anythingunderthesun

What are we doing?

2007-12-20T23:31:00.000+04:00

I had a day to kill in Chennai and was recommended by a friend to visit Dakshin Chitra, I liked the idea of having one place to see most of the architecture of houses in south India

The visit made me realize that - how we live now in comparison with our forefathers and also the huge space they utilized. . We now live clustered in blocks and use minimum space, especially in the cities and towns. But the fact is that the traditional houses which used to exist in the villages are also vanishing in a rapid phase.

The visit left a nostalgic feel - it reminded me of my traditional house in Mangalore built by my grand father, which now no longer exist and there stands a modern roofed house.

They obviously were huge houses since there were joint or big families living in; they required a bigger space for cooking and storage. And we now are nuclear families and require minimum space and don’t need big storage space and use modern amenities.

What saddens me that we now making replicas of our tradition and culture and also destroying our architecture and right now we are wiping out the existence of our history, and in reality we have a chance to preserve what we have.

(The first picture was my ancestral house in Mangalore, the second picture is a traditional Kerala house built in Dakshin Chitra)

Inspirations

2007-06-05T16:31:00.001+04:00

I wanted to gift Jen and Rolf a painting for their wedding and asked Jen to suggest what she would want. She looked at some painting in a gallery on Michigan and mentioned to me that she wanted something similar. I walked down Michigan and was amazed by the painting. The Artist was Jaline Pol I was inspired and did start out on trying knife painting. I just love the way it turned up. The colors are were bright and just apt. I now, would go on looking for more inspirations.

Ting a ling

2007-05-08T22:24:00.000+04:00

Here is the story of the ting’s I am involved with, in my 5 month stay in the US.

My first original painting: I have made so many paintings, most of them are copies. Here is the picture of the monkey farm barn and the one on the wall is my painting.

And these are the quilts I learned to make for the Cancer hospital through the church.

I did knit a lot of scarfs too.

So that’s my story of the Painting, Quilting and Knitting.

Travelogue

2007-05-02T19:16:00.001+04:00

My one week vacation included the air, water and land experience. I was cruising with the Carnival Conquest to Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Mexico.

Day 1 and 2: I embarked the huge ship from Galveston an hour and half by road from Houston, Texas. The ship was huge; I have been on huge war ship before never a cruise liner. Sailed two days on the Sea before I reached Jamaica. There are shows, games, formal nights, music and of course the food which kept me busy. I won some bingo games too. And attended some crew parties, since I was there as crew family. I also got the privilege to be on the navigation bridge to view the ship maneuvered.

Day 3: Jamaica (Montego Bay): The Island is beautiful, mountainous and lush green. We drove for two hours to Ocho Rios on the north coast to the beautiful Dunn’s Water falls. We climb the 600 foot water falls with a human chain stopping constantly to take photo’s and dipping in the cold water, the water was gushing and cold more than usual - as it was raining continuously. And then went to Dolphin’s cove where you get to swim with the dolphins and touch, dance and yeah kiss them. (Sally she is cute) The reggae music is great. No trace of the world cup cricket there other than two banners of Brian Lara in some ad. (Since it was the week of the world cup finals, kind of surprising) Next day we went to Grand Cayman

Day 4: Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman): This Island is clean and with colorful roof tops. We went to the Sting Ray Sand bar which is a 25 min boat ride to mid sea and then we walked in waist deep water and the huge Sting Rays start coming towards you. I was scared to be stung like Steve Irwin, but the guide told us that these are friendly ones – the fishermen while returning from their catch threw the fish which they did not want on the sand bar, the sting rays started coming there for the free food and soon the fishermen starting touching and playing with them. Apparently the tail is not the sting; it’s near the start of the tail. The male ones are smaller and the female are really huge…velvety and smooth, try a massage it’s awesome. They suck the food, so get food near the mouth …whoosh it’s gone. The island is full of Iguana’s basking in the sun. The saying is if you kiss a sting ray there is luck for 7 years, I am keeping track now.

Then finally the country I wanted to go to - Mexico.

