houses, to soak in
the beauty of every whorl and colour of the beautiful roses. The gardeners and
farmers are very warm and welcoming. Each time I stop by, we share
conversations, they invite us home for lunch or offer a glass of butter milk.
They are also very generous to give me bonus in the form of a rose plant, to</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">matoes, chayote, B</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">rinjals or whatever they
grow.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Hosur is
a little historical, industrial and agricultural town in the state of Tamil
Nadu. A very humble town which is not proud of its various honours, perhaps the
reason it is not so popular. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All around
the town if you observe, you will find historical an</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">d archaeological evidences
that</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">
pre-dates</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> this
town</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> to 2000
years. During Sangam-age it was called ‘Muraasu nadu’ and</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> ruled by King Ad</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">iyamaan, the King who gave
gooseberry to Tamil poetess Avaiyaar to </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">prolong her life. The Cholas, </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Rajputs,</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Nayaks, Hoysalas, British East India during </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Lord </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Cornwallis time, Tipu</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">sultan and many more have
ruled this place.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">This town
is home to many</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> small
scale and large scale industries producing automobile bodies, automo</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">tive spares, high precision </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">aero parts, watches,
bio-tech, agriculture</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">, tissue culture, pharmaceuticals and many more.</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">A place which cannot be
classi</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">fied as a
'laid back' town or a 'hyper-active' town, </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">It takes a middle </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">path.
From what I have observed generally, people</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">here have the approach of ‘Work while you work, play while
you play’. Maybe because majority of them have jobs with 9-5 schedules</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> in </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Industries unlike </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">many </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">MNCs which work across
different time zones.</span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"></span>
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">One of
its prime revenue generator is through its horticulture and floriculture
exports. Hosur soil is said to be very fertile and ideal to grow European
vegetables like broccoli, carrot, beets, bell peppers, asparagus etc. This is
possible not only because of the fertile soil but also because this place is
elevated 3000ft above sea level and thus enjoys a compatible and salubrious
climate, all round the year. The weather is the reason why the Britishers
called this place as “India’s Little England” during their rule. Tons of
vegetables are exported to other parts of the country and this town also houses
prime floriculture companies.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial unicode ms" , "sans-serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Many
agri-export companies based here have their project sites around the main town
like Denkanikottai, </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Bagalur, Thally</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> etc. They breed, cultivate and export flowers like
carnation, lilies, gerbera and the world famous valentine red rose</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> called ‘Taj Mahal’</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">. This variety created by a
rose breeder in Holland is patented and cultivated in Hosur. It is a deep red
budded rose with long stalk and big leaves. Another rose by name ‘Kohinoor’
which is a baby orange-pink rose is also cultivated here. The main markets for
these flowers are Europe, Australia, The Middle East and Japan. The valentine
rose was patented in 2009 and the exports have been doubled, tripled and some years
they dip too.</span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"></span>
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Talking
to a rose grower, in Bagalur (near Hosur), who was growing the Damask rose
popularly called ‘Paneer rose’, said he also grows cassandra, chrysanthemum,
marigold, tuberose for domestic and international markets. The flowers he grows
are auctioned in the famous Hosur flower markets to retailers where they reach
homes for daily pooja or special oc</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">casions like</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> wedding. </span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"></span>
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">But with
passage of time, flowers have gone beyond decorating gods, sacred spaces and
many other places. They now decorate office establishments, living rooms, as
gifts etc. He said growing flowers now is a highly competitive industry. With
introduction of new techniques, cultivators now grow and develop new flowers
which leads to change in the trend of consumers. The new generation employ
modern technology, maximise the production and offer better quality of flowers
and thereby, a better price. He said the developed cut flowers like the
valentine roses are grown in poly houses under controlled conditions. The buds
are covered with netted bud caps so their shape <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>remains in the bud form. Their petals are also
thick so that they can withstand long distance travels. The flowers grown here
travel in refrigerated vans to Bangalore and then are airlifted to various
countries like Amsterdam, Germany, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Australia etc.
Recently, an Intellectual property attorney has also applied for GI tag for the
“Hosur roses”.</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">As I type
this looking at the </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">rose plant in my balcony garden;</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> the subtle fragrance, its
rich colour and artistry of whorls reminds of Emperor Jahangir’s quote “No
other scent of equal excellence…It lifts the spirit and refreshes the soul”.</span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"></span>
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So the next time you happen to pass this route,
do stop by to smell the roses - a soothing balm for city souls. If lucky, you
could also relish the refreshing buttermilk, enjoy a lively conversation and
also carry home a lovely rose plant to adorn your garden along with some
fragrant memories</span><br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
The link to the article is <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/valentines-day-2020-indias-little-england-hosur-a-paradise-gift-taj-mahal-kohinoor-paneer-roses/1864021/">here </a></div>
Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-70129785344137036782020-01-31T06:06:00.001-08:002020-02-19T01:05:26.820-08:00An ancient festival to honor & thank nature<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Pongal or Indra vizha. Another of my column which I happily wrote when Swapna requested. Thanks again for trusting me , Swapna. This was written for & was first published in financial express. Here goes,</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Pongal – An ancient festival to honor and thank Nature</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Soaking in the beautiful view of the Western Ghats during our annual family road trip to</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Agumbe, this winter vacation, I stopped by a farm land to pick up a few golden-hued rice stalks </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for dry décor. One of the farmers who was harvesting, generously gave me a few stalks and </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">refused to take any money in return. The small talk I had with him made me realize farming is </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">physically and mentally demanding with minimal returns. It also depends on handling </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">uncertainties like weather and pests. So, when their toil yields, their first harvest is to the visible </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">god, Mother Nature in the form of the thanksgiving festival — Pongal.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Origin</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Most of us who grew up in cities with no village connection have not witnessed the real “Pongal” </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and it's festive vibes. The celebrations are rooted and followed ritually in the rural homes. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Pongal in Tamizh means ‘overflow’. This festival dates back to the Sangam age when forms of </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">nature were revered by man. Social Historians say, Pongal was referred as “Indra Vizha” in the </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ancient Chola sea port of Poompuhaar which is considered the birthplace of the festival.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Bhogi </b>-The first day of the multi day festival is Bhogi Pongal. All things old are disposed and are </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">burnt outside the house in a bonfire suggesting the end of the old and birth of the new. Houses </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">are cleaned, whitewashed and decorated with first cut of paddy, mango leaves and kolams. This </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">day Lord Indra, the rain god, is honoured whose other name is 'Bhogi’ . The festive spread </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for the day is payasam, vada and Puran poli along with the regular menu. Spiritually, this day </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">defines that it is not enough to clean externally alone but, one has to clean the mind by burning </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">old bad habits or thoughts and take a firm resolve to tread the path of love and purity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Surya Pongal </b>-The second day, the main day is Surya Pongal, thanksgiving to the Sun god and </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">beginning of Tamizh month, Thai. The Sun enters the sign of Capricorn (Makara), marking end </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">of winter and the arrival of spring. On this day, Chakkara Pongal (sweet) and Ven Pongal </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">(spiced rice) are made with freshly harvested rice in a mud pot (pongu paanai) cooked on a mud </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">stove (aduppu) in open courtyard where the whole family gathers. The neck of the pot is tied </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">with turmeric and ginger plants, signifying auspiciousness and spice of life respectively. On </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">either side of the pot two fully grown sugarcane plants are kept to signify the arrival of </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">sweetness in life. When the cooked rice broth overflows out of the pot, it is called ‘Pongal’ (Tamizh for overflowing). The overflowing represents abundance and rich harvest. In joy, the </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">people gathered around the pot unite and shout ‘Pongal-O-Pongal’. Some also chant the</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">‘Aditya Hrudayam’ and do Surya Namaskar to the Sun God. To accompany the pongal, a tangy </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">spicy dish called ‘Ezhu Thaan Kootu’ (7 vegetable stew) is made of 7 seasonal native </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">vegetables. The landlord distributes food, clothes, and money among the labourers who work </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for him. By being generous, sharing and treating workers well he, in turn, earns their loyalty and </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">love. A noble act which should be our ideal at all times not just on Pongal, one of the key take </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">aways from the festival.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Spiritually, the Sun itself symbolises all that the Pongal festival stands for. The message of light, </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">unity, and impartiality. Without the Sun, life would perish on earth. It is regular in its work, and </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">never claims any recognition. If we imbibe these virtues, we shall shine with equal divine lustre! </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Sun joyously turns northward (Utttarayan) and moves towards us shedding light, warmth </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and infuses more life and energy.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";">Mattu pongal</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";"> -The third day,
Mattu Pongal, is to pay our thanks to the cow, revered as the mother of the
universe. The cow is decorated, the horns are painted in vibrant colou</span><span lang="PT" style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";">rs.</span><span lang="PT" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">
</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";">Mixed rice like lemon rice, coconut rice,
and curd rice are made along with aviyal (vegetable medley in coconut gravy),
and vadams(fryums). These dishes are arranged into a picnic hamper and carried to
feast on the beaches, river banks or any picnic spots. Outing events like this
helps in forging bonds between people. In the southern districts of Tamil Nadu,
a bull taming contest called ‘Jalli kattu' is organized where strong men
compete in</span><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";"> tam</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";">ing a violent bull. If
he tames the bull, he gets the prize money tied to the horns of the bull.</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The sibling festival of ‘Kanu’ is also
celebrated on this day. Sisters pray for the well-being of their brothers.
