Vedasri Siddamsetty

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  • Radhe Radhe!

    About 5000 years ago, Lord Vishnu one of the Trimurti, the Preserver of the worlds came into the world in his 8th avatar since the beginning of the world as we know it as Krishna. Born in Mathura, raised in Gokul and Vrindavan, finally as the king of Dwaraka, he was an influential figure of the mightiest epic Mahabharata and the instructor of the Bhagavad Gita, translated as the word of the Lord. Krishna as a God, is affable with hugely plenty of affable qualities. The mischief of baby Krishna, the love of adolescent Krishna, the wisdom of the adult Krishna is found in the very many stories of his life. All of what He instructs in the Gita is said to be a manual for the living. And on his journey we went this March, touching upon the cities of his birth and upbringing amongst cowherds. The simplicity of his life and his love for being playful is so keenly felt when we hear and feel his life stories.

    A short drive away from Agra, Vrindavan is home to some major Krishna temples, the most visited one being the Prem Mandir, a beautiful Hindu temple in white marble that holds the deity but also in the compound stories of his life carved out in real scale dimensions. As the legend goes, Krishna was spotted with the universe in his mouth as his foster mother Yashoda opened his mouth to see if he was hurt by an evil woman Putana who was trying to kill him. In other tales, Krishna is said to have lifted the Govardhan mountain (an entire mountain) on his little figure to save the villagers from incessant rains. While the Lord appeared to Arjuna who lost all hope to fight, he also keenly says in the Gita a lesson for positive being, whatever happened, happened for the good, what is happening is happening for the good and whatever will happen will also happen for the good. That being the basic premise of the Gita, he instructs people to do their work, or duty with absolutely no attachment to the result, to work independently of the result. Thereby putting to rest all claims of goals and of manifestations that plague the world at the moment. Well doing what needs to be done, with no expectation is indeed a lofty aim to live with!

    If Vrindavan today is filled with wisdom, it is also known as the City of Widows, for it is said that Lord Krishna married 16000 women, in his way of bringing them all into his fold, however today widows who may not have anyone to turn to, literally turn to the Lord reaching Vrindavan. The religious significance of Indian cities are reaching their zenith as the world turns to spirituality. As the rickshaw pulls into the gates of the Prem Mandir the area is dotted with people ready to imprint on our cheeks the chant of Radhe Radhe! Falling in the Braj region, this phrase is used as a greeting referring to the Lord’s consort or love, Radha. This phrase is more than a greeting or a chant; it’s an embodiment of unconditional love and devotion. In saying “Radhe Radhe,” we invoke the spirit of Radha’s unwavering devotion to Lord Krishna, symbolising our own longing for spiritual connection and divine love. It’s a reminder of the pure, selfless love that lies at the heart of spiritual practice. Radha is the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. In scriptures, Radha is mentioned as the avatar of Lakshmi and also as the Mūlaprakriti, the Supreme goddess, who is the feminine counterpart and internal potency (hladini shakti) of Krishna. Radha accompanies Krishna in all his incarnations. 

    After soaking in the divinity of Vrindavan we made our way to the city of birth of Lord Krishna, the city of Mathura, the prison where Devaki delivered Krishna, where his father Vasudev carried baby Krishna across the Yamuna, that parted and made way for Vasudev, and where Krishna’s evil Uncle Kamsa proclaimed to kill him upon hearing a future call. The prison and the temple attached to it is holy as an important site to the worshippers of Lord Krishna. In the temply in Mathura, Radha the consort of Lord Krishna is seen with her hands in a blessing gesture, this idol is said to be one of its kind, for nowhere else is Radha seen holding this stance. The temple is always open and the bhajan of “Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare” is chanted in a never ending loop. The calmness and tranquility that this chant brings is truly real.

