Of love and other monologues...

I have been wondering if we could shed dead-skin like a snake.
Impossible!!!
Errrrmmmmm.....Or maybe there is a way...

I watched two very interesting plays last week, ‘Anything but Love’ and ‘Vagina Monologues’. Both were extremely entertaining and the latter one deserved nothing short of a standing ovation for the women who shared their stories of rape, incest, female genital mutilation, child molestation, sex and so on; for the women who collected these stories and presented it in the form of a play; and for the women who performed it in front of a huge audience describing and enacting some interesting facts that shocked us, amused us and finally touched our hearts. Jayanti Bhatia deserves a special mention. She was surprisingly outstanding with her bits of performance. Maybe you ought to go and find out for yourself why? :ppp

Oh yeah, its Valentine's! Wish you all good luck in finding your soulmates:-)
I keep telling you, they exist:-)))))

Jaipur - the colorful land of Maharajas, their grand palaces, literature feast and more...

I was really keen on visiting Jaipur for a long time now and finally I put in my plans together to explore this Pink city. Needless to say, I was quite captivated by the grandeur of the huge palaces, the vastness of the ancient forts, the widespread boundary walls that encircled the city on its periphery, the colourful bazaars, the spicy food, the rich culture and the warmth of the people. It was indeed a memorable experience that was not only satisfying but left me in complete awe of our heritage, art and culture.

I left from delhi early morning with Ramchander bhaiya and a friend. We stopped at the Neemrana Fort-Palace and were completely taken in by the beauty and the magnificence of its structure. Carved into a hill, the stepped palace offers splendid views of the village around. The ruins around the fort almost tempted me to stay there for a few days and unearth the stories that lay buried.

As we reached Jaipur, we could see the boundary walls of the forts spread on the hilltops surrounding the city, dozens of multi-colored embroidered umbrellas spread out on the roads and puppets hanging in every shop of the market-place. As we entered further into the city, everything was red, the building structures confined to the old architecture – Yes, we had reached the Pinkcity.

I checked into my hotel and rested for a while. In the evening, went to the Diggi Palace where a major part of the Literature Festival was being held. I met a few of the Caferati members and sat through a poetry session and listened to the three readers - Jeet Thayil, Jane Bhandari and Keki daruwalla. I loved Jeet’s poem, Ghazal, which you can read below:

Ghazal: Jeet Thayil

Listen! Someone's saying a prayer in Malayalam. He says there's no word for 'despair' in Malayalam.

Sometimes at daybreak you sing a Gujarati garba.At night you open your hair in Malayalam.......

Visitors are welcome in The School of Lost Tongues.Someone's endowed a high chair in Malayalam.

I greet you my ancestors, O scholars and linguists.My father who recites Baudelaire in Malayalam.

Jeet, such drama with the scraps that you know.Write a couplet, if you dare, in Malayalam.

:-)

After this I headed for Chawkidhani. I liked the hospitality of the people who served us the typical Rajasthani food on patals, serving us loads of sangar, lasan ka achaar, baajre ki khichdi, maal poha and god knows what all.

The next day I was headed to visit the forts and the palaces that defined the city and its culture. The first one was called HawaMahal – Palace of winds. The Mahal has numerous Jharokhas that form an interesting façade for the palace, overlooking the busy bazaar.

Next on my schedule was the prime attraction – the three forts, Amber, Jaigarh and Nahargarh. The short drive uphill was lovely and I could not stop raving about the splendid view we got of the city. We reached the Amber Fort and let me tell you, it was a breathtaking sight. We hired the services of a guide and then went about exploring the entire fort and the Amber city built by Raja Man Singh.

You can view the rest of the pics of the Caferati evening here

http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=802623&confid=1199

To be continued...

Neemrana Fort-Palace

Neemrana Fort-Palace is Rajasthan's closest palace from New Delhi. I stopped here on my way to Jaipur for a while and I simply fell in love with the grandeur of this majestic palace. The fort has been turned into a hotel and does provide the luxuries that it must, including a swimming pool on the terrace, lavishly done up rooms, open-air -theatre etc.

But what I simply loved about the palace were the wide aangans in the middle of each block, the barsaatis overlooking the fields, and the old-fashioned dahleejs that stood at each entrance. It reminded me of my ancestral house where we lived before moving to Delhi. I particularly enjoyed the jeenaas that led from one part of the fort to another and would have been just perfect to play hide n seek. Also, I loved the rustic feel given by the use of kachhi-mitti at a few places and the laltens that hung around to light up the palace in the night.

I really wanted to spend a day there, perhaps with my family, to relax those stressed nerves of mine that deal with the everyday chaos. But alas! I had to leave, and Neemrana lingered on in my thoughts.

Republic Day Euphoria!

I was invited to Sshristhi for the Republic Day celebrations. I reached there just-in-time (*Yes, the kids called me up as a reminder*) else the lazy me would have missed most of it. I was simply overwhelmed by the wonderful show these kids had put up. These lil things (age varying from 4-14 yrs) managed to stage a play on girl education, numerous colourful dances, group songs and solo performances. I was quite amazed at the energy I felt around me and the excitement was infectious.