Day 5: Mexico (Cozumel): Here we did clear Kayaking and saw the Regal blue tang (Dory in Finding Nemo). We drifted away in the clear blue sea and had to be towed back :-). And then we did deep sea snorkeling for around an hour. Wow… the coral plants and the colorful fishes, I really did not want to get out from the water, there was two fresh water caves the water color was different and cooler and the fish in the caves were wonderful - slowly by our side there was a baby shark. And here were the colorful Nemo (clownfish) fishes.

Day 6: Lazed around, slept under the open sky and watched some shows. Highlights: Jamaica and Grand Cayman felt like home a bit, since they drive on the right side of the road. I mean the real right. Montego Bay is greener, mountainous compared to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Also the later two islands were hit by hurricanes in the past years. The crew really works hard to keep the guest happy; the amazing part was around 3000 people get off the ship and return back on time. And the sea is with beautiful amazing colors, calm and sometimes rough.

It’s the most pampered vacation you can go on. And I love the Caribbean waters. And I still feel like I am swaying in the sea, at work

Devil's Head and a sore back.

2007-02-28T21:59:00.000+04:00

My first experience skiing. It was beautiful, snowing in Wisconsin at the Devil's Head resort. And I did get lessons from friends. STOP --> how do you stop, you need to wedge and make a pizza and you stop.....naaah... didn't get it. Every time I went up the mountain and then saw I am heading towards someone/a tree/a pole I did not know how to stop, so all I did was fall. And fell every time I had to stop. The next day had the whole body sore and could not do anything. But the fun I had skiing is not to be compared. No pain no gain.

No Sun No Fun.

2007-02-13T01:12:00.000+04:00

I decided to write about the weather, since the extreme winter is my first experience. These are the things I learn...

It might look bright and sunny outside and you feel like what a wonderful day and when you go out you realize its around -4 deg Fahrenheit/ -20 deg Celsius. (And you are frozen).
I always thought that the snow moves from up to down (gravity????) but in Chicago downtown it goes horizontal and upwards. Is it going back to the clouds?
You can wear 6 layers of clothes, 2 layers of socks, 2 layers of gloves a cap and ear muffs and you are perfectly fine to go out. (Don’t try to go to a store and try out clothes, that’s a definitely No No to do).
You can walk on a frozen stream or river. It feels odd to walk on water - okay frozen water. (I am standing on the stream in the picture)
And when its snows it gets warmer.

I seem to like the winter No Sun still its fun.

Computer baggage outage !!!!!!!! huh!!!!!!!!…

2006-12-15T16:21:00.000+04:00

Have you heard of this term.? On my trip to the windy city (Chicago) after a lay over at London traveling on British Airways, there was a note for me and for few other just outside the door of the flight. The note said “so and so bags belonging to you have not arrived from London, contact the office near the entrance”. There they told me that I may get my baggage the next day and they do not know where it is at that moment.

Yup the next day I call them up they say the still do not know where the bags are I may get it the next day. The London airport had a Computer baggage outage and the systems are down and they cannot trace where my bags are. This is definitely a sales lead for ThoughtWorks …guys you need to go and rescue them and get my bags back.

Next day I get a call from my apartment reception that the luggage has arrived, yup they had sent only one bag , where is the other one?( I didn’t have my clothes in that bag they just contained Indian food masalas and few gifts for my cousins) Call the customer service again and they say we don’t know. This is going on and on. Yeah the good part of it is that I get to shop from scratch at the expense of British Airways. And I got to hear the same story from so many people who traveled last week from London airport.

I love shopping but BA people please do give my bag back.

My experience with Auto rickshaws in Bangalore

2006-10-03T13:17:00.000+04:00

I might be in a complaining wagon or just cribbing in my blogs. But this one really triggered me to write.

I decided not to take my vehicle to work due to various reasons and the only option was to take an auto ride. My work place is on Airport road, so I started asking auto drivers whether they would come to Airport road, they either did not respond and sped away or gave me look as why the hell am I going there. And I had already asked ten auto drivers, I decided to ask the next auto driver where does he want to go? After asking six more auto drivers the seventh one agreed to come. I really thanked him for agreeing.

May be my experience with them has always been bad. Around a year back, I got out of the auto with lot of luggage and when I had to pay the guy. I left my mobile phone on the seat and to take out money, as soon as I paid him he sped away with the mobile phone. He switched off the phone immediately.

