Three Years of Blogging !

A casual conversation (in retrospect not so) with a friend yesterday...and I had two 'ahas' come out of it.

One, a recall kind...the fact that it's been 3 years since I started this journey of blogging. It was in August of 2014 that it began, and what a journey it's been.

And second, and more significant, a more conscious awareness of how deeply it changed my very way of life.

So, here's a little tribute. 

There's a Zen quote: 

"Before enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water"

What does it mean?

Well, enlightenment doesn't shift you from your home in Hyderabad to a cave in the Himalayas. No. It's that you do the same thing, but you do it from a different space, from a different dimension.

At the cost of sounding cheeky, Blogging has been pretty close. No, not to enlightenment, but to underlying change :)

How? It would seem like it's about thinking a little, articulating a little, writing a little..... on daily basis. Well, it is all of that...and it's also more. And it's not just about the time I sit down to write, or how much I enjoy writing....it's more all pervasive than that.

Almost like a deeper connect into life.

Every single experience just has this subtle, additional layer added to it. There is you as the participant and there is also you as the observer.  A keener eye for detail, a deeper feel for emotion, a finer understanding of story, a sharper observation of the other........anything, and there's an added dimension. A hovering awareness as it's called. And that's pretty much life changing, and that's what this tribute is dedicated to. That fundamental underlying shift.

A shift that enables a one level more enhanced connectedness with life.........and with self. One that's made life that one notch (or several notches) more meaningful. One that I hold cherished and dear today.

While  I'll be happy to say I write for myself, the paradox here is...if I didn't know you were reading, I don't know if I'd be writing. So thanks tons and tons.

I sign off, grateful and glad.

Chilka Lake

Chilka Lake is what's called a 'brackish water lagoon', the largest coastal lagoon in the country covering an area of over a thousand square kilometers, spread across three districts of Orissa. It is the second largest such lagoon in the world.

For those who aren't familiar (I too wasn't until I researched to write this :), a lagoon is a relatively shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or coral reefs. Chilka is a coastal lagoon as it is separated by a reef from the Bay of Bengal. They have neither a fresh water inflow, nor a tidal inflow.

It's a longish boat ride that we took, over four hours. This was our cup of tea before embarking on our little voyage, fully equipped with hats (which are rented out there for Rs.20), and munchies, and lots and lots of water. The humidity is so high, you're pouring sweat continuously (atleast I am :)

This was our little boat, being drawn ashore, with Mahesh our boatman

And we were off, full of excitement and anticipation (the brochure said sighting of red crab, dolphins and migratory birds)

Chilka is the largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian sub continent, and though it wasn't yet season, we were told there would be some birds, though not many ( only much later did we realize that the 'some to many' contrast could be 3 to tens of thousands :)

'The chilka lagoon hosts over 160 species of birds in the peak migratory season. 

Birds from as far as the Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Aral Sea and other remote parts of Russia, Kirghiz steppes of Mongolia, Central and southeast Asia, Ladakh and Himalayas come here. These birds travel great distances; migratory birds probably follow much longer routes than the straight lines, possibly up to 12,000 km, to reach Chilika Lake.' (this is info straight from wikipedia :)

As we started we saw extensive prawn farming happening along the coast

After a whole hour of being just us and our little boat on this wide expanse of water, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by many other boats....they'd all got together at a known  dolphin spotting site. I lucked out as I saw one dolphin, and after that there were none. In fact it's a surprise I saw even that one, what with all the boat motors roaring away creating a deafening buzz. After a fifteen minute wait, we all went our own ways.

Some fishing we saw along the way. And we also saw ferries. There are 132 fishing villages alongside the lake and several boats do regular passenger ferrying village to village, it's like a regular bus service.

