Vedasri Siddamsetty

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Living it up .

  • Why late nights are not worth it.

    Yes yes I hear you, the sky full of stars, the full moon night or well the crescent moon, the beauty of the velvety sky all of that is yes, but when the sun’s rays pierce through the sky in the morning we all well know who is the boss. A sentiment I had this morning after indulging in some fun playing pickle ball last night in a play arena. Okay first of all I do not get that game, in fact you can’t blame the game, as a child too I never understood the competitive spirit, for me only games you play against the earth (read golf, swimming, or hiking) makes sense but even in those you are actually measuring against yourself. But being around people, laughing my lungs out, and being social is always a recipe for dopamine. It could also be a recipe for disaster, sometimes depending on the conversation or who we are talking to! Last couple of years insomnia had be talking, sparked by who said what and what could have been said. Well we all know where coulds, woulds and shoulds lead to and that is nowhere. So after a late night full of slapstick fun and literally people talking mindlessly, well that is clearly what happens when the sun goes down, I am deeply convinced that no late night is worth it. And this comes from the girl who has danced all night till the sun literally came up, for more days than I can count on my finger. But then again dancing in the sunlight is far underrated and even more fun I must say.

    As the sun begins the next day I am still so sleepy playing a really weird game, a mishmash of tennis, badminton, table tennis and what not, beginning to want to rub my eyes to eternity and all the laughs too do not provide any amount of solace. The balance of happiness built with laughter comes crashing down with the brain not reset with the cerebrospinal fluid cleaning it up. Sleep is the only time it is supposed to work they say. And with all the toxin in my brain I can hardly concentrate. The sun comes up everyday and while it is the best to be up with the sun, I completely endorse that knowledge. Even when I typing this out now I am not very sure of what I actually wanted to convey. And thus I know that late nights are so not worth it. Scientific studies say that some animals are nocturnal and come out in the dark, yet I am not reiterating that humans are not one of those and though all our exposure to the blue light may be evolving us into some weird breed of nocturnal creatures, basking in the daylight is definitely the way to be. While I go take a walk in the sunlight and silence all the late night engagements, I hope to strengthen my mind enough to say no!

  • Gymtimidation!

    The first 30 minutes after exiting the gym are fabulous, the endorphins flowing the happiness exuding and as the day wears out, the little fellow remarks did you go to the gym today? And a couple of days later he presents to me his scientific finding, that I get cranky on the days that I have gone to the gym. What a eureka moment he had, before promptly banning me from going to the gym. I was intrigued by his observation skills and then googled some more to find that it is actually a thing. But the gym is neutral and it isnt to blame, what is to blame are overtraining, poor form, anxiety about being at the gym (“gymtimidation”), not enjoying the activities you’re doing, pushing yourself too hard, inadequate rest days, or even underlying nutritional issues – all of which can lead to feelings of fatigue, irritability, and a negative mood after working out. 

    While most of those may have been abetting my case, except for the over-training and pushing myself too hard, and inadequate rest days part, the fact remains that I do have a poor form, am anxious about being at the gym, I obviously consider it a torture chamber, and have nutritional issues for sure, with the poor air quality, the constant stimuli and not enough movement or sunlight who doesn’t. While I have flitted to the gym in the past, only after eating a whole brownie do I walk into the gym, it took me that much to get in, I haven’t been an avid lifter. The feel-good hormones do make their way in the beginning and then evaporate just as easily even before the sun calls it a day! Obviously a good trainer will help, but good is again hard to find. Then there is the question of fasted or non-fasted workouts, pacing out the workouts and lots more. The gym helped me tone up, am sure it always will, but it also tones down my patience!

    The fitness trend glorifies the gym and all that can be achieved in there, which I do not doubt in the least, but for now its time to play some music and move!

    p.s However, Axe said, exercise can actually also lead to spiked levels of anxiety or depression. ‘Gym rage’ – could working out make anger worse? Isabel Clarke a NHS clinical psychologist states that if you are experiencing symptoms of stress, working out can heighten your emotions. Therefor exercise should create a positive experience, so make sure you spend time doing what you enjoy. 

    If you find yourself leaving the gym in a worse state than entering research suggests many alternative ways you can keep fit, such as running, home workouts, swimming, fitness classes, martial arts, team sports, and even something more gentle, such as yoga. Opting for slower-paced exercises, such as a brisk walk, Pilates or Tai Chi will prevent you from getting too ‘hyped up’, which is what in turn causes our emotions to run wild. Not only will varying your exercise benefit your body, but it will also help to keep your mind active. Furthermore, joining group or team classes will encourage you to socialise more often, all of which will lead to improved emotional well-being. 

