Visiting Rabindranath Tagore's House

Visiting Tagore's house was a secret wish which I didn't think would happen...but it happily did. Even finding it was an adventure. The most surprising being that no cab guy and no one on the streets seemed to have a clue where it was....or what it was..or even w.h.o it was. In fact one guy even asked "Tagore? woh hai kaun? ". 

Couldn't figure if he was more perplexed, or we were.

We came up with two theories to explain this. One that maybe we were being a little presumptuous.... was it possible that Tagore is known and revered more in the literate circles. Alternately, the Tagore's are actually Thakur's (Tagore is the anglicized name) and might be more widely known by that name, the house is called 'Thakur Wadi'.

Anyways, don't know which ....but a long and winding wild goose chase in yellow cab with a grouchy cab driver later, we found the place. (yellow cabs have no gps, and he was sceptical of following ours after having been misled once)

A few steps into the gate and we were transfixed and transported. Imagine the scene, this stately old red mansion.....a light drizzle......pretty much just us.........and then this pipe music.....an amazingly haunting and beautiful rendition of Tagore's poetry. It was just magical, a goose bumpy moment .....and added so much to the feel and experience of the place.

(If Gandhi's biography was a huge influence on me growing up....Tagore's was even more...I think I had a secret crush on him for a longish while)

The house is a stately 1784 family mansion, in which Tagore was born, and died. It now exhibits several of the family artifacts, some of his paintings, his poetry, his way of life, his living rooms, some of his quotations which were so worth staying with. There's also a picture of him with Einstein.

It's only there that we learnt that Tagore started painting at the ripe age of seventy two, and there was then such an outpouring through art that he has this huge body of work, and this museum was able to buy back around forty two of the paintings.

Rest in pics. Photography isn't allowed within the premises, so it's all from the outside, except the one which I happened to find online. And I put it here because it captured a moment.

The arch at entrance to the lane, which I understand reads "Tagore was born here, and it's here he breathed his last"

The story of the chair.....there's a photograph on the wall with him in the chair, and it suddenly gave me this little overwhelming and ghostly feel of connection....

That's one of the wings of the house, taken from the kitchen

I'm now all inspired to go back and read more of Tagore :)

The Bengali Wedding

I don't know if a Bengali wedding is more distinctive, or if it's the influence of some of my favourite movie directors...Satyajit Ray, Rituporna Ghosh, Aparna Sen.....whatever, whichever......fact is I have been curious and keen on attending a Bengali wedding ceremony.

A qwaish satisfied.

The morning we reached was the 'aai buro bhaat' ( literally translated, it's the last bachelor meal). It's a simple ceremony, the bridegroom being fed by his mother and others in the family.

A full plate, and what was fascinating was the blowing of conch shells in the background by his aunt, and a huge fish head taking prime space on the plate (not withstanding him whispering to his brother...yaar not the fish please :)

Evening was a fun cocktail party, with everyone letting their hair down, lots of wine and song and dance.

Next morning at breakfast, before the 'gaye holud' (the turmeric ceremony) we heard his mom say ' we are waiting for the fish to come' :)

The bridegrooms and company leaving HHI ( Hotel Hindustan International) for the venue

The venue was an old and stately zamindari mansion. What greets us as we enter is an authentic calcutta pan spread.

In addition to enjoying wedding gaiety and yummy food, we also got to meet and hang out with some of Saurabhs friends, which was fun and nice.

Raseeya, Prem, Priti, me, Ayaan (very obviously- the groom) Rathod and RK.

Develyn, thanks for sending this. No pic with you, Stan and Dan :(

Had to have one with Saurabh ofcourse !

Saurabh, was so so lovely to have shared this experience with you, and thanks a ton again for having hosted us and enabled it !!

Belur Math

Belur Math is the main monastery of the Ramakrishna Order.

It's a beautiful campus spread over forty acres right on the banks of the Ganges, about an hours drive from Calcutta.

Photography is not allowed, so pictures are courtesy Google.

The main temple is an interesting looking structure, which looks at one time like a temple, a cathedral, a mosque and maybe with shades of Mughal and Greek architecture. It is said to be an amalgamation of different religious faiths, symbolizing Ramakrishna's main mission of world religious unity. It was at Belur Math that Swami Vivekananda breathed his last.

The campus includes an aesthetically and interestingly laid our museum that charts the travels and lives of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. It's so beautifully done, that one can spend a couple of hours just in the museum alone.

They have 'bhog' a free lunch, which feeds almost 3000 people everyday, and we were lucky enough to make it to the lunch. It was so tasty....in fact the kheer could easily be the best I've ever had.

The main temple

 Inside of the temple

They published a coffee table book of Vivekananda's writings, like a manuscipt in his own handwriting as a 150th year birth anniversary commemoration. Priti and I, both picked up a copy each as memoir of our visit.

If visiting Calcutta, it's well worth setting aside half a day for Belur Math.

Visit to Kolkata

I struggled to say 'Kolkata' instead of 'Calcutta'. I think this is because visiting Calcutta has been a desire I've held on to for many a year now, and the desire just refused to change names :)

Priti and me outside the beautiful and statuesque Victoria Memorial. Like I read somewhere 'Calcutta is where India and England collide'.

