The Art Exhibition - Closing

Vibrations of Colours, the art exhibition with Sujata, has been an incomparable experience for me.

If I thought my purpose and effort was about supporting Sujata through this endeavour, enabling her to make it happen......it turned out to be that, and a lot lot more.

I found my learning and experience enhanced several notches. Spending a week in the company of this group of artists, delving into their lives, their stories, their dreams, their ups, their downs......it allowed me a peep into a whole different world.....and I came away that much more enriched for it.

And what's more, I now have invitations from Malyadri and Sujata to be with them in their exhibitions in Hyderabad and Delhi, which is a woohoo, whether or not I go :)

The closing was a small but austere ceremony, with certificates being given to each of the artists by Shahistha, an avid art collector from Goa. She spoke really well, telling them how after an exhibition people will ask about sales or money but to be able to look beyond that and paint for the love of it, and what it takes to continue being there.

Not radical new thoughts, but nevertheless precious. Considering there's enough and more sceptics and naysayers out there in the world that one encounters on regular basis, any reiteration helps.  And when said with the warmth and conviction that Shahistha did, it helps even more......helps keep the faith, the balance, the passion. A case of repetition does not spoil the prayer.

That said, sales are exciting too ! Sujata sold one on the last day, and so did Raju.

Rest in pictures:

Sujata with her buyer and the painting she sold

A couple of pictures of Kala Academy....though I don't know how I missed the canteen by the lawns next to the river, where we had innumerable coffees :)

Raju with his paintings

A universal favourite, Malyadri's masterpiece. I would have bought it if I could have afforded it, but it was a whopping 2.75 lakh.

A monsoon scene by Chandrababu, another of my favourites

A pretty underwater scene by Pavithra

The other painting which got sold...by Raju

All of these were done by Chandrababu on this trip to Goa,  sitting by the beach.... one of these got sold too.

Press coverage. The NavHind times the most popular local daily

Gomantak Today

Dainik Herald, Goa

 Daily NavPrabha

Sujata receiving her certificate from Shahistha

The closing talk to the intimate artist group by Shahistha

The corner.....if we weren't drinking coffee in the canteen, we were sitting here and chatting up all day

Had to put a closure for myself...... sunset at Kala Academy by the river

Expanding horizons is such a beautiful process of growth.......

The Last of the Beaches

Well it's Goa.......  and what with staying inland, plus Sujata being as familiar as she is with Goa, each day she picked a new beach. 

This was Baga Beach......and a whole different experience.

We did an hours morning walk, strolled around where the river meets the sea, always a favourite spot with me.  Then we decided to do breakfast at a beach side shack, and found a nice one called Bobby's shack.

What started as a chilling at around 8 am just kept on......and it got to noon and we were still sitting there, alternating between chilled beer and cold coffee.

And in between the beer and the coffee Sujata decided to fulfill another long standing qwaish....the jet ski. Told you she was gutsy :)

By the time we were ready to leave, the sun was well up, and we were ill prepared for how hot sand gets in summer. Having come before seven we'd left our footwear in the car. And much as we were trying for spots of shade, within ten minutes we were in trouble. Big trouble. We just couldn't walk, or run or jump or hop....... we actually had burn blisters on our soles. 

At one point Sujata's standing in some tiny spot of shade and saying "Smi, nahi hoga...mein tho mar jaaungi".  

That was funny, in retrospect, especially later when she says "how were you so calm under such a horrible situation?". It was really bad......so bad that even writing this is making my soles tingle. Like I said, each beach a different experience.

In pictures:

On our walk

Where the river meets the sea

Some doggy friends on the way

At Bobby's shack

Gazing into the ocean for hours

Sujata on the jet ski...that's quite a bumpy tough ride

Sipping cold coffee while she was gone

Us ......and the sea

I don't think I've ever spent that many hours just gazing into the sea; realized how wonderful a place it is to just 'be'.

The Tattoo Story

This story needed capturing.

I'm sitting on the beach, gazing into the sea....the beach near Dona Paula, and from nowhere at all there's this thought in my head that I want a tattoo.....and what's more, I even knew what.

A wave.

Don't know if it was a connect to the ocean.......a mood triggered by the dona Paula statue visible in the distance.... or just sitting where I was.

That experience in itself was strange. It's like the thought came in from the outside, like it got put there. 

And there it was.

With the thought playing around in my head, I messaged Diksha. And then experienced a mind blowing coincidence. I'm putting here the what's app exchange between us (to be preserved for posterity)

What are the chances right. Of the million trillion possibilities, we'd both thought of 'a wave' in the same moment......telepathy or the universe playing with our minds.....whatever it was, it pretty much sealed it.

And then I'm quickly thinking of what it symbolizes, the cognitive mind kicked in. :)

And the thoughts about a 'wave'......gentle and relentless, wild and calm, dangerous and beautiful,  momentary and permanent.........it's almost  made up of contradictions and paradoxes. And that so resonated.

I went the very same evening....and to the same place I'd got my first tattoo all of ten years back.

Sujata's trying to make conversation, and I'm like shhhhshh....need to focus to handle the pain, and she got this picture :)

I sent diksha this within minutes not realizing that unevenness was drops of blood until she told me  :)

If right now I sound tattoo obsessed, I am........I love the tattoo.

Each time I look at it, which is like a hundred times a day ( as I took Diksha's advise and did it on the side of my wrist) I feel a deeper sense of understanding ....of acceptance .... a wave of new learning (pun intended :)

Dona Paula and more.......

An esoteric experience.

It was a day of so many uncanny 'coincidences' that it felt like being in a whole different vibrational frequency zone.

Plan was to go to Baga, but Sujata got up saying "Smi, have you been to Dona Paula?".