    Ahem! Am glad that summer is round the corner and its soon time to hit the pool!!

  • An orange a day!

    Have you ever thought whats the first thing you’d like to eat in a day. Wellness experts give us a whole range of things that we can eat, while some harp on jeera water, others say turmeric water, still others say lemon squeezed in warm water while others say consume it with a dashful of honey. No matter what there is always a chime or two on what first to fill into the golden time of the empty stomach. I have always loved the feel of an orange early in the morning, the treat to the empty stomach, but then orange is my favourite fruit of all time and colour too, but thats for another post!

    Eating an orange as the first thing in the day puts me in such a happy place, that the moment seems to be won already. And the second best option that seem close in composition though not exactly the same is a lemon squeezed into water. Yet citrus in not just taste but also smell is such a wonderful way to start the day, if you’ve whiffed at the sweet oil essential oil, you’d know what I mean. The orange tree is native to Southern China, Northeast India, and Myanmar and while the mandarin is hard to peel and consume in wedges, the Nagpur Oranges of India are literally the best! I first spotted an orange tree in Portugal at the Pena Palace on the outskirts of Lisbon, and it was such a delight. The scent is disarming and charming.

    And then come the plethora of preserved options as marmalades, as compotes and sugary drinks, but the best of all is the fresh orange juice. Though I naturally gravitate to oranges, now out of curiosity I looked up on what oranges contain other than Vitamin C, on further exploration I found that oranges contain fiber, sugar, carbohydrates and protein. And the new buzz word these days is collagen, with requires Vitamin C to be produced. While the doctor has recommended Vitamin C serum to be applied on the face, I’d love to have this fruit of nature essentially in my being. If you are what you eat, then I am an orange olright!

  • My favourite author!

    Jane Austen, yes there is no surprise there and though I force myself to read non-fiction every now and then, I am a through and through fiction girl and this month, the month of Love and all things nice, I invite you my gentle readers 😉 to join me on this author read for the month. My favourite book of Austen is Pride and Prejudice and in 2011 driving through from London to the Stonehenge we suddenly taking wrong turns found ourselves at the Crescent in Bath, and what a beautiful place is that. Bath is stunning in its architecture and a perfect setting for the novels that Austen wrote during her time. But it is not so much about architecture, her novels mostly have female protagonists and touch upon themes that are so endearing to me, especially her sharp observations on the social lives of the British gentry of her time.

    While the humour of Wodehouse is delectable, the entirety of Austen’s characters are absolutely stunning. While Lizzy is a thoroughly splendid character she is funny, brave, kind-hearted and intelligent, she is everything sometimes that I want to be. However this month I am putting this book that I have reread almost a hundred times away and am going to read an Austen novel that I have always been meaning to and that I am finally getting around to. And that is actually two books, but they were bound as one in the beginning, the Northanger Abbey and Persuasion! My favourite television show has been Downton Abbey and being stuck in the 1800 England seems to be a fun thing to do for me. So this February, here we go!

  • Assert>Dessert

    The woman who screams the loudest wins. Oh well that is a line borrowed from the jungle, for the lion roars the loudest and he is the king afterall. But in the more civilised world, tone and volume make for an important combination. And the screaming belles are best avoided and tuned out with assertiveness.

    In a world where you can be anything, be assertive. Assert, so you dont have to reach out to dessert.

  • Making life a vacation

    Recently I consulted a doctor, a naturopath (my favourite line of medicine) and he remarked how am the most healthy and happy on a vacation, and suggested that I take a vacation every month to which my sister-in-law remarked why not make life a vacation and that got me thinking! Its not something I have not heard before, my father has told me that since when the travel bug made it to my veins, he always said why look forward to travel, make your daily life itself like a vacation, this came my way about 22 years ago but then it was reiterated very recently and very strongly at that. Now armed with physical (literally) proof I began my quest on how to make life a vacation, well knowing that vacation is what happens once in a while and is novel is what makes it unique, yet breaking it down to a basic structure here is what I have surmised, makes life a vacation!

