Contemplations and Ruminations

So I visited Wayanad over the weekend and it was in a word blissful. Wayanad's rural charm combined with its breathtaking scenery is enough to warm the soul and make the city life we know so well disappear into a mist of oblivion. The whole area is overflowing with greenery and the distinctive rugged western ghats lend it a secluded old world charm. I like places like this, where there are hardly any people or tourists for that matter... and I prefer it to remain that way (times like this, I am glad my blog is not insanely popular, so people won't go flocking there.) Getting back to my trip, we started on a Friday evening, and caught the five pm train bound to Calicut. We were travelling with friends and snacking seemed the main activity that evening. For dinner we ate the chapatis I made for the entire gang while another friend prepared some tomato thokku and mushroom curry. After having a fulfilling dinner we settled in for the night, and reached Calicut station aroun...

So if somebody derides your religion and leaves you seething in righteous anger, there is no point in further trampling upon your own religion and lending it an abominable status. Don't you think it would be wiser to either prove the perpetrators wrong by taking the high road and maintaining a dignified stance or by totally ignoring their demeaning portrayal of your faith. If your faith is strong enough, no power on earth will be able to sway you. If you feel threatened in any way, then don't you think you should first approach God and talk it out with Him. He is real to you right, He has to be if some inconsequential film/cartoon strip/inflammatory speech can drive you insane with wrath and vengeance. If you wanna make a point regarding your faith, don't you think you should uphold it in a way that pleases your God or is your God happy to see you blowing up your life along with his other innocent children.  Don't you think it would speak volumes about your...

This french movie based on a true life story is one one of the best movies I've seen in the recent past. It depicts the story of an unlikely friendship between a wealthy paraplegic, Philippe and a 'down on his luck- wisecracking- happy go lucky- live for the moment' kinda black dude, Driss, who winds up as the rich guy's caretaker. And that's when the fun starts, this gorgeous black guy just goes about being himself and everybody falls in love with him... it's impossible not to. Driss livens up the household with his charm and wit, like the fresh mountain air. What's remarkable is his attitude towards the invalid Phillippe, Driss jokes about his condition and treats him as a regular guy. Sample this joke... Driss : Where can you find a paraplegic? Philippe : I don't know. Driss : The same place you left him... This is exactly the sense of normalcy that Philippe craves and Driss's presence in his life is invigorating to say the least....

Yeah, you can trust country music to come up with lyrics that make you stop in your tracks... since the first time I heard this song I have been completely floored by the music and especially the lyrics. It's about this guy who wants to have a beer with Jesus, I know at the outset it may seem flippant and disrespectful, but this the way guys unwind... sit together and talk about stuff over a beer. And that's what the singer really wants to do, just spend some time with Jesus in the only way he knows how. And what's beautiful is the way the singer goes about treating Jesus, like a best friend... happy to see him and longing to hear from him. The singer sings that he'll pick a place that's not too crowded and order a couple of tall ones, and he'll tell the waitress to put it on his tab. Thomas (the singer) would play something nice on the jukebox and he'd sip on his beer slowly while taking in all that Jesus was saying. Isn't that what a real friend wou...

This is my favourite place in Madras, it's the only place where that familiar feeling of high kicks in... the feeling that used to fuel our practice sessions every Saturday when I was in the church choir back home. The choir at St. Theresa's church is the driving force behind this heady feeling of high, they are the main reason the church is packed every Sunday evening. You see many expatriates here, I guess like me, they too are drawn in by the music and the singing. The sermons too are pretty good, there is this one priest I really like... don't know his name, but whenever he comes for the Sunday evening mass, he manages to bring tears to my eyes. It's what he says and the way he says it, he fires up the imagination... he forgets all the religious dogma, all the unnecessary rules and laws and gets down to the basics, it's what inside you that really matters. If you have faith, then everything will eventually work out alright. Everything is just so beautiful th...

