An Arty Experience

It's what comes with having an artist for friend :)

Sujata was visiting, and in the middle of conversation says "chal art galleries ghumke athe hain", and as faithful friend I go along. I must admit that all my art exposure is happily inspired and thanks to her.

Kalakrithi Art Gallery, is literally down my road, I must have passed it a million times, but the thought to go in had never even occurred. 

While we started thinking we'll visit two, Kalakrithi itself was so engaging  that it took over our entire allotted time, and could have easily taken more. The ambience, the vibe, the quiet energy, the feel.....and then you see how each piece of art adds in to create it.

And what's more, we chanced upon the well known artist Vaikuntam there, who'd come to visit as well. We got to talk enough to hear a lot of his story and how while he's always been painting, it was a visit to his native place in Karimnagar that finally inspired him to his niche art that shot him to fame ( he does these typical rural telangana women, something raw and powerful there). Was a fascinating half hour with him.

It's in three zones:

one, a cafe with so much art everywhere, that I didn't realize until we were leaving that it actually served food

two, the actual art exhibition which is currently displaying artist K G Subramanyam (Vaikuntams teacher he said)

three, a 'concept and design store' called Creatif, which opened just a couple weeks back. It's a whole different experience again, like I was telling those girls, it was like walking through a museum, rather than a store.

Rest in pictures:

The entrance which has some pretty sculptures and art pieces

That's the cafe, where every single piece, be it the tables, the chairs, the panels, the walls, the trees are all a piece of art.

Sujata, engrossed in an acrylic of Ganesha

One of the many tables, it was interesting to see that most of the tables were already bought by Zomato

Entry to the main art exhibition

The core art gallery

Entrance to the design store, where every piece sold is inspired by a well known artist, and almost anything you touch has a story

The pretty girls who run the store, I sadly can't recall names

A stoll inspired again by an artists work

A picture from their archives of royalty and history, they had so many beautiful pictures, but this one so caught my attention....like made me want to know her kind

This was us meeting Vaikuntam

Sujata, must say thanks....an enriched and beautiful morning. Spaces of visual beauty and inspiration in an urban landscape.

Luck Is !

The trip to Tirupathi, being two full days, gave us a lot of time on hand.

The tirumala main darshan was scheduled for Day 2. On Day 1 we did three other temples, decided to give one visit a go by.

What did we do instead? We decided to stay in the room and play cards... we played rummy.

Moms played a lot, I've played some, but we've never played together before. And some experience that was.

It was impossible to beat mom at it.  I could start with a sequence and yet lose. I could get two jokers and still she'd win. I couldn't believe it. With each passing game I could only gape. And it's not like I'm bad at rummy.....it was just so lopsided, that I had to finally pause and ask "what the hell ma, how are you doing this?".

And then she smiles and says, almost like a confession, "it's always been like this, people would almost refuse to play with me as I'd always win, don't know how". She went to a casino in Vegas, and she's the only one in the family who won some whopping amount. Fascinating.

So , now you know why the 'Luck is' :)

Visit to Tirupathi - The Temple Experience

A question that I get asked "When you're a non believer, why would you go to Tirupathi?"

I don't like the term non believer. Because truth is, I believe in anything and everything......known and unknown, science and metaphysical, man, ghosts, spirits, energy, love, karma, thought, teleportation, mind body unification, positivity,  thought, telepathy, anything....

What I don't adhere to is structured religion, religion based on a personalized god, one that functions through ritual and fear and divisiveness, all those man made constructs. That doesn't make me a non believer, see. 

And tirupathi is a whole different experience. It's just so powerful and intense. 

It epitomizes sthanabhalam. Such a powerful energy center (for lack of a better word)

A long time ago, I'd read a plaque in a museum in Tirupathi, which so beautifully described the sanctum sanctorium experience, in just this one line:

" a suspended moment of expanded consciousness".