Sisters wake up early and place leftovers of the previous day’s food (they
prepare in excess for this purpose) on turmeric leaves for the crows and birds
to eat. They offer prayers that their family should be united like the flock of
birds.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The festival in essence helps the whole
universe find a place in one’s heart gradually during the course of the
celebrations. First, by embracing family and friends with long arms, then the
servants and the poor, then the cow, and then all other living creatures which
live united in flocks like birds.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">The rituals and traditions may have twisted with time, we
still do them repeatedly adding new dimensions, but the essence is the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"> Let this season
bring change for good and bonds of sweetness and peace prevail everywhere. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The link to the article in Financial express dated 14 Jan 2020 is <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/happy-pongal-dating-back-to-sangam-age-this-ancient-festival-honours-nature/1822218/">here</a><br />
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-4606568822593811792020-01-28T06:18:00.000-08:002020-02-19T01:05:51.373-08:00Kolam connotations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>The below article was exclusively written &was first published in Financial Express . At the end of the post is the link</b>.<br />
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This Margazhi morning sent me into a state of nostalgia as I drew a simple ezhai kolam in my apartment corridor. It brought back all those fond times and tiny tales told to me by family elders during various functions where all women in the family used to get together and make beautiful patterns -- a memory I hold close to my heart.</div>
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In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, kolam is a traditional practice that defines the culture in the form of a visual map made using the basic elements of design – dots and lines. </div>
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Kolam, in its traditional context, is said to drawn to announce auspiciousness and that all-is-well in the household while its absence implies otherwise. Drawing kolams signifies that Goddess Lakshmi is welcomed; while her sister Mudevi, who is believed to bring poverty, illness, laziness, and bad luck, is banished. </div>
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Much before the break of dawn (Brahmamuhurtham), many women with a prayer on their lips, clean the door front by sprinkling water on mother earth and draw kolams with rice powder. The rice powder serves as food for the ants, insects, birds and is said to be equivalent to feeding thousands of living beings (Sahasra bhojanam). Also by bending and stretching while putting kolams, one exercises their body and absorbs the ozone in the atmosphere which is abundant in the wee hours. </div>
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So many more layered meanings, stories, and beliefs are credited to this creative art besides its traditional resonance when viewed through multiple lenses.</div>
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The art of kolam is as old as the Indus valley civilization and dates back to the Mahabharata. It is said that the gopikas drew this to drown their sorrows when their beloved Lord Krishna was away.</div>
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While some historians believe that kolams were designed by shore dwellers, as the arrangement of stars helped them to venture into the sea. These dwellers replicated celestial designs of the constellations on the threshold of their homes. Prime constellations like Orion and Leo were said to represent Lord Shiva and Goddess Shakti respectively.Some also say that the dots in the kolam represent the male and the lines denote the female. These also have a symbolic value in representing the basic energies of the universe. In kolams, no dot is left unconnected or hanging. Folklore has it that these closed patterns prevent evil forces from entering the homes.<br />
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Drawing a kolam involves 6 sets of mathematical skills -- counting, identifying, measuring, designing, experimenting and explaining. To make a perfect kolam, one needs to keep a count of the dots, the vertices, arcs, and lines while forming those beautiful patterns.Whatever the history or story, this floor art which is a hand-me-down from one generation to another comes only with practice. The continuous fall of powder between the thumb and forefinger is an art that is a test to your creativity. Many patterns and designs are born on the spur of the moment with Mother Earth as a canvas.<br />
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Every celebration has a set of unique kolam designs ascribed to it. For special occasions, maa-kolams are created with wet rice flour. A small cloth is dipped into wet rice flour and; the thumb, forefinger and the middle finger act as a free-flowing ink pen nibs to form a smooth continuous evenly drawn semi-permanent kolam.<br />
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This week when my mother and aunt visited me, I sat down with them to perfect my kolam techniques, a follow-up on my wish of perfecting the maa-kolam this Margazhi. A few more of weeks of practice and I think I’ll be close to making those beautiful patterns that will adorn my Instagram feed soon.<br />
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The online link of the article is <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/tamil-nadus-iconic-kolam-tradition-involves-creativity-and-mathematical-skill/1815822/">here </a>.</div>
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Storing it just incase it gets lost like various other articles. Thanks dear Swapna.</div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-42451270789611102102019-04-13T02:11:00.001-07:002019-04-13T09:10:43.966-07:00My first guest post!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If this blog were a book, I should have dusted. Thank god, this is no book, hence no dust, no silverfish or torn brittle pages that would be on an old book. No musty smell of old book too which anyway i would have loved.<br />
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I had totally forgotten this little space of mine existed, until Shilpa approached me to write a guest post for her blog, only then did I open this space to read a few of my own posts. I even had a tough time logging in and didn't know what to press and where :)<br />
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<a href="https://shilpaagarg.com/about-me"><b>Shilpa Garg</b></a> is one of India's premium blogger whose blog has a major social presence and influence. She must have made close to 2K posts. She is very consistent with blogging and her posts are very creative and full of content. I have learnt much from her like spine poetry, Drabble etc, and it amazes me how she crafts stories & thoughts within 55 words which are crisp yet so meaningful in 55ers. A voracious book reader who has taken up and fulfilled many a reading challenges despite her busy work schedule which involves travelling. Her keen observational skills has even given fodder for her blog. At times the various international blogathons she signs up, she has even written them from her journeys on train, from airport etc. Such is her commitment and she loves challenges and is very organised. Besides blogging, reading books...she loves baking and travelling. <br />
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While blogs was where we connected, we took the connection offline and are connected through phone too. Our conversation over phone has strengthened our bond and now I feel she is one humble, intelligent friend whom I can count upon.<br />
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I was only happy to make a guest post for her and here is my presence on <b><a href="https://shilpaagarg.com/2019/04/kitchen-gardening.html">A rose is a rose is a rose</a></b>! about Kitchen Gardening.<br />
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Thank you Shilpa.</div>
Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-58090817688106287752017-03-08T02:06:00.001-08:002017-03-15T07:08:18.474-07:00Open- Eyed meditations - a book review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The moment I saw the title '<i><b>O</b></i></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>pen- Eyed meditations’ By Shubha vilas</b></i> on blogadda book review program, my instinct said this could be my kind of book. The word ‘Meditation’ itself has a calming
effect on me and the authors previous books on Ramayana which I read and
reviewed <a href="http://shreshar.blogspot.in/2014/05/rise-of-sun-prince-by-shubha-vilas-book.html">here</a> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">had left me</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">pondering and
contemplating even after I had finished reading those books. I expected this book
to have a similar effect on me and, I must
say I was not disappointed.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8QP9-OArJUIgzW9t42DIPXKvUy4LXXRNmhf1sG2hzh8JcIGWV_L8q-i5W1A-HogMFeDDR4ba4QTISeLhEHP9t2bypf20lUmqgdTbeUZVf6PIfMGeuw7vi8azfBAuiROqwAat9Y27XQDc/s1600/download+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8QP9-OArJUIgzW9t42DIPXKvUy4LXXRNmhf1sG2hzh8JcIGWV_L8q-i5W1A-HogMFeDDR4ba4QTISeLhEHP9t2bypf20lUmqgdTbeUZVf6PIfMGeuw7vi8azfBAuiROqwAat9Y27XQDc/s400/download+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Open-Eyed
meditations</b> was not a breezy read for me, I had to read and re-read at
many many places to understand, accept and absorb what was written in the book.
