Dreamwalk after a visit to lalbagh....

I somehow knew i was dreaming but in what seemed to be reality then, i was busy walking through the fields… fiddling with my camera and looking around with intense curiosity about the loneliness of the place. I could relate it to my Uncle’s farm but the next moment I tripped off a stone and tumbled down a narrow slope. When I managed to pull up myself and looked ahead…the scene over there was completely unbelievable....

I wanted to pinch…hit…slap...myself to ensure it wasn't real because the huge(.....) rose just inches away from my curious eyes, in pink and white was preceding a widespread field of roses behind....I deliberately avoided any touch in the fear of getting out from the serene mood. As my eyelashes flickered slowly, I looked up to feel the cool breeze and the sight of a million roses, it was a perfect moment of awestruck.

 

There was an enchanted mood around and I anxiously turned around to see a long array of purple flowers and white lilies, i was still doubtful how could all the beauty on earth get together at one place. I forgot about my darling camera which was neatly decorated around my neck..and started ambling along the flower beds whilst my eyes captured every single flower dancing merrily to the breeze….tulips, sunflower, lilac, chrysanthemum, daisies and my walk turned into a happy jog as I started singing aloud and wanted to freeze the moment forever.

The surreal feel was because the flowers actually expressed their happiness to me, answering to me by swaying softly, smiling at me by flowing across my frock, as if the whole eden garden was built for my dream's sake..Then I realized at an avid moment, that I would be a fool to miss clicking the inherent beauty. After all, it was a dream and my camera could have easily worked…ironically and naturally, it didn’t and with all my clumsy efforts, the shutter didn’t like to get opened at all. I got nervous all of a sudden, trying to open the shutter manually  all that I wanted was the camera to click. Well, you know….the next scene is obvious, I woke up startled and took more than a few minutes to  convince myself that I was back to reality and was 7.00am sharp….

 But…something different about this dream was I could still feel my heartbeat when I looked upon the huge rose and the minute when my senses got scared at the real image of all those roses and there were only them…beautiful flowers, natural colors at their best existence and my excited eyes which forgot to blink. I hardly had any interest to get out of the bed and start my day, how ever interesting that was going to be…... nothing could be as gracious as some unknown heaven right? 

 

After a couple of minutes of interrogation with my mind, I derived that the reason behind the dream could be my long chat with mom the previous evening, about my photo walk in Lalbagh recently - how much I had enjoyed the colors, smell and unbelievable sight of  flowers, though I couldn’t click too many good pictures because of the crowd…and that I wished there were not too many people.

 I tried my best to write everything I remembered about the most beautiful dream…but  was sure I won’t be able to convey the frantic rhythms of my heart I felt then. One in a hundred dreams stay clear in your mind and even this minute…if I close my eyes, I literally see myself travelling to serendipity with foot steps which never want to be travel backward again!!

In the Streets of Srirangam...contd

It was a cloudy day which brought huge smiles on my face and i was chirpy, getting ready to visit a place named "Thiruvellarai" which was located near Srirangam at a distance of half an hour's drive. I got so involved in the scenic beauty during the ride that i hardly spoke to Bashu which got him worried (why is the FM not tuned...ha ha!!). Now, our specific choice on visiting this temple was because Bashu's college time friend was a priest there and this temple was older than Srirangam - approximately 6000 years. I felt the count was too far beyond to calculate, by then i was used to 1000's..every temple there seemed to be so old!

 

When we landed at the sight of a very old temple majestically located amidst profound greens and browns...i stood there shocked for a minute, observing the excellent maintenance of the whole place. There were huge streets diagonal to the temple in the "Agraharam" style (name of the locality for a specific community of people with a row of houses) and the atmosphere was very silent, but for the laughter of kids around. Bashu's friend was the smartest looking priest ever, i had come across and he sounded so friendly as if he knew me before. His mom served us with fresh filter coffee of rich aroma which helped me subside my hunger for a while from then. The smart priest gave us a quick intro about the temple and its origin and suggested we could do a photo walk before actually getting into worships and usual prayers.

I couldn't stop my conflicting thoughts about the place, it all appeared like a neat execution of clear pathways with flowers all around, a very old antique styled mantap leading to a huge rock with the view of the main temple. The mysterious mood was due to the inherent refreshing cleanliness, dark shades of green as if it would rain there all the year. The rocky road along the pillars, from the huge rock had some kind of charm, anything we utter would echo in a rhythmic manner and i didn't move from there for sometime, trying to shout and sing what ever flashed through my mind then. Finally Bashu had to drag me along to reach the other side of the temple.