While I would normally save a personal picture for the last, this is to express gratitude upfront. This trip wouldn't have happened but for Priti, so with thanks, I put this here first. It was Priti's first visit to Cal too, so we each only accentuated the others wide eyes gawking at every turn and sight.

For a week before travel, there was many a reason forcing cancellation... a friend actually said, "looks like signs.... don't you think you should listen and cancel". And I was like, "I'm done listening to signs....want to go with what I want" (freewill over destiny if you will :)

Calcutta is an experiential visit.

While it has enough and more 'must visit' places..... monuments, museums, temples, churches.........just being on the streets, gazing open eyed and dropped chin at what the city has to offer was experience enough.

Colonial structures.... modern and glitz.....apartments so old you wonder that people still live in them...... chai from kulhars.... being spoken to in bengali ( I get mistaken for being Bengali a lot)......the super friendly people on the street (from who we asked direction many a time). Calcutta is about soaking in the feel of these experiences.

What also stands out is the culture, the character, the artyness, the people.........I somehow didn't see any of the squalor and filth people talk off. In the beauty and richness of the place, the dirt on the street just wasn't visible.

And oh yes, the yellow ambassador taxis...they were yet another experience. We chose to opt out of Ola and Uber and stay with yellow taxis, some with no door handles, some with wipers sparingly used......you just hail them anywhere you are...very old time and lovely.

And what's more, it was raining pretty much through the trip, fortunately mostly a drizzle. We took a choice to not let the rain stop us....we were all the time out in a light drizzle, until we were both sniffling and sneezing, just enjoying the kulhar chai that much more each time.

While my visit was just two days ( rescheduled from four for work reasons), we still managed to do so so much. The wedding we went to attend was itself so much fun and so interesting, right from the aai buro bhaat, the fun cocktail party, gaye holud, saat paak, subho dristi, .....and then we managed to visit Belur Math, did bengal sharee shopping and even found Tagore's house. 

The rest in pictures:

My first view of the Howrah Bridge....

Before I could get a full view in the picture, we were on the bridge

Howrah bridge over river Hooghly (as the Ganges is locally called. pic courtesy google)

The beautiful and wide roads, likely new part of the city. This whole area was just so green and spread out, with maidans on both sides

Eden gardens up front. For some reason how many ever times I asked, the cab driver would not keep the wiper on ( likely it wasn't working...old ambassadors remember)

                           

An old and interesting looking building. After this I got off and got in front in the cab :)

Howrah Station which we passed on our way to Belur Math

Another old building

This apartment had peepal trees and, hold your breath.... banyan trees growing ON it

Preeti by the chai bandi....the lovely kulhar (clay cups) chai, the kulhars add such a distinct lovely aroma and flavor to the chai....the drizzle of course making it that much nicer

The kulhars itself

The 'glitzy modern' and the 'decayed and decrepit' together is a fairly common sight

Buying sharees (as it's spelt there)

Old LP records at a street side store

The Ganges, which we passed over Bally bridge on our search for Tagore's house

Getting yummy puchkas (as pani puri is called there)

That's Calcutta from it's streets. Will get to the wedding, Belur Math and Tagores house soon :)

And must say....."huge huge thanks to Saurabh for having hosted us for the wedding and enabled such a wonderful experience".

The Untethered Soul

Reading this book was an experience.

When I read it the first time, I enjoyed it, appreciated it....but didn't really go gaga over it. However, because I hadn't taken notes, I went back to a browse within a couple of days, and it's then that I found it talking a whole different language....found myself so absorbed..it became an immersion.  

I kind of understood Deepak Chopra's blurb on the book:

 "Read this book carefully and you will get more than a glimpse of eternity".

I am compelled to start with a little excerpt from it's synopsis:

Who are you really? 

What would it be like to be free from limitations and and soar beyond your boundaries? Whether this is your first exploration on inner space or you've devoted your life to the inner journey, this book provides an intuitive answer to transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you.

Then there's a quote from Shakespeare at the very beginning, one which maybe gives you also why Shakespeare is a name revered even today.

"This above all to thine own self by true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man"

Michael talks of the voice inside our head. How it's narrative is what connects us to our world and buffers reality. It gets overactive when we're anxious, worrying or fearful. And even when we are at peace, doing nothing, it still talks.

He talks of becoming aware of the voice, a meta level awareness.

 The first two chapters talk of the what of the book, of which here are some excerpts:

Awakening Consciousness:

"To be aware that you are watching the voice talk is to stand on the threshold of a fantastic inner journey. If used properly, the same mental voice that has been the source of worry, distraction and general neurosis can become the launching ground for true spiritual awakening"

"Consciousness is pure awareness. When you contemplate the nature of self, you are meditating. That is why meditation is the highest state. It is the return to the root of your being, the simple awareness of being aware"

Experiencing Energy:

If Consciousness is one of the great mysteries in life, Inner Energy is another.

"Creating thoughts, holding onto thoughts, recalling thoughts, generating emotions, controlling emotions and disciplining inner drives, all require a tremendous expenditure of energy.

