In Love with Summer Rain!

As I sit to write this post,I hear thunder at a distance.I think it's going to rain even today.
It showered continuously for two days in Delhi.The days have become pleasant,the mornings have become cold ,afternoons became overcast ,evenings became chilly and the waters are ice cold again.We went for long drives to enjoy the ongoing pleasant spell,we all know its the coolness before the scorching heat.
Some shots of the long drive:

It was windySuddenly we noticed the pretty pinks in profusion

Looks like the Gorgeous Pink Bouquet in the hands of a bride
Thought even I shall admire my foot:)
I simply dont know how to tell you all that I am in love with rain,from the time i have seen it and realized its rain.
Rain has captured my heart and stolen my soul.
I believe that I’ve lost control.
It’s a feeling I never want to go away.
I want to be with you every day,my Rain.
Rain reminds me of the light paperboats we used to make at home when we were children.It was my grand father who used to be with us for floating them.Rain water used to gush in front of our house ,our house was at a lower level.There used to be pools of water long after the rain is gone.It was fun at home.Memories flooding.
Rain reminds me of the lines of the beautiful poem composed by the Eminent Malayalam poet Sugathakumari ,titled "Rathrimazha"(Night Rain),where she compares the night rain to some young mad woman weeping,laughing and whimpering and sitting huddled up tossing her long black hair.Night rain being compared to the Pensive daughter of the dusky dark,who witnessed my love,who lulled me to sleep,gave more joy than the white moonlight,which gave me thrill with joy and laugh.Finally she says,let me tell you night rain,I know your music,kind and sad,your coming in the night,sobbing and weeping in the dawn and compares herself to a night rain.A lovely poem which I learnt in school still haunts me when its raining.
As I write this I see the clouds gathering and I switch on the lights in the room.
Finally rain comes tearing and roaring down,I run to close my balcony door.
Curtains fluttering in the wind and doormats wet.
Balcony is sprayed with full of water and the ferns and phillodendrons get new lease of life.


After posting this ,i think of the chai...

I can hear my little one crying out to the rain:
Pitter Patter raindrops,Pitter Patter Rain drops
Oh, where do you come from,You little drops of rain,
Pitter patter, pitter patter,Down the window pane?
They won't let me walk,And they won't let me play,
And they won't let me go Out of doors at all today.

all images lakshmi arvind

Our Daughter Grows Up!

A daughter is sweetness from above,a little bit of sunshine,a smile to light your days, a sweet surprise and joy that she brings and tears in the eyes.

As i sit to write a post about our sweetness,eyes get filled with tears,they run through my cheeks,throats get choked and my little one asks "What happened Amma?"

I remember the poems and lines my father used to read out from his collections:Life is fleeting, years rush past.... and little girls grow up so fast!

I still remember tiptoeing the room, carrying her in my arms always, putting her to sleep by singing, finish my chores before she wakes up,

Let me take time out to be glad that mine's still here with me. When I imagine the life you will live,I think of the pleasure your presence will give.Many days of practice sessions came to a halt a few days back.Yesterday as she walked on to the stage,to recite and do a play,we saw all the faces wearing a smile.Hands pained clapping.But as we remember,those tender years our smiles will conceal a few hidden tears.It isn't through sadness, our emotions just whirl.As we're both thinking back to our little girl.And now you have grown and made us so proud.As you smile for the camera and the rest of the crowd

Daughters are angels sent from above to fill our heart with unending love

Celebrations Decor

A long cherished dream of starting a decorblog has been successful today.Working towards the first post was a good work attempted.Memories and Summer pushed me into the right time towards my passion.
Link to site
celebrationsdecor

Thinking of last Summer Vacation

Here we go again.

Summer gets under way ,Its already there for some:)

I know that summer has arrived when there are butterflies in the garden and sweet tea in the fridge.

Nostalgia aint what they used to be :)

Thoughts of Summer take me back to my summer vacations in school.

I really can't believe[time flew by so fast]it seems only yesterday.

Now my memories are just there at the last much awaited last summer vacation.

Once a year, we go to Kerala to enjoy long swims, great reads, long walks, fabulous food and good laughs with friends and family. Basically, it is a time to rejuvenate and recharge.