Bashu's friend cum the smart priest was busy attending the temple crowd and elaborating them on the history of the temple and gods in a peculiar flow and style of  Tamil. I sat on the steps wondering about the difference of sculptures and stories between here and Srirangam, there were too many of them and only few manged to stick inside my confused little mind.For my understanding, it was all artistically constructed during the Chola, Pandiya... period of kingdom, strongly based on their taste for fine arts, devotion for epics and belief on spirituality.

I clicked pictures of the place and the guys whilst they were laughing about old memories and  planning on when to meet up with friends next. Back at the priest friend'ss home, we were served with authentic "Ayyangar" food and i spent a while with his mom to listen to her simple stories and she startled me with the fact that the priest had completed his MBA and MFA, and still wanted to work in the temple as a promise for tradition, though his wife was not too happy about it...Must say i was impressed not by his goatee alone.... :)

His mom and the kids around there got close to me quickly, and there were sad bye-bye's from that place with invitations for them to visit me in Bangalore. I was more excited on our way back, remembered to have the camera in my hand to click a few candid shots of  random kids and people on the way, they were more than happy to smile for me naturally.





I insisted we halt near a lotus pond which was a visual treat for eyes...the interesting part were a few localities fishing there. They got all excited thinking i am a photographer from the daily....but nothing changed even when i said i am just a photographer by myself...took a few pictures and they gifted us with a few lotus flowers too - i came home to leave them in water, waiting to watch the pink beauty bloom.

  Evening, Bashu's younger bro Pras took us to his favorite temple and we almost had a running race(becoming a live comedy scene for people at the temple) since we were already late and i couldn't walk up to his speed.On our way back, i reminded about the ice cream treat (as if i could ever forget) and we landed up at a nostalgic outlet - Michael's...it was an authentic hang out which existed there from around 1950's...and the taste was like home made, each cup at Rs.4 - i wouldn't even get a simple stick in Bangalore at that cost :(

Now, Pras tempted on an ice cream bet and after our fights, quick gulps, more orders...i couldn't go beyond 7 or 8 when he had finished up with 11 cups ;) Cursing him, i ended up losing and paying the bill. He also gave wrong ideas to lie to mom at home...and later deceived me by telling her, by then i had sadly consumed 3 dosas with the best of my abilities...Even with my eye shutters waiting to close, i had to walk, run...sit..stand to feel better and fall asleep far later, planning a better trap for him to execute during our next meet. I had to work from home the next day, a re visit to Cauvery to feel the breeze again, some shopping at the temple, thank you notes to bashu, his mom and dad to have bared with me and a rush to the station to catch my train back to Bangalore...the break i had was indeed short and i had already was pondering on taking my next colorful break......... :)

In the streets of Srirangam..

Even the slightest thought of Srirangam would remind any passionate reader about Sujatha, the legendary tamil writer who captured all our minds through his "Srirangathu devadhaigal" (Angels of Srirangam). He talks about his childhood and teen days spent in one of the most beautiful temple destinations of Tamilnadu in his own style of humour in that. Srirangam sounds right to be called an island..not in lines with Maldives or Andaman but the small town is surrounded by water on all four sides and can be reached only via the bridge from Trichy. The panoramic view of river Cauvery from the bridge is itself breath taking, making us wonder what more would be on the other side of it.

My good friend alias photographer Bashu's home is beautifully located on the banks of river Cauvery, and my first visit to their place last year was spent in usual family introductions, quick visits to famous tourist places and get together fun times. I had firmly told myself that this time, I would spend time exploring places and doing photography than anything else. Our first day started well with a quick visit to Cauvery... …there was not much water at this time of the year but he wind was so furious as if it would blow us away. Happy to have seen greenly landscape and watching Bashu’s funny feeling about my way of talking and jumping, we headed home to plan an eventful day. But it was much more humid than expected, and i almost got paranoid  of heat and decided to stay indoors, discussing photography and not to miss, sleeping.

Later in the noon, i suggested to bet on a game of badminton (for ice creams). After my successfully managed efforts to divert Bashu a little by talks to win over that, we felt the climate was just good enough to jump into the chill water of Cauvery. Srirangam is said to be the home of the river goddess herself and she returns back home happily ending her long journey originating from Thalakaveri in Coorg, Karnataka. I had seen the water so fierce and gushy last time and was actually suprised to see it mild now, we could easily cross the river to walk(swim??!!) across the maize crops on the other side,  because the depth was maximum 5 feet.  