Surekha enjoying the ride at the helm of ship

A lone falcon. When you're looking for birds and you see none, the single falcon devouring his catch was sight enough for a shot

These were birds we enjoyed. It was so very cute how it was one single crow that dropped by, and as we shared our chips and chudwa, more and more crows just kept flying in from god knows where (as you can see the shore was really distant)

 Our lunch halt on an island

Despite all my resolutions not to get fish this time round after a previous experience at Bhubaneshwar, I again did. And all over again we got the fish served whole, eyes and tail intact. (it was so very yummm though, once you get over those eyes staring at you) The only menu there......dal rice , raw onion and a green chilly, (which in itself was also yummm...just that rustic feel to it) with either prawn or crab or fish, all freshly caught.

This doggy was so cute as he was trying hard to break through the shell to reach the tender coconut within, and he went coconut by coconut. Very saatvik taste for sure.

This, at a distance were the only migratory birds we saw...three big cranes...the white dots you'll see if you strain your eye, just as we did. And that's all the bird sighting there was. Lesson learnt. Want to see migratory birds, don't fall for 'thode rahenge' (some are there).....go in season o.n.l.y.

After the initial disappointment at no dolphins and no birds, we decided to enjoy just the lake, though we had to admit, four hours was bit much for that. A big plus though...the boat was so flat and open that we could turn aside and sit with our feet in the choppy waters, and that was so much fun. It's only later that I learnt that there are innumerable species of snakes and crocodiles that inhabit the lake. Ignorance is bliss is not for nothing :)

It was an Au Revoir to Chilka, as I definitely want to go see the migratory birds, especially the flamingoes, so inshallah, whenever next

Jagannath Puri

The Jagannath temple in Puri is one of the larger temples in the country and well known for being one of the four 'Char Dham' pilgrimage sites located at the four cardinal points. It dates back to the 11th century, making it even older than the Konark temple.

The picture is courtesy Google (we weren't allowed cell phones into the premises)

It's said to be a really powerful temple, and that to me reads as 'sthanabalam' (intense energy center), and I guess that it was. You just feel it there, and this despite the crowds and the disorderliness of the place.

Surekha and I are both morning people, so we chose to do an early morning darshan. Actually up at 4.30 and out by 5.30 (it gets dawn at 4.30 at puri this time of year). I can't even imagine what the crowd at a later hour would have been like. Even this early we struggled with the push and shove mentality that seems commonplace in temples.

While it is called the Jagannath temple, it is actually dedicated to three principal deities, the trimurti it is called;  Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, who represent the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent nature of the supreme power. The deities are very different from the idols we are used to. These are made of wood, have no hands and have such huge eyes...in fact, that's all you see when you look into the sanctum sanctorium, those big big eyes staring back at you........they are literally mesmerizing.

For all my non believing, I went and bought myself a small wooden replica. Guess that's what mesmerizing does. Different story that Diksha gets up the next morning to see them in the hall shelf and says "what are those creepy looking things you got ma?" (couldn't help but smile)

The Jagannath Rath Yatra is the most important and well known cart festival of India.  It's quite often that we read about people getting crushed under it's wheels, as thousands vie to even touch the ropes that pull the chariots, and yet it draws millions of pilgrims each year.

These were the wheels parked outside

One of the chariots used. The three deities are taken out in procession on three such chariots.

A cow enjoying getting stroked by this guy, you can tell from the expression right, the cow's I mean :)

Footpath markets near the temple entrance

Surekha buying some rudraksha mala's

The temples in Orissa have this custom of people lighting little clay diyas which are sold in varying sizes, ranging from Rs.2 to Rs.20 each depending on size.

Outside the main temple is a four level stand which can accommodate around two to three hundred lamps, and at any point in time there are so many lit lamps there. Since we're not allowed cameras in the temple, no picture. And what's surprising is that search as I did, I didn't find even one picture of this anywhere on Google images. The only picture I found is of these unlit diyas.

I found it to be a really pretty sight and an endearing custom. (I love diyas so I guess :)

Visit to Konark

A trip that seemed to form out of thin air. Maybe every trip does, but this felt more so because of the way it came about. 

Surekha was coming down from New Zealand, and she calls a couple months back to say "smitha, chal ek trip banaa, mein teen din jaldi aare, kahin tho chalthe hain" .  And we start with thinking of a drive to Bidar, and then go all the way to thinking Darjeeling, Madurai, Kajuraho, Lucknow ......and finally zero in on Konark. As random as that.

