25.5.10

added to my wishlist !!

when there is too much to do... and not all towards the same end... my mind drifts.  so ignoring the glares of  two open books and the black-board(actually a green-board) in my cabin, this afternoon, over lunch, i began to watch the Bengali movie, The Japanese Wife. It is an unusual romantic tale of a Japanese lady and a Bengali man, who without meeting each other, fall in love and get married through the letters they write and the gifts they exchange.  (the movie is beautiful and deserves a separate post. so more about it later...)

but there was this shot in the movie that triggered in me a desire to own a polaroid.
oh.. how i wish i had a polaroid to click photographs on and off
photographs with grainy textures wearing a blandish-yellow color, which i would have to blow into to see the moment captured !
oh ! how i wish .............

[image from weheartit]

23.5.10

at HRI- Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad

these past few years, 
while we were busy preparing for life.... 
nature indulged.... 
arranged several bouquets and played a symphony for us....

[HRI, hostel: image from ptwo's photostream, flicker ] 

there is nothing more refreshing than waking up to the chirping of the early birds every morning.
such a pleasure had been ours for the past six years. 
but being common occurrence it then had never meant much.
for in spite of  us the babblers came knocking and blabbering at our window sills every morning .
and the koels cooed from the high branches of the trees.

[Oriental White-eye Zosterops palpebrosus, HRI: image by Nishita Desai ]

and one did not have to be too lucky to see the peacocks play in ones backward in the early hours or in the evenings or see them dance when dark clouds covered the sky.
such was a campus i lived in for the past six years....

[15 July 2007, peacocks perched on the branches of the trees overlooking the students' study cabin, HRI: image by Archana Morye]

few days back a friend of mine mailed a recording of  "the music of HRI" as heard in the early hours of the day. and then it all came gushing back to me.... the memories of those past six years in the blessed green campus  of Harish-Chandra Research Institute along the banks of the Ganges....

[Kalidasa Point, HRI, the corner of the campus that overlooks the Ganges: image by Priyotosh Bandhyopadhay]

often on a Sunday morning like this, we would let life take a back-seat and let nature play... and when the sun would glare too harshly, we would rush back indoors, take refuge at our computer desk, work a little and wait for the sun to set...
for all at HRI knew too well that an evening by the Ganges is a phenomenon that cannot be  missed on a idle Sunday such as today....

[Along the Ganges at sunset on a Sunday in 2009]

[the music of HRI had been recorded by Girish Kulkarni of HRI in his voice recorder during the early hours of 4th May, 2010.]

[ p.s: Thanks Archana for mailing me "the music of HRI" and the photographs of the peacocks.]

21.5.10

A New Favourite...




i have a new favourite. the movie called Chocolat 
i am in love with it and i am in love with Vianne in it.
i adore her passion, her conviction in what she believes is the purpose of her being.
i love her love to ignite the passion, the zest for life in others  through her chocolat and cocoa drinks...
and i love the way  Roux looks at her every time she hands him a chocolat,-  claiming it is his favourite...
and he turns down saying "Very good... but not my favorite." 
i love Anouk's pet Bantufh .... i simply love the movie and cannot seem to get over it....
i have been rewinding and replaying my favourite scenes which are too many to be listed here. 


Nevertheless here is a trailer of Chocolat and in case you haven't seen it already make sure that you grab a copy of the movie soon
... and in case you have seen it before you know well enough that you wouldn't mind watching it once more... 




Meanwhile- 
i think my love affair with Chocolat will last for a while 
for i cannot get over the look in Roux's eyes nor can i get over his understanding smile... 
Oh, Depp !  you do this to me every single time !


[Just in case you did not know already, in this new favourite of mine, 
Juliette Binoche plays Vianne, Johnny Depp plays Roux, Victoire Thivisol plays Anouk and Bantufh is Anouk's pet kangaroo ]

20.5.10

I quote...

Courage is not the absence of fear 
but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear.
The brave may not live forever
but the cautious do not live at all.

          ~ Ambrose Redmoon 

18.5.10

Cranes on Silk..

 Aren't these cranes gorgeous ? My brother Tushar painted this pair of cranes on silk today. and can you believe that this one is his first attempt on silk. isn't he brilliant !! I am so proud of him !!

17.5.10

Happy Monday Morning !!!

Hope you had a fun-filled-relaxing weekend.... I had a wonder time... caught up with some old friends, did all the washing-cleaning-ironing and rearranging that I wanted to do and then froze my first lemon cheesecake... This was my guiding recipe for the cake. but i slightly modified the ingredients to suit my supplies.... and the result was a nice yummy, creamy cheesecake with a perfect crust... BLISS !!  [ well there is still a little bit of the perfection shelved in our refrigerator.  in case you are in town(i.e. Chennai) ... drop by.... you are invited.  and i promise you will not regret. :) ]

So that was the story of my weekend........ and right now i am finding it rather difficult to overcome the inertia of all the fun and settle down at my desk.... so i had been checking out stuff on Etsy and this is my find of the day....