I got busy peeping into the clear water to collect shells and trying to float along the water stream. Bashu was trying hard to control his laughter at my funny expressions for tiny fishes biting my feet beneath. There were so many interesting scenes around not to miss...variety and mix of people, the old grandpa filled with soap all over him, group of young ladies chattering as they wash clothes, kids with obvious city looks playing with their father…probably an IT guy who has come home with his kids to visit their parents and home and this scene reminded me so much of my childhood days when dad would drive us down to water places, pretend to throw us in while we play on the shore...and my brother and myself would scream on the top of our voices. It took us long to know how careful he should have been, not to leave his grip on us.

The most awaited feature of the trip, at least from my point of view was...visiting the main Ranganatha swamy temple which celebrates on gaining ownership for the name Srirangam, to the place. Though i always felt a sense of devotion and peace at few crowd less  temples, what attracted me more was the creativity of sculptures which rendered complex stories and epics through fine art, the huge elevated "prahaarams"(pathway to the main temple and others) , few mystical powerful things existing within the 4500 year old temple whose beautiful architecture and inscriptions were done during the Chola Dynasty, who were ruling the geography. It was one of the largest temples which they had established then.

The “Aayiram kaal mandapam” there (thousand pillars arena) was considered to be the highlighted wealth of the temple for which the doors would open only once in a year for a specific occasion – “Vaikunda ekadesi” . The very look of it meant a lot with the sharp neat work across the pillars  which we could peep into, from outside the gate. It was surrounded by huge Mantaps with lot of stories and frames on gods, goddesses and epics. The huge horses as if ready to barge across, placed along the pillars left me speechless and i got engrossed in trying to read the oldest form of tamil script (which i could hardly figure out) . I can definitely say i was tempted to just dance around with the few classical steps that i knew, to feel the serenity around, getting back to an old scene which would have happened there , thousand of years ago...my inclination towards fantasy, you see !!

Bashu had made the necessary arrangements for us to watch the most incredible visual treat there, when the god is being made to sleep after the final "Mangal Harathi". There were very few of us allowed to sit there, to listen to the veena as the priest beautifully sung lullabies with classical rhythms before the main doors got closed, and i was very convinced that music had the power to take any of us to a dreamless calm sleep. Something better was the "prasadam" which was made of crisp rice mixed with jaggery and ghee - called "Aravanai", i was already so hungry and it tasted like the best at that minute. I was told later that it was the most special make of the temple. Not to forget, that during our long wait for this magical moment, the lawyer uncle and his friend who had extended their efforts to help us on all this narrated nostalgic stories about themselves in the temple and our lawyer uncle's friend was a voracious reader on history, epics etc. That made me quickly hang on him to get to hear too many interesting stories about kingdoms, gods etc...my favorite being the underground path from the temple to Trichy was constructed for emergency purposes during times of War.

 From the temple, we went around along with them, to roam on the streets of Srirangam and finally reached the bridge to catch a glimpse of the river view at night. I seriously didn't want to move from there - for 2 reasons, first being the place and second, lawyer uncle and his friend who gave us wonderful company throughout the drive with their crazy stories including my silly wish to have biscuits from the small tea shop along with tea, guess i was pampered enough to grab anything i wanted from Srirangam. 

Getting a little sad about my postponed ice ream treat, i went to sleep thinking of our travel to a nearby village, the next day. I hardly realized when i slept and when i woke up....it was for the aroma of his mom's morning tea.....

Hostess of a Girls Party!!

An other weekend arrived...with a total funky party planned, with only girls at my place on Friday evening. We were 7 of us , with one of them not able to join, ended up being 6...Shooting videos and stuff started right from the minute their vehicle reached the parking space and continued till we went home and started munching some yummy stuff ...Julie tried to manage her original cool girl look while Shree and Rash had dressed up in reds and maroons...Anitha had a perfect pub outfit and not to miss that Sara and me changed over to our ("not much used") new party dresses.

Julie hardly had patience to hold on munching the salads and extras whilst i was busy decorating the place and room..Sara was still shooting all of us, same time posing along with Rash for my clicks too....the cozy hugs you see!! Shree and myself started the dance and everyone joined the floor soon... Now, when it comes to dance, each of these pretty girls had their lovely style of dancing..For ex...Julie would look at one of us and exclaim "Hey, that is a good step ya" and get into the similar action... Rash was always focused on trying out new kind of hip moves with her hands ringing bells in the air no matter what kind of music...Sree was someone who would quickly adapt to any style of music and dance with flair, from the "Kuthu" (fast) steps for Tamil genre "Apadi podu" to 80's rhythmic style for "Dum maro Dum"..Anitha was so very used to pubbing and dancing, her style was of free flow and inherent...the extraordinary of the lot was the girl in pink..the barbie doll kinds...Sara has a very peculiar method of dancing and adapting the steps to the tune, her expression would first be thoughtful, then changes to observation and finally ends up in jumping and waving her hands with close-up smiles.The best of it was Shakira's "hips don't lie" where we gave our best efforts to get the steps right...one after the another..



