the Wall

Today I met my dear friend Binoy, who used to stay at the house opposite mine. After he moved to his new house i havent met him that much just for weddings and other occations only. but is somewhat dear to me, or dearer than his sister. today he is the proud fater of two daughters. and in the little chat he told that how naughty these kids were at home and dirtying all the wall. 

so whats so peculier about it, its the usual thing to do of the kids of that age.

really?? i was wondering, how being the lover of paints i never got to draw even a dot on my walls. I think I never didnt had the thought that I could ever use the wall as a canvas. Why me my brother too wodent have done that. I am not sure if we were doing the right thing by not dritying the place around. As far as i can remember my mother werent that strict on us as she herself had load of work to complete in those days. so y arent we thinking of drawing on the wall?

I hear my mom saying proudly to her friends that we as kids were quite nice , never made fights in front of her , both doing ttheir own stuff in the same room very quietly.

y were we so? my brother was born that way immense love for his mother, he didnt even sleep until mom completes all her job at home. he waits so camly and wont even sleep as i fell asleep always. 

so things silly as this we havent experienced as kids , feel bad. I think it was just our love for mom that we both didnt wanted to bother mom. feel good. 

The Kathakali effect

For quite some time I had the wish to watch live Kathakali. I wasn’t sure , if I would be able to enjoy that or not as I had no idea about it at all. All I seen them in films and ads. Really felt bad. I had the opportunity to watch one in cochin, promoted by a group of kathakali lovers , six of them. I wonder do they really formed the art group for the sake of it or for something else, ok leave it.

 I had the desire and time to watch one so I decided to go for it. I went in took the ticket for 400 rupees and they told me the show will begin by 5 30 in the evening, I did some bird watching and came back by 6 pm. the stage was all set but not for performance but for the make up and as audience a bunch of foreigners. I felt so strange and happy too that I am not the only illiterate in this art.

 Thy have lighted up a vilakku with incandescent lamp and did the face make up and people were all around to see how they do and what color and materials they use for make up and what make up goes for what kind of character.  People awed to know that its all organic. I felt too boring and was thinking what will the story will be and how will I know who is who in makeup.

 

The makeup got over in an hour and they lighted the vilakku to create the feel and mood for the katha. One guy came up and announced that the story is of “Dussasana Vadam”  and that for the people to understand the form better they will be demonstrating the “RASA” as in face expressions, some movements as in the “PADAs” and a small workshop to demonstrate what movement meant what , that we should also perform on stage.

While they setup the stage they gave us the story in a sheet of paper. it was about dussasana vadam, how he trochered panchali, her appeal to Krishna and eventually how bhima kills dussasana.

Oh even I don’t rem the story clearly even today.

The interaction part was really good and I enjoyed most of it some of them got to scream like bhima and fight with the wooden gadha.

 The guy dressed up in panchali came over and showed the rasa, no one looked at the ranam everyone clicked so do I. then he told about the actions and mudras that they will be using in this part and some dailoges which every one participated. Like how to scream, how to call and ask to sit here and how to tell to leave and how to fight with the “GADHA” and how to show blood on stage etc etc…

 I really don’t know what happened , I liked the screaming part as I knew they were doing that, for what reason . all the other parts I was just awful. How appalling could that be, being a mallu and don’t understand a line of the songs. Anyways I did had the courage to stay there till the end when bhim had the fight and finally took the small intestine out. 

I was eight when it got over and first thing I did was to drink water. 

for the interest of the environs

I was very proud myself as I believed that I doesn’t contribute much to the environment until one fine day I decided to calculate my carbon emissions. The result proved me completely wrong. I emit more carbon than the average Indian does. So I decided to change myself .

Well well by the way how can I change my habits. Ok start from simple things. Changed all the incandescent lights with cfls. I even used it for the one which lighted the front corner of the house, but in no time I have to find another bulb as its gone. Then I decided to cut off the lights which mom use to illuminate the house from the exterior. It was a big blow to my feng shui as it says that one should not leave any dark corners in your house. But I let my belief to go. But it helped me in recycling. Always keep the house clean replace all the faulty things and become more functional. That really worked, that’s what I thought.

I started reading the labels when ever I go shopping. And I tried to avoid aerosol sprays, but most of them says that they don’t use cfc to fill it up , I was a bit confused and took the decision not to use them at all.