    1. Walk a lot. On vacations I hit about 20000 steps a day gladly, looking up at beautiful sights. If the vacation is with my husband that number is a lot lot more!
    2. Breathe in fresh unpolluted air, since most vacations are in places with better AQI than Bangalore!
    3. Eat as much as I wish, since the measurement devices used to measure food while cooking at home are not available, every meal and every day is different, sometimes its lesser than normal and sometimes its more. Ah yes, when in a much more developed country like Switzerland, read expensive, the need to grazing on food becomes unneccessary and food is only looked for the nutrition it provides and sometimes my appetite vanishes too! So staying hungry becomes wildly possible. LOL and fasting is great for the body they say!
    4. Dress well, smile a lot. Since we are forever taking pictures to record the fancy memories we are dressing to the hilt and smiling a lot more than we do on a normal day at home!
    5. Living out of a suitcase, so basically with everything else safely locked at home, our circle of belongings are limited to whats in the suitcase and they say a woman’s happinesses in inversely proportional to the amount of things she owns (or hordes)!
    6. The point of novelty, vacation always means seeing something new or doing something different, every day is novel and this novelty is exhilarating. I love the fact that each day is new, there is nothing routine about a vacation. First of all the time zone is different, jolting one’s body and apart from that even when the time zone is the same, it is a different day!
    7. Seeing the different ways of living and accepting that there are all kinds of people in the world, not being biased on one’s type of food or dressing or even thinking, frees one from any point of judging and thats brilliant.
    8. Finally to know that home’s waiting, and so is dal and rice! Especially when we travel to countries where we dont easily find dal and rice, I miss that the most, and after one week thats all I need to provide myself the jolt of energy to continue on. Yet there is always joy in coming back home. While sad that the vacation is over, there is always the happiness of being home. I have not always loved travelling, in fact until I went to architecture school I found travelling a chore. Only in order to see architecture of all sorts I would make all the effort to go, perhaps if I werent an architect I’d only go to the beach, and thats because I love swimming in the ocean and if I lived by a swimmable beach and weren’t an architect I’d probably never travel at all! And then in corollary wouldnt need the vacation in the first place 😉

  • BAPS Hindu Mandir

    Inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi last year, the Baps Hindu Mandir off Abu Dhabi is the first temple of that scale in the middle-east, and the the number of Hindus working in the region, it is but a valued addition! The temple is similar to all its peers across the world, yet is so absolutely wonderful to see in real. The best part is the immersive 3d show that explains in detail all about the temple, how it came to be and the fact that it’s being is somewhat an amalgamation of all religions. The land was donated by an Islamic sheikh, the architect a Christian, the project manager an atheist and so on! The valuable insight of having the tenets of Hinduism scale across boundaries made be realise how this ancient and brilliant religion is a minority religion in the world. And just two or so countries embrace this religion, with Nepal being the only country that states it as an official state religion, in India and Srilanka, it is just one of the religions. And with such a minority in general, it is oxymoronic in nature that India gives so much preference to minority religions in the country that are actually major religions in the world!

    I feel proud and incredibly lucky to be a Hindu, just with the way the religion lays itself out, the mythological stories, the lifestyle, the festivals, the colour and gaiety! Being in that temple made me proud to be a Hindu, to embrace our very many Gods around who we have millions of stories, making them real and relatable, yet virtuous and God-like. With the kumbh mela on, I watch on with pride as millions across the world come forward to enjoy the spectacle of Hinduism. I congratulate whoever made BAPS in Abu Dhabi possible, yet with the lore, the books, the Vedas, the might of Hinduism, there is much to learn for the majority!

  • Dizzying Dubai!

    The region’s youngest and most effervescent city, revels in its location, a couple of hours away from the glitz of Europe and the bustling bylanes of India or even the climes of Africa, and with its geography, natural treasures (read oil), exemption on taxes and a visionar sheikh it has managed to gain a stronghold as the belle of the ball and with good reason. There is so much to be seen that cannot be seen, so much to do that cannot be done, so much to feel that cannot be felt and of course so much to be spent that cannot be spent! There is no amount of money that will ever feel enough in Dubai, the lux of it all is absolutely dizzying. And the scales that the buildings reach is literally like reaching into the homes of the Gods. While we landed in Abu Dhabi and drove to Dubai we were introduced to the desert first and took in the topography of the land before we saw what the visionary humans did to it and yes it is unbelieveable.