With the exams of my son and so many other commitments, it took time for me to
finish the book. But, I enjoyed each and
every page of the book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The book is actually a collection of thoughts about
various aspects of modern life , the
situations we deal with and offers profound insights and solutions to those
situations . The way the author has beautifully drawn analogy between the situations we encounter in modern
life to the stories or characters or
situations from our epics The Ramayana or
the mahabharatha is commendable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The book is divided into 64 small chapters, each one
dealing with a modern day problem like the art of communication, making right
decisions in life, can talent be your enemy?, Are you scared to be offline?,
can your success be your failure?, how to let go, art of leading leaders, Do ‘likes’
make my life?, quality vs quantity,
making leadership last etc.,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Each of the 64 is independant , complete and
offers nugget of wisdom and action to be
taken within the chapter to the modern day malady. At the end of each chapter
is the summary highlighted in a box enclosure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The language is very simple and beautifully rhyming. Some of the lines can
make great pin up quotes on hardboard or
can serve as our status to inspire us. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A few lines that inspired me are..<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“A simple mind accepts the unchangeable reality,
whereas a complex mind dwells on it indefinitely creating immense negativity”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“letting go at the right time and in the right mood
allows you to blossom without hindrance. Either that or you shrivel in
self-pity”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Real perfection of a man is to find joy in accepting
his imperfections as potential for his growth rather than as a source of his
fears”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Like I mentioned, the book has many short stories
embedded and while the author has elaborated the stories, situations and
characters in many chapters, he has also missed completing them or he must have
taken for granted that the reader knows the story. For instance, in the chapter
“ A story about communication”. He talks about Kanika neeti in which Kanika
convinced Duryodhana to have faith by narrating the story of a fox that tricked
its four friends to part wth their share of the hunt by its cunningness. Elaborating the story crisply could have
helped correlate the situation. The author
says this story was the inspiration for the infamous gambling match. This passage left me curious to know what the
fox story was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Otherwise, this is a marvelous book that takes us by the
hand to deal with modern day situations. This book(279) is certainly not a one time
read and has to be a part of our personal library and has to be picked up from the bookshelf often to absorb the brilliant
insights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "noticia text", serif; font-size: 18px;">This review is a part of the biggest </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews&source=gmail&ust=1489667162536000&usg=AFQjCNHdr5ZWSsosT7TOrXz1SBksjLQghQ" href="http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #d81616; font-family: "noticia text", serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Book Review Program </a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "noticia text", serif; font-size: 18px;">for </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.blogadda.com/&source=gmail&ust=1489667162536000&usg=AFQjCNHtL1prbj0aUrkJWk3A1fNJvtNx5w" href="http://www.blogadda.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #d81616; font-family: "noticia text", serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Indian Bloggers.</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "noticia text", serif; font-size: 18px;"> Participate now to get free books!</span></div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-86818393014164452952017-02-02T02:55:00.004-08:002017-02-02T04:51:50.242-08:00Life's little moments<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For the past months, When i was at work or at leisure, I would often hear an inner voice telling me that i am ignoring my blog, Everytime, I heard the voice i would silence it by telling that i have other priority work/busy or usefully occupied now and will blog the next day...but busy with what? I know not....i simply know that was a super excuse for losing interest in blogging and indulging in other new tasks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Today, after two months when i picked my laptop to check on a page which was not opening on phone, I decided to open my blogpage and write something. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Even now, as i am typing this....i don't know what do i fill it with.....My blog which is my storehouse of my memories, my anecdotal happenings, my travel diary is blank, ..but i want to say something and don't like this page staring blank at me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Have i said it all? seems like I have nothing to share or maybe i don't know to construct my thoughts coherently.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Hmmm......may be i should just write randomly about the little happenings of my life in the last two months ( dec16, jan,17) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So let me first start with a confession,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> The reason for ignoring my favorite space must be that I am hooked to my smart phone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />While on the phone, All my thoughts are shared through a different media where there are specific groups. I seem to be dabbling in too many things using the phone, making friends, meeting virtual friends in real, connecting with them on my interests, sharing thoughts ...ofcourse all this happens after i have attended to my work .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />While lot of learning and connecting is happening through these groups, i find sometimes it is too much of information explosion too. Ignorance is sometimes bliss and why learn about too many things..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />Lot of learning is happening offline too. I had joined a sketching and watercoloring workshop, a rangoli workshop( sanskar bharati) and .....and.....the two left footed me is learning dance too and i did give a public performance with our group on republic day in our campus. Unbelievable for anybody who knows me, because i hated dancing or watching dance unless it was my children's show....what a change!!! I know everything in life goes through a change, i am no exception!!! I am doing all things which i once would never have thought of doing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This republic day was a defining day for us personally, " the other man in my life" turned 18. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />my little organic garden is throwing me surprises. Every morning, when i open the balcony door, a new ripe red tomato says 'hi' to me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />There are times, when my zero mile food dictates my menu, methi paratha, methi thepla, menthiyakeerai vatthakozhumbu, methi alu fry, tomato rasam, tomatoes in salad, pesto sauce, mint raita.... and waiting for more now that, spring has begun....an ideal weather for veggies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />I am living and enjoying the little moments of life than photgraphing them, ( finding the charger, perfect lighting etc..is such a pain, by then I lose the moment), one such moment was during our year end break.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />Our original road trip to horsley hills was broken as we could not afford a 3 day break due to sonny boy's school but we did take a 1.5 day trip to a " watersport resort" cottage near Chilkur.<br /><br />While here, we threw ourselves back into pre-technology era and indulged in sports( tennis, badminton, billiards, carrom, table tennis), walking, breathing in crisp fresh air and eating healthy food.<br /><br />It was fun moon gazing and star gazing, nature watching here......reminded me of my childhood days, when i had time, i would sit on the steps of my home and stare at the moon and think.....Ah!.....may be a separate post on this "Moon gazing".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">hey wait, i have written a pretty long post.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For somebody, who started with "what to write"....this is a pretty lengthy one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">More on my next.....</span><br />
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but before that what should i title this post? .....have i said it all? or "life's little moments".......the latter sounds better and optimistic...what say folks?</div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-40320016363640266662016-11-02T04:15:00.002-07:002016-11-02T04:28:52.088-07:00When memories ran amok...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxeYetoos0QYYfNcoFJ-sBDVaPQPFdiWszLq5_1y0Xfhyphenhyphen6Fb-YqYKH_Qu-xNh_1ctuqHcZ2aoj7toVbdageMv0uSwpkdj1uJfV_Wg4pFprrFFpT1pUjfrTAndshGF_0Wg0NbDjNRK_9c/s1600/IMG_20161013_103151_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxeYetoos0QYYfNcoFJ-sBDVaPQPFdiWszLq5_1y0Xfhyphenhyphen6Fb-YqYKH_Qu-xNh_1ctuqHcZ2aoj7toVbdageMv0uSwpkdj1uJfV_Wg4pFprrFFpT1pUjfrTAndshGF_0Wg0NbDjNRK_9c/s400/IMG_20161013_103151_HDR.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Don't dwell on the past, live in the present." this preachy line, we frequently get to hear these days on media by new age gurus. But often, I find myself questioning the above ....and my mind starts debating on that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The arguments vacillate in support 'of' and 'against' the above statement. Sometimes, I think we are the products of our past and therin lies our foundation. Sometimes, I feel the unwanted baggage can hinder our life. Sometimes, I think, Isn't introspection the key to awareness?....so many such thoughts debate on my mind but finally the argument for the support of nostalgia wins...... And Pray, tell me...how can I not dwell on my past when i have made wonderful, unforgettable memories .... .and so I say,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Old is gold!..nostalgia is empowering!!....Old music is unbeatable !!!,.... heritage buildings are classic!!! ......dejavu is rejuvenating!!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A song, fragrance, a building, a name, so many such things can evoke memories of loved ones separated by death or distance that the hours one spends thinking about such things suspends the present and one travels back to the past.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mylapore, a part of chennai town is one such place which strikes a chord and sends me on nostalgia lane. The very mention of that place name releases from me a lifetime of personal memories. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">During my recent trip, a visit to this place turned me misty eyed with happiness. I made a visit to this place after some 16 years. 14 years back I visited the Kapali temple alone which is the soul of Mylapore, but this time, i went around the mada street, my grand parents home ( sold 17 years back), my mom and aunt's typewriting &shorthand class home, Veena class home( all were taught in homes only). The class cum home still stand hoarding the board. The bank next door, their family jewellers, Srividya manjal shop, the florist shop, appalam kadai, Aavin, Rasi silk store where I still remember my mami asking for the "manjalla yellow border kaatunga"( Show me the yellow with yellow border saree) and how we cousins were laughing at her and she was looking askance at the salesman and us, not knowing why we were laughing. She did'nt realize she said manjal which in tamil means yellow.Every incident and memory that came alive during this visit felt like it happened just recently. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> The maadi tailor who used to often get a good dose of scoldings from my aunt for not stitching on time. The pooja and garland store near kapali kovil where we deposited our chappals before the visit, the fights we cousins had at home with elders since we didnt want to accompany the elders to the temple, Matthala narayanan street sweet stall,where we were sent to get the hot kaara sev snacks, The Bharatiya vidya bhavan where I was refused admission for 6 months, The kumaran school ( no more exists)..opposite Hindu chit fund where I studied for 6 months during my sister's birth., Karpagambal mess, kalathi shop, vijaya stores and ofcourse the Kapali kovil, Mundakanniamman koil .....Except for a few facelifts in the interior of these temples, the place looked frozen in time. . There are signs of decay on some buildings which only heightens the perception of continuity with the passing of time and lends an aura of heritage. Some buildings ofcourse have buckled to lifestyle changes and sport trendy looks. But all those glamour and sheen of the new buildings fade in front of the mildewed heritage stores and shops. