Contemplations and Ruminations

So last week me and a couple of friends, Shilpa and Anju , happened to stop by Villa Maya for lunch. This place was initially a house for the royal consorts of the Travancore king. The Travancore kingdom was strictly matrilineal, meaning the heirs of the king could not inherit the throne, the throne was passed on to the descendants of the king's sister... basically the royal female line could be traced through the history of the Travancore kingdom. So anyway, the kings used to have a number of wives and they all stayed at this beautiful antiquated house, that now functions as a posh restaurant. This is the nice old fashioned entrance... A lamp right in the courtyard...  The entrance to the restaurant... elephant fountains on either side, filling the air with soft sounds of water trickling... Decor outside, I like this display of old kitchen tools. These stone equipment's were used in the not so distant past to grind or powder rice and other grains.  This...

So I am in the church editorial committee and the book seen above is this month's issue of the magazine....  I wrote quite a few articles... May being the month of Mary, wrote the following article about her... Divinity of Mother Mary Many friends and cousins started joining this relatively new movement called AG, which stands for Assembly of God, where the service usually revolves around some pretty awesome praise and worship session (a full-fledged band, with a superb choir that induces people to sing along) with an hour of preaching. I’ve gone for a few of these services on Sunday with my cousins and I did have a nice time there. Apart from their indifference to Mary and the saints who according to them are just ordinary people, they believe pretty much everything we believe. Truth be said, a few of them have told me to change my church too, they have given me loads of reasons why their way is the right way and how I seem to be worshipping idols. I used to a...

So one fine day in October 2013, we decided to visit the C astle of Aigle , or Chateau d'Aigle as it is known in French. The train ride from Geneva to Aigle takes about an hour and a quarter, and our breakfast would usually be some fruits and flavoured yogurt. So there we would sit in the train, munching on grapes or bananas and marvelling at the landscape that passed by. Times like this, I really missed the slow chugging of our Indian trains... there were so many moments, where I just wanted to freeze time and somehow transport myself outside the train carriage to click pictures. Once the train doors slide shut, I don't think you can open them there, unless you are at a station. But in India, the train doors are always open and it's pretty easy to stand at the door and click pictures (Tonio keeps saying that, one of these days I might land up on the tracks if I keep taking pictures from moving trains... ). So anyway, a road trip or biking or plain backpacking is the bes...