INDIA ART FAIR 2018

Winter slipping away and spring just in, the annual festival of Art - IAF opened its doors to the art-lover. It was a generous assembly and from classic to contemporary, fairly representative too.  Vaikuntham's traditional India portrayed in deep colours and with their identity markings seemed to occupy every other gallery's walls. Dippy Menon's heroine announcing her freedom from bondage here.

VAIKUNTHAM at ART FAIR

FIRST BLOOMS OF SEASON.

somedays there are guests that show up like long-awaited news. And there're ones that home in and set you to wonder. The guy holding a travel bag at door who seems delighted to have located you, was erased from memory and album till this moment of renegotiation. Your response decides whether you're willing to journey back in time or are forever in the present. (In the image, a guest that was awaited).

APPA DEEPO BHAVA (Be Your Own Light)

Focus on the lamp's wick
as you light it,  let it light other ones
ruminate on your action, reflect
stay true stay right


find a patch of grass
lie flat upon it, all fours
look up and immerse
as your being shrinks
and gradually disappears

it was brief
it was fleeting
this journey we made
together, but for that span
what a life it was !

MONASTERY IN COORG

                                                                       

a Monastery in Coorg that bears an imposing facade and houses monks who go about their business with great composure and gentle movements. The Knocker on the gate to the shrine reveals in exquisite craftsmanship - a guardian face, warning you to let go all evil and negativity as you enter.

WHAT MODERNITY LEFT ALONE....

Be a Bird and run a sweeping gaze across the
valley below. Own that view.  Travel finds us
places and sights of a world that existed before
modern lifestyle pigeonholed us, climate controlled
it, cab-scurried us through masses, clock-timed our
days and nights, and enslaved us to a ringing gadget..

                                                                                  

COORG - LAND OF KUDUGAS

The thing with Tourism loving states is that they don't give you a heads up that a certain place is undergoing renovations and so only partly accessible. A meandering journey on up and down roads gets one there and then the surprise ! Local economy thrives on you making the trip, and their hush and smile are consensual. But that joy of journey, being in the presence of majestic monuments, peace and serenity of spiritual earth, oh... simply bliss.  

AMBLING THROUGH POCKETS OF NATURE

A walk through woods in early winter has you breathing in the purest air known to mankind. City is now distant blur. Noises of traffic, phone, doorbell, or marketplace, all cancelled out from one's consciousness. So you notice... floating clouds, hues of green, Quietness.  Western Ghats. Mangalore. Coorg. Pristine.

KAVERI - MOTHER RIVER TO MILLIONS

Amidst the hills that create the River.
Trekked uphill labouriously, over large stony steps, one has a faint hope of encountering a bit of divine up there. Disappointment. But the view from up there, that is magical.






                                                                                          

Kaveri / Cauvery is a big river. Big enough to create trouble over sharing of her waters between two large states. But at its point of origin its a modest, peaceful continuous stream. 

Quite in keeping with India's ancient traditions, the River is feminine and deified as a goddess. She, who ensures bounties of sustenance for humans. Sit on the stairs, pray, meditate, or just watch her flow gently before you.