And that's exactly it..... that moment where you feel transported into something larger than you, where you seemingly drop all boundaries with body, let go identification with self and merge into the beyond. It's so hard to describe. It's overwhelming, and leaves you with just awe.

I've had that experience maybe a handful of times, mostly only in deep meditation. It's quite an experience. Something you don't want to come back from.

And it's for that, that one gets drawn back, again and again.

The rest of trip in pictures:

Mom, at Tirupathi airport. It's the first time I felt like being welcomed into Andhra Pradesh as another state. Not nice feeling :)

Kapileshwaram temple, which we just wandered into in the evening.

A pretty location, almost etched into the mountain

This was interesting. On the way up to Tirumala, we stopped to see this phenomenon, apparently a new discovery. A mountain edge that looks like the profile of Sri Venkateshwara Swamy. At first you don't even see it, but once you do, it's just so visible. Like a Gestalt picture.

A zoomed in picture...click on the picture and then look at the leftmost top edge of the mountain

Day 2, the two of us waiting before darshan

Mom noticed this tree sitting there....how it seemed like sliced in half, growing and blooming only one side....fascinating

Coffee in-between the wait

A view of Tirupathi town as we come down the hill

Harinath, and Sridhar our guide and driver for the trip.

Tirupathi airport, such picturesque surrounds....though I wished it had a more temple feel

That ends another of the many many trips to Tirupathi......with joy and gratitude for having been able to visit.

Visit to Tirupathi

Mom and I have been wanting to do a trip to Tirupathi for a longish while now. It was spoken off sometime last year and then the plan just faded off.

Strangely enough, this time round we both got the thought separately on the same day ( unseen connection ?).

Gaali Gopuram wedged between the Seshachalam Hills

We did the trip through the Telangana Tourism Department. They have a two day package, with everything taken care off; flight bookings, pick up at the Tirupathi airport, kalahasthi and panipakam temple visits on day 1, accommodation, food, (tirupathi has great food) the main tirumala darshanam, laddus, temple shopping (which we both totally love and so added in), alimelu mangamma temple visit, and drop off at the airport next evening.

It starts with a visit to SriKalahasthi, one of my favourite temples.

Courtesy Google , and this perspective either aerial, or from atop the hill next to temple

the hundred pillared mandapam

Srikalahasti, known as the Kasi of the south, is a 5th century temple, built by the Pallava Dynasty, and continued by the Cholas in the 10th Century. The 100 pillared mandapam for which it is well known is a contribution of Krishnadevaraya. (after Hampi, I just love anything Krishnadevaraya associated ..it seems to have a whole different architectural feel to it)

It is significant for being one of the five Pancha bhootha sthalams in the country (the five elements). Srikalahasti is the Vayu linga (Air). The other four are at Tiruvannamalai (Fire), Chidambaram (Space), Tiruvanniakaval (Water), and Kanchipuram (Earth).

An interesting legend or belief is that the deepam in the sanctum sanctorium of this temple continuously flickers though there is no entry for air. The Vayu Linga connection.

Another fascinating piece of information from Harinath, our guide for the trip, was that this was the only temple that stays open during the eclipses.

I got back and researched: reason is this temple houses Rahu and Kethu, who are believed to cause the eclipse, and since they are worshipped here, no evil can befall the temple during eclipses. This sounds fairly simplistic to me, and I believe there might be further astronomical or astrological significance.

Considering it's one of my favourite temples, guess it only follows that Kalahasthi get a whole post devoted to it, even if titled Visit to Tirupathi :)

An Old Writeup

Did I Miss Writing - Dec 21 '2016

And how....

Ever since I started to blog (August 2014), I've never been this low on writing. The gaps I allowed myself were only travel gaps, so this made me wonder. I was very much in Bangalore, not in a full time job, the course gave me enough time.....yet I wasn't writing.

It made me step back and look deeper into the space. What's that relationship made off. ( the me with my writing one :)

And I got some startling answers.

It's pretty literally space to connect into oneself.