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> With the timing of my visit, I could tick off one more of my bucket list wish. It was on my wish list to shop for the golu dolls after navaratri around the mada street( around the foot path of the temple) . These are temporary road stalls pitched only during navarathri selling clay dolls. With the golu over, the traditional dolls are sold at lesser rates. A win-win situation where the customer gets at cheap rates and the seller does'nt have to store the clay dolls till the next navaratri. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Overall a visit, where my emotional batteries were recharged.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Some pictures from the visit...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhNRTM77t5odP2QePTCTwdhhr_9QXjIExa16Gr9WW0yWxEpq79TMUDBpv3QvSqK5RJn-eqietN33OCVS8Qjl4_apGmjcDoWBpUNf_3tzoq7Xg1ATJOynm6GTYwekBMtoELB-vBty0ndD4/s1600/IMG_20161013_095956_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhNRTM77t5odP2QePTCTwdhhr_9QXjIExa16Gr9WW0yWxEpq79TMUDBpv3QvSqK5RJn-eqietN33OCVS8Qjl4_apGmjcDoWBpUNf_3tzoq7Xg1ATJOynm6GTYwekBMtoELB-vBty0ndD4/s400/IMG_20161013_095956_HDR.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">sannidhi street housing shops for traditional arts, crafts and weaves and on this lane lies oneof the famous Bharatnatyam dress needs shop which has dance customers from all over the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEircw9Osr-XbCVrxhg2yHPWj9xjXDKTsWYih_NscRJGFkOt6WSzv9rc7UpHnJrSRR4hz2nm5MI-JawTiDh_mCtlqZC9dsbw8_oSoAKc511gAAQBonIsldYrx78TjZv3kt9bOCItbKXzjdM/s1600/IMG_20161013_103156_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEircw9Osr-XbCVrxhg2yHPWj9xjXDKTsWYih_NscRJGFkOt6WSzv9rc7UpHnJrSRR4hz2nm5MI-JawTiDh_mCtlqZC9dsbw8_oSoAKc511gAAQBonIsldYrx78TjZv3kt9bOCItbKXzjdM/s400/IMG_20161013_103156_HDR.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Gopura darisanam kodi punyam goes a tamil saying..meaning seeing a temple tower is equal to a crore good deeds. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Ol5oNRRW_ZP1bEiby-YYLwFGVXTyXZgPG5HJ01nktQ6R3Ed7kscLq6mZEZRPfbZUc-DVPkLEY28PZ024fzZm3tqh3f3r2MXaxJCekUTEkw4t_3om3Qx5GbQGnTdxGthqKN0S7CsMZhg/s1600/IMG_20161013_102835_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Ol5oNRRW_ZP1bEiby-YYLwFGVXTyXZgPG5HJ01nktQ6R3Ed7kscLq6mZEZRPfbZUc-DVPkLEY28PZ024fzZm3tqh3f3r2MXaxJCekUTEkw4t_3om3Qx5GbQGnTdxGthqKN0S7CsMZhg/s400/IMG_20161013_102835_HDR.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> The ganesh temple as you enter kapali kovil</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix84r8kvCg6vT07V706i5ZFEBmam2bAqyOrgYQ8LYVLUSCTDmOk5ZbuUiIg21gB6siiXRO6-2CBWUQTd6CntYa2eQu-IH4BWdKwrLuWcVqw0DtRsG3cuGqfU410BUYoDWMb6wHrQM1PsI/s1600/IMG_20161013_101833_BURST9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix84r8kvCg6vT07V706i5ZFEBmam2bAqyOrgYQ8LYVLUSCTDmOk5ZbuUiIg21gB6siiXRO6-2CBWUQTd6CntYa2eQu-IH4BWdKwrLuWcVqw0DtRsG3cuGqfU410BUYoDWMb6wHrQM1PsI/s400/IMG_20161013_101833_BURST9.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Many childhood memories buried underneath the flooring of that pandal and that Rasi silks and Giri trading our regular shops..</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEeZjTGD8vpEbIiGMnBTSsFXzpwg-6K3_S7YGWNcgvw4F5_mJZG_hdwxjp7DoxkStDnAdtUnMF8SLQnaki73D__TBi6tN5R6bGtf1zhGNeSLLb8OX5TP7Ny_i97EeUaNm7d7pKaBT0XYk/s1600/IMG_20161013_113533_BURST10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEeZjTGD8vpEbIiGMnBTSsFXzpwg-6K3_S7YGWNcgvw4F5_mJZG_hdwxjp7DoxkStDnAdtUnMF8SLQnaki73D__TBi6tN5R6bGtf1zhGNeSLLb8OX5TP7Ny_i97EeUaNm7d7pKaBT0XYk/s400/IMG_20161013_113533_BURST10.jpg" width="300" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> The flower shops enroute which doubles as free chappal depositary for mami and always the florist would ask mami "Nalla irukkenga akka?" ( are you fine, sister?)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> The make shift clay dolls sold during navaratri on the mada streets( the 4 streets around the temple)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Straight and left would take to my mom's school the famous "Lady sivasami aiyar girls high school", kalathi news paper mart famous for rose milk and which has appeared in many travel shows, karpagambal mess, mami kadai...all famous old time shops and mess on this street.</span></div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-4586799853700453172016-11-01T03:47:00.002-07:002016-11-01T03:47:35.147-07:00The journey in pictures......<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">From Karaikudi to Thanjavur to Tiruvaiyaru to Trichy to Chennai....the trip was mostly another temple trail and this time although we visited unique temples again, they were our regular temples except one. The temple visits were more of prayers of gratitude to acknowledge the positives in our life and for the strength, grace and power of god behind every negative or challenge we faced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Prayers of gratitude, I cannot express here but the sceneries of country side during the journey were also of spiritual solace, tried to click a few from a running vehicle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">While most of the journey was thorough NH( excellent toll roads), SH were bumpy, "Under repair", "Men at work" roads, and since it was in the night, the headlights of oncoming vehicles were blinding and slightly dangerous if one is not alert.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> But the journey from Tiruvaiyaru to Trichy on Village roads were a sensory feast. We travelled on narrow roads flanked with channels of Cauvery and Coleroon( kollidam) and there were many more little rivulets like kodamurutti ( Tiruvaiyaru means land of 5 rivers all tributaries of Cauvery)...although not in full glory, it was lovely to see water in the rivers and at Grand anicut.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Little shrines on the river banks, irrigated lands,lotus and lily laden ponds, traditional thinnai homes, dung plastered huts, coconuts dried on the road ( for making copra and oil), daily village scenes.... It was very humbling to see such simple life with less comforts compared to the city life we lead. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What lovely sights all along!! </span><br />
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-46738199973597480392016-10-31T01:30:00.001-07:002016-10-31T01:43:15.473-07:00The antique market of Karaikudi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Huge and bulky wooden doorways, Solid wooden pillars with chiselled bases, stone pillars with wooden carved bases, Burmese Teak pigeon holed almirahs with safe, Japanese tiled wooden seaters, wooden swings, easy chairs, brass kitchen utensils, imported porcelain cook ware of yore, silver ware, old Tanjore and Ravi varma paintings, sepia toned family photos, Japanese tiles, door knobs, Belgium mirrors and so many more from small horlicks bottle to major items like printing machine , which adorned the Chettinad homes many years ago find their way to the antique market of Karaikudi, making itone of the largest antique market of the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Unable to maintain the rich mansions, the inheritors of many such mansions sell their property and their heirlooms to antique dealers which find their way to a non-descript dingy lane which anybody could easily dismiss on first sight. Yes, there are no boards or indicators to this market which is right behind the famous Muniswaran koil of Karaikudi. We did have a tough time locating this place although it was just 2 kms from our place of stay. But, it really baffles me how foreigners sense such places and buy such valued objects. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The best direction to this market that a policeman gave was the " oorani" and I inspite of being a tamilian did not know what a Oorani was. Oorani is the other name for water tank (pond). Oorani again is a beautiful example of town planning for this place many years ago. Since this land is arid, the chettiyars have designed tanks to harvest rains. Such high thinking, designing and planning at times when globalwarming or other fancy term like sustainability was unheard of!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Finally, we did locate the market and again i will let a few pictures speak. Some of the items like the huge burmese work table with pigeon holes to place envelopes, letters and other work related things reminded me of my Thatha's work table. It still adorns my mama's home. The wooden almirah with japanese tile is with my cousin. The oonjal (swing) is at my mom's place. Furnitures that are so earthy, warm so welcoming and soulful that it can remind us of our paati thatha's home. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In this whole trip, i did'nt manage much decent pictures as i was more in awe and soaking the ambience, these pictures below don't do justice, they are just like the tip of an iceberg.</span><br />
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An old phone, One of the furntiture dealer took us to his warehouse some 2kms away from this market, they have much more stored in warehouses.<br />
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brass antiques, old paintings of Tanjore and Ravivarma<br />
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A printing machine<br />
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-2881073463372994022016-10-27T03:34:00.002-07:002016-10-27T03:48:28.011-07:00 The handcrafted Athangudi tiles<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Athangudi tiles are handcrafted tiles with earthy base colors. They come in exquisite designs and are the highlight of chettinad culture. These tiles are one of a kind and are named after this small village Athangudi where they are made. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Made on a square of glass as base( which is removed later), with colored oxide solution, these tiles are a work of art. It had been on my bucket list in recent times, ever since i saw a video on social media talking about the crafts extinction due to its low production and high pricing (40 rs/ tile when bought in bulk) compared to the tiles that were mass produced. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> So, My next stop after the Athangudi mansion was the cottage industry where these tiles were made.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After a brief stop over at the carpenters antique warehouse, we drove on the same lane to Ganapathy tile house which was recommended by a person near the mansion. It was noon by now and the sun was scorching over head. when we entered into Ganpathy tile cottage industry. On one side was the asbestos sheeted storehouse of tiles & office and the other side was the tile making workshop with its raw materials stored. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />The moment we were close to the workshop, we were welcomed by a smiling couple. Without any prompting or asking for, he started demonstrating the making of tile,one design after the other and patiently answered all our questions. He even asked my daughter and son to make a tile. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> The dexterity and agility with which his hands moved showed his expertise in the craft. That was Muthuraman who has been involved in the making for more than 35 years. Having started as a helper, between him and his wife, they churn out 200 tiles per day all handcrafted with no machines whatsoever involved. When asked if working with bare hands on materials like Cement and oxides did not affect his hands , he said during rainy season they do get blisters but they go on with their work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A few years back this was a dying industry but now Muthuraman tells there are more than 120 tile making units in Athangudi now and there is more demand for this tiles than before. They even export these to foreign countries now. A stack of packaged tiles were stored in the godown to be shipped to Iran.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">These tiles are durable and it gains more sheen with passage of time and maintenance is also low in that, all one needs is to rub the floor maybe couple of times in a year with coconut oil. Muthuraman suggested tying coconut gratings in a muslin cloth and rubbing over the tiles. More about the tiles through the pictures and video</span></div>
