A mid week afternoon in Bombay

My laptop had gone bust for a week – yeeah!
Though I almost lost a part of my functional arm, I quickly realized it was a blessing indeed. I spent the day exploring Bombay- something that I could not do in the last couple of months.
Stepping out armed with the camera, some cash and an umbrella I walked for about half a mile. I saw a deserted bus stand. Though I have crossed this way just about a million times I have never stopped to wonder who took buses from this depot and to where. Now I did. I walked in and quickly realized to my dismay that all the numbers and destination details were written in Hindi  or was it Marathi?
hmmpphh…. Disappointed I kept walking and spotted a bus that had a couple of people inside. Hesitatingly I asked the woman on a window seat where the bus was going. Well I was gonna board irrespective of where it was gonna go. But it would be sheepish to ask for a ticket to the conductor to wherever the bus was going. She said ‘Bandra’and I boarded the bus. So now armed with this piece of information, I asked the conductor if the last stop was Bandra, and he said ‘Bandra Depot’ in the most stern and practiced voice.


I settled in a comfortable window seat, took out my camera for some shots of Bombay. Before I could click a handful, Mr. Rain arrived to include a drizzle in the landscape of Bombay. In about 1.5 hours after multiple rounds of waxing and waning of crowd, the bus cruised into the depot. After 15 minutes of auto ride, I was in Bandstand.:) It is a beach, well technically, but nothing like the beaches that I have been to so far, as there is no sand on the shoreline here. The shore is dotted with many rock forms and couples in love alike :). I thought who would be here on a mid-week afternoon? What was I thinking? After all, there are all these schools and colleges that work at that time and the young teenagers escape the boring class rooms to a more enchanting bandstand….

Thankfully there is a Barista (and also a café coffee day) facing the sea for those like me and I sipped on my lychee frappe drink taking in the view of the Arabian Sea until my hubby joined me after work!

A fresco painting

Apparently this is a popular subject for many paintings in the 15th century times. It shows the mythological giant man carrying a child across the river. It was his job as summoned by the elderly people of the town in his pursuit of reaching God. He was a 12 feet tall man that wanted to work for the most powerful being in the world. After spending many years with the Satan, he realized that God was more powerful than Satan and started his quest to see God.

As he was a Giant man, he helped people cross the river by carrying them on his shoulders. Anyways, as you might have guessed, carrying this kid made him so physically exhausting and the river turned unusually violent lending the child to reveal himself as the infant Jesus.



Hence he got the St. Christ(opher- meaning carrier).

Anyway apart from the mythology apart, this painting is done in the fresco technique by the famous fresco master Domenico Ghirlandaio. In this technique, pigments are mixed with water and applied to the fresh plaster made on the wall. As the plaster sets, the chemical reaction makes the plaster become part of the wall. Also, since the painting can only be done on the fresh plaster, the artist has to divide his painting into sections and plan to finish each section in one sitting. This division can usually be made out on a close up view. Fresco paintings have to be transported along with the wall that it was painted on.

Did you notice a flaw in the painting?
Look at his legs above and below water. May be in the mythological books, light does not refract on the surface of water ;)

Dagon primordial couple

It is a couple carved out off a monolithic rock – the man and the woman symbolizing equality and complementing each other. The figurines look very alike except for obvious physical differences of the sexes. The woman holds a baby in her back symbolizing her role in the society as the pro creator while the man holds a quiver on his back denoting his role as the provider and protector. In this culture, the equality of sexes was important and hence the figures are even made to look the same height. Another distinct feature is the degree of bilateral symmetry making them each a part of the whole bringing about the integrated and harmonious union of man and wife.




Also the couple is seen sitting on a stool which has legs indicating their ancestors as a way to acknowledging the importance in making them who they are. The interpretation of this piece speaks a lot about the culture and society in that day and age in Africa.

Aristotle with a Bust of Homer

The king of Spain commissioned Rembrandt to paint “a philosopher”. This generic commission left Rembrandt with a great deal of freedom to choose his subject. His end product was an oil-canvas painting showing three subjects connected by a deep philosophical thread.

