From a vagrant soul

I found it, I found it!

2006-11-15T18:22:47Z

Let there be light

2006-10-23T15:07:15Z

Edit: The pic made it here

Diwali ki shubh kamnaye

2006-10-19T16:46:45Z

A grey afternoon in Kochi

2006-10-07T11:44:46Z

In August I did two trips to Kerala. The first one was just travelling with no-hopping-to-meet-relatives trip. The second one meant travelling to meet relatives and smiling and answering the same question, "when's-the-marriage?" I wish I knew!

The first trip was great fun, but after some heavy-duty travelling and sight-seeing, we decided to take it easy in Kochi. So we spend two good days at the Bay Pride Mall. For once not checking places but people. When epithets like hopeless, city-people-like, lewd came our way, we took it seriously, and went and watched Kathakali. This time it was Dushasana-vadam. Then next morning we went back to the mall, doing what we were quite enjoying — people watching. Then the thought of those epithets made us take boats and go sight-seeing again only to get back to the mall again in the evening. We knew evening meant talking about the places we had been to. So we clicked some random pictures, mostly from the little boats that we took to cruise around the city.

So here's Kochi esp for nandu and vivek.

Vidyaarambham

2006-10-02T09:21:17Z

Today is Vidyaarambham, a day when children are intiated into the world of letters. In 2004, on this day I started learning music. I thought it would be a good idea to gift teacher some of my fave classical songs. So I compiled all the songs but didn't find the time to write it on a CD. Here's the list

Manasuloni
Mahaganapathim
Manaviyalakim
Bhavayami
Raguvamshapade
Sree Vinayakam
Ennatavam Seydanai Yasoda
Alai Payude Kanna

Most of them in my fave Yesudas' voice.

Here's a link to one of my friend, Joseph's audio blog. Often when I play his songs at home, people ask me if Yesudas is at home. No such luck, don't know if he sounds like Yesudas but melodious he is.

Now who wouldn't agree!

2006-09-23T08:46:01Z

A long time ago when this was true

2006-09-22T10:53:38Z

I can talk to you and you to me without a scrap of effort, and that's the essence of a relationship. It's made up of things as small as the diameters of hairs (like yours) and as big as life and death....... One only dreams of friendships like this and never believes that it actually exists. It's the rarest luck, the wildest, most impossible accident. Most people, I know talk uneasily in unfamiliar tongues, to be afraid of the knowledge the other one has, of the other one's perpetual misjudgement and misunderstandings.

from Ann Veronica — A Modern Love Story by H G Wells

A must-visit blog

2006-09-20T08:10:14Z

Blogger Aparna adds a new flavour to news, check out her very enjoyable blog in Limerick form!

music to all ears

2006-09-20T07:01:42Z

Music can uplift the spirit like no other. Recently, a distraught and angered me, was cursing my luck as I couldn't vent my anger on a friend whom luck was favoring. His phone was dead. To add to it I was trying to eat some awful tasting food at a resturant in Kochi. Just then I heard Mahaganapathim being played on the violin. In minutes my anger had dissappeard and I was relishing tasteless food. Mahaganapathim is one among of my favorite keerthanams, it is a fave among most of my closest friends! With most Sanskrit and Tamil keerthanams, I get a gist of the meaning but Kannada and Telugu keerthanams are beyond comprehension. Karnatik.com has all the gyaan that one would need with translations!

Another great music source to be explored shared by sajith www.musopen.com/

indumol @ 2006-09-18T19:18:00

2006-09-18T13:50:44Z

When 'ifs' and 'buts' were away snoring,
I added 'me' and 'you', got 'us',
I gave 'you' a color you'd never have,
It gave me such joy,
To toy with us.

From publications

2006-09-02T15:39:32Z

Durga puja deifies the victory of good over evil, the evil being Mahisasura. Kolkata artisan Dillip Pal puts Greg Chappell's likeness on the face of Mahisasura.

From the Outlook: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060901&fname=kolkata&sid=1

Second stop — Pondicherry

2006-08-23T06:38:23Z

More pics from PONDY

Carved by the beach

2006-08-21T07:59:18Z

Mammallapuram, our first stop on our 11-day long trip.

The Shore Temple (Mamallapuram)

Arjuna's Penance

Krishna's Butter Ball

More pics from Mahabalipuram

One man's misery another man's news!

2006-08-16T15:34:41Z

Last evening while flipping news channels, we came across a news item which shocked us. This was on the channel Aaj Tak, it started with the presenter talking about India being independent for 59 years and how there is rampant corruption among others. Now this statement was not supported with an expose but a gruesome sight. There was a build-up before a ghastly video went on air. A man in Gaya, Bihar, was threathening officials that he would immolate himself was he not paid the money that the state-run dairy owed him. This distressed man set himself on fire and the crew from Aaj Tak shamelessly shot it and actually telecasted it. They repeatedly showed this man on fire running around while the crew did nothing but continue shooting. The presenter asked the reporter if anyone among the authorities would take him to the hospital. It just seemed more important to make news of the man immolating himself rather than douse the fire.

I checked other news channels, to see if this man's misery had spread to other channels. Aaj Tak seemed like the only channel telecasting it. When I checked later in the night, Aaj Tak had stopped telecasting it.

Today's Indian Express had a news item on the incident. The report says that the man was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. What's more the paper says this http://www.indianexpress.com/story/10715.html

If there is no news go make it, seems to be the key with most news channels these days.