Last summer in Kerala ,we had been to Estuary,a unique paradise of breathtaking beauty,South of Kerala,Trivandrum.

Estuary is one among the natural wonders where the Lake, River, Sea and Beach meet the land, is situated adjacent to the Poovar Island; a rare find in Kerala, the southern state of India. Enveloped by the most serene backwaters and opening out to the Sea and a dream golden beach, Estuary Island Resort will carry away you to a new world.At Estuary Island Resort, the experience is at its most perfect - the pristine natural beauty of an 'estuary'. One of life's very special experiences....Let me take you to the tour of the Estuary Island.

Way to the Estuary island,at a distance you can see the sea.During high tide and monsoon the sea and lake becomes one.Water enters the island.Its closed on those days.

Children playing in the beach just across the island.This side is the sea and the boat is in the lake.It takes hardly five minutes from the resort to the beach.

Panoramic view of the resort,A balinese style resortSea facing rooms
Well maintained greenery and plantsSwimming pool
Souvinier shop,the prices are too much here,look at the traditional style of Kerala architecture
Way to the reception area,balinese style benches
Lake and sea view rooms,take a stroll in the coconut groves
Garden view rooms,Garden facing villa
Garden view rooms

Conference rooms Interiors of a room
Extensive timber decking

Dinner at night overlooking the sea and lake at the timber deck.Panoramic view of the timber deck
At night its simply beautiful,its simply magical.

Close your eyes,aren't you all in paradise.....

Wait for much more excited vacations in the next episodes.

Pictures are subject to copyright,

Please dont use them without prior permission

Some of the images(panorama view):courtesy,Estuary island,others by Lakshmi Arvind

An early Morning Walk,I saw yellow!

 “An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day,” said American philosopher Henry David Thoreau.
I agree, so this morning walked through the lovely streets near my home in Delhi and noted the sights and smells and sounds of spring.
On my way to the park, I noted many sights along the way.
In a parks centre were, the vibrant yellow of the trumpet bells glowing in the early morning sun. Looming over me was one of the pretty yellow flowers. It was truly a feast for the eyes along my way.

Then I spotted another shower of yellow flowers of Cassia.Masses of bright gold flower clusters appear on almost every branch.

I felt very happy seeing these beautiful yellow ones.Yellows were making me vibrant and happier.

As I went back home,thoughts of having an orange juice was overwheming.As I was cutting ,I realized it to be golden yellow.

I made the juice and a look towards my table just startled me,the roses were definitely yellow.

My thoughts quieted, I came to appreciate the “blessing” that Thoreau said would come to me this day.

Nostalgia-Vacation-Last winter

Mind set on a nostalgic mood.The mood gives rise to a nostalgic yearning for bygone simplicity Nostalgia, can be simply equated with with the remembrance of things in the past, or better understood as an abdication of memory. It makes the past a foreign country.

Today let me take you to our days of the last winter when we set on our lovely journey to South Coorg. Travelling is an experience in itself which we love to indulge always,but for our schedule....Travelling to Coorg has been one of our itineraries since long.We wanted to go into a wonderful journey into the thick tropical forests,myriad streams and waterfalls and miles of spice,paddy and coffee plantations in Coorg.

Coorg (Kodagu) in Karnataka in South India is a beautiful hill resort. Coorg is also known as the Scotland of India because of its hills, picturesque towns and mist covered mountains.We experienced the real flavor of Coorg amidst the greens staying in a heritage home ,called "The Jade" ,situated in the valley of Brahmagiri hill range. A true paradise for the holidayers, the beauty of this 170 year old Kodava home is retained without losing its charm and regality. You could look forward for an authentic experience of the culture, cuisine and hospitality of the Kodavas to the fullest. Close proximity to Nagarhole, Waynad and Iruppu falls makes your stay even more exciting.

The Jade Home Stay-Kutta,Coorg

Front viewSide ViewSwing near one room
Bamboo swing Hills at a distantTea is served hereDining Table
River flowing across the property and love seat for the perfect evenings
Please do not reproduce any pictures.All of them are copyrighted.

March-Spring's here to stay!

In March-Say hello to Spring!I hope spring stays for ever.The Language of Spring-Flowers.Spring makes the world a happy place

At home with these flowers:)Can you smell them as you see them?An all time sweet scent at home right now.