Aristotle, the greatest philosopher of all times is seen standing with his right hand placed on a bust of Homer and his left hand on his hip touching the heavy gold chain that he is wearing. The interesting aspect of the painting is the third character in the painting, Alexander the Great seen hanging in the form of a pendant from his gold chain.




In the Iliad, Homer explains the many rules of the game of life, the decisions and their consequences in practical life scenarios. Aristotle, the teacher and a contemporary of Alexander gifted him a copy of Iliad that became one of his prized possessions. With these seemingly fragile connections, one of the interpretations of the paintings is that Aristotle by placing his dominant (right) hand on Homer and by placing his inferior (left) hand on the golden chain symbolizes the nobility of Iliad and its teachings in comparison to the smallness of power and wealth of Alexander and his invincible kingdom.

While the intent of the artist can never be proved, and part of the plan was probably leaving the painting for possible interpretations, I found this interpretation very profound and insightful.

Time and again, I am touched by the wisdom that history has left for us.

MET

Finally fighting the inertia and the cold, we went to the Metropolitan museum of art, New York today. It hosts magnificent pieces of arts from across the globe bringing bold histories to the new york city.

Some of the exhibits really picked my interest – it brought my artistic perspective to the fore ;)

More blogs to come on this topic.

Travelogue !

After weeks of preparation for the long weekend, we decided on Friday evening that we will grace our presence to a certain set of seaside towns. We had our plan all charted out in a few hours- We spent the Friday evening packing clothes, cooking and packing food, last minute laundry and the like. The excitement of the impending weekend was enough to keep me going. These days, I have become very health conscious and hence avoid eating out junk food as much. And hence we packed semiya upma for dinner and beans baaji with some variety rice for lunch.

Next day morning, we stepped out at 7:40 am and beating hours of Boston bound traffic, we made it just on time for whale watching at Plymouth, MA an hour north of Cape Cod. The town had a small town feeling and we really like such European touch to towns. After a hurried lunch of beans baaji and Chinch baath, we went out into the sea for a wonderful whale watching experience. It was awesome to be in the middle of the ocean about one and a half hours away from the land on a small steamship and surrounded by these huge mammal creatures in black and white.
We saw a large number of humpbacks and a few of the different genres. It is one thing to see such animals in a protected and a trained environment like the Sea World and such, where the animals perform really entertaining acrobatics; but it’s an entirely different thing to come to its natural habitat and see it in its own wilderness. These guys perform far less stunts but they are far more compelling as it appears when you least expect it. We also saw some mother-calf couplets – calves are far more energetic and lithe. We spent about an hour doing the watching in Stellwagen Bank. Supposedly, this is the feeding ground for the whales and they put on a few tons of body weight to sustain the next few months in the equatorial Atlantic. And that is the breeding ground – :)

So most of the day’s work for mother whales is to find food for itself and its calves. Calves don’t go in search of food until it is a few years old. Whales make these uncanny noises to communicate and remain within calling distance of the family. These noises are really loud and possibly much louder under water, as sound travels faster under water. The naturalist on board made an interesting comment that the minerals, planktons and other fish essential nutrients in the ocean gives it a characteristic dark greenish color and that it is not a sign of polluted water. Apparently, the super clear waters we find in the Carribean is a sign of lack of nutrients and fish food.


On the way back, it was super cold, with winds zipping past you, it was a phenomenal experience. But we could not sustain it for long and went indoors to doze off the remainder of the ride. Back in the seaside town, after being in the large expanse of America’s countryside, we were able to appreciate the closeness and compactness of street side shops. After about an hour ride to the hotel, we enjoyed the boxed dinner again and retired for the day. The high intensity Djokovic's 4th round match against Cilic was not enough to keep us up.

Next day morning greeted us with a decent breakfast spread that included eggs, bread toasts, cereal, little cartons of milk, bagel and cream cheese, muffins and pastry, fruits, waffles and coffee. After a healthy and filling breakfast, we headed to the island of Martha’s Vineyard. The parking lot for the ferry station was a good 45 minutes away and they had shuttles going back and forth. After about a 45 minute slow ferry ride, we were on the island. There are mopeds that you can rent here and use it to explore the island.


And hence we promptly rented one and set on a bon voyage. Some of my best experiences of my life ensue here. After about twenty minutes, we stopped briefly in a beach to get our first soak. Then we headed further south to the Edgartown lighthouse, which is on a man-made island some quarter mile from the coast and is accessible by a foot bridge.