But I realized that my house does not contribute that much than I do with my choices. I like to drive the car to go to any place. I feel ashamed as the elderly were walking early morning to go to temple and in return trip they do the daily purchases , I would never do that. I forget when I last took a bus in my town.

 I think that I doesn’t spend much on clothing and accessories. Really. I do make purchases when ever I feel like I need to change my wardrobe. if not in my town I would travel at least 300 kms to do just that, shopping.

so how bad can it get. How much I contribute without even knowing just because of this. Does it get compensated if I think that I will give my older ones in charity???

 How often I go out to eat, when I can straight away change that when I am trying hard to reduce my dimensions myself. Do I really want to change that?? 

We often go it temples far off just for the fulfillment of our religious mind, when we can do donations and poojas and offering online and by post. Do we ever get to get rid of that habit. Think how much more they might be contributing to fulfill our poojas. 

With it comes the fuel consumption,  needless to say how do it contribute to the emissions. We have the public transport but will I ever get into that??

 I have turned to be a vegetarian.  Has it done any good to my health. How much transport cost is included in a single meal of mine. Cant I grow my own vegetables??

 How much my garden contribute, ok lets leave it as its natural.

 How often I Google.  Cant I stick to balckle for a while as it claims its takes less to power a black screen.

 Well well if you ask about the economies of it I have to keep shut and keep all these in my widest dreams. So even if I am sticking to the basic minimal things I can do to soften the emissions its good.

 it's amazing how much difference a couple of minor changes will make.  But even writing this I didn’t want o write about the other choices with which I lead my life. 

Shoes outside please

 “Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes.”   

  

            Emm if you want to compliment a girl it has to be her shoes as I heard from the American president. Weird na  The president will think twice before commenting even if its for a compliment. Last December we saw the famous shoe throwing episode and Muntazar ali Zaidi become famous instantly. I was so amazed by the incident I wish I could have done that but no I don’t even do that even in my dreams.

 Two days back the Chinese got the taste of shoes too. so its become mandatory to check for weapons of mass destruction and the shoes which is indeed become a powerful weapon. bad luck for Bush that he went on for WMD and ended up with the so called disruptive weapon himself, when he caught Saddam  he should have searched his legs instead of the mouth  for WMD.  Now that Bush have learned where to search for what he is out of office. Hope his successor will search aptly.

Not everything is bad about the episode , Zaidi become famous so is the shoe and so is the company who made those shoes. The Bayden shoe company of Istanbul got orders for 300000 pair of the shoe model 271. amazing . so what will be their shoe commercial like.

If anyone wants that please order now. Its about $41.

In India we have the tradition of Kari theykkal and chappal mala. I saw that last for VS when he made derogatory comments on the commando family. The shoe is for the protection of the foot but how come it became the weapon to show contempt. Anyways the popularity of this weapon is increasing day by day. People will follow the Indian way to keep shoes outside. So the days of MF Hussain is here gone are the days when  he were thrown out for not wearing one. Today no one will bother, no shoe the better.

            Now it’s clear that “the shoe that fits one will pinch another”

courtesy The hindu business line 

Scribe hurls shoe at Chidambaram

Meera Mohanty
New Delhi, April 7 Mr P. Chidambaram, Home Minister, on Tuesday had the novel experience of a shoe being thrown at him as a sign of protest.
People are now wondering if this act means that India has caught up with a global trend of protest. Does this mean that we will be evolving from strikes to black bands, from eggs to shoes and from stones to Hawaai chappals?
The Home Minister was answering questions at a press conference in New Delhi when journalist Mr Jarnail Singh threw a sneaker at him. The journalist’s reaction followed the Minister’s reply to a question on the CBI clearing the involvement of two Congress veterans in the Sikh riots of 1984.
In recent times former US President Mr George Bush, Chinese Premier Mr Wen Jiabao and reportedly even Iran President Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been targets of such projectiles.
Mr Wen, who was addressing a meeting at Cambridge University when a shoe was hurled at him, called it a “despicable act”. “It cannot stand in the way of friendship between China and the UK,” he added.
Most of these shoe-throwers have failed to strike the bullseye, and Mr Jarnail Singh was no different. It is not sure, though, if he wanted to score. The journalist was sitting in front and yet managed to miss Mr Chidambaram.
To the Home Minister’s credit, he never took his eyes off the shoe flying towards him, just like a good batsman would.
Seemingly gracious in his forgiveness, the Minister said, “Take him away – gently, gently.”
This is different from the reaction of the UK’s former deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, when a farmer threw an egg at him in 2001. Mr Prescott had punched the farmer.
Shoes seem to be the new addition to the protest arsenal. In western tradition, pies and custards have been thrown at a host of famous people – from royalty to Prime Ministers to philosophers to violinists.
Green custard was thrown at Mr Peter Mandelson, the British Business Secretary, and the incident was captured for posterity by TV. Mr Michel Camdessus, the former IMF chief, had a fruit-and-cream pie thrown at him by Mr Robert Naiman, an anti-IMF, “50-Years-is-Enough” campaign activist in Bangkok.
Mr Milton Friedman, the high priest of free markets, also got “pied”, as did Mr Thomas Friedman (he ducked the plates of green whipped cream), Mr Bill Gates, Mr Jeffrey Skilling (the CEO of Enron) and the former WTO head, Mr Renato Ruggiero, in 1998.
Mr Chidambaram is clearly in illustrious company.