    Driving on the main Sheikh Zayed road we were greeted with the most expansive traffic snarl that took us over two hours to traverse from one end of the city limits to the other. We were concerned to know that our Taxi driver could well drop us into Dubai but would not be allowed to ferry passengers back to Abu Dhabi and would have to go empty. Strange rules I thought to myself, just as we passed enormous signboards, then the Jumeirah Lake area which was again unbelievable. Reclaimed land, so much of it, so well maintained and now there are even parks with pretty specie of trees from all over the world growing comfortably in Dubai. While there is nothing natural about the city, this man-made wonder is a spectacle in itself and what mankind can do if mankind chooses to!

    Our touristy day in Dubai, got me first dressing in my glitzy best, well I had to match the city’s glam quotient and we went up to the frame, to see the skyscrapers of the city from a distance, even then we were not prepared! The taxis and cabs in Dubai need a mention on their own, from Teslas to Ferraris everything is a call away, but as a green person I had to call a Tesla and so when our ride appeared we were in for a treat, from the Dubai Frame as we drove to the Burj Khalifa our Tesla had a glazed roof and sides and well what a way to zip through the city at 9 am in the morning, the city is all practically asleep at the tender hours in the morning, for us in Bangalore 9 am is practically afternoon with a majority of our day past us already! But Dubai is a city of the night, well the lights look better at night, and the city is totally lit, also the sun is too harsh in the day!

    Our driver decided I look Emirati and took us to the Burj Khalifa residences as I typed out the location on our Uber and then with more time in our gorgeous Tesla we managed to reach the base of the tallest building in the world, ready to make ascent. Fifteen years after it was inaugurated and fifteen years after really really wanting to go. The building is stunning, inspired by the make of a flower in plan rising like a sheathed sword into the sky, trimming into a thinner crescendo, it is marketed to the max, as the guides go about all day talking of what is out there for all to see, reiterating facts on how the Khalifa, the tallest building in the world was built in a span of 6 years, a time frame that sometimes is what it takes to build a swanky farmhouse in India! Yet the main feature that came to my notice was later, which every guide and information chart refuses to mention was when we later headed to the museum of the future a fellow Mom elucidated me upon, that the Burj Khalifa is not connected to the sewage system of the city, as are a lot of buildings in Dubai. Hardly beknownst to that fact, I was amazed to know that the city administration decided it was cheaper to truck sewage from several prominent buildings that to connect it to the sewer system of the city. I couldnt help but feel that after all, all that glitters is not gold.

    Yet the Dubai Mall, the Museum of the future are experiences in Dubai, and we most conveniently avoided the souk! The Museum of the future is greatly hyped up and the visitors get to experience what the team thinks will be the matters of the future. Divided into 5 chapters, the future is said to be all about energy tapping from the sun with panels on the moon (!), then there is the point of wellness as in the future depression is set to be the new pandemic, there is the point of bio-hacking, by using fungi of different sorts to recharge the soil of the forests that may be depleted of nutrition in the future, and then there is the matter of transportation where people can fly in their bat-suits, access information through their 3d goggles and be driven around in their intelligent self-driven cars. I wonder why smart is used for tech powered devices, but not intelligent. The final chapter is titled future heros and is a very fun play area for children. It mustve been great, since it was attested by my 6 year old! Parents have to wait on the fringes and thats when i made acquaintance with the french lady in tech, her project at the moment was the AI goggles back in France. Also she enlightened me on the present scenario of Dubai.

    The parks speckled around this desert city are truly a miracle, what the sheikhs have managed to create in Dubai is truly something out of the world, as expats rush in to buy, live and get a slice of luxury in Dubai I wonder, is it necessary?

  • Coldplay!

    While Chris Martin thanked the crowd for making it to Abu Dhabi, he made sure to thank all the people who travelled a great distance to be there and why not for the entire reach of the middle-east and beyond came the mile to watch the greatest band in the world at the moment perform in all their glory. While I was personally stumped by Martin’s elaborate gratitude note even before the show began I was stunned by the level of sustainability the band follows especially when catering to the large crowds that they attract, but I was mostly stupefied by the super elated performance, it was most certainly a night full of stars. When the band played the universe that they composed allow with BTS and with the projected visuals of the Korean band, who were obviously not there to perform the collaboration song, I deduced why Coldplay is the best band ever. The humility and gratitude filled the stadium’s every pore and it was scintillatingly contagious. Talk about the world being a mirror of one’s inner world and that was out there in full display.