This is the tour we did ....Bhuvaneshwar, Konark, Puri and Chilka Lake. (the red line). 

We landed at Bhuvaneshwar, drove down to Puri, 60 kms from Bhuvaneshwar and that was our base. Puri, has some lovely places to stay alongside the beach. Only issue was that the dates we picked happened to be a long weekend and it was ever so crowded. Didn't stop us doing all that we wanted though, and actually more.

Day 1 we did Konark, Day 2 was Jagannath Puri temple and Chilka Lake. And Day 3 was just more (inefficient planning left us with almost a whole day to fill in with miscellaneous stuff) and we did just that. Loads of shopping, the Shanthi stupa at Dhauli, Lingraj mandir and the Ekambarnath ayurvedic garden in Bhuvaneshwar 

Let me start with Konark.

The Konark sun temple is a UNESCO heritage site and is said to be on many of the seven wonders of the world lists. It is a 13th century construction, a temple structure built  as a gigantic chariot to the Sun God Surya, with 12 pairs of massive wheels and drawn by seven huge galloping horses. It has amazingly beautiful and elaborate carvings on the wheels, pillars and walls. 

While a major part is in ruin and we can only see it from the outside, it can easily take a few hours even for casual visitors like us, so intricate are it's sculptures. 

As said by Rabindranath Tagore 'here the language of stone surpasses the language of the human'

Our first sighting as we got off the car:

A clearer picture

The famed konark wheels, from which Ashoka drew inspiration for the Ashoka Chakra, which is today India's emblem.

 

The temple is believed to have been built by Narasimhadeva Deva of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty in 1255 CE.

Dedicated to the sun god, the temple is said to denote the passage of time. Each wheel is a sun dial and can be used to tell the time to the minute. It is said that the seven horses represent the seven days of the week, and twelve wheels the months of the year.

The sculptures have a theme. The base is a lot of animals, real and mythical including dragons and giraffes, clearly showing African and Chinese influence. There is  a lot of art and war, a lot of snake (nagakanyas), hunting scenes, rampaging elephants, dashavatar (atleast eight of the avatars) and scenes from daily life. Representing time from every dimension I guess.

There is a  whole level devoted to very graphic erotica, which by any standards is bold. It's bold, not just in its level of detail, but also in concept. After a while of walking around, sculptures of a single man and woman seem passe...there is lesbian and homosexual sculptures, voyeuristic participation, threesomes and more. 

In a society as closed as ours, it's interesting to see so much explicit erotica, and especially fascinating was to hear the guides explain to tourists. I overheard this one guide say to a group "sir, this position very difficult, woman has to lift leg like this", and then to see the discomfort of unsuspecting parents who had come with young children, youngsters unable to keep a straight face...all adding to the experience. 

Once we were done with our walking around, the two of us just sat around a couple of hours purely observing all of this, and ofcourse to take in the energy and experience of a space from hundreds of years back that yet reverberates with so much artistic overtone and energy.

Pictures of the wheels, pillars and walls 

Each of the twenty four wheels, and each spoke of the wheel had different sculptures, and just look at the intricacy of design.

One of the many erotic panels. I hesitate to put them up as single pictures because of the level of exaggerated detail.

A series on dancers. There's a lot of odishi dance poses, so graceful even in stone.

The half snake figurines made me almost think that one needed ones kundalini energy to be awakened to create such high energy art. 

There are three idols of the Sun god in different directions, each placed to catch sunrays during dawn, noon and dusk. It is said that there was a huge magnet and several layers of iron used to have the main idol suspended in air. Local legend says the magnet was so huge as to disturb the compasses of passing ships and was hence removed by the Portugals who did a lot of trade with the region, after which a lot of the temple collapsed.

While there are many a theory of why the temple collapsed, what is known is that in 1903 the temple was filled with sand and permanently sealed to avoid further collapse.

It has scaffoldings on a lot of walls where restoration work seems ongoing. Inspite of the scaffoldings and most of it in ruins, it is still an overarchingly beautiful and an overwhelming experience. Can't help all the adjectives, no ordinary words can capture.