Julie and Shree - my in-house models posed for me as they wore the huge Orange flowers behind their ears while Sara was helping out Rash with her first drink. Finally when we were done with the ample number of photos, videos..and dancing to all kinds, genres of songs possible...we sat down to chat - best part when girls get together...right!!


It started with every possible unrelated topic and instance possible and flowed along with funny smiles and follow-up phone calls to the married ones in between...I started getting hungry may be because i had been along for cooking the yummy biriyani and i proposed the idea of having dinner to everyone...hoping everyone should agree(or i had plans to sneak out to the kitchen to taste some;)) The stories continued and continued along...with us, Shree had her regular ringing bells laughter while Julie was giving all the possible cartoon expressions.Rash was diving into deep happiness with Sara talking on some intelligent topic for the commercial breaks.Sara is someone who would go on with her talks for hours, jumping from one subject to another...completely disconnected , but still narrating some weird experience or an intelligent concept. She would even have some kind of quotes, sayings..findings added on top of that and i was sure the girls were lost in that along with taste of food.


Sara and myself then walked up to the main road to drop the rest of them for their husbands who came to pick them up...quick introductions and i am sure the guys didn't exactly figure out who was who, in the dim road light but still, had to shake hands and throw friendly smiles. I proposed for  a walk but considering the flip side, Sara insisted that we reach home back safe...hold on, it doesn't end there, she wanted to watch a movie and i gave her some tamil movie i had, she watched just one scene and went on narrating some part of her life...an other 2 scenes and another story would come from her..i was wandering my thoughts between the story in the film and her life, finally she got tired of the movie(my expressions!!??) and fell asleep...We had much better plans for Saturday and i went ahead trying to get some sleep even while thinking of driving the next day.

A weekend drive - Sara & San!!

 "A drive to Tumkur"...Sara claimed that i was the friend for whom she has ever offered the chance of visiting her home , folks...village that she owned and yeah, even the small hills and roads and buffaloes(?!!) were hers...and i just wondered what doesn't belong to her!!


The so called hangover (its about sleeping under the bedsheet for Sara and about cleaning and regular music and dance practice for me....) after the party lasted till Saturday noon when finally we realized about getting late, we decided to get split in two directions, finish our work and meet up. I was glad i got a challenging opportunity to test my driving skills with a not so easy partner, and that turns into a small shock when i am updated that her father was along, too - felt he was the too good types to be experimented for my driving.
 

 




Our onward journey was less of thrilling encounters....except for poor service at Mc Donalds on the highway, few steep roads where i had to struggle a bit, of course not looking at Sara's expression...and our fellow lorry cleaner who offered me the way to the toll gate in exchange for my huge silly grin in exchange...



The very scene of village instantly refreshed my senses and made me chirpier , after the happy introduction to her ironically sweet brother and mom...i set out to click anything lovely to be seen around in the village. Sara was busy giving knowledge transfer to her brother all the time whilst i taste her mom's yummy food and continue with my clicks, where ever we went.

         Even with  huge challenges around, i didn't want to miss capturing any interesting living  being or non-living things around...hills...small animals..until my camera died out of charge. Happy with my driving(?!!) and photography, i sat to relish the authentic Chitranna(lemon rice) when a weird monkey there tried to scare me away, making me throw my leaf plate on to Sara's brother - poor guy was still sweet to me and consoled "Its okay..its okay, relax and sit here". Whereas Sara would throw her peculiar stare at me even for my excitement on buying a few goodies, chocolates etc from a local bakery or for taking more than 5 minutes to choose a nice colorful brush at the medical stores - fact was that the impression and respect on her serious avatar could get disturbed by my childlike behavior. 

On he other hand, the bakery guy showed his deep respect to her and her father by giving me free chocolates (:))

Oh..i got diverted..getting back to the moment where i was scared by monkeys...we had a nice long walk to feel better after heavy lunch, along with Sara trying to make her first short movie out of monkeys(free artists?!!) there. And finally, with a great sense of relief for dropping everyone back home safe,  i waved bye-bye to the lovely people there, thinking of the clicks i could manage...trying to retain the green memories deep in my mind, and not to miss Sara's disrupted look at me for all my contributions there!!Our drive back to Bangalore was filled with more of girlish conversations...radio and  hell lot of traffic. Though we relished some nice hot chocolate and espresso at a new coffee outlet, it was accompanied by Sara's scoldings on spending hundred rupee notes on just coffee  and most important, the repeated phrase from Sara "Next time, we wouldn't drive man..we would better go in bus" for which only i knew the underlying meaning.