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The raw materials used cement<br />
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The raw materials used in the making Cement, sand and the solution of red oxide, blue oxide etc.,. These solutions are a mixture of the colored oxides, kola maavu( rangoli powder), white cement and water The base colors are 6, the above 4 colors, green and black. And from these 6 colors another 6 colors are built. So totally athangudi tiles can have 12 colors.</div>
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The tools are designed metal stencils, frames and a glass sheet of tile size<br />
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Muthuraman at work</div>
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The tiles curing in water for 8-10 days with the glass, after which the glass finally slips out leaving the glossy tile alone. These tiles are not baked so do not require any fire, power or fuel. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The cured tiles are then laid out in a room over a layer of husk where the husk absorbs the moisture and the tiles shine when the husk releases its oil.<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">Each of them have a name based on the design or where it is much in demand. for instance the above black and white is called Lanka and a blue tile with white pattern in corner is called "Bangalore" since it is more in demand in Bangalore.</span></span></div>
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Below a video of the Athangudi tile making.</div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-25152332906306420812016-10-25T02:48:00.001-07:002016-10-25T04:22:05.128-07:00The magnificient and rich Athangudi mansion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After bypassing interesting indicators like Chettinad mansion, Visalam ( mansions converted into boutique hotels) we were on our way to Athangudi to see the making of Athangudi tiles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We got into the lane that had many boards of Athangudi tile making....we drove past them not knowing which one to stop by....but finally the husband's eyes fell on an antique wood shop selling furniture. When we entered the bylane to enquire about the furniture display, the person said it will take a while for the person to come and we could go around the "Athangudi periya veedu" ( Big Mansion) meanwhile pointing to a house exactly to whose side we stood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The entrance was on the main road. Till then I did'nt realize we crossed past a mansion called 'Periya veedu' of Athangudi...yes, the exteriors of the building looked so worn out and the elevation was like any other house that I saw in the region . I did'nt realize that it is the celebrated Athangudi mansion which has acted in many Bollywood and Kollywood movies. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We then paid an entry fee of 50 per head to the house keeper and when once past the steps of the entrance, the magnificience and splendour unfolded door after door. After a tour of the house, I came out with neck pain and jaw pain....yes folks, such a beautiful mansion, so well maintained interiors with lovely ceilings and artistic walls that I was open mouthed through out and craning my neck to see the high ceilinged mansion. My co-visitors at the place were foreigners who were all along looking awestruck too...at every place, they said "beautiful" and clicked pictures even of the "attukal" and " ammikal" ( traditional stone grinders) in the kitchen side. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Athangudi mansion like the rest of the 11,000 mansions in this region was built with materials sourced from South east Asia and other european countries where the chettiars went for occupation. The house is built with Italian marbles, Japanese tiles, Belgium mirrors, Burma teak columns and ceilings and the walls which were built in 1929 have remain untouched ( not even painted). The buildings are built with native architectural science and vastu shastra which is more about allowing light and air inside the house. The walls were built with bricks and lime stone mixture ( santhu kalavai) This mixture is made of limestone powder, kadukkai podi ( gall nut or haritiki in hindi), egg's white ( such satin finish on the walls). and karupatti ( palm jaggery) and a little padaneer( unfermented palm tree sap), Such constructions provide strength and longevity to the building and these mansions are testimony to that. Here i must also mention that i had written long back how my husband's grandparents home in Lalgudi was also built with such mixture on walls. Instead of egg shells, sea shells were used for the sheen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Rest, I will leave unworded...this will be a photo post from here on,I am not even collaging the pictures, it will rob the beauty of the place and would prefer if you clicked on the pics to feel the grandeur. I have sequenced it the way i saw the house from entrance to exit</span><br />
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The main entrance door from the narrow road</div>
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The lobby between the path leading from entrance to the steps of thinnai called "Mogappu"<br />
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The long thinnai (seating area) on either sides ( left and right below</div>
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The man who built the house in 1929...such a simple man but such grand taste<br />
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The belgium mirror and japanese tile encrusted Burma teak door leads to the huge living room below</div>
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The wooden engraved ceiling above and the Italian tiled chess board patterned flooring below. The gold enamel paint over the wood has never been retouched and the gloss and sheen is of the original paint.<br />
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From this room the below door leads to another huge hall</div>
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around which rooms are built and the high ceiling is roof to the second floor too</div>
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these pillared corridors on first floor have succh beautiful ceilings where japanese tiles are framed</div>
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and the windows have beautiful paintings from Indian mythology</div>
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The engraved details on the pillars holding the ceiling<br />
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a close up of the japanese tiles<br />
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and the above room leads to a place with open courtyard around which again more rooms are built..Apart from sunlight and air, when it rains, the place is designed for harvesting water</div>
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one of the passage from the above room leads to this huge dining hall...notice the famous chettinad stained glass windows below and don't miss the gloss of the walls due to egg whites.<br />
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One of my favorites in this mansion is the native wooden rafter roofing of the dining hall. The slats sit snugly on the rafter grooves like a jigsaw puzzle. The symmetry, design and precision ...what amazing native architectural skill!!</div>
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A side door from the dining hall leads to an open path way which has a corridor like below<br />
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The grinding stones are placed to the left side while the right side is the kitchen...<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> As I exit, i realized the house extends even beyond the car on the right side..the servant quarter etc. Glad i saw this house because the rest of the celebrated mansions like Kanadakuthan mansion requires permission from the owner mutthiah chettiar, the chettinad mansion has been converted into a boutique hotel and the Karaikudi mansion ( aayiram jannal veedu" has occupantsand so we have no free access.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The caretaker of this mansion said, this house now belongs to four families and they are now scattered all around and they come here for weddings and other functions. Most of the rooms are locked and the house is maintained with the entrance fee collected. It indeed is an white elephant to maintain such property.</span></div>
Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-76344933444968245852016-10-22T06:51:00.001-07:002016-11-03T00:31:19.826-07:00A mini temple trail around Karaikudi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDfhUkbPetYnMw8OTfGt5xmQpfnAzblq8uDc7vpfu1L7ZLHteuxLtbVBVcq2IC864aN833jjpjAP2-wH89PetLiI88fIgjX5EMvCCHsMlSgTmh_cSm5eoalpIIP_EBkzhXl0adWu8wko/s1600/IMG_20161011_091026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDfhUkbPetYnMw8OTfGt5xmQpfnAzblq8uDc7vpfu1L7ZLHteuxLtbVBVcq2IC864aN833jjpjAP2-wH89PetLiI88fIgjX5EMvCCHsMlSgTmh_cSm5eoalpIIP_EBkzhXl0adWu8wko/s640/IMG_20161011_091026.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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view from the road</div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">view from temple side</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> above the entrance at the path leading to the main sanctum...could'nt catch the full view because of the asbestos sheet over head</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">12 kms from our hotel on dusty roads through villages led us to Pillayarpatti....a Ganesh temple which had been on my wishlist for more than 10 years...and I have been just 90 kms away from this temple during my past many visits to our grand parents place at Trichy but never got an opportunity to visit this temple. This time it was not even on our itinerary when we started off from our place...well...like they say "You will get there only when you are meant too and not one moment sooner..."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When our car cruised from the main road into a bylane with temple arch, we were flanked by small shops selling pooja items, tiny souvenirs...what opened at the end of the road was a beautiful view of two temple towers and in the forefront was a clean temple tank fringed with coconut trees with the typical horizontal white and clay red painting....it made a divine sight and was an indicator that this temple was well maintained and I could already feel the energy of the place. As we parked and walked to the main temple sanctum....we saw a few people selling arugam pul ( grass) and paneer roja malai ( scented rose garlands) but the best part was nobody forced it on us like in many temples.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once inside the temple when i queued up behind the devotees for my turn in the high ceilinged granite hall, I was totally awe struck when I looked up. Absolutely wonderful and colorful( technicolor...not earthy colors at all) mandalas and paintings from mythology adorned the ceiling. I was gaping for a long time at the artistic ceiling as the sanctum was crowded. Here is where I saw the crowd in this region that too numbering may be around 50. And when my turn to see the mammoth idol of the Lord came....this was again the only temple so far where I heard the priest say "Niruthhi, nidanama parungo"( Stop, stay a while and see)....Absolutely divine sight under the golden glow from the oil lit tamps ( no electric lights in sanctum) which my eyes still behold, what I felt as I stood there for more than 2 minutes is indescribable. The fragrance of the roja malai, the glow diffusing from oil lamps, the aroma of the vibhuti(sacred ash), the arugum pul malai ( garland made from grass) with all these, I could feel the absorption of the enshrined energies. No wonder, they call ancient temples as energy centers and this temple built according to agama shastra (temple architecture) authenticated that theory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Again all around the temple,there are mini sanctums like in many shiva temples and huge framed photos from Mythology adorn the main walls. The temple like I said so well maintained by the nagarathar trust is one of the 9 temples managed in this region and this is a very ancient rock cut temple dating back to <span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;">1091 and 1238. More about the<a href="http://www.pillaiyarpattitemple.com/history.html"> temple history here</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We drove out of the temple after buying the famous pillyarpatti pillayar from one of the many shops . </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our next stop was the Lakshmi kuberar koil just 2kms away.