Writing can be ( is) in essence such an internal process, like a space inside of you that you make connection with........it's space to feel, to process, to be. And when that space gets taken up by other stuff, be it the life of detail, the demands of relationships, the concerns on specific issues, deeper internal processing........poof, it takes away this connect space.

My clock might show me available hours, but the connect may not happen. The mind space is taken see.....

Guess I did yesterday's post on 'know thyself' for a reason (nothing happens without reason). Maybe actually used 'meta cognition' to see what's up....look to what's blocking....all that jazz.

Made me all over again understand what being in the flow is....and to watch for how we can unknowingly, in a default kind of way, slowly drift off. And then to make a conscious choice; let the drift be for a while, the reason makes sense.... alternatively, to reconnect.

Taking the choice makes you realize that 'writing happens not when one has time, but to enable time'. Time is not a concept out there....it's the clarity inside the head........and that's what enables a lot of time, time to do all the things you want to do.

Enables living more consciously.

I've Missed Writing

And how.....

It's been two months. When I sat down to write today, while I thought I'd write about the visit to Tirupathi that I'm just back from, what came first was this thought that 'I'd missed writing'.

And then it started to feel like a deja vu. 

Pluses of a blog, almost like an alter ego space. I went and put in search word 'writing', and I was amazed to read what came up from two years back....so close to what I'd want to say now, that I decided to just post the same thing :)

A couple things I'd like to add though; while I primarily write for the love of writing itself, to hear it was missed is a whole other wonderful feeling : 

Mom: " I think my ipad has a technical glitch, I've been trying and it's each time opening an old post". (glitch was here ma, not in your ipad)

Vijji aunty calls, and even without a hello says "What Is Wrong With You??!!?? "(well well, closer to the truth than you know aunty :)

Swaroop: " what's up Smitha akka.....the silence is deafening"

Girija "It struck me only now that if not for your blog I would have missed so many wonderful, meaningful stories, events, thoughts.....it's what I start my day with.....really missing it re..."

Now you know why that wonderful feeling. It added so much more meaning and feeling.....thanks much for having let me know.

ooops....forgot to add the other post. Will do that separately, this one can be just to get into the feel of being back :)

Tumbbad

A film that I'd say reinvents horror in Indian Cinema.

A visually stunning film about folklore and metaphor and greed. Greed not just of man, but even God....demons not just out there, but as much within the mind.

Visually rich doesn't say enough of the brilliant cinematography, in terms of atmosphere, open landscapes juxtaposed with gripping claustrophobia. The incessant rain, which also the village is cursed with. create some stunning landscapes. Beautiful and eerie. Even to pick a picture to put in here, I got lost in looking as each is like a stunning painting.

A beautifully structured film, that gets told in three chapters between 1913 and 1947, with components of folklore, horror, drama and beauty.

It's a story set in Tumbbad, a cursed village that has created a temple to a god who was shunned for his greed. Ancestors of the god, continue to manifest the greed.  There's horror so yes, there are demons too. 

Rural Maharashtra of the pre-independence era......Brahmin patriarchy, the caste and gender oppression, the demons of greed....are all enmeshed into one weave of evil. It can't but haunt and overwhelm. 

It's rigorously and gloriously detailed, and I read later that it was seven years in the making, and you get why. And what's fascinating was to learn that Tumbbad really exists, close to Pune, and the film was shot in the Wada (fort) there. And what's more, the village does have a legend of a hidden treasure too.

I'm not going into storyline as it's yet in theatres, and I'd strongly recommend, especially the opportunity to catch it in large screen, so don't want to be a spoiler.

I'm not one to watch horror, but with Dhruva's strong recommendation, and willingness to come with me a second time,  I guess that one part of me caved. With reluctance I booked. And in the car when he said "amma, if there are scenes in the film you can't handle, don't get up and leave ok, just close your eyes and ears", I was all set for a real trip. 

It delivered that and way more. So so glad I went.