This energy is sometimes there and sometimes not. When you are mentally nd emotionally drained, even food can't replace the energy lost.

Conversely, if you look at times when you were in love, or excited and inspired by something you are so filled with energy, you may not even need to eat.

This is an energy you draw from the inside. It is distinct from the outer energy source. It is always available to you.

The only reason you don't feel it all the time is because you block it. It flows through several energy centers in the body. For instance, the heart is an energy center we are very familiar with , one we intuitively know. When you are hurt you close it and energy can't flow. And depending on how closed you are, you either feel disturbance or lethargy. Energy needs openness and receptivity. 

And that is a choice. You can train yourself to keep it open, under normal circumstances our state of openness is left to psychological factors. The only thing you really need to feel are enthusiasm, joy and love.

Can you feel that within you.

Can you make it happen irrespective of external triggers. If you can stay open no matter what, you get for free what everybody else is struggling for, love, excitement, enthusiasm, energy.

The more you stay open, the more the energy flow can build. At some point, so much energy comes into you that it starts flowing out of you. You can actually feel it. What is more, the energy affects other people, people can pick up on your energy, and you are then feeding them with this flow.

You can even affect the health of your body with your energy flow.

This energy can heal.

Yet this is not as simple as it sounds, as we are filled with energy blockages from a very long time. Patterns that cannot make it through you, are pushed out of the forefront of the mind and held until you are prepared to release them. You have a choice. You have to decide if you want stored pain blocking your heart and limiting your life. Alternative is to be willing to let it go when it gets stimulated, it only hurts for a while and then it's gone.

Your reward is a permanently open heart. Set your eyes on the highest state.

Our survival instinct, earlier used extensively physiologically is now turned towards defending psychologically, the fight to defend our self concepts. 

Ultimately if you protect yourself perfectly, you will never grow. Life stagnates when people protect their stored issues.

You can start in the present. Your center of consciousness is always stronger than the energy that is pulling on it. You just have to be willing to exercise your will. Not as a fight or a struggle. Feeling the energies of fear, jealousy or attraction don't make you pure or impure. They just are. Don't think you'd be free if you just didn't have these kinds of feelings. It's not true. If you can be free even though you have these kinds of feelings, then you're really free.....because there will always be something. You need to learn to be centered even through them.

With practice you will see that the types of events that would have destroyed you in the past can come and go, leaving you perfectly centered and peaceful. No matter what events take place in life, it is always better to feel and let go, than to close. 

After you've put years and years into this process, and learned to let go no matter how deep the pain, you will achieve a great state. 

You will then be free to explore the nature and source of your true being - Pure Consciousness.

The rest of the book is in essence the 'how' of it. He eventually talks of the 'tao' from 'Tao te Ching' one of the deepest of all spiritual teachings.

Chapter by chapter, 'The Untethered Soul' walks you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness.

With a paradoxical simplicity and profundity, the book opens the door and shows a path, to a life lived in freedom....the freedom of your innermost being.

Blue Valentine

A beautiful and I guess, painful movie.......a complex portrayal, or maybe portrayal of a complex, once beautiful and now crumbling marriage.

It's tender, raw.....sad and real. A story of how two people can fall in love and for reasons known and unknown fall out of love. Sad when the falling out happens to one and not the other. That's where it gets raw and real.

Cindy ( Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) meet, fall in love, get married, have a child......and slowly the differences in their personalities, their approach, their ways start to grow. As I read somewhere, he got into marriage as a station, and she got in for the train. 

The movie runs through six years of a marriage, and flits back and forth between the difficult present and the beautiful beginning. The director Derek Cianfrance, has gone so subtle and deep that he sucks you into their lives and creates almost an uncomfortable proximity. 

Her journey starts to show the cracks and there's no one big reason, which is why it can get under your skin. The very same qualities which appealed to her, the romantic, the dreamer, the winsome guy slowly start to get intolerable as she sees the other side of the very same traits.

It raises some deep and relevant questions. How do relationships fail? how is it that at one point in love everything about the other is beautiful, and then it turns sour? Is it possible to pause and change course, or are there times when certain relationships just contain seeds of the end? How many relationships continue on contrived ecosystems? Most difficult, does one just stay and work at it, in the process prolonging pain and disconnect? 

Cindy ( Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) were brilliant ...... when young and full of tenderness, energy and love...... and then the present, where even her smile is forced and takes effort.

The realization, the acknowledgement, the sadness to let go something that was once beautiful, and the courage it takes to do so. Michelle Williams I thought was outstanding, as it's she who's on the journey, and he can but stand and watch.

A definitely worthwhile watch.

Modern laziness

From Seth

The original kind of lazy avoids hard physical work. Too lazy to dig a ditch, organize a warehouse or clean the garage.

Modern lazy avoids emotional labor. This is the laziness of not raising your hand to ask the key question, not caring about those in need or not digging in to ship something that might not work. 

Lazy is having an argument instead of a thoughtful conversation. Lazy is waiting until the last minute. And lazy is avoiding what we fear.

Lazy feels okay in the short run, but eats at us over time.

Laziness is often an option, and it's worth labelling it for what it is.