More pictures, well, more personal pictures.....

A massive tree that looked over a few hundreds of years old at the least. Just loved being there.

The market on the other side, with lots of local handcraft and ofcourse replicas of the famed konark wheels.(which ofcourse I also got :)

After all the selfies, and our guide gone, we got one guy to do a final picture to capture us, totally tired and fully satiated as we were end of day.

Rediscover Aug '2014

Looks like Rediscover is becoming a series of it's own.

What Google sent me today was one of my trips from SELCO, a visit to Udipi and surrounding villages. 

That's Uday next to a hut, actually shack, not even a hut. You see the pole which supports the solar panel. It's a single light bulb panel, and the only source of electricity for that family.

And the longer picture was my view from the lodge I was staying in. Yes, lodge, which is why it was better looking out the window than in the room. My first experience in a lodge, and have to admit, it wasn't easy. The one thing that came closest to breaking my resolve was the lodges I've stayed in.

But then..... the rest of it. The rest of it exists. After all we had objective of providing electricity to those who weren't connected to the grid, which would have to be the most interior of villages. So how would it work if I expected to stay in fancy hotels and yet needed to keep objective in focus. This is when conflicting wants surface and mess up, and it takes clarity to know what really matters and what will be sacrificed for what.

I owe it to the SELCO experience to having learnt how some of those resolutions are so romanticized when spoken, but the reality, the stark naked truth of all that it involves becomes  visible only when the rubber hits the road, so to say.

The nicer parts. Udipi is the famed space from which 'Udipi food' originates. This is a further specialized menu of the tulunadu region. Look at this menu. Loved the neer dosa.

A couple more pictures from that visit. You see the solar panel on the roof. Plus I loved the clothes drying in the umbrella.

Us in one of the the more impoverished villages we visited

Yet another hut electrified by SELCO

Gosh, nostalgia can be intoxicating (was going to say overwhelming, but found a more appropriate word :)

Brene Brown - The Anatomy of Trust

Watch - Surely adds perspective

Scent of a Woman

A film that grips you from start to end with it's strong and intense performances; two extreme personalities who happen to share one thanksgiving weekend, and in that experience find their lives changed forever.

If Al Pacino, got an Oscar for his acting as a corrosively cynical, blatantly rude and yes, plus blind Colonel Frank Slade , Chris O'Donell as the boy growing into manhood deserves no less, with his subtle, subdued and constantly on the edge performance.

Charlie (O'Donell) is a scholarship (aid) student at a snobbish British school, and while all his classmates get to go on fancy holidays, he answers to an advertisement of a weekend job looking after Colonel Slade (Al Pacino).

While Charlie is all set for a weekend in Slade's home, Slade has other plans. He wants to spend the weekend in NewYork, all fancy and indulgent, stay in The Waldorf Astoria and experience a woman, a long held fantasy. While his deeper fantasy is to rest his head on the lap of a woman who loves him, he lets that remain fantasy, and sets out to fulfill atleast the fantasy of a woman.

He's so obsessed, he can tell by the scent the soap and the perfume of a woman. There's almost no woman is the whole movie. What we see of his fantasy is his walking into the hotel and out again as Charlie waits for him outside. Guess that's where, literally for him and metaphorically for us, comes in the title of the film.

There's also a subplot of Charlie being in a tight spot at school, on the verge of being expelled if he doesn't talk on some others, a dilemma he carries through the movie.

Slade is tough.  The movie starts with Slade sitting in a darkened room, his glass of whiskey in hand (forgot to add alcoholic to his description) and stacking insult after insult on Charlie, his voice and expression ferocious and dramatic to say the least..."don't shrug you imbecile, I'm blind". Several times you think Charlie will break under that constant provocation and pressure.

It's connect and tenacity at crazy levels. 

As film it's hard to sit back and  be objective on, it seems to suck you in further with each scene. And while it seemingly ends on a positive and bright note, it leaves you with a sadness and poignancy as end of weekend they each go their own way.