my eating habits

I was a bindas prolific artist when it come to masticate food. I wont say no to any kind of food and enjoyed ever y morsel of it. that clearly shows on me and I veryoften say that I dont remember the day when I was thin.
I love to eat and to feed others and there is nothing I enjoy like eating out. I cant say I am a good cook as I doesnt know to cook the simple sambar as it taste different each time. so is the case with Rasam. But I manage in both with the curry masala and coriander.

my eating habits have cahnged a lot from 2002. I want to become a vegan but dont know if possible or not. hopefully some day i can do that too as i have completely said NO to the EGGS, which was my fav.
I dont know what has changed in me other than age but i have turned to good food but just for myself i never advised anyone to take that in my family, as its not possible. I have said no to fish a long time back may be when i was seven eight but i took eggs to my twenties. one fine day i started eating chicken and some other stuff too and I ate loads of shrimp, the factory processed one for exporting and i really loved that.

so what kind of changes, well a hell lot , and I have learned to grow what i eat too. so no stagfaltion can affect me for a month. i eat most leafy stuff as in muringa and wheat and rice and spinach and everything which i get from my home garden. some times i feel like a cow but i the changes in my diet has not changed my shape so people wonder what i really eat.
I think its because I have taking a lot of protin in leguminous food to pump up my muscles.

I have pulled out airated drinks , meat, deep fry , cakes , sweet from my life. so life will be boring na. what shall i do now. but i cook all these for others. last time i cooked chicken and i didnt get the smell of it too , a bit strange na. no body believe me , but i dont want to believe it entirely as i take sweets of the traditionl kind with ghee and sugar and wont say no to chocolates.

i think i can pull off with my diet for some time too.

I forgot to write , I did offered the painting to the lord when my parents came to visit the LORD. It was quite a fulfilling moment.

ende kanna

            some time back when i was 15 i asked mom to get me the gita. i got one from guruvayoor. its a different sort as its of the iskon group in english and sanskrit. till date i havent read that completely but its done  great good for me. it had some interesting paintings of the lord one of which i was deeply inspired by. but i found it very tough to draw one. and when i was in guruvayoor i wanted to make an offering to the lord in the form of painting. 

i took the book and got the photocopy of one of the picture.  got the cloth canvas from the button shop and i had the paint with me. draw the outline and kept with me for sometime, as i did not had the courage to fill it up with color. 

so i waited and i finally got to meet swarna as i felt is god sent for me. she is from mumbai and had a interest in painting too.  i showed the drawing to her and she offered me help to fill up the foliage in the pict. i thanked god and her and i started off the paint in water color. its was tough as water on canvas was the first for me and i took some poster color to mix with as i know to use the tint of the water color not the shadeing part. 

and i finished up the painting doing day and night. As promised  swarna hepled me with her part too. and i did the finishing touches especially the shading part and all.  i had to put the u shaped mark in his forehead , i wanted it in white and she insisted it to  be in red , no guessing finally who won. 

and i showed it to all the gals for approval and most of them liked. myself content.  next thing was to get it framed and i found out one place to do that too. 

           guess what , who i met near the frame shop . it was our dear teacher Ms Mrinalini comming out from the hotel behind the shop. i didnt know what to do i had the painting and didnt wanted her to see as she approched i giggled off in my useal style. I felt that she was happy to meet me there and asked what i was doing and all and she caught me straight and took the pict from me , and and a  short pause she glanced trough and gave me the look. if ever u get to know her u will know what is she as the teacher. so no price for telling what happened.