In other countries the cab drivers get in conversation with you and also check if you are doing fine and often greet you with a smile. Aren’t they from the same industry? I don’t see this in this India. They are often ready to take you for a ride. They commonly goof up with the meter so you are always charged more. And take you on the longest ride ever, if you do not know the way to your destination. You can pay the auto driver more if you don’t have change but you can never give them one rupee less. They are very arrogant and also drive rashly on the roads. It’s also not safe for women to travel alone late night in an auto.

I may be banned from entering an Auto for writing a blog like this and an auto may never stop for me anymore. But is there a solution for this? Can I smile at them and converse with them, to change their attitude? I guess that also would be misunderstood.

Nostalgia

2006-09-12T10:42:00.000+04:00

I was passing through Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore and I had a nice weird feeling when I saw such beautiful architecture and parks. And then I remembered my childhood when we used to walk to Vidhana Soudha through Cubbon Park every Sunday afternoon and sit on the stairs and watch the high court and eat fried ground nuts. (Now you can’t even touch the gates around).

Things have changed now in our galore we don’t have space to walk on the road there are no foot paths in some places. We don’t plan our buildings they way the people did them before; they left so much of garden space. Yeah I feel helpless the way things have changed. But the nostalgia I feel when I pass through these magnificent architectures is inexpressive.

Shamanism -- New to Me

2006-08-29T12:59:00.000+04:00

It’s been a season of marriages, my close friend got married yesterday and one of his aunt mentioned to me couple of days back that I need to be part of the rituals. She introduced me to a new form of traditional beliefs called as Shamanism --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism. She told me that I need to be prepared to speak about Mother Earth and call upon her as The Goddess of the West and bring all the qualities of stability and growth to the ritual. I was thoroughly tensed and looked up to the net for more information; I could not find any this more than the definitions and spiritual effects of the same. She told me she creates rituals and she is creating this ritual for her nephew and she want to make it as meaningful. I was excited to see something new and also be a part of it.

The ritual began with the parents letting go of the children to lead their own life, they told nice things about them and their childhood and wished them luck for the new start. Then the brother and sister of the bride and bridegroom spoke about the qualities and gave their wishes. Then it was the part of the friends -->so we were the five elements as explained by the aunt, there was nothing in the beginning and then due to some friction Air was formed and then there was friction in the air and Fire was formed. Because of Fire and Air there was vapor and therefore there was Water, Water got cooled and there was mass formation and Earth was formed. So these are elements from North-East-West-South. All of us gave the couple a prayer related to the qualities of the 5 elements Ether-Air-Fire-Water-Earth to be the core of their relationship. After that the bride and the bridegroom expresed thier feelings about each other and proposed to each other and exchanged rings.

Phew, actually it was all informal – seriously I was expecting to have some spirits and some chanting etc J

Then the priest took over and did the rituals of a traditional Hindu wedding with the parents of the bride and the bridegroom, and he did explain every thing he did. First time I understood the Hindu wedding and enjoyed it too, maybe because I was part of it. And also maybe this is a modernized version of the Shamanism culture.

Now I am more curious about the different rituals and cults around the world – interesting research it would be huh?

Religion, is it faith?

2006-08-17T09:34:00.000+04:00

I don’t have any political inclination nor follow politics in detail but what upsets me is that the whole world runs on the name of religion. Wars have been fought between countries for centuries based or caused on religion. Though percentages of us are educated we still have this part of religion as a reason for destruction and not a base for faith. I know people would have not said a prayer or visited a church, gurudwara , mosque or temple for ages but gone front to fight in the name of religion. This triggered my frustration --> Link

Art of managing the Traffic Jam

2006-08-08T12:45:00.000+04:00

I learnt the art finally. I face two major blocks when I drive my car to office early morning, irrespective of how early I leave the house. ( unless I leave at 7 which is really early for me:-). I now carry light reading stuff with me like Reader's Digest and my most favorite "Archie’s". I know the traffic light is for 4 minutes each, I quickly grab the comic and read the strips. Thus I don’t get irritated waiting. And I started liking my travel. Unfortunately there is not enough light in the evening when I travel back home, I am sure I will come up with some idea.

My School days

2006-08-03T16:59:00.000+04:00

I got into the Orkut community; my sister introduced it to me and said that there are lots of my school mates on it. I put in my details and forgot about it, off late there was a huge buzz in the office around me, so I managed to reopen my account.