My Favourites- Books

The listing of a few of my favourite books happened because of Shalini "of travels and travails " and kanchan of "elan".I am greatful to them for having been given the opportunity.

The habit of reading for me is one of the oldest and till now perhaps the only one without a worthy substitute.I cannot guarantee that I'm an avid reader,but I read almost anything.But now getting time to read is no guarantee with my 4 year old taking away most of the time.Now i end up in reading Cindrella,Mermaid and Red Riding Hood repeatedly.

As you all know Books, remain a world wide hit,despite the advent of modern technology.They open up an entirely new world before us. Worlds we have never visited before, unheard of, even unimagined before. They open up a plethora of experiences and tales of awe which one can only, but read to experience. They influence one to a great extent. Thoughts, both rational and revolutionary, ideas both subtle and explosive have been effectively preached through the instruments called books.I have read quite a few books till date and am greatly impressed by some of them.I've been greatly impressed by some writers and by some whom I have not.

Very clear are those memories wherein when I was 4 year old,my amma telling me stories.She was great in cooking up wonderful stories and it used to be told in parts each night after night.Dedicated to my childhood and those wonderful memories here comes the first book:

1.Grimms Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
This book for the first time opened up an entirely different world to me unheard of and unimagined before. For almost two centuries, the stories of magic and myth gathered by the Brothers Grimm have been part of the way children—and adults—learn about the vagaries of the real world. More than 200 enchanting characters included here. Lyrically translated and beautifully illustrated, the tales are presented just as Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm originally set them down: bold, primal, just frightening enough, and endlessly engaging.Anybody would love it.It will be a mistake if this volume is merely bought for a child; it should be, first and foremost, an educational ‘must’ for adults.” It was one of the birthday presents when I was 6 years old.Till now remains one of the prized collections of my books.Now that I have my 4 year old i dont think i have any escape from not reading it now either.

Dedicated to my teens:is


2.NeermathalamPoothakalam(Malayalam)

by Kamaladas /Madhavikutty/Kamala Suraiya
In my teens and until recently, the legendary & iconoclastic writer put me off with her histrionics; or what I perceived as her histrionics. All her women protagonists came across as sexually frustrated and infidelity was a leitmotif in all I could read. This lady was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature.In simple words she is brilliant and I like her still as Madhavikutty.She is the quintessential feminist, eternal lover and the most independent soul, the lady is my idol. She is not a feminist of the typical mould,but the truest of them all.In all her writings and talks she always admitted her need for emotional security, her longing for physical beauty, the need for attention and all the other vulnerabilities innate in a woman. The undercurrent of emotions is the same in each name of hers.The superficial exhibition of it baffles me at times.

Krishna, I am melting,Melting, melting Nothing remains But you ~ Kamala Das.

Though autobiographical, Neermathalam Pootha Kalam isn’t just her story. It is the story of any one of her generation would tell. I have heard similar stories from my parents & grand parents. Reading it gives the same feeling; the feeling of sitting in your grandmother’s lap and listening to her stories of “good old times”.
No drama, no whirlpool and nothing extra ordinary. Just plain, mundane day to day life; told in the language so non-fictional. Yet it is the Diary of Young Ami, so captivating and it gives you that long needed catharsis. In the initial chapters, Das brilliantly draw the whole family tree. But later on, growing up as the daughter of one of the greatest poetess of Malayalam and successful Indian Official in the British India, Ami speaks more about the servants in the kitchen, the dhobi whose daughter of her age had to marry an old widower, the poor Anglo Indian girl who pursue her to get a job for some relative in her father’s company. So many characters evolve, as the author juggle between her days in Calcutta and her ancestral home in South Malabar. We move with her, without any disconnect. We live with her grand mother, swim with her in the pool and then take the train journey with her. Such is her versatility.
You can’t read thru the pages without being Ami, as the author is fondly called by her family and as you finally finish the book, you are left with the angst, unrest and eventual peace the grandmother go thru the first time Ami comes home wearing a sari.
As a Malayali, you owe this read to yourself. If you are not one, you still owe it to yourself to know one of the best authors our country has ever had.This book got her the Vayalar Award for 1997.