I clicked a few pictures that are displayed below, in my effort to capture the euphoric moment!

Life is a wonderfulcoaster!

(Wrote this few months ago, but this seems to be the appropriate time to post it. And here it goes... )

I always thought my life was incomplete and something was amiss. I was always searching….searching for a purpose, a reason, perhaps to live, love or die.

I did not know that the real joy lies in holding the reins of your life in your own hands. We just revel in being swayed by the flow of the stream where it takes us and believe that is our destiny.

Not doing anything about our incompleteness and the voids that exist……we turn into these vulnerable beings; anyone can fill the voids with their truth and their lies, with real and illusions of eternal love, bonding and life.

Ignorance vanishes when knowledge arrives.
And when it does…..it takes you by a serious surprise!!!

Well, it’s important to let go, to let loose, to free all that binds you and your soul!

There will be spaces, but you must learn to fill them up quickly. It’s important to be in constant motion. We need to end the cycles that we are done with, to start new beginnings that give us bigger lessons and even greater joys.

Life is an experience and we are set out on a journey......
everything that goes by, is a means to an end.

But nah....there is no end....there is just you!!!
And you are the end!

And to all you wonderful ends.....
I wish you great beginnings, new lessons, happier times and wonderful new joys :-)

God bless:-)

intoxicate me, anyone?

We humans are naturally transparent.
We can dive into one another,
And grab hold of every single emotion that dwells in there.
Trust me... we can!
We really can! Or better, why not try it out for yourself. It works!

The challenge comes when we become hell bent on making chameleons of ourselves!
Colors are juggled so often that neither you nor they can remember their true identity.

I change often too. I
n fact, I move to and fro.
I revel amidst many a psychedelic flights,
And then when I am bored,
I silently set myself on an inner quest.

And while I am oscillating from one end to the other,
En route I experience enough.

The colors around dazzle and charm me,
And I fall into the trap,
It’s so easy at times…
My vision blurs,
And many a times
I merge with a multitude of colors.
I even try to adorn what I like,
And then I discover the layers,
Some are meant for delusion,
Some are just there.

Moksha on the Rocks!!!

“Most of us need a Guru. Some need a spiritual Guru; some need an inner Guru… Whatever you do, don’t find a boring guru! Find a Funky Guru!” said Prem Joshua.

And we all could not stop smiling at the Guru of fusion, as he charmed us not only with his music, but also his humour. I cannot call myself religious, nor can I say that I have music in me. Yet, something as intoxicating as that, knew how to break all barriers and connect with the soul.

His band, a quartet of multi talented musicians, merged various genres of music and complemented each, to produce something so perfectly beautiful. The Indian classical was well synthesised with the jazz and the hip hop. And boy, I was in complete awe as I saw him play the bamboo flute and then the sitar and then the suprano sax, one after the other. Unfortunately, he wasn’t carrying his dilruba:-). Manish Vyas, on the drums, was fantabulous with his many talents ranging from the jazz drums to the tabla and dunno the other kind of random drums. He wove infectious energy into the music which was simply exhilarating.

Prem Joshua pointed out that 2006 has been a chaotic year for most of his friends. I couldn’t agree more, for obvious reasons! I’ve had my share of fluctuations from complete disillusionment with people and life, and then over to resurrection of my faith. The entire year has been a series of strange realisations, irreparable loss, unbearable agony, unexpected discovery and breaking of illusions (for good, of course), shock and confusion, learning and unlearning. But then like he said, “It’s a year to let go, so that you can make way for the new”. And I was smiling.

The realisations have made life easy, it doesn’t weigh on me anymore. The losses have revealed that nothing is permanent and so am I. Hence, I better make the most, and value everyone and everything till they last. Agony is necessary, it keeps one alive. And yeah, shock and confusion is fabulous. It symbolises experiencing something new, something that has never been encountered before, something out of the ordinary.

And yes, so I let go…..let go off everything unnecessary, because I want the new. And how would I, if I am so full of stale emotions that clog me up and suffocate in there. I have numerous lives to live and much to carry forward. It’s easier and lighter carrying the good, and bad weighs you down.

And then they played their last number, ‘Dance of Kali’. Joshua was on the saxophone, and I thought it was the wildest thing I’ve ever heard. You got to hear him play this one, it’s simply divine! Pure and raw, just like pain:-).

On the way...

Psychedelic, for sure!

It's been quite sometime since I wrote......and I've really relaxed quite a bit and I feel refreshed for sure......brimming with some new energy is more like it.

Actually there's been quite a bit that I've done....ofcourse at a snail's pace.....but then what the heck, sometimes its good to break that reputation of yours:ppp

Thanks to this Sai woman, I went for the Manzil Musical Concert (Man! She really knows how to act as a catalyst!)

I got to hear one of my favourite Sufi numbers – Lal teri! It was an exhilerating experience.