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Lakshmi Kuberar temple</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Throught out the route, we saw many famous temple indicators like vairavan kovil, thamizhthai kovil, Ariyakudi etc...but it was'nt possible to go to every temple due to time constraint. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Kuberar kovil fell on our way to Kunrakudi on the main road...and this was my first visit to Kuberar kovil...never been or heard of a kovil for Kubera( God of wealth). So, when the husband's co-driver my daughter negotiated on the muddy track ( no road) to reach a white building called Lakshmi Kuberar Kovil, i was surprised for it's gopuram in no way looked like the regular temple gopuram and this temple is just 2 year old.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A white building like exterior and the entrance was flanked by two shops selling all knick knacks related to wealth like the happy man kubera and other feng shui type items. The temple was very unique in that it had two levels. Onthe ground level was a lotus structure in the sanctum which the priest said was the peetam and one had to climb stairs to reach the level above the lotus structure. Where Lord Kubera's idol was consecrated and above the idol of Kubera on the wall was the idol of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Another unique feature was the kubera vibhuti(sacred ash) which was green in color.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The temple also had a mini pond like a well in the ground level where coins were thrown. Again a well maintained temple where a few antique bharnis were sold (clay pickle jars).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After seeking Kubera's blessings, we now drove towards Kunrakudi which was just 2 kms away. While negotiating the muddy track to reach the main road, we saw a snake slithering across the road in front of our car. The daughter who was driving immediately wanted to know from her paati (grand mom) sitting in the rear seat, if it had any significance like a black cat crossing the road and the mil who does'nt believe such superstitions jokingly said " No, drive ahead, it is an invitation from Lord Murugan to visit his abode"(Lord Murugan's vehicle is a peacock which clutches a snake in its claw)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Kunrakudi - The abode of Murugan with his consorts valli and Devasena is another 1000 year old temple situated on a 30 metre hillock with more or less 100 steps to reach the abode.The name Kunrakudi itself in tamil means a hill colony. Built by Maruda pandi, a king who ruled this area. When he was suffering from an ailment,the vibhuti prasadam from this temple is said to have cured him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When we reached the foot hills, we had a tough time escaping from the mendicants who were dressed in orange. After passing through the soda and pooja offerings shop which doubled as shoe depository, we were greeted by the temple elephant which was trained to bless with its trunk on our head when we offer a coin. We then climbed the 100 odd steps which were carved out of the hill and reached the top where a divine sight of the 6 headed Lord( Arumugam) with his consorts beckoned to bless us. Yet another moment which sent us into a trance and yes the vision of the lord under the glowing diyas is embedded in my mind. The granite pillars and the ceiling had such a cooling effect even in that hot weather and the breeze from the windows drew me to them. The view from there was rustic and had a oldworld charm . I could see red tiled roofs and old little houses from there and dried vegetation reminding of hay. It instantly reminded me of an aerial picture my husband clicked in the Italian town of Pisa. There is so much of unsung beauty in our countryside which can make beautiful picture postcards.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Forgot to click pictures here but enjoyed the beautiful views from the top and we walked down the steps only to run into an orange robed mendicant who call themselves as siddhars or andis ( don't know what they are called) and start asking for alms after forcefully predicting a few things about us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That was the mini temple trail around Karaikudi which we completed by 11a.m in the morning......so many ancient temples to see in this region... God willing, maybe another visit will help complete.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our next stop was Athangudi, famous for handcrafted tiles.</span></div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-74229249521580131992016-10-18T03:41:00.001-07:002016-10-18T03:53:29.987-07:00Chettinad - a hidden jewel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span data-reactid=".9ujny46ccg.0.0.0.0.3.2.$0.$1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">If one is not from the south of Vindhyas, you have to constantly remind yourself that there are more things associated with Chettinad than the world famous delectable chettinad cuisine. </span><br />
<span data-reactid=".9ujny46ccg.0.0.0.0.3.2.$0.$1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">To start with chettinad is famous for its architecturally magnificient mansions, Ancient temples, burma teak furnitures, traditional bronze/brass vessels, the chettinad tiles, Kottanz( reed baskets), kandangi sarees( handloom), their financial and business acumen and above all their hospitality and simplicity.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">All these are what made me add the chettinad region to my bucket list. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Chettinad region which is a cluster of nearlly 72 villages is lesser known and not popular on tourist circuit compared to its 2 famous neighbouring temple towns of Trichy and Madurai but i discovered there is so much to see and do and experience in this region.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Like I mentioned in the previous post, we reached the hotel in karaikudi in a residential area @ 8 in the evening. The whole town enroute to the hotel and around resembled like a ghost town although we were close to the new bus stand. I thought being late in the evening and a holiday due to ayudha puja the town was calm . But, even the next morning when we drove the countryside to reach Pillayarpattti i realized that this is the nature of the region.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> Yes, the relaxed life (but certainly not laid back or lazy) of this region inspite of the closeness to all the activity of the town is unique. Not much greenery and very dry, arid and hot even in October, There are treasures all around in the villages for city souls as the place is time warped. We saw no traffic at any point not even in bus stand or the narrow dusty lanes, we met civilized, helpful and well dressed people in traditional attire of vellai veshti and vellai sattai ( sparkling white shirt and white dhoti) even in hotels and public places like shops,.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> The whole journey through the little villages where at every 2 km we found interesting indicators like Visalam, Chettinad mansion,( heritage homes), Kuberar kovil, Athangudi, kanadukuthan. etc... we saw interesting sights like houses of interest big and small showing signs of decay here and there. Most medium sized houses had 3d murals of Gods like gaja lakshmi, krishna, Ganesha etc above the wooden awnings and the bamboo grilled facades covering the thinnai were held on the walls that had the traditional temple wall painting of horizontal white alternating with Clay red. Although the mildew on most houses lent an aura, the crumbling houses, broken bamboo meshes,the chipping walls and the locks indicated that most homes were vacant for long time. The passing scenes would have made beautiful pictures for posterity and my new mobile had a DSLR quality but unfortunately could not jget out of the vehicle and dash to capture the passing moments.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">The quaint charming sights and the relaxed pace of life that the whole region threw all along could make one think that life here is frozen back in time.......It was a time travel in this region. Wonder why, this is not on tourism circuit?</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">That said , sometimes i wish it remains unknown only then can it hold on to its charm.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> Glad that this cluster of villages called Chettinad is nominated for world heritage list. Hope UNESCO declares soon, It deserves the tag . </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "circular" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">The pictures below don't do justice but still managed to capture a few from moving vehicle and hence may not be in frame.</span></span><br />
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The mural figurines adorning most homes big and small</div>
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Ghost town??!!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9RDV327s2s7i3vkqZQhkJrg8V_yuZRHmW6XOEkvhUQ8K5ZULmiywcSYc7nUtyzzapWeIUtE39ktqAMcTsY1vTfRz0MfVQl34gmGEYtriFhyphenhyphenKrrsUosEv2pZfoKaHTYcG-MoTRcJCSGQ/s1600/IMG_20161011_115923_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9RDV327s2s7i3vkqZQhkJrg8V_yuZRHmW6XOEkvhUQ8K5ZULmiywcSYc7nUtyzzapWeIUtE39ktqAMcTsY1vTfRz0MfVQl34gmGEYtriFhyphenhyphenKrrsUosEv2pZfoKaHTYcG-MoTRcJCSGQ/s400/IMG_20161011_115923_HDR.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The traditional festoons made of coconut glade that adorned almost at all places for Ayudha pooja</div>
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mil dewed walls and sloping tiled roofs<br />
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Most homes have such carved balustrades<br />
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-66560340058358939772016-10-17T02:16:00.000-07:002016-10-17T02:19:56.622-07:00Another bucket list travel:)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Another vacation overlap and this time we decided to make it an annual visit to our family deity temple near Trichy. But like the saying goes " Man proposes, god disposes"....we could'nt make it to our deity temple as it is open only on Mondays and Fridays. Instead, we reversed our travel itinerary and set out to check off some things from our "to do" list.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So on saraswati puja day, from chennai after brunch we started off to Karaikudi on NH 45. After a couple of tea breaks and a stop over at the husband's alma mater near Trichy, we reached Karaikudi at 8.30 completing the journey in 8 hours. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The next day morning began with an auspicious start to Pillayarpatti, the abode of Karpaga vinayagar( Lord Ganesh ) and then there was no hindrance or looking back on the travel....everything went as we had proposed and we went ticking off pillayarpatti, Athangudi mansion, Athangudi tile making process and we even managed to see some places which were not on our itinerary and the tick off continued to the last day of my travel back to my city.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Here are a few pictures, although I must confess I was not comfortable handling the features of my new phone and so could not click pictures at many places where I wanted to.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9F9GBymRc0wuCK3vjQrOrbrRvF8DKeY2ZXT6Rz583Gm8irCva4-npUZTeuBzC18TZ66sD0fyB1DTnyEdtYbtXBsUyDhH0qkLw6WNNuaBqG_Cu1eJvV0ERj8AahZMVgVjr7Offnv6n5mU/s1600/IMG_20161010_161108_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9F9GBymRc0wuCK3vjQrOrbrRvF8DKeY2ZXT6Rz583Gm8irCva4-npUZTeuBzC18TZ66sD0fyB1DTnyEdtYbtXBsUyDhH0qkLw6WNNuaBqG_Cu1eJvV0ERj8AahZMVgVjr7Offnv6n5mU/s400/IMG_20161010_161108_HDR.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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A very smooth drive on NH 45</div>
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Pillayarpatti karpaga Vinayakar temple pond</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNzbXUdOQF5tThTjgflfkgXsRQE_In1IqMTiDO7U_BGkWG1850bTQM1-n0ZDsrYWtxA4YOttNdxPvwgpGZwNOJeUTE02IitESOj-2zkZyRVl9ug_9ojrULW8cxgU2hdIR87rphmvQknts/s1600/IMG_20161011_111239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNzbXUdOQF5tThTjgflfkgXsRQE_In1IqMTiDO7U_BGkWG1850bTQM1-n0ZDsrYWtxA4YOttNdxPvwgpGZwNOJeUTE02IitESOj-2zkZyRVl9ug_9ojrULW8cxgU2hdIR87rphmvQknts/s400/IMG_20161011_111239.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
The wooden ceiling at Athangudi mansion<br />
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The hand crafted athangudi tile in the making....one of its kind in the world.<br />
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Will record the important travel detail after putting things in order of priority.</div>
Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-85463050501547213442016-09-23T04:24:00.001-07:002016-09-23T04:41:52.887-07:00 Some Life lessons from my students<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I volunteer as an English teacher at a Government school once a week through an NGO. My mode of teaching conversational English and life skills is through Story telling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There are nearly 40 children in class with a few absentees often. Some children are absent because their parents have taken them to work as house helps, or masons etc. Some children come from an orphanage to study. In general, most children come from household which lives on daily wages and can't financially support their living, leave alone education. And in rare cases, you will find a teacher's daughter too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I arrive at this school on a Thursday and interact with them from 10.45 to 12.15. A story later which is generally a history story for higher classes emphasizing on life skills while it is a story with repetative lines for lower classes, we play games or plan exercises. The schedule is never monotonous or no heavy syllabi like grammar.While i teach them life skills, i end up learning many life lessons myself. There was always something new I learned and made some interesting observations about these children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One interesting observation about these kids that I found was how happy and joyous they are with less materials. They do not necessarily have the things we take for granted like parenting, materials like books, pens , technology like wifi, mobiles or for that matter even good food or clothes. Despite the lack of all resources, I could see that these children are intelligent, imaginative and appreciative of what we had to offer and very eager to learn what we teach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Everytime, I finish my storytelling session, I encourage the students to open up and step out of their comfort zones and ask them to volunteer to retell and each time i see a student retelling and adding a few words of his own and framing his own imagination inspite of the fact that they have less exposure. To see so much of enthusiasm in them to absorb, infuses me with energy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> After the inter-active story session when I walk out of the class, some times, I see a few boys dragging a huge drum of cooked rice down the slope to a small room which acts as a serving room. The rest of the kids joyfully run behind them with their steel plates. The kids are so joyous to eat the steaming hot food with just a ladle of sambar. No pizza, pasta or no elaborate indian meal. They look so contented . While i enjoy watching their joyous faces when feeding themselves, I am interrupted by one of their teachers who said, most kids enjoy their mid-day meal here cause when they go back home not sure if their parents can afford them another plate. So many stories, so many observations...... whenever a donor gives them books, pens etc..One can't miss the gleam in their eyes, even a person who is not an expert in reading body language would notice the joy in those eyes, I always end up with a prayer of gratitude to god on my way back home. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I could realize from Mary of Class 8, an orphan who is extremely intelligent , that some of them live in the moment and utilize everything that comes their way to its greatest extent. What dangerous lives they live!...Mary was almost kidnapped a few weeks back outside her school said her teacher.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Everytime, I get a handshake from the student or they run behind me for my signature, it fills me with so much of happiness and joy. As a volunteer, I am glad I help realize their dream and shape up the hero within them even if I can play just a miniscule part or make a small difference in few lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Thank you God for this opportunity!</span><br />
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<br /><br />This post written for Living in Gratitude#WorldGratitudeday<br /> Volunteering and Small gestures of kindness to give back or pay it forward for <a href="http://writetribe.com/">Writetribe</a></div>
Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-988417003408914072016-09-17T05:13:00.001-07:002016-09-19T23:11:15.190-07:00Kaani Nilam vendum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have grown up listening to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subramania_Bharati">Mahakavi Subramani Bharati's </a> songs, Thanks to my mom who was a fan of his compositions and played his kuyil pattu( cuckoo song) melodiusly on the veena. My mom would play "kaani nilam vendum" especially, a song in which the poet asks the supreme power ( God) to bless him with an ideal home in exchange for his verses. This is one of my favorite song too.<br /><br />The Ideal home he describes in the song is something i dream to have....a small independent home on a piece of land surrounded with greenery...only to that i would add my dream home would be a simple sustainable environment friendly home.<br /><br />A home that would completely be off the grid for energy, harvests rain water for its daily needs, an organic kitchen garden and is built with native wisdom and sustainable and recycled materials and has a feel of the past.<br /><br />And I did come across such a beautiful new home right in the heart of Jayanagar recently at Bangalore and had a chance to stay there a night, where i felt i time travelled and lived in a home of the past.<br /><br />The rusty earthy red oxide flooring, yellow oxide and black oxide in other, The athangudi handcrafted tiles, the wooden stair case, the rough granite seater ( sopanakallu), the central courtyard (nadu mittam) which has a skylight from where rain , breeze and sunshine filters into the home, the pin mittam ( back yard) with an oonjal (wooden swing and mural...all these and more evoked a sense of familiar native warmth combined with a fine sense of design aesthetics.<br /><br />The house showed signs of saving materials everywhere, the main door and all the doors, windows were restored and repurposed from old discards from Karaikudi. The bricks for the home were made at the site from the mud excavated and mud plastered ( along with some native gum). <br /><br />Overall a beautiful eco-friendly energy efficient green home.....just like my dream home, hopefully i will build and live someday. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Below are some of the pictures,</span></div>
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The elevation<br />
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the main door<br />
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way to guest bedroom across central courtyard<br />
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The sky lights over nadu mittam( below) around which the rooms are built<br />
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the w ooden staircase leading to master bedroom at one level and the sopanakallu 3 step stair leading to study and a bamboo stair in another room<br />
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The drawing room view from the study above note the mismatch in windows since they are restored discard windows no two are the same<br />
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Drawing room view and the louvered windows of master bedroom<br />
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a view of the entry to master room from study and a section of the skylight lighting.....enjoyed the warmth and glow of the sunshine in the morning with a cup of hot tea in the drawing room.<br />
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The well ventilated big open kitchen facing the drawing room and a side door leads to pin mittam where one can relax on a lovely wooden swing<br />
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Ssome reminders from paati's kitchen<br />
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how many remember this switch board?<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This post written for the prompt "</span><em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Sorts Mill Goudy", sans-serif;">Use the lyrics of your favourite song as the basis of a short story or a post" <a href="http://writetribe.com/focus-rituals-from-leo-babuta/">#</a></em><span style="font-family: "sorts mill goudy" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;"><a href="http://writetribe.com/focus-rituals-from-leo-babuta/"><span style="font-size: small;">Friday </span>Reflections</a></span></span> @ <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://writetribe.com/">Write tribe</a> and</b> the lyrics of my favorite song which is the basis for this post is the tamil song Kani nilam vendum </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: teal; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">I need one kaani (1.32 acres) land, Oh supreme power!, I need one kaani land! </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: teal; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">In its midst, with pillars and multiple storeys in pure and pristine colors,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: teal; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">you should build me a palace (home) in it,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: teal; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">In there should be a well, near which should be placed coconut tree leaves and tender coconuts,</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: teal; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Around ten to twelve coconut trees should be near,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: teal; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">there should be moonlight like the lustre of a flawless pearl,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: teal; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">the melodious music from cuckoos chirping should subtly touch my ears,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: teal; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">amidst all this, as my soul(intellect) rejoices, the soothing breeze should flow!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: teal; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">As my song mingles with the breeze, at that magical moment, I want a chaste woman by my side,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">As we are joyous, poetic verses should start flowing freely,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In this land, amidst the forest, Oh Supreme power! You should stand guard and protect us!</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In return, with the prowess of my poems, you may grace (or save) this world!</span></span><br />
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-37829426831668872932016-08-10T02:52:00.000-07:002016-08-10T02:54:12.023-07:00My first art teacher.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When she was just 2, I would turn the plain calendar backs and the white cardboard shirt supports ( that came with new shirts) into canvas for her. I would write the alphabets in double strokes and hang an apple at the end of the stroke and a ball for B etc...The space between the double strokes would then be colored by the 2 year old with crayons. I would hold her hand and help her to color within the space and the objects.. Together we would go to Comfort ( our library) and get Magicpot( a kids activity book from Manorama group) in the evenings. We would connect the dots to from luttappi( a magic pot cartoon), I never believed in conventional teaching and so tried various methods and activities to keep her hooked. An activity she enjoyed doing and longed for more. Even at the age of 2, she had such good control over hand movements.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Time flies and she is a testimony to that....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">17 years later........roles were reversed:) ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">2 weeks back,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She held my hand and taught me to draw and paint on a canvas ..........my daughter....... my first art teacher. </span><br />