Movies, Malabar and Mohanlal

2006-08-14T11:09:07Z

'Lights, camera, action!' seemed to be the keywords when we reached Malabar. Our first stop in Malabar was Kasaragod, Bekal fort was where the keywords became the keywords! We saw a newly married couple climbing the stairs to the fort, with a photographer trying to catch up with the enthusiasm of the couple. Now that’s a novel idea I thought, getting your wedding pictures shot with a strong fort as a backdrop. I hid and shamelessly took pictures of the couple. As we walked around the fort, we saw many such couples. Was the whole of Kasaragod wedded to the idea of taking wedding pictures on the fort on the same day? No. One, those were not newly wedded couples and second, these pictures wouldn’t go into a family album but would soon be aired on some local channel to go with a song. As we climbed the walls of the fort, we saw another film shooting in progress.

Our next stop was Kannur, here again Angelo fort formed the backdrop for yet another wedding song. And as we were returning to our hotel, we saw more cameras near our hotel. When we checked with our auto driver, Rajan, we were told that Kalabhavan Mani was shooting in one of the houses.

The next Malabar stop was Kozhikode. With no hotel bookings, I quickly ran through my travel guide to look up hotels and Hotel Maharani seemed to fit our budget. As we were about to reach the place, I asked our rickshaw driver, Biju, if it was a decent hotel. Biju nodded in approval and also added that actor Mohanlal was staying at the hotel. Wow, could we go elsewhere, no way! We hurried to the reception and asked if there was a room available, and the other pertinent question, “Is Mohanlal here?” To which, the man at the reception smiled and told me that Mohanlal was there though he was staying at the Taj. We quickly took the keys and checked with the boy about Mohanlal’s whereabouts. He pointed to a room on the second floor; I dropped my luggage and stood there like a true blue paparazzo or like a true blue fan, waiting for Mohanlal to appear from behind the closed door where makeup was being applied on him. Voila, there he was and I took some shots of him. Then we decided to go and ask him if he would mind posing with us. ‘No problem,’ is what he said and look who took pics with him!

Women and religion

2006-07-21T16:09:36Z

Even in the house of God, women have had a subordiante status. CNN IBN's very interesting report on the relation between women and religion called The Sacred Feminine

Dreams and more

2006-07-15T11:18:36Z

Dreams — Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

While surfing through slate I found this excellent resource Favourite Poem Project.

The other news is I have resigned and I leave my current job to travel and unravel what I want to do with life. I have the option of joining back after two months. My last working day is August 2, can't wait!

O beautiful!

2006-06-27T08:16:36Z

Last night we went for an Odissi preformance,
it was breathtakingly beautiful, none of us wanted to leave. For all of you who think that I have been having too much fun, this was the last performance and I feel bad that I missed the Kathak performance. The loss was even more apparent when a seven-and-half-year-old girl gave a short Kathak performance yesterday. More on that lil wonder, later. The Odissi performance was by Debi Basu and her students. I loved the jewellery and zoomed in to take a pic of one of the girl's earrings. More on Odissi.

More pics

Another musical evening

2006-06-25T17:23:43Z

When music and art come so close to home, you have no excuse to miss it. We went for another great music performance, this time by the very talented Shubha Mudgal.

When Sudama came visiting

2006-06-23T18:23:04Z

.... days of yore were discussed... For the story

More

A beautiful replica

2006-06-18T16:53:32Z

This replica of the Jaggnath Temple of Orissa has been beautifully made by artists from Kolkata. Made of cloth among other things, this beautiful makeshift temple adorns Parsik Hill in Navi Mumbai. A host of cultural and art programmes have been organised by the religious group. Among the big names that have already performed here include, Pandit Jasraj and Hema Malini. The other big names that will perform here include: Anoop Jalota, Shubha Mudgal and Darshana Zaveri.

More pics

Bombay to Goa

2006-06-12T17:25:47Z

On the Bombay-Goa highway lies a sleepy town by the name of Chiplun. On many trips to Kerala on the Konkan Railway, I had promised Chiplun a visit. It was among the many places that I want to visit that start with the alphabet C. So last weekend we took a Janshatabdi to Chiplun. Though the place was beautiful, we were lost on what to do. We went to a beautiful temple on top of a hill — Parshuram Temple

The first day we ate at a place called Deepak which was highly recommended by our rick driver. Though we had heard of a restaurant called Abhishek and one among us had even tried the fare there, we decided to go by the rick driver's suggestion which didn't work in our favour. So in the evening we decided to go easy on stomachs and eat at a place called Riverview Inn, once a Taj property.

The next morning we trekked up Golkhot — a broken down fort. Our rick driver decided to accompany us.

Roja

2006-06-12T16:23:37Z

When we got rose plants at home, I often sang, " naam nattadhae roajaa enRae pookkaNum", a Tamil song from the movie Kandukondian Kandukondian. The words roughly translate into, when will the roses that I planted bloom. They have, but I didn't plant them. Here are some pics!

indumol @ 2006-06-06T13:35:00

2006-06-06T08:04:26Z

Friend Vib has a brand new blog and a pet too. Here's 4-month-old Robin

while pain kept me up last night, i wrote this

2006-05-29T15:59:32Z

Big mouth

Beware, they call me big mouth!
Our secrets may soon spill out.
Come seal my mouth
With yours. Let our secrets find a new froth.

since most of my friends didn't take too well to froth, I changed it a bit

Big mouth

Beware, they call me big mouth!
Our secrets may soon spill out.
Come seal my mouth
With yours. Let our secrets find a way out.