After another brief stop at a little town-like ice-cream shop, we headed west. It was miles and miles of nothingness and forests on either side; actually to the south should be the coast and some wonderful beaches that we could see through the forest at certain points, but they were private beaches and some public farms in between. One of these public farms looked interesting and the board said “pony rides” and we took the left. After about a mile on dirt road, we came face to face with a small stable and two horses. It was a beautiful sight in the backdrop of a ever-extending blue ocean. There were no people around and the last car that passed by us was a good 10 minutes back when we were on the highway. In this secluded and scenic spot, we wanted take in for posterity with a good canon shot; and just as we pulled the camera out, the horse started speeding towards the gated end of the stable. Before we could think about anything, we ran for our lives calling the Gods to save us! I still do not know why it suddenly stopped at the end of the gate- the gate was a mere 2 feet high and the horse could have trampled us if wanted to.
In a jiffy, back on the moped and back on the highway, we were sweating and puffing with the increased adrenalin rush and we knew that was the most insane thing we have done in a long long time. Riding further west, with sun exactly ahead of us, we reached another light house in Aquinnah called the Gay Head Cliff light house. And there was also a public access beach nearby. It was a nice view from the cliff and some pictures bear proof to the adventurous exploration of the territory. On the way back, we stopped at a very nice little coffee place and I could not help but notice that I ordered a small latte but said “Tall” latte! Starbucks Rules ! We went to yet another lighthouse in OakBluffs called the East Chop light house for more pictures and more beaches. Rest of the evening was uneventful and we bade good bye to the moped after we made every penny spent worthy of it.

With the better part of the long weekend behind us, we went to check out the Cliff Side walk and the adjoining mansions in Newport, RI. This place houses some of the biggest family residential structures displaying grandeur on the majestic coasts of a blue ocean. There is a little 3.5 mile walk way all along backsides of these mansions bordering the ocean. Apparently the waves in this part of the ocean makes it a good spot for water skiing and we saw some skiiers in action. There are about 15 mansions taken over by the Presevation society of Newport and we saw the insides of one of them- The Breakers - the Vanderbilt mansion.


The architecture was true to the inspiration; rich with influences from the East, and yet consistent; with great emphasis on finer details of ceiling design, wall decor, fittings and fixtures.


The view of the ocean from a certain balcony like looking area on the second floor of the house was magnificent. It was whooping 17-bedroom house with living room of 50 feet cube design.

After a long and tired ride, we still had the energy for the US open on Tuesday ! Again Djokovic's and Fed's five setters made it all worth the while. Though our seats on the center court was closer to the sky than to the court, we could sneak in to better parts of the stand for great views of the game. Fed's game was definitely sub-par, but that is what took it to five sets and the emergence of the champion. Looking forward to Djokovic vs Fed today to see if the epic finals of French and Wimbledon could be repeated for a different finish!



Go Federer !!

Wow wii !

Wii is a gaming console that has redefined the concept of video game in recent times. In fact it is not meant for the traditional game enthusiasts, but for people who disliked the aloofness and phoniness of the video games that are often played with a Jockey. Wii revolutionizes the idea of sports in front of a TV with a group of friends laughing excitedly, as against the typical video game of those days that make the player a moron. The most popular game is Tennis which is played by a remote which u use as a racket. No buttons to play with. The sensor senses the torque and acceleration to detect the direction and speed of your racket and accordingly hits the tennis ball.

After a year of playing awesome wii tennis, which to be honest used to cause quite some soreness on my upper arm (well, I am that fit !!), the hubby got me a Wii-Fit yesterday. This is true gym material. You can run like a maniac on the floor (holding the remote) and the wii system will keep track of your vital statistics. It is a great addition to the gaming console. I fancy losing all my extra pounds in front of the TV! There are some fun components like heading the soccer ball, skiing and ski jump. There are good aerobic exercises in basic run and wielding the waist twisting disc. The board that comes with the wii-fit is the brain behind the system in that it calculates the change in center of gravity as your move on it and this information is used to calculate your balance and posture. It is not to be run on like the tread mill. My favoirite is the Yoga and because it calculates the CG and shows it on the screen along with a target area where your CG should ideally lie, it is very useful in doing Yoga the right way. I am sure if used regularly, it can be a great addendum to your fitness routine.