    Finally after soaking in the free-spiritedness of Mathura, where Holi is played in all its glory, fun and playfulness we headed to the lovable town of Gokul. With its narrow lanes, cows, cowherds and the river of Yamuna, Gokul is vastly likeable. As the guide guided us through the narrow lanes of the city taking up to the house that was Yashoda and Nanda Gopal’s, where baby Krishna was left by Vasudev to prevent his Uncle Kamsa from finding him, we were told that Gokul mein hain toh hasna padega, meaning where you are in Gokul you have to laugh, crying is reserved for Kashi or Varanasi which is the city of Death. Thereby laughing, making up lift our hands over our heads to bring on the belly laughter, he had us in splits over lively chutkule or phrases like, Gokul ke ladki aur Gokul ke gai, karm phute toh aur kahi jayeth, meaning the girls and the cows of Gokul are married in Gokul or stay in Gokul respectively, unless their fate is doomed!

    A boat ride through across the section of the Yamuna that flows through Gokul we see the ghats on the river bank where Krishna was upto mischief teasing the girls or simply sitting on a tree and playing his flute delightedly. In this section of the river too Lord Krishna came out victoriously dancing on the hood of the river monster having tamed it. The vibe of Gokul is truly surreal, and the house of Krishna with all its mirrors seemingly a folklore, for how could the buildings stay put for over 5000 years. As spun as the tales may be, they make for a reality that we wish to comfort ourselves with. Krishna is a very popular God, resonating with many Hindus all over the world, having his idol in one’s home is said to bestow love and prosperity to the household. Having Krishna in our hearts keeps one close to the heart, many Hindus greet each other with Jai Shri Krishna, remembering the Lord all day with each action, while others say Radhe Radhe allowing the word and the wish of their favourite God to flow through them, themselves being just the instruments of action.

    The depth of spiritual tourism in India is absolutely fantastic, as I hear our Prime Minister speaking of the next greatest export of India, after Indigo, jewels and IT comes spirituality! I believe spirituality is the greatest treasure of our land and if goaded by religion and all the stories that it entails, spirituality may just become more easily understood to those who may find talking to the universe a tad bit abstract. The journey through the lands that we read or were told so much about, makes the place alive and the story thrive in our own minds. The principles remain love and compassion if not simply to love, to do all actions with feelings of love and playfulness, to talk to the Lord (we Hindus are said to have 33 million to choose from) freely and uninhibitedly, to cherish the tales and stories that are only told to make us connected to the divinity that resides in all of us, and to be reminded of the unconditional aspect of love as we say and hear Radhe Radhe!

  • Feeling blue!

    Last week I heard the most interesting fact, that interested me beyond measure last week, a wellness junkie that I am and a keen believer of the Blue Zones first classified by Dan Buettner, it thrilled me beyond belief that Singapore, a tiny island-country in the Indian Ocean is the latest entrant to the blue zone list. For the unacquainted, blue zones are areas where life expectancy and quality were found to be the longest and best respectively. The people who were found to be living in the blue zones were healthy beyond measure, without doing anything in particular for health, their lifestyles were woven into structures that were genuinely good for the living. What makes me love the blue zones life is the laissez faire nature of it, the whole do nothing about anything feels, where living is mindful and goals per se are not really chased.

    The original blue zones were Ikaria in Greece, Loma Linda in California, Sardinia in Italy, Okinawa in Japan and Nicoya in Costa Rica. While the cultures in all these zones are very different from each other, including what people eat, what they wear, the way they relate to one another, all so different, yet they record a high life expectancy, that too in the pink of health. In fact it makes me wonder why Buettner did not call it the Pink zones! The people in Sardinia eat all the cheese and pasta, their delectable Arabiatta sauce, yet they live in close social ties, looking out for one another and climb steep hills to meet each other as is the lay of the land. In Okinawa the blue zoners eat the rainbow, I mean not literally but their diversity in food is a plenty and a little bit of this and a little bit of that brings microdosing into the mix, making for a very happy microbiome.

    Now I have never lived in any of the blue zones, it is all just hearsay, or rather what I have lived vicariously through Netflix, in their show Live to 100. (I have put in the link here https://www.netflix.com/in-hi/title/81214929) and I always have found the concept and the zones amazing. I have been to Okinawa to see a Frank Llyod building, and my time there was simply stunning. The islands are beautiful with spectacular views, but even more engaging was the air and the food, I literally felt so beautiful and at peace, that feeling was something that stayed with me in a couple of more places, the Butchart Gardens in Vancouver was one, yet the feel of the land is something else. While in Okinawa, admiring Wright’s buildings, I vividly remember the food, the crunchy textures, a delight for a vegetarian, then vegan with all the colours on my plate. That was an encounter with the blue zones that was brief, but my encounter with Singapore was a considerable bit longer.