    The band’s command on the ground is sensational, yet the way the bands on each wrist light up fills the heart with true joy. The technology that is used for each song runs parallel to the props that are used for some, as with the band’s signature alien make for the unique experience. While I have always resonated with the lyrics Coldplay comes up with, I have heard their songs as a pick me up for over three years on bleak bus rides back home, I avoided the songs for a while to not be reminded, yet attending the concert and I was floored all over again. A friend once remarked that those that enjoy Coldplay music are not true music lovers, but then who can not love them I’d say! Their charisma far extends their talent and seeing them perform was a true blessing, one also fueled by the generosity of my darling brother.

    While Coldplay was thoroughly entertaining and uplifting, the way Martin thanked the audience profusely before beginning made me realise what gratitude does to oneself and all the others watching. While the songs have become a sort of an anthem, one can hear them every where (or is it my ears ringing!) I am amazed by how wonderful and warm the lyrics are. The uplifting tones with the buzzing lyrics are more like affirmations and love all rolled into one. While their English is impeccable, ofcourse they are from the land of the English, their manners seem totally other wordly, and their knack for performance is utterly delightful. While I can’t seem to stop raving about their performance of a lifetime, I’ve saved the Music of the spheres playlist to lift me up higher than ever, but All my love that they released recently does have all my love!

    While my taste in music is eclectic, I can listen to Bocelli one day, Gaga the next and Swift the third, switching soon to Alka Yagnik or even Illayraja, sometimes a snazzy dance number, I hope that friend of mine is reading this, and makes it to the concert, for a change of heart, oops opinion!

  • White papers

    Jeff Bezos was intermittently the richest man in the world, the man who built his wealth with the online commerce portal amazon, also has a policy on no presentations in the company and the sharing of ideas as a script on white paper. This way of communicating is said to bring great alacrity to the subject and the subjected. The white papers that are written by employees at Amazon have brought some path breaking wins to the organisation at last. As I see my Linkedin wall filled with expressions by friends who have started working in Amazon, I am pleased to see their bettering of writing skills, if not a peaceful break from the inundation of images all over my social feeds. As for me, a reader and writer, it is always a pleasure to meet with words. How then does architecture a visual medium take to the written word? For a reader it takes one into several worlds for sure. By the way, Amazon has another stellar rule, that no team should be bigger than being able to be fed by a two-pizza rule, I wonder what size of pizza we are talking about and what is the appetite of the humans on the team, for my local pizza guy makes a pizza about 4″ in diameter too! However Warren Buffet works alone, and specifies that he works alone.

    Anyway back to the white paper rules, and how to write these white papers. Any meeting at Amazon begins in silence as the attenders read the white papers for 15-20 minutes and then arrive at a discussion. The papers are limited to 6 paegs, the font size is limited to between 11-12, in Calibri, single spaced, double sided, with unlimited appendices, clipart, photographs are supposed to be avoided, also data though great, the paper is supposed to have the writers views and opinions with all clarity. Though these are the basic rules, there are few more that look into the nitty gritties.

    What a fabulous way to run a company I think, no wonder it is so successful. Yet this very single minded profit seeking company, we cannot blame them as every business seeks to make profit, has succeeded in over-consumption. The owner of a very old watch trading company in Secunderabad told me last month that earlier watches were made to work for 50 years or possibly as long as they could, companies like Allwyn and HMT, and therefore the companies shut as no one needed to buy watches frequently. But today watches are designed to run for 5 years and hence the watch manufacturers are ticking on. Amazon runs on the consumption pattern of the masses, their diligent way of working towards in makes sure they remain in the business and making profit too. Yet their way of working is a great way to live and work, possibly design our lives too. With journalling enjoying its moment to fame all over the world, again as a great way to crystallize thoughts or even to clear up the mind, white papers, limited in scope forces one to be very concise and hence again very clear in approach.

  • Jammmmmed up!

    The latest TomTom traffic index has ranked Bengaluru as the worst traffic congested city in Asia. Though the name of the study sounds funny, this ain’t no laughing matter. It definitely does not feel so when I am sitting in traffic. Luckily the day I was stuck in the worst traffic that took me 2 hours to cover a distance of 5 km, I was in august company with my 4 year old and for some reason had a picnic basket in the car for dinner. The evening prime time show for us was then the city itself. Why does the city have so much traffic I wonder, is it that too many people have cars, is it that the roads are very narrow in general or is it that the traffic police aren’t dynamic studying real time traffic? In Hyderabad the busiest roads are sometimes swapped in direction to facilitate the flow of traffic but then the roads infrastructure in Hyderabad is probably better.