Enjoyed reading the three below


3.Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children"
A novel by Salman Rushdie. It centres on the author's native India and was acclaimed as a major milestone in postcolonial literature.
It won both the 1981 Booker Prize and the James Tait Black memorial Prize for the same year. It was awarded the "Booker of Bookers" Prize and the best all-time prize winners in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize 25th and 40th anniversary.Midnight's Children is a loose allegory for events in India both before and, primarily, after the independence and partition of India which took place at midnight on 15 August 1947.It story starts with saleem discovering that all children born on midnight 15 August 1947 has imbued with special powers.The technique of magical realism finds liberal expression throughout the novel and is crucial to constructing the parallel to the country's history.Midnight's Children chronologically entwines characters from India's cultural history with characters from Western culture, and the devices that they signify -- Indian culture, religion and storytelling, Western drama and cinema -- are presented in Rushdie's text with postcolonial Indian history to examine the effect of these indigenous and non-indigenous cultures on the Indian mind and in the light of Indian independence.Helps us in undertanding the bygone era a little better.

4.One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey
Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is based largely on his experiences with mental patients.The novel explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity, ideas that were widely discussed at a time when the United States was committed to opposing communism and totalitarian regimes around the world. However, Kesey's approach, directing criticism at American institutions themselves, was revolutionary in a way that would find greater expression during the sixties. The novel, published in 1962, was an immediate success.

The novel's title was derived from a familiar, tongue-twisting Mother's Goose children's folk song (or nursery rhyme) called Vintery, Mintery, Cutery, Corn. The ones that fly east and west are diametrically opposed to each other and represent the two combatants in the film. The one that flies over the cuckoo's nest [the mental hospital filled with "cuckoo" patients] is the giant, 'deaf-mute' Chief:

Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,Apple seed and apple thorn;Wire, briar, limber lock,Three geese in a flock.One flew east,And one flew west,And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.


Dale Wasserman adapted One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest into a play version that ran on Broadway in 1963, with Kirk Douglas in the leading role. In 1975, a movie version was released without Kesey's permission, directed by Milos Forman. It was extremely successful, though quite different from the novel. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards and swept the five major categories. As a result, for many people familiar with the film version, Randle McMurphy will forever be associated with Jack Nicholson, the famous actor who portrayed him.



5.The Old Man and the Sea
It is a novella (just over 100 pages in length) by Ernest Hemingway, written in Cuba in 1951 and published in 1952.It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the gulf Stream.He drags the marlin onto the shore and portrays heroism,defeat and victory.It is noteworthy in twentieth century fiction reaffirming aHemingway's worldwide literary prominence as well as being a significant factor in his selection for the Nobel prize Literature. It is a quick read as it is only hundred pages and you get a touch of Hemingway.

These are some of the books that have left a long lasting impression.For me books are not to be read and forgotten but to be read again and again.Some of them especially I keep on reading them again and think of them,the people,life,the cultures associated with them.It just comes into my mind frame by frame as i close my eyes to dream.
All of you can give a try on some of them if it appeals you.

Links to the post
Read Shalini's list on "of travels and travails" and Kanchans List on "Elan".

The Forgotten - Early Afternoon Journey into the Past

Here is a treasure trove of the Dilli city that, like most other heritage sites, lie in oblivion – slowly decaying and dying. This was an early afternoon spent by us immersed in the history of the Tughlaq dynasty.The first sight and it took my breath away.Its sad that it doesnt come in the tour itinery of the travel agenices.

AGRASEN KI BAOLI: Hidden among the skyscrapers of Connaught Place, is the 60-metre long and 15-metre wide stepwell Agrasen Ki Baoli (on Hailey Road). Some of its parts are always immersed in water. The visible parts consist of three levels, lined with arched niches on both sides. Resembling Tughlaq period architectures, it was probably constructed by the Agrawal community (tracing back to Maharaja Agrasen).

This beautiful thousand-year-old stepwell, with the towers of Connaught Place in the background, will impress you. As you go down the steps to each of the five floors, you sink back in time, until all that seems real are the towering walls and the massive neem tree that shades it.

The Entrance to the well

View into the well...100 steps down

View of the arches surrounding the well

View from below

Neem tree sheltering the well