Contemplations and Ruminations

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...

The Plainpalais flea market in Geneva takes place every Saturday and Wednesday, at the Plainpalais grounds. I visited it last year during the last week of October... Saw so many records on display...  Pretty vases and bowls... Small pouches made with Indian fabric...  Art to hang on walls...  I especially liked this one of the boat... How cute is this dish... three little kids as the stand.  Another pretty dish... with three Victorian women on either side. A really large mirror... and me, I look like a walking advertisement for  Anokhi  (both the kurta and the scarf are from Anokhi). It was starting to get cold towards the end of October...  Pretty blue vase...  African masks...  Textile from the exotic land of India... It was fun, just walking around and seeing everything... there's a farmers market that takes place at Plainpalais every Sunday too. 

So I've grown used to taking pictures of anything and everything... before it was mainly for my blog, but now I do it for Instagram. I've even started attending functions where I have to socialise with ' elders ' (not something I'm fond of .. I prefer hanging out with my crowd of people), mainly because I get to instagram the event. Anyway, these are pictures of the food I cooked at home in Geneva and other dishes we ate in restaurants. My mother used to make puff pastries often when we were kids, they are unbelievably easy to make and quite tasty too. I made quite a few of them at my brother's place. Here the puff pastry dough is rolled out onto a baking sheet...  And lined with ham...  Then some sauteed onions and capsicums...  Added slices of cheese...  Braided the dough then applied an egg wash. And here it is, the ham and capsicum puff pastry...  Made this pasta for us, the smaller one is for my brother cause he likes his pas...

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...