I got to see so many of my school, college and office friends on it. And I got people sending me requests, some of whom I just could not recollect. They introduced themselves as being in school with me, in another section and reminding about people whom I had forgotten completely about and moved on in life.

Someone had written about and incident which immediately bought back fond memories of simple things that happened in school à just after the lunch break there was a bell which rang and you were supposed to just freeze and stand wherever and whatever you are doing for two minutes during which we had monitors walking around checking. And if you are found doing funny things or you see someone in a funny place or you break into hysterical laughs, you are caught by the monitor and punished by the principal. I don’t know if the school still has this funny system, but this was something I want to change if I had to go back to school.

I know the school and college days are the most fun. I would definitely wanna go back and do things my way and rewrite my life and enjoy every bit again.

What is happening to our theatre plays?

2006-07-24T16:09:00.000+04:00

I watched two plays recently. The first one “Friends will be Friends" was a utter disaster. This was some kind of movie on stage, with dances in between when its not required. The script was stolen from all the Hindi movies - from Dil Chatha hai to Dilwale dulaniya le jayenge. One of my colleagues walked out for the auditorium by the first half. It looked like one guy had lot of money to spend on and decided to stage a play. Though the actors were good - ultimately it was a bad experience. The second play was by a famous group called Evam “Double Comedy” and this group is known for some good plays called “Chapter Two" etc. And I was all excited and looking forward for a good play. This one too had dances in between, but the difference was it was good music :-). Actors were great, but it really didn’t give me a satisfaction of seeing a good play. Towards the end I wanted to run out of the auditorium. I definitely need to get reviews before I go to the next one, and hope they don’t all head the bollywood way.

Bored @ work

2006-07-06T11:41:00.000+04:00

I am basically a little bored at work. Due to the current situation in office I have very little work to do. This will change soon, but I have to get through this current phase. So I keep look and fishing for some unfinished stuff or some work I can do for others. And also keep surfing the net for ideas where I need to keep myself engaged.

I am such a person that I need to keep myself busy… and want to do something which I have not done before or to learn something which will definitely help me as person.

What else can I do?

History

2006-06-21T08:17:00.000+04:00

History we make

I just woke up with the thought that what history we making and in a numbers of years ahead what it would read as.

When I read my history in school I remember the periods of reign where there were praises of what people did, how society prospered and what beautiful monuments they built. But was pondering what our future generations will be reading about us.

1990- 2010 (India)

People claimed to be very intelligent, most of them worked on computers or something related to that and were catering to needs all over the world. They built houses which were reaching up to the sky, taking away all the greenery and making concrete jungles. They cut green old trees, and never planted back again for us.

They did not build any great monuments they had some constructions of flyovers which took them decades to build them and they didn’t look great or did they have great value. They broke down some old beautiful structures and build some sad looking big buildings on them. And they were the ones who polluted the cities and encroached agricultural land.

I don’t want to go into politics, I guess its would be the Civics or some other subject to study by choice, it’s not History if that is included here we might have the entire text book for it.

Is this the History we are creating?

Travel

2006-06-20T14:53:00.001+04:00

This year has been year of travel for me. I went to

Maldives

in the month of March, it was an amazing experience seeing the coral and the aqua life and the different shades of blue water. After that it’s been the most memorable and never forgetting travel of my lifetime, till date. I have been to 7 places (London, Northwich, Scotland, Chicago, LA, New York and New Jersey) in 3 weeks and 2 continents. Though I was traveling for work, I made the maximum out of it by trying to squeeze all my weekends to see new places. The favorite among them is Scotland --> its so beautiful with such history and eeriness. And the amazing fun I ever had is in LA at the Universal Studios and the California Adventures -Disney Land. And I did get to see Grand Canyon from the flight, did see it when the sun was going down and it was amazing orange haze, tick marked it for the places seen ;-) ‘I did see it from above not necessary it should be seen at the ground level'. Everyplace I went, I had people back from home or friends there who told me about must sees, things to do and took care of me. I felt at home and didn’t feel any difference when changing time zones. It only hit me hard when I landed back in India and didn’t know what time to sleep and was feeling drowsy all the time. If I could do 7 places in 3 weeks, I think I can cover the world soon... hmmm...