Of People and Places

When we were taking a stroll down the Promenade beach and admiring the beautiful buildings, we stumbled on a heritage building in one of the lanes. An old bungalow now converted to a hotel for tourists. In its courtyard, there was this koi pond overgrown with lotus and other plants and I spent a lot of time, mesmerized, watching them glide in and around the lotus stems, swirling the water gracefully.The water was so clear and they were moving so fast that it looked like they were coloring the water around them, much like paint swirls in a glass of water. It made me wonder if they were in the water, or the water in them. The Koi carp are native to Japan. I found out about this interesting village , 'Harie' in Japan that is called ' the land of the living water.' This village has an enchanting relationship with water. It manages to have a flow of  natural spring water through an ingenious system called ' Kabata' where  pools of clear spring water are us...

Originally built as a durbar, Hindola Mahal is a unique representative of Malwa architecture. It seems to have borrowed elements from different architecture styles and come up with something entirely original.  Its sloping side walls give it a distinct look. The entire complex is made up of arches that let in a lot of light and wind. For me, the colors of this place characterizes Madhya Pradesh. If you look at the landscape, you will see earthy shades of pink,red, brown, ochre and burnt umber and these colors are captured in the monuments found in the ancient city of Mandu. While I sat sketching inside the deserted Mahal ( Monuments are wonderful to visit in the mornings when there are no tourists about)  a cheeky squirrel gave me a lot of trouble. Perhaps he was in want of company too and followed me about wherever I went. I finally had to perch myself awkwardly on a pedestal near one of the arches while the squirrel went around looking for me. He managed to spot me...

Summers were all about watermelon in Udupi. We - me and my sister, never felt the scorching heat that used to bother the adults around us. It was all about endless days of playing, running wild and whiling away time. We would strip down to our undies and be duly handed slices of  cold watermelon to eat. We would polish them off slowly. The juice trickled down our chins and stained our drawers, but we ate it with abandon. That's my sister spitting out the seeds like a pro : D It was also that time of my childhood which must have been a trial for my parents, now that I think of it. You know the time,  when your  milk teeth are falling out, and you are increasingly difficult, annoying and doing all the socially inappropriate things that are hilarious in retrospect, but not so funny, especially to one's parents at the time. The Dennis the menace years, I would call them :) So go on and find yourself a slice of nostalgia this summer and let's say cheers to those good old...

Pencil Sketch - King Edward VII This statue of Edward VII in Cubbon Park lies forgotten among many other beautiful works of art in Bangalore. I see a homeless man sleeping under its pedestal, in what little shade it offers from the sun. The marble statue bears the summer heat with composure. I love this statue because of the intricate work on the robes - It's hard to believe they're made of marble, because they capture fluid movement in the folds and creases. This work was commissioned to Leonard Jennings, a British Sculptor, who has executed commissioned works in Kolkata, Patna, Delhi and Mumbai. Every Sunday, Edward VII looks on as a bunch of committed artists get here to do some serious studies in figure drawing and anatomy. Some are on time, some are laid back ( It's a Sunday, after all)  some don't turn up but no matter the size of the group, every Sunday, these artists make it a point to show up, do some figure studies and some of them even go home and de...

Waiting Women with crying babies and old men in little shorts wait patiently for their turn. The garish, brightly painted Anganwadi is brimming with people today.  A school bench is the makeshift waiting room for patients, while little ones play on in their own universe of tiny claypots and pans, beads and slates on the other side of the room. The doctor, in a plastic chair is attending to a drunk man who has a skin allergy. Old men and women, weighed down, bent double, sit on chairs and carpets waiting for the doctor and the nurse to attend to them. A young woman in her teens in a brightly patterned nightie pats her wailing baby to comfort him. This is a small village in Doddaballapura Taluk in the Bangalore rural district of Karnataka.   Every Thursday, People wait in line for the mobile health van. It is a small village and I am alarmed to see few youths. Where have they gone? Working in the farms? Yes, a few.  But most of them are off to Bangalore...