Over the Wall

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What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in 

grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of

gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion.

                                           ~ Chris Abani

The Toronto flatmate kept a Lily of the Valley in a bottle on the kitchen table. One of her many small gestures that made a difference. I learned that these tiny flowers also have a beautiful fragrance. 

Pink Snowflakes

 Tabubia trees in my part of town have a wild party every summer. All the roads are pretty much covered with pink snowflakes during this time. 
The picture of the spectacular tree above was taken from the car while on my way home and the giant pink candy floss in the picture below is mine, right inside my garden, greeting me with gentle confetti whenever I stand outside.

This is what I see when I look up.

And this, when I look down.

This is the huge pile of pink snowflakes ready to be cleaned up again and again, pretty much like how they shovel snow in that other city where I used to live.

One Glorious Spring Summer Morning

Since a meeting with new Banglurean blog friend and avid instagrammer Priyanka Sacheti Mehta was long overdue, I invited her for a walk at Lalbagh which she happily accepted. I remembered how gracious my Kochi and Kolkata hosts had been to me and tried to emulate them. I remembered that the first great Bangalore experience usually always consists of the walk in Lalbagh and the meal at MTR afterwards. If you haven't done this, you haven't seen namdu Bengluru.

Here is what we saw during a glorious Springsummer morning today. Isn't it utterly gorgeous? Every visit to Lalbagh always has new surprises in store.

This new creepsome element below right next to the rose garden gorden - Snow White's cottage no less! And with the requisite dwarves and Bambi flitting around as well! So much imagination I tell you!

 Then MTR. When people I meet with say things like, "Oooh, I've eaten and come off, I'm not hungry". And, "Let's share just one plate of Idli", I usually delete them from my list. I was satisfied to note that Priyanka enjoyed food with enthusiasm. We ate a 15 course meal at MTR. They kept bringing course after course and dessert after dessert. They kept saying things like, "Just try a leeetle bit to taste, now go on, try some more..." and then, "Wait, it's not over yet! Other things are coming!" How much more bozz, we've eaten so much already? "Arrey madam, still several more are lined up!"

So here are the pictures that I managed from that orgy. I've managed to photograph the start of the meal with the pooris and the colorful end - the famous candy colored MTR ice cream with the saccharine sweet cherry on top. The entire meal was pretty much the food equivalent of the glorious Silk Cotton tree that I've posted as the first picture.

This was one very satisfying day :)

Sigh...

Burp

Strange and Beautiful

Some time ago, a friend wrote a very thoughtful letter to me on what beauty means to him and why it was important to his existence. In the letter, along with his words were included pictures of things and surroundings from his everyday life that he finds beautiful. In order to reply to his letter, I have been compelled to confront and examine what beauty means to me and why it is so important to my existence. When I partake of my friend’s beautifully worded letter with its pictures, I try to think of my own sentiments towards this subject. I realize that when I am drawn towards beauty, it is because of what it makes me feel and that feeling is an instinctive attraction towards the object I find beautiful causing in me a desire to possess it as mine and look at from every facet and consume it with my eyes so that I don’t miss out on anything of this that I find so beautiful. I do that by drawing and other times I use my camera. It is an attempt to make something ephemeral last forever. 

I found this flower during a walk. The house was empty and some helpful boys jumped over the wall at my request to get it for me. It is a gorgeous flower and this is the first time I have seen anything like it. As I carried it home, I almost felt like a hunter taking home an exotic animal. This is not the best analogy to use perhaps but the sense of triumph and disbelief that washed over me when I possessed this beautiful flower was enormous. 

I might have inadvertently found the words to express my sentiments towards objects of beauty while writing this blog post, but to articulate why beauty is so important to me in my life seems to be as skilled a task as finding the right kind of line to express what I want to in a drawing. It will take some practice, but I’ll get there.

Aristolochia

Night

Uncertainty

And when you go long enough being uncertain of who you really are, what results is a form of subtle, long-term meditation — a persistent and necessary acceptance of whatever is arising, because you don’t actually know if it was the food that made you sick, and you don’t actually know if you like Eastern European cultures anymore, and you don’t really know how you feel about income inequality anymore, and you don’t know if your career path is the best for you or not, and you don’t really know if you miss your friends back home or if you just like the idea of missing your friends back home.

And at some point, you just stop asking questions. And start listening. To the waves and the wind and the calls for love in all of the beautiful languages you will never understand.

You just let it be. And keep moving.

~ Mark Manson. 5 Lessons from Travelling

Dogs and Roses

Rangoli

On the way to the shops, I almost always pause for a moment at the gate of this tiny house and admire the colours of the Rangoli on the steps and the vermillion enhancing the doorway.

One does not want to idealize on the blog. Around me there is noise and filth, but beauty like this in the midst of ugliness makes one stop, admire and breathe easily for a moment before carrying on.

India's Chaotic Lesson in Letting Go

Saturation!

I did that which I like doing best today. It was Krishna Janmashtami (the festival celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna), so when I went searching for a place to sketch with Ramya once again in Malleswaram, I found the place simply saturated with colour. It was breathtaking. 

Here are the pictures:

We sat behind some flower sellers at the marketplace and I made this quick sketch. The air was heady with the scent of various flowers, I was sneezing due to the pollen laden atmosphere, my head was reeling at dazzling clashing colour. There were bees buzzing around us. But what I would give to experience this heady high once more!

Below are pictures of some of the patterns at the marketplace. Do these people even realize the beauty they create? They remind me of the bees just going about busy doing their job in vibrant surroundings.

Every flower is arranged with its face upward.

The earthy colours of Sambhar onions and ginger.

I was taken to Shri Kaadu Malleshwara Temple

Where vibrant red was splashed against black or white

Blue Krishna idols! It seems there is no escaping colour in this country. 

Pattern

Naturally that Murrukku (top right) was brought back home for tea

And these are for lunch tomorrow :)

Whew!