    Though working, studying, doing way too much, I was a keen observer in how Singapore and its people, the Singaporeans are always so youthful, in spirit and in looks. And a few secrets of what gets them to be Centegenarians did not miss me too. Here are a few that I took great delight in, and if you live in Singapore or one of the blue zones, ofcourse consider yourself lucky and if you do not, then well live harder for you may not live longer! In Singapore, the humid weather is great for not aging the skin, the steam, sauna street feels are quite real, and moisturisers are really put to shame by the clean air and water vapour in the air. And then comes the walking, with streets so well laid out and the five foot walkway project that has pathways all across the island, it is by far one of the most easily walkable cities in the world. Then there is the housing that is sorted out so well that when a child turns an adult the first thing parents or rather the government think of is a home for them and upon marriage too couples are preferred to have a home of their own, partially funded by the government, what a lovely gesture for people to literally have their space! Then comes the food scene, where healthy and nutricious food not to mention tasty too is available so very easily and matter of factly. At a buffet, the ceiling time for consumption of food is 2 hours and all food prepared is aimed to be consumed within the 2 hours. That was quite something in a world where food is stored for a while. Finally what really works is the zest for life, the looking forward for tech, for change and for novelty in the island. People look forward, streets look forward and reinvention happens a dime a dozen. Leaving the island I may not live to a 100, but blooming where I am, I could turn Bengaluru into a blue zone too or enjoy the fewer years amongst the fine blooms of the city.

    Blue as in blue? Well not quite. Blue is in the pink now!

  • Into the brain of Van Gogh!

    On a trail of popular and influential people of the past, I picked Irving Stone’s book, Lust for Life to read from the local library. The book documents the life of a man who painted the Sunflowers, Starry night, and others fetching a handsome sum of money long after his death. At one point he felt so wretched that he even cut off his own ear, something that one would probably never empathise with especially walking into the immersive experience of Van Gogh paintings that have been doing the rounds in major cities in India. Van Gogh was an impressionist style of painter who brought to the world active art wherein he tried to capture the rhythm of life that he says is found in everything in this world, both living and non-living that is all at one point, one, and connected to God. A short life filled with failure when ending on a high note, of unbridled positivity amongst other things.

    Theo, his brother supported him all through his life, while his painter friends whom he met after years of solitude study matched his crazy temperament and filled his head with ideas. As a painter he believed that a painter must read, for only when he learns theories and facts about the thing he paints can he bring in the essence or the spirit of what he tries to paint into the fray. Else painting could be replaced by a photograph that mainly captures what is, painting on the other hand is the lens that shows the reality through the spirit of the painter, where the painter shows his subject a feeling beyond basic reality and then is when a painter is truly successful. The need to capture the essence of his subjects took the Dutch man through a journey across Europe, stopping by in France and finally ending his days in Arles.

    The sun is what is said to have motivated him to go to the provencal town and this sun is said to have inspired the yellows in his paintings, a color that was not liberally used in those times. Having Gauguin, Cezante, Rocci for company was simply a time that Paris was buzzing with talent and beauty in the world of art. The struggle of Van Gogh is what comes across, and what is an artist who has not been through his fair share of struggle. An artist should starve till the age of 60 and then he may turn out a decent piece or two he is told. The man and his need to paint, not to sell, but to paint for the sake of painting speaks of his work as his reward, wouldnt Lord Krishna be so proud of a man in France living out the essence of the Gita!

    Written in 1934 by Stone, the chronicler of all great artists, Michelangelo’s book that he previously wrote was called Agony and Ecstasy is another one of the many that puts out the process in the creation of art. Tiring as it may have been to read this tome, today Van Gogh’s win seems utterly fair in an unfair life, or rather seeing the joy that his art brings to the world, it is probably more than fair for he has done what he set out to do after his perceived failure in his very many jobs!