 Breakfast Club Print  from  Dial M for Michele.


I love this print,  for at breakfast each morning my mind races back and forth through all the frames portrayed.... 
What about yours ? Doesn't it do the same ?

Acceptance .....

The other day as we walked past a narrow over-populated lane in Chennai
a friend asked  "what is it you see in their faces ?"

I replied "acceptance..."

It was apparently just the word that he had been looking for....   

for the shop-keepers, the flower-vendors, the street-kids who dotted that narrow lane did not look unhappy. neither did they seem to be complacent (as is often portrayed by the tourists-photographers or the film-makers).... for clearly their living conditions weren't the best... but over the generations they seemed to have learnt that denial or self-pity will not change the picture for them. neither will it help to be a rebel... for in our country (and possibly in most countries) rebels are always harshly suppressed... so they had adjusted to their surroundings, learnt to survive through frugality, learnt to accept life as has been catered to them and wear a moderate smile whenever asked to do so by a photographer  for his frame or a film-maker for his fame......

[i wish i had a camera that day... but i didn't. so i googled and put up the image which was closest to what we had seen in that narrow lane in Chennai that day]


15.5.10

THE VAGABOND ....

 
my mind is a vagabond... the norms it refuses to abide
  
i do not wish to cage it ... but at times i wish it weren't as wild.....

[image by google search]

A Saturday morning in May...


i feel a little rusty
  a little dusty around the edges
i need to do a little cleaning
  a little polishing of the surfaces
a heap of soiled clothes are staring asking for a wash
a bunch of their crumbled kins are begging to be ironed
so this morning i committed myself
 to my wardrobe, my dishes and my room decor..
and only later today i wish to return to my tulips
to broaden their smile a bit more....

[image by weheartit]

13.5.10

Happy Birthday !!

That is me and my cousins with Dadu, our grandfather.

and the little man in the red-n-blue is my little brother, Shounak. 
Its his birthday today !!
He is no more  little.. he is a big man now... nevertheless he is my little bro...

so dear little bro, 
happy birthday to you .......




love and hugs,
lovingly,  Didibhai

Few of my favourite things ....


I wasn't served tea on bed 
nor woken by the tune of an old song at day-break
a mayna-pair did not greet me on my way
nor did my breakfast-table lay strewn with garden-picked-lilies or a batch of freshly baked brownies....
but i am all smiles and giggles today
... for this morning I received a little love note from husband to brighten my day.
a picture-postcard it was,- a picture-postcard to cheer me up...
....a postcard with a peeping giraffe from the maxwanger shop ... 
and since "morning shows the day" - they say
i am hoping that today will be a wonderful day
and when night falls i hope to wind up in bed complacent and gay !!


[postcard from maxwanger shop]

12.5.10

somewhere I had read......

one repeats oneself countlessly as if to convince others
when one has issues convincing oneself....              

Lately I have been living through this nagging, repetition and rewinding of episodes  ever so often...............  
I wonder what is it that I need to be convinced about ?? 

I will not give up !

I feel a little misfit in this frame i have chosen for me. 
Its too big and I feel rather small in it.
The depth of my knowledge is a little shallow still.
But the good news is I am young.
and I have the time to struggle and strive
Till no frame is too big for me.


[I found the picture by google search and I love it :) ]

11.5.10

I wish to flee......


Conventions and traditions are suffocating me.  
I wish to break free....
flee from this life
and  live in a small tidy hut by the sea
a hut with thatched-straw-roof, stocked  with loots of books and endless art supplies to survive me...

a hut by the sea, where the breeze will soothe
and the sea will lull me to sleep
and the morning rays will kiss me at dawn
while i swing in my hammock by the beach
still hugging my book dreamily ...




[image via google search]

8.5.10

Have a relaxing weekend !!


With a summer school coming up next month and two conferences lined up after that, there is very little besides work that I have on my mind. The summer school is on Modular Representation Theory and in preparation for it,  we (me and another participant from my institute) have decided to complete a considerable portion of J. L. Alperin's book on Local Representation Theory and parts of  J. P. Serre's book on Linear Representations of Finite Groups.

Well,  in case you are reading this post,  you might be wondering why I am blogging about my work plans in such details....... The reason is that printed words inspire me a lot... and earlier whenever I have blogged about my weekend plans, just to keep up with my words, I have struggled really hard to accomplish my goals. so I am hoping that by blogging a bit about my work plans I will be able to drive myself into doing all that needs to be done !!

Hope you are all doing great at your work front and achieving all your goals... Have a relaxing weekend so that you are well prepared to dive into work on Monday ! Math and movies relax me a lot... so to relax myself i have booked myself for  a Saturday-matinee and for the rest of the weekend i have committed myself to math !!

so much from me... good-bye,
take care and tell me what you are up to if you have some time to spare....

[image: “Woman reading in a Garden” by Mary Cassatt ]

6.5.10

about flavours that erased and revealed ....