It could be that the hubby is impressed with my workout routine that he decided to add a extra little nice something to it, or it could just be his last effort to keep me off the couch !

A Sunday

In an effort to host (and please myself) a few guests we had yesterday, I tried Bisi Bela baath and it did turn out very well. Following a heavy brunch when we started off from home after fighting the lethargy really hard and only after the DVD player truly let us down, a little rain peeped out trying to dampen the spirits of us which was just waiting for the smallest of reasons to couch back into cozy pillows and hot chai. However the anticipation was shortlived when the rains made its way for a not-so-hot and cloudy-yet-dry day. Walking with a couple of elderly people and young kids on strollers suited the lazy and laid back youth in us very well. We got off at WTC and walked to the Staten Island Ferry at a leisurly pace that it took more than a full hour. The thoght of downtown on a Sunday was pretty depressing, but as it turned out, it was pretty interesting to walk and take pictures like a tourist ! It was funny to wait in line for the typical picture with the Meryll Lynch bull. I did fancy climbing on top of the bull as the childhood memories of riding behind the elephant statues at the Parthasarathy Temple, Triplicane saw me smile. However in the interest of maintaining decorum with my folks, I restrained. The best part of the evening was when I found clothes in C21 that actually fit me. I spent the previous day in Newport Mall to find nothing actually fit me in this country, especially in summer ! Then we finished the nice cool day with a sumptuous three course dinner at Rasoi, Journal Square. whoo.... Casatta Ice cream spoiled all the workout in the last three months !

Top it all, Lakers stay in the game.

Sometimes it pays off to stay out of the sofa on Sundays too !

Sands of time!

Saturday saw us at Sandy Hook – one of the beaches on the coast of New Jersey. This one was very different from all the beaches I have visited in the US – Manzanita and Cannon of Oregon, La Jolla at San Diego and Wildwoods near Cape May Point. This one was closer to home, very much like my own Marina beach - the sands and shells; the grime and gravel – daily evenings from my childhood was coming back at Sandy Hook. Of course I missed the molaga bajji, the TV tower, the clock tower, the light house and the deep dug sandy caves. However the coarse sand, the expanse of the beach, the waves that dashed against and the warm water transported me to the warmth of my own Triplicane beaches.
Definitely one of my better weekends and I did total justice by getting damp and dirty!

Labor Day weekend

Being "our" first long weekend, (after being married) A and I spent it in a rather special way .. in his university town, Corvallis @ his friend's place. After a special dinner cooked by his Bachelor friends, I got to ride cycle err... bike after a span of 7 years.. That felt great and that was just the beginning.. Then it was cards time.. For about a hour and a half, we were blissfully engaged with it, with A accumulating A-spade, A-Hearts, A-Clubs, A-Dice and K-Spade until ....... To Him, 8/52 cards went this way and just 5 came via random distribution !! We thought that was unfair and switched gears to plain lacha...... Went on and on and on and on till 4 am !! It is easily one of my longest evenings .... Topics ranging from college fun, which payyan see which ponnu, love marriage vs arranged marriage, Ashes, US open and back again to trashest of talks..

Late morning, the next day, hogged at Izzys - Pizza bar, Salad Bar, Dessert bar and Fruits Bar .. was really too much worth the money .. that I could hardly walk to the car, bend down and make to the inside of the car!

Indeed a fun way to spend a weekend .. right?

Dont cut things short !!

Scene: A bunch of people in a general conversation. Three students and two professors.

A New Topic: What was the daughter of one of the professors doing !

Past Info in the group: She was looking to join an under-grad school. Which school was the question

Professor Says:
She is going to Wash U.

Thunder burst out laughing !!!!!
She was just going to the 'Washington University, St Loius", which was universally said and understood as "Wash U"!!!!

The truth of the matter is these days, everything has an abbreviation.. Ther is no time left in the world to speak every word in its details. And once in a while, the sentence parts of verb and noun, subject and predicate fall in such a precise place that the whole sentence is mind-blowingly ....