Everything does seem better in the glow of candle lights...  I keep buying candles and candle holders and anything candle related.... it's an obsession, but a neat one to have, don't you think.  Anyway, see those small white patterns on the table, those are called kolam patterns. Kolam is predominantly a south Indian tradition where rice powder is used to draw elaborate patterns in front of houses, as a sign of welcome and respect. I picked up a few kolam stencils near a temple, have stenciled them on my table here and placed a candle in each design... cute right. Another candle holder I picked up recently... look at the patterns on the floor, how pretty. It's like happiness spilling over and creating beautiful paths... 

So it's yet another Independence day and the feeling of nonchalance continues... isn't that worrisome. I would like to feel pride, love, hope and comfort for our nation, but how do you feel all that when you step outside the house and encounter shabby roads and pavements overflowing with garbage, jackasses micturating whenever and wherever, all the filth that clogs the road when it rains or when nauseating drainage starts seeping through man holes, the maddening vehicles and motorists that seem to operate on some high end vendetta against each other... it's as though we live in a cloud of apathy. Reminds me of  District 9 (the movie, it's where an alien race come to earth and they are pathetic prawn like creatures, they end up living in slum dwellings as refugees), we are kinda pathetic like them. Why else would we allow our nation to rot... I just wish there was a place like Azkaban where we could dump all these roadside urinaters, the insane people who drive/ride ...

Lee Brice and his team have got some fine writing skills, most of his songs have amazing lyrics and Lee Brice  infuses life into them. He's one heck of a singer, he has the tendency to inhabit a song and you can feel it... he sings with unbridled passion and you end up with goosebumps. It's evident he loves what he does, and he's pretty good at it too. I'm only surprised the album hasn't reached the top of the charts yet... it's got so many wonderful tracks and I think my favourite is ' A Woman Like You ' where the woman asks her man how his life would have turned out if he hadn't met her. And Lee Brice goes on to list all the things he would have done like more fishing and golfing, more jamming with his band, being a better football fan, owning a dirt bike and stocking up on cold beer... the typical bachelor life. After he's done pulling her leg, he leans in close and whispers in her ear that he isn't that good at golfing or fishing, bu...

You all probably know bout my sister's wedding that took place earlier this month, that's what the past few posts have been about. And now she, my little sister... all grown up has crossed horizons and oceans to reach the land of Luke Bryan, Chris Young, Easton Corbin, Lee Brice and Jake Owen... okay, I just wanted to write their names. So anyway, she was the one I could yap away to, incessantly at times. She could read me pretty well, she knew when I was fake laughing, she could figure out when I say something and mean something else... she is like the paperback binding to my book. She is the cover, the adventurous sort, the colourful exterior that grips your attention and I am like the pages, full of content that nobody gets except a fortunate few (not very humble, am I...) who take the time to flip through the story. She pulls people in, makes friends easily... I hang back in my world, talking to characters and other people I am really comfortable with. I guess that's ...

So here I am experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms after the past few amazing weeks of fun and chaos. Down with the fever, chills, cough and everything in between. So my sister's wedding went off well, with a few minor glitches... you know what they say bout glitches at a wedding, that there has to be a few and the marriage will be a success. Going by that account, me and Tonio will be together for eternity... considering the way my wedding was. My sister Nameeta says that I always have a way of turning things round to me... and, I just did that. Anyway, getting back to the wedding it was fun, major fun... not so much for the guests but for us cousins and the family. Growing up we (as in me and the siblings) used to spend many vacations with the cousins in Bombay... over the past few years we manage to get together only during weddings and it's still like old times, fooling around and staying up late nights. The previous day before the wedding, the bride went to sleep early...

So after checking out Sarangi and Amethyst we stopped by Anokhi at Chamiers Road. Heard about this place from Anju, and it's a pretty shop filled with interesting ethnic stuff. I especially liked the bed sheets, quilts and curtains that had these really pretty Indian motifs all over. Everything looked quite nice and colourful... with a sunny feel to it. The pricing is decent too, not like some of those show off boutiques. The entrance... Some furniture... I think the nearby store is a furniture shop.  Another view of the entrance... The Anokhi symbol, rather cute... they even have these as dress hanger knobs in the trial room. A huge mirror... Kids clothes and cushions... see that Anokhi symbol knob I was talking about, a little girls dress is hanging from it. The drapery, bed covers, and table cloth... Pretty quilts all rolled up... The photographer... a self portrait. ...