I hadn't. And have wanted to. Coincidence 1 of the day

Added to that, I had on my to visit list, the homestay I'd used on my first solo trip, which meant much and was wondering how and when. Turns out this was close to Dona Paula, so here was my answer - Coincidence 2 

Dona Paula is more a historical landmark than beach......it has these two, kind of abstract, wind worn statues, with folklore having several stories around them. One can easily imagine why when we see them ....two mysterious statues standing there, each looking in different directions.... against the wind and sea. It touches something....did feel a deep and profound something.

Rest in pictures:

The Dona Paula mound

Was fascinating to see these women maneuvering themselves around those rocks....looked like they were collecting mussels or some such

The breathtaking scene the other side

So beautiful; picture credit Sahil Sahadevan

The knox statues...picture credit google

A selfie

Sujata, all poised and pretty 

The market all shut down as it is now closed to the public

A spot I love

Oh yes, I forgot to write the rest of the coincidences, guess Dona Paula did that to me.

This was a morning when we both, Sujata and I, also did our own thing......some alone time kinds.

I'm sitting there, gazing into the sea.... thoughts are drifting....times standing still....thinking music, and these songs pinged into my phone just at that very moment. I was stunned at the timing...simply amazing - Coincidence 3

Sitting there is when the thought of a tattoo flashed into my mind, and then messaging with Diksha where we both got the exact same thought of 'a wave' for a tattoo - Coincidence 4

Sujata and I then met up and we're doing breakfast at a restaurant. They have music playing, a westlife number that means much to me - Coincidence 5

And it didn't stop there... it abruptly shifts to old hindi, and in the middle of a sentence I'm asking Sujata " oh my god, yeh gaana yaad hai?". And she's like "school ka time na....we byhearted it word by word and sang it together "..... Chand mera dil from Yaadon Ki Baraat - Coincidence 6

And one of the songs I'd listened to just an earlier, sitting in my spot....also from Yaadon Ki Baaraat - Coincidence 7

Back in Sterling, she's asleep...I'm lying in bed.....I'm thinking something and in a few minutes, almost in semi sleep she responds to my thought without my having uttered a word. A clear clear case of telepathy -  Coincidence 8

I decided to get my tattoo the same evening, and Sujata had planned dinner at Brittos. This was crazy, because Brittos is where I'd got my first tattoo all of ten years back.  I got it done there again - Coincidence 9

Now you know what I mean.

Energy shifts can create magic and miracles........................

A quirky experience

We had quite a few from times we got lost, but this one I thought deserves mention : 

Day 4 in Goa,  I thought I'd take a day off the art show, so Sujata was on her own for the first time. She's not as used to driving with maps, so on her way back she pulls over to ask for directions:

Sujata: bardez kis taraf jaana hai?

Random guy: kidar?

Sujata: bardez

Random guy: kidar madam?

Sujata: bardez bhaiyyaa

Random guy: baahar desh?

Sujata: kya?

Random guy: baahar desh ? aap ko airport jaana hai ?

Sujata: hai ram 

Random guy: madam, aap ko massage chahiye?

It sure had me in splits when she later narrated it to me.

An Island Frozen In Time....

Back to the Goa chronicles.

A visit to Divar island.....an island said to be 'frozen in time'.

For knowing of this, I owe full thanks to Swaroop. He told me to visit even the last time I went to Goa, but then I couldn't. This time round, being there a whole week, plus a car with us, it had to be a now or never kinds. Luckily for us it was now.

It was such a quaint and atypical Goan experience.

Lonely Planet says of Divar island:

Stepping off the ferry from San Pedro onto beautiful little riverine Divar Island, you have the distinct feeling of entering the land that time forgot. Surrounded by marshy waters and crisscrossed with sleepy single-lane roads, the island makes for lovely, languid exploration, and though there’s not much particularly to see, it’s a serene and seldom-visited place to take in the atmosphere of old-time rural Goa.

That's exactly what we felt. Nothing particular to see or do, but just go around the island, stopping for neembu soda or an occasional picture when we felt like it. I was fascinated by the old time look and feel of the houses there.

Went to this old Gothic church on a little hillock...... the sea in the distance....an old banyan tree....not a soul in sight, just birds chirping....and we sat under the banyan tree for god knows how long..... it really was one of those 'time stood still times'. 

The only way to the island is by ferry ( needless to say...it's an island :). But I mention it as we're using google maps, and at one point it said 'straight and now left', and this was the left, straight into the river....

ofcourse, it then said 'now take a ferry' :)

From on the ferry

also from the ferry

the car on the ferry

an interesting looking anchor....and I have a fetish I think, I'm strangely attracted to anchors

Onto the island....it's a few kilometers of straight empty road with just barren land on either side until you reach the village in the heart of the island

as we drove into the village......I was totally mesmerized by the houses there, so there's lots of those

The church. It was sadly closed

The view of the Mandovi from outside

A simple but austere looking graveyard by the church

Under the banyan tree..... 

Leaving the island

Swaroop, many many thanks. When Sujata asked "why Divar island, what's on it?", I could only say "don't know, I only know Swaroop said "smitha akka, you should go" and I fully trust that" :)

My May Day Baby

Diksha and I had another of our early morning sessions on the terrace, made all the more special by it being her birthday...my may day baby

All of 23, and she blew me with this today "Ma, I'm so much like you, it's crazy.......and you're the most spiritually liberated person I know........and I have such a long way to go to get there". True or not another story, but sounded pretty  profound. And psssst....  of course I loved it :)

As always I'm capturing the morning through a song she played, but first a couple of pictures.

then

now

The  song she dedicated to today:

 A very very happy birthday deech !!