It was my third visit to naturals ice-cream parlour... The last two times I had been accompanied... but this time it was unplanned...  lets say, after the episodes of the day i needed a break to lift my spirits and i thought that an ice-cream treat is best qualified for the job in the list.... so i walked into the parlour unaccompanied....

naturals  is an ice-cream franchise which prides in introducing seasonal-fruit-flavoured ice-creams with intriguing toppings of fruity-flavoured-jellies, cashews, shredded-carameled-nuts, honey and a variety of exotica besides the usual choco-chips, cherries and black-current crushes.... On my earlier visits I had tried their custard-apple, musk-melon, watermelon and papaya flavours and each of them was great! Today I tried two freshly introduced flavours of the season, anjir (i.e fig) and mukkani ( which is a trio of mango-jackfruit-banana). I tried a small helping of the first and then settled for two big scoops of the mukkani-flavoured one topped with a generous helping of nuts, raisins and honey...and DIVINE is all i can say !

.... and while my scoops soothed me and  busied themselves in wiping  memories of my ugly day, it occurred to me that I have finally learnt to love and enjoy the time I spend with myself !! for earlier, whenever I was faced with a similar situation the ever-so-self-concious me would end up hurrying through my order in awe of being the focus of weird glances ... but this time i just sat there with my cup of ice-cream... peeping at their selections and smiling back at them... as if approvingly !!   i guess i am gradually learning to balance "being introvert with being sociable " and i am loving this....



[image by google search]

4.5.10

Lost World




I was sleeping,
when the morn-bird cooed-
I was wandering
where the pepping sun stood.
When I awoke,
the world glittered bright and gay
ah! I missed the childhood
of a beautiful day!

 – Soumya Das


The poem is by one of my friends and colleagues Soumya Das... I love how simple and well-worded it is and so wanted to share with you ... and the photograph is from another friend's assimilated collection.  In his words this tiny little blue bird used to wait for them every morning perched on the thatched straw roof of their hut  in Dholavira, an ancient city dotted with ruins of the Indus Valley civilization ....

3.5.10

Have a Nice day !

 
It's all I have to bring to-day,
   This, and my heart beside,
This, and my heart, and all the fields,
   And all the meadows wide.
Be sure you count, should I forget, --
   Some one the sum could tell, --
This, and my heart, and all the bees
  Which in the clover dwell.

 ~ Emily Dickinson

[photograph from weheartit]

2.5.10

Sunday Lunch...

Good Morning !! Here in Chennai,  Sunday is smiling wide and  bright... today after waking up i entertained myself to a sumptuous conversation with husband and now i am happy and all set for the day !

Some frozen fish has been lying in my refrigerator for a while... I had one of my mother's simple fish-recipe in mind.. Patla Macher Jhol,- a simple blandish-fish-curry with lots of veggis is what i had thought i would try this Sunday for lunch... But alternate plans have been made. we have all been booked for a Sunday-Matinee show. a comedy it is they said... so i have shelved back my fish once more... had i been younger i would have tried to squeeze in the cooking along with the matinee... but not anymore..over the years i have realised that i am not a super-woman and over-taxing only leaves me super-frustrated.. and you know cooking isn't the job of frustrated minds for more often than not, the chef's mood gets reflected in his pot! so let the recipe freeze till next Sunday lunch...

 meanwhile what are you cooking this Sunday for lunch ? whipping up your own special meal or feeling a little nostalgic and therefore turning to your mom for one of her traditional delectable recipes...  that you have had so many times before as a child but hadn't appreciated it enough for home-cooking and delicious meals were then a part of the norm....



[photograph from weheartit]

Wanderlusty me !


At the beach tonight I saw the moon rise...
                  and the tiding waves simmering in moon-light...
   while my friend narrated stories of his trips to the golden forts of Rajasthan, 
the hills of Darjeeling and Karshiyang...
          the hills where the clouds had descended.. touched him and his tea-cup,
             then trailed their way through his room leaving tiny dewdrops clinging to his cup
             perhaps ... so that he would not mistake their descend for a dream
and know for sure they had visited him....

And ever since my mind has been wandering into those hills, where bliss resides, clouds embrace and dreams alight to touch every being....

[the picture is from the label of cavit collection pinot noir 2008... isn't it pretty !]

1.5.10

The Reunion.............



This video of the reunion John Rendall and Ace Berg with their friend Christian touched me.... so i thought it was perfect thing to share with you this weekend.... 

So what are your plans for the weekend ? I have quite a few things lined up for Saturday as well as Sunday.... Firstly I intend to start off on my version of the tulips-painting -challenge that has been posed on  ROOKIEPAINTER. I guess that will take care of my Saturday evening and a good part of Sunday .... Then there is a photo-frame I have promised to make for a friend... Nothing fancy.. but that is another thing to be done... and for Sunday morning I have some pretty elaborate cooking plans... Let us see how much of all this fits into these two days !  

Hope you have a wonderful weekend with pets, family and friends... 

Tata, take care,
eat well, drink lots and exercise a little,
and drop a line if you will ... 

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