Contemplations and Ruminations

(July 22nd 2020) So this happened two years ago during the long Republic Day weekend when the choir girls had decided to meet up in Madras. We were lunching in Pumpkin Tales on Republic day and Jen and Teenu who used to sit together in class were discussing their school days and how they were always upto no good… they were reminiscing about school and all the mischief they did. So anyway, we ate our food, sang a little birthday ditty for Jen (it was her birthday week) and then we went to a mall to hang out. So while we were trying on clothes, Jen takes a stole and she’s admiring it and since we were just talking about the shenanigans they did in school, I said why don’t you girls flick it. I usually joke like this, and it usually ends in more banter and boisterous laughter. This time, a naughty spark went off in Teen’s eyes and she was like yeah, let’s do it. After that there was no backing down, everybody got into it, like a top level secret mission. We checked if there were camer...

Aug 16th 2022, Tuesday Went to St. Martin for the 8:30am mass.  The holy water font in church 34 The small chapel in St. Martin church So I showed this picture to my fourteen year old niece, and she was like oh Titanic staute... It's a statue of Mother Mary and Jesus in St. Martin church. The cross with stained glass pieces This is St. Martin church, like a beehive... Then Nam took us to a café... lion spout on the way. Ivy covered building on the way... Here we are at Café Zinette  it's actually a cute place  but quite pricey.  Pretty location though, we just had coffee and left. Went home and made breakfast for my brother... Made vegetable rice for lunch, dad made chicken. We ate, slept then went to the thrift store To pick up second hand books... gosh, picked up lovely books here for a swiss franc or two. Luxurious children's books with enchanting pictures.  Aug 17th 2022, Wednesday Didn't go anywhere today. Stayed at home, mom and dad cooked lunch. I read Gi...

The Last Girl (2017) by a Yezidi survivor, Nadia Murad, is filled with the bone-chilling sort of evil that the ISIS is synonymous with. Nadia poignantly captures the plight of her Yazidi village, Kocho, as the threat of ISIS looms large in the distance before becoming a reality. As with the Holocaust, no one really anticipates the amount or intensity of evil that could reside in the indoctrinated hearts of men. Otherwise, nobody would willingly stay back in their towns or villages waiting for the genocide of their race. One of Nadia’s brother’s, Hezni, did try to go Germany, by crossing the northern Iraqi border on foot into Turkey, from where they (the brother and a few others) made their way to Istanbul, then paid a smuggler to take them into Greece. But they were discovered and had to spend a horrible time in prison. So, the fact is people did try to leave, but like Nadia explains, it isn’t easy to leave the only place one has ever known. I still think that being forced to ...

This journal from Matrikas is quite possibly the best journal I've seen. Since the day I received it, I haven't been able to stop looking at it fondly, it is that beautiful and captivating. It has these therapeutic colouring pages that can immediately calm you down or add a spark to a lazy monotonous work day. They come in four colours with four different motifs on the top and I opted for this dark blue one with the gliding fish and the word 'glide' incorporated into the gold embossed motif. Thank you Matrikas, this is a kick-ass product and I can't stop raving about it.  Purchased a few more from Amazon.in to give as gifts to friends.  This is the reddish one with a feather embossed on it and the words 'write' scrawled nearby. This is the pretty dragonfly greyish journal with the word 'fly' at the tip. And here's another look at my favourite one, love this navy blue colour and the pretty fish with tail and fins like angel win...

I saw this movie recently while travelling to Chennai in the train and before I knew it I was transported to a sleepy little Italian village on the coast where beauty abounds in every frame. Beauty herself forms a major character, she is everywhere you care to look and that's what the protagonist Mario (Massimo Troisi) discovers after he interacts with a well known poet in exile, Pablo Neruda. The Cuban poet, Pablo Neruda (portrayed by Phillippe Noiret), arrives in a small island in Italy after being exiled for his communist beliefs. And Mario, a reluctant fisherman, longs for another job and when the necessity of a postman to deliver mail to the most famous person on the island arises, Mario lands this job. He hesitantly starts befriending Pablo and reading his poems, this awakens his soul to the beauty of being, of observing, of existing. As I sat there on the upper berth watching this movie while everybody was fast asleep, I was moved by this fisherman who found magic in meta...

I've written about Tyler Knott more than once on my blog... how I came across his poems , how one poem of his evocatively captured all I needed to say after my recent trips, and how the phrasing in his poems is what gets your attention even though you don't necessarily agree with all that he says. So when I read on his instagram account that he would be visiting New York in November (2014) I was behind my sister and brother in law to attend his book signing event at a Barnes & Noble store. I had to plead, and make deals with them to ensure that they would attend the event. They assured me that they would, but every now and then, they would resort to blackmails and threats. If I said something they didn't like or if I pulled their leg, they would be like... 'do you want your poems signed?' So anyway, after all the trauma they put me through, they finally did go to meet him and they got my poems signed. Here is the man himself, Tyler Knott Gregson signing a...

So this is the November issue of the magazine with a few articles by me. Thomas Rhett's 'Beer with Jesus ' has been included here and I wrote something about the entertainment industry which might be a bit preachy...   Entertainment is not what it used to be When you switch on the TV or listen to songs by the biggest names in the music industry, you cannot help but cringe and wonder at the abasement of it all. How did this degradation seep in? When did it become cool to objectify women and let derogatory comments pass off as comedy? Most of the famous shows today have this cool character whose life revolves around drinking and sleeping with different women, perfect examples would be Charlie Harper and the legendary Barney Stinson. These characters are the epitome of being cool and having it all, and they have the best lines on the show. This is the idea that is being propagated to young people who watch these shows, that your life is enjoyable only when you drink...

So Autumn was just starting when I was in Geneva last year and all the colours of fall were pretty fascinating. I would pick up lovely autumn coloured leaves and preserve them in a book while I explored so many beautiful places with my sister. She would scan the ground too, to find leaves that declared the poetry of the season. And if my brother was with us, he'd stand at a distance away, pretending that he was in no way related to us sisters who were running around collecting leaves.  This is what I made for my brother, framed autumn leaves. It's pretty easy too, collect pretty autumn leaves and preserve them in a book. Make sure you preserve them properly with no folded edges, just place the leaf gently between the pages of a book and let it remain there for a few days. Gently stick the leaves to a chart paper; I used a black chart paper here. Then use a transparent nailpolish to gently brush all over the leaf to give it a glossy look. Write a few lines (or not), and ge...

So after my sister left, it was just me and my brother at home and he'd go to work while I continued exploring Geneva on my own. I'd buy a day pass and if I see anything interesting outside, I'd hop off and walk around and everything is so efficiently organised there, that with a few apps and with all the bus stops containing neatly typed out details of every stop and the bus timings, there is no way you can get lost... even if you try. And the bus timings really blew me away, I should have taken a picture of it...the timings were always to the point like 9:43 or 14:18 or 16:01 and the bus would arrive exactly at this time, it was uncanny, it was brilliant, it was hassle free. I've traveled more in Geneva in those few months than I did in all the six years I stayed in Madras.  This is a quaint library and antique store... This is where the 18th century Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer, Jean Jacques Rousseau  was born. Old canons...  Window box...