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-9357079556431065532016-08-02T07:08:00.002-07:002016-08-02T07:08:46.948-07:00So much to see, so much to do....... #Dreamtrails.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I enjoy reading about our culture, I am passionate about our art, craft and textiles, I am a foodie, I admire wildlife( flora and fauna), nature inspires me, I worship and consider it a great teacher. <br /><br />Culture, art, craft, textiles, food, nature….what can connect all these areas.? <br /><br /> Me thinks, if there is anything that can connect all these areas it is Travel and I heart travelling. <br /><br />Travel to me is not going to places where tourist brochure promotes. It is not just to knock of the routine but to me it is going out of my comfort zone, to expose myself to new people, places, traditions, learn, experience the food traditions, different cultures, get adventurous and appreciate things. So, travelling to places where art/craft are hand made, warp and weft are hand woven , culture is practiced, local food is cooked and nature is at its home is one of my dream.<br /><br />There are so many places that I like to leave my foot prints in India from Leh, Ladakh in the North to Kanyakumari in the south and Rann of kutch in Gujarat to Tawang in North east. <br /><br />These are some or a few listings from my #Dreamtrails.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Travel from <b>Manali to Leh</b> by road to soak the beauty of the Tibetian-Buddhist locale and enjoy the vistas thrown by the journey.. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Experience the feast of heavens @ Devbhoomi, <b>the himachal</b> and enjoy Mandi,Devprayag,Mcleodganj Spiti, chail and Khajjiar and ofcourse the famous Kulu, manali by land route. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Explore <b>Punjab </b>by tasting its fantastic cuisine and watching the change of guard at Wagah and get blessed at Golden Temple.visit to Ropar, Pathankot, Batinda etc...</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>@Uttaranchal,</b> visit the yoga capital of the world Rishikesh and get into stillness, meditate by the ganges, capture the surreal beauty of Ganga aarti , Haridwar and visit the surrounding Dehradun, Auli, chakradhar, mussorie etc and indulge in the exotic local cuisine and a visit to the exquisite textile cluster of Benaras. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>@ West Bengal </b>– a visit first to the famous Santi niketan and then to the sundarbans,Doars, Bishnupur, Murshidabad,Barrackpore, taste the rasmalai, sandesh, the famous rosagolla @ its own home and the famous street side puchkas. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>@ Rajasthan</b>- Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner, Ajmer , a visit the textile clusters of Sanganer, Bagru and Ajrakh and hoard home each of the ethnic craft like blue pottery as a souvenir. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>@Gujarat</b>- A visit to Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad, Porbandar, Somnath,Dwaraka, Rann of kutch and Bhuj, hoard home Bhuj crafts, watch the art of making bandani,bandhej, bokani , experience a slice of gujrati life living in lippan art homes, and head home with Gujrati farsan </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>@ Mahrashtra…</b>.travel down the konkan coast and soak in the beauty of the western ghats after winding down through amboli ghat into Karnataka.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>@Karnataka</b> – Visit to the beautiful malgudi homestay at Agumbe, awe at Gersoppa falls, experience the Sanskrit village of maddur, silk weaving of KSIC at T.Narsipura, Mysore, capture the beauty of sakleshpur, Kabini, Nagarhole, walk with awe around the ruins of Hampi, Badami, pattedakal </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>@Tamilnadu-</b> Explore the chettinad area, kannadukuthan palace, Aayiram jannal veedu, making of athangudi hand made tiles. Marvel at the architecture of the famous Meenakshi amman temple at Madurai, Chidambaram, Rameswaram, travel the pamban bridge, Dhanushkodi, kodiakkarai, visit the weaving cluster of Kanchipuram. watch the craft of making Thanjavur plates, sit down on the thinnai of a home for olai chuvadi (palm leaf reading) at Vaideeswaran koil, enjoy the gurukul at Kalakshetra, tip down to Kaniyakumari the southernmost point and then visit the nearby sucheendram, awe at The padmanabha palace, Thriparappu water falls, vattakottai fort and Udayagiri. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />So much to see, so much to do, so much to learn......<br /><br /><br />I know I missed mentioning many Indian states like <b>MP</b>( orchha and chitrakoot specially), <b>Andhra</b> ( Bhadrachalam, konaseema) <b>Maharashtra</b> (Mahabaleshwar, ratnagiri, Nasik vineyard tourism,the famous ellora, ajanta etc), <b>kerala</b>, <b>Telangana, orissa, Bihar,</b> <b>Jharkand, NE</b> <b>states, Goa, The indian islands</b> and their uniqueness….This is just a random list, will do a detailed post maybe when I realize my dreams...... with a first hand account…till then will live my dreams through such posts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A glimpse of my dream below....all images courtesy: google </span><br />
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Leh, Ladakh<br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">Khajjiar...India's switzerland in HP</span></div>
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Ganga aarti at Haridwar<br />
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Hriday Kunj, Sabarmati, gujarat<br />
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the telia rumal weaving in Andhra ( an almost extinct handloom which has now been revived)...a very complex procedure of weaving where the pre dyed yarn is dipped in oil and hence the name 'telia rumal'.<br />
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Onake Abbi falls, Agumbe in Karnataka<br />
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<span style="text-align: start;"> hand crafted Athangudi tiles of chettinad (tamilnadu)</span></div>
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the pomp and pageantry of Thrissur pooram in Kerala<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b> “I am blogging about my dreams and passions for the Club Mahindra <a href="http://blog.blogadda.com/2016/07/29/blog-club-mahindra-dream-trails-win-all-expenses-paid-trip">#DreamTrails </a>activity at <a href="http://www.blogadda.com/">Blogadda</a> You can get a <a href="https://clubmahindra.wordpress.com/club-mahindra-membership-fees/">Club Mahindra Membership</a> to own your holidays!”</b></span> </div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-14344273749395738002016-07-30T02:40:00.000-07:002016-07-30T02:40:45.591-07:00Photo albums- My cherished possession #CBF16<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sitting on the bed with the family around a spread of physical photo prints is such a wonderful feeling and fun opportunity to bond as a family. Holding a memory in print or running your finger over a captioned defining moment of your life gives me an amazing sense of satisfaction and is such a sensory treat.<br /><br />When my kids were still young, I photographed and even recorded with a camcorder their every firsts like their first roll, first crawl, first tumble, their first step, their first holding of the bottle, their mottai( tonsure), first birthday etc...while the recordings went into a VHS antifungal casette( which eventually got corrupted )..the photos were clicked with an analog Yashica and so the film roll got processed, developed into physical prints. All these photos were organized into photo albums with captions ....that is till i got a digital camera.<br /><br /><br />With digital camera and later phones, so many pictures are clicked daily from a simple chore like eating to sleeping and all gets easily deleted or uploaded depending on how it is composed.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #797979; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;">.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">Some stored pictures of my children have crashed with the hard disk of my old computer, some burnt in CD's have got corrupted , But thankfully what has endured all these years are my physical photo albums and i cherish and value them the most. They have so many incredible family memories and stories to tell. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />I enjoy making the photo albums and captioning them, an art i remember learning it from my mama( maternal uncle). He had a point and shoot camera called Hot shot, he would click us in them and we cousins enjoyed being in his frame. We could'nt wait till the photo was processed and brought from the studio in a cover, then we would sit beside him and help caption the photo. Infact, I looked forward to this activity when i went to his home in chennai and brought out all the photo albums of his sister and brother from the wooden almirah. The sepia toned photos of my grand parents, the black and white photos of my parents, uncle, aunts were neatly captioned as " mapillai vekkapadrar" ( the groom is feeling shy) " mamiyaar muraikirar" ( the mil is staring) etc. We would giggle and laugh at the funny captions.<br /><br />Photo albums occupy a place of pride in my home, in the shelf of the wall cabinet in our drawing room. Albums of wedding, birthdays, vacations and photos of other important events/ocassions like sports day, annual day have all been captured into camera moments and preserved in albums. I cherish and value them the most.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /><br />Flipping through the pages of old albums is one of our favorite family time activity and it is such a wonderful feeling. We pull out all those albums and scatter them on the beds and then each photo starts telling a story and then nostalgia unplugs when we relive the fun experiences of a trip, function or an important event. we giggle, we narrate, we talk about how things have changed and we never know when time bides by.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;">Do you have a cherished object? If yes, Would you care to tell or do you like me want to participate and tell here <a href="https://cherishedblogfest.wordpress.com/">Cherished blogfest</a></span></div>
Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666976084812162595.post-6474172007367871042016-07-23T03:24:00.000-07:002016-07-23T03:24:15.761-07:00Happiness is.......... making a piece of art/craft<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">There are ups and downs in our lives and in between them, we have periods of steady times which we often term as mundane or routine. The times that we call as routine are the times generally when we experience life, have fun, discover, create , make memories that help fill and store blog posts such as this:)..</span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">It was during one such routine afternoon, i tried my hand at quilling. My daughter who is on vacation at home was making a farewell hand made gift for her friend who is now selected into IIT. She was upcycling a few items for her friend and painting them. The quilling set was beside her and i tried my hand at that. I started off with one roll, then quilled another, then another.....it was so addictive. Finally, i decided to make something constructive and sat down to roll quills as prescribed in her quilling book and bingo...... this is what i made.I felt happy with what i had done. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Art and craft are something i dabbled with during school days, perhaps most children of my generation in the 70's and 80's and before had no other technology distraction except reading books, sports and crafts. Most of us indulged in these as hobbies. Then as we grew our studies, career and family took over putting the creative instincts on a back burner.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Now , I am bitten by the creative bug, the day i create something, may be paint, doodle or even put a kolam on a book. it makes me happy. I have not professionally learnt any art nor have I bought any art supplies so far except a ' 000' brush.Most of the paints, brushes art books I have used are the left overs of my son, dot and my niece or the backs of invitations or cardboard boxes. None of my work are perfect and have no master strokes or great finish. With all the imperfections, they look amateurish to even a lay person but i still dare to showcase my work for i am happy when i do them.( And i am not a perfectionist, i have two at home though in my husband and my dot)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Hopefully will join an art class next month when dot goes back after vacation and I will then try to learn the strokes better.</span></span><br />
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I enjoy folk and native art.<br />
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This is the back of the golden ( looks beige in pic) invitation which came from Indiblogger for Colgate "wake up to gold morning". I have doodled with a marker pen.<br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Today's inspiration :my first art indulgence that came through Amazon yesterday, A mini easel with canvas. I am very excited what to paint on these. Has to be something simple and striking. Any ideas folks??</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Post 5/5.</span></div>
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Ashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01853943313848326731noreply@blogger.com6