  • A date with Corbusier!

    Le Corbusier was a French architect who mustered up a storm in the built world with his fancy broad stroke forms and unstoppable zest for building. Challenging the norms and taking a huge liking to the pouring of concrete he not just thought out of the box, but threw out the box with his buildings per se. Apart from France his work is best exhibited by the joint capital city of Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh. This city was offered to the stricken state of Punjab as a promise of a better tomorrow after the horrid affairs of the partition of India in 1947 that resulted in the creation of Pakistan. The horrors of the tale are told by people who have lived to see it, yet today apart from the tensions that India faces with its erstwhile part and now neighbor, Chandigarh remains an example of urban design and a mark of modern architecture, more specifically brutalist architecture in India.

    After the partition and the formation of new India in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the country invited the fast growing in popularity architect, Le Corbusier who was known for his relentless in thinking and his modern ideas to build a capital in 1950. This was after the American architect Mayer who was first comissioned in 1949 died in a tragic plane crash. Corbusier designed the buildings in the Capitol complex, the urban design of the street and planned the city inspired the human form with a head, a torso, hands and legs. The body was further divided into self-sufficient cells that he called sectors. These sectors were to have housing, shops and were to contain parks that would suffice for entertainment. The shopping complex that he designed in Sector 17, reminds one of the streets of Paris with the leafy avenues, ample walking spaces and parking that is sufficing the city even today, 75 years on.

    Yet was is inescapable about Chandigarh is its crumbling quality of most of its Capitol complex’s exposed concrete buildings. Not the best in aging, though endowned with vast, awe-inspiring proportions, the material over time with the temperate weather of Northern India looks dilapidated with the occasional coat of paint. The bungalows that dot the sectors are designed with brick, a welcome red in a tone of all grey. While Corbusier tries to make-up for the grey with blasts of primary colors in the doors, columns or even the interiors, the effect that produces makes the city look like a large playhouse. The leafy avenues are a big win though, as we spotted students cycling in the ample space that the city provides. In Chandigarh, like in Lutyens Delhi, there just seems to be a lot of space, a lot of breathing space, making a case for planned cities in this urban sprawl that we have gotten used to!

    When a French architect builds for an Indian populace the result is questionable, just like when an architect houses extremely traditional people in a stark modern house, the philosophy of the architect takes no que of the people who live in it. Punjab with all its agriculture, color, gaiety and volume is subdued with all the concrete in its grey. We cannot but wonder how beautifully the people of Chandigarh accepted the whims of an architect who threw the radial city ideas, putting a vast distance between the head and the foot of the city, the Capitol complex is cut off from Sector 34 and its like. The punctuations in the urban space and the built form are the best part of the city, Corbusier who associated himself with the crow would probably have been so happy to fly about in this city that he designed.

    The Hand monument and the Tower of shadows bear grand concepts that are thought-provoking, while the High Court and the Assembly are exquisite on the inside, there are so many experiments in Chandigarh, some that succeeded brilliantly and others that failed mercilessly, just like life and all its bearings the people of Punjab have accepted Chandigarh as their own, while the city has grown into them over the ages. There are some wins and there are some losses, the people have cut their losses and celebrated their wins, why even sharing their city with their neighbouring state that was carved out of them! While food is one of the most alluring parts of Punjab, the loud Punjabis met their match in their subtle French architect and together concocted a blend that is Indian in its spirit yet quite elegantly and subtly French in its outlook!

  • Delhi 230.0

    20 years ago I came to Delhi to study, a naive 17 year old with starry eyes in 2004, today setting foot in India’s capital city and my favourite I am still as naive and starry eyed, yet again filled with nostalgia. Delhi and I have really not changed, though now the former touched by technology and the latter touched a little by wisdom! I remember the old days scrambling to find transportation from the airport (the kaalipeelis) to now being whisked away by the tidy Ola! Thank you Bengaluru for sparking all the tech start-ups that make India just too cool. But Delhi you have my heart and yet again I haven’t got it back. Today Delhi is swarmed with cameras, well lit roads,