    This smart city has a quite high average IQ for a city, something that I have keenly felt indeed, but how does Bengaluru deal with traffic jams, and what do they do when they are knocked into one? I wonder. In my case, I listen to music, spotify or the radio, try breathing exercises and recently have got the aroma stone from Muji, that induces a spa like sense in the car, aromas could vary between lavender and sweet orange depending on how stressful traffic may be! As a matter of preference I find driving very stressful, there was a time when the middle eastern women fought for the right to drive, and I truly wonder why, yet we Bengalureans may soon need to pass the bill for the “Right to empty roads”! I do sometimes, ditch the road and take the metro to wherever the metro may allow, for though walking is my favorite mode of transport, strolling perhaps it actually is, yet the lack of footpaths on most roads make it difficult at times to traverse the city.

    What are better ways to make productive use of the time in traffic as one half of the brain drives on autopilot at the mind numbing speeds? As I make my traffic list am almost planning on storing some peanut butter and jam sandwiches in my car pantry, to keep hunger at bay through the hours and well the pun intended.

  • Kanha Shanti Vanam

    Literally translating to Kanha Peace Forest, this ashram like place located in the Kanha Village off the major city of Hyderabad in Telangana is true to its name a harbinger of peace. Meditation is at the core of the Heartfulness philosophy that is the centre point of all the endeavours including lifestyle products, events or activities. And as a side to the meditation is wellness, the Naturopath at the centre prescribes meditation to every member who visits him. The meditation hall fills up with the subscribers as the clock ticks to 6:30 AM and sitting calmly with eyes closed the mega tensile covered steel structure is a perfect setting with birds chirping from the five lakh odd trees planted in the 1400 acre campus of the Shanti Vanam. Apart from the wellness centre that whips up every alternative cure from massages to naturopathy to homeopathy and even therapies, the campus has a very well designed hotel, dormitories and sprawling green lands that also into a Yatra Garden and the statue of Babuji the guru who precedes the current guru Daaji. Fondly referred to as Daaji Kamlesh Patel has mentored many people, written books on the subjects of thoughts, meditation and ultimately the path to thoughtlessness that every spiritual guru says is the ultimate point for us mere humans to reach, also a path to bliss!

    This was the second time I visited the Shanti Vanam, but the first time I stayed overnight, and this time the quietness of the space is such a winner. The early morning meditation for about thirty minutes pass by so quickly without the need to have to learn a specific type of meditation as one quickly leans into the a style of one’s own. A couple of years ago, I reached out to a Heartfulness trainer who would meditate with me, she ofcourse from a different location but mostly to enlighten me on the style of the practice where one imagines a golden light flooding the heart and then radiating out into the body and then the world at large. In the evening practice she asked me to imagine all thoughts or any negative beliefs exiting my body through the base of my spine as black colored smoke. But at the centre when the very many people meditate together there are no words exchanged. Infact even Daaji the leader of the movement walks wordlessly onto the stage, mediates, and walks out just as unceremoniously. On the Sunday morning meditation a woman manned the mic and at the end of the 30 minutes said, “Thats all”, to signify the end of the practice.

    Asking one to begin on a spiritual process is cannot exactly be a mandate and the awakening on the importance of such a practice has to come from within, but having experienced meditation, it could well be a mandate. A nation so wealthy in spirituality, it would be great if the thing that we gave to the world, enriched us also, I am ofcourse talking about yoga and meditation. As I strive to include the practices of yoga and meditation in my life, the benefits may be creativity, calmness, patience and beauty, well all the things my little son has brought into my life, I believe the practice is highly hedonistic and even without tangible benefits is so worth it, for the moment of stillness and the capacity to experience life with all its layers and depth. The Shanti Vanam also has a state of the art Gopichand badminton academy with about 14 courts, a temperature controlled swimming pool and gym. It is the best there is in the country for sure. And apart from that is the wellness centre where one can consult naturopaths, and other alternate medicine practicing doctors who do not shun the traditional allopathy but supplement it with laudable practices. The pharmacy here sells essential oils apart from the ayurvedic and homeopathic medicines. Sweet orange is my favorite scent, orange ofcourse my favorite fruit, yet the whiff of all the scents is captivating. The departmental store stocks a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grocery, dairy and even clothes!

    A beautiful experience and probably a way to ease into the practice of meditation, if not for anything, for the same of hedonism!