    The friends, the activities, the studying, studying architecture puts one in the throes of a city, and Delhi with its verdant green, its architectural marvels, its pieces of history, its grand cultural scene, its openness and breathability (albeit the pollution) is a fabulous place to study architecture if not taste life. Whenever I visit a city I once stayed it I wonder why I didn’t settle there. Be it Hyderabad, Delhi or Singapore while Bangalore happens, it probably was meant to happen. Delhi made me dare, dare to dream, dare to make choices perhaps the best choices I made in life. It made my hair long, my spirit shine, and my heart aplomb. While we drive to our hotel in Lutyens Delhi crossing the most beautiful vistas of Chanakyapuri, South Campus of The University of Delhi, the Delhi Race club, and finally the gorgeous Lutyens Delhi!

    My choosing to come to Delhi is a story in itself, it was inspired by a boy who prodded me to dream big, to go to the best college in the country while I decided to study architecture at my Dad’s behest. Many things or rather all things in life are chased by a will of the heart or by a connection of the heart, achieving the goals though is a stroke of randomness that governs the universe. 20 years later the dream is still on, I feel nervous coming to the city of my dreams without having scored even a part of my dream. The city on its part doesn’t keep count though of the years that pass by, keeping stylishly mum and knowing that life has its ways, it gently reminds and continues to inspire stating that not just Rome, even Delhi was not built in a day!

    While I head to my college the butterflies in my stomach fly two-fold. I’d never have wanted to come here after not having fancy monuments to my credit, but going there with my monumental effort in question, my son makes it quite special! However the goal still remains, someday to be worthy of this beautiful city, to build a monument or a built intervention that makes a difference to this world, if not making this world a better place some way or the other. The college for its part looks more or less the same, the students look so similar to what we were like then, the faces different, the ethos the same.

    While my six year old was upset to find the motorbike on the tree missing, he was delighted by several other installations that the following batches must have made. Meeting Prof Anil Dewan in the corridor brought back memories of college trips and studio happenings! Boards plastered all over the college saying you are under surveillance is unmissable, looks like all of Delhi is under surveillance now!

  • The thing about love

    Love is fleeting, love is blind, love is eternal, and there is no end to the idioms that love entails, let’s not forget it makes one an idiot first of all. An idiot who is also delusional and out of touch with reality, but then how real is reality anyway. We all want to be loved, to be made feel special but then in terms of love the giver alone benefits and not the giveth. Now that is a fact that if you know, you know. Ask Ullysees, who loved Helen of Troy, he would tell you. Ever wondered why the heart shape is shaped in such? The shape of the heart shape comes from the now-extinct plant called silphium, which was the crucial component in the love potion. Also a fun fact is that love and other emotions are regulated by the brain while the organ heart is simply a pump that goes fast or slow as directed by the brain. And while the heart’s motion we are aware of, we really don’t know what happens in our brain. For the brain is where all the magic actually happens.

    Love is in fact a deep connection, that then makes one feel care and understanding, a connection that we yearn for and a connection that speaks to us. Do what you love they say and you’ll never work for a day in your life. If one then does feel the connection to their work then it essentially does not feel like work, or if someone cares about their work. The connection and a sense of care are what keeps one going. I love doing yoga, bending my body into the shape of a pretzel, breathing deeply and that sense of gladdening appeal would also wake me up at the crack of dawn. Didn’t they say that love can make you do crazy things! Well, that said some people operate on a crazy sense of righteousness and do crazy things too like waking up at the crack of dawn. Then again do we choose what we love? While a lot of people would argue that love is a choice, just like happiness is a choice, love and happiness as with other things stem from a multitude of factors that mostly depend on you as a person and the sense of connection you’d feel to something. Just like every person is different and hence every love is different. The reason we love we cannot say or pinpoint to, nor can we make someone fall in love with us, that is simply not possible by intent. In a world where one can manifest anything, let’s certainly not do that with love, for this one emotion works best when it is unadulteratedly real. But then sometimes, something catches your eye, then has your heart, then blows you off and captures your senses, whether its a rose or the latest software, the stroke of a brush or the smell of paint, or the whiff of fabric or the run of a cake, more likely the smile of a face or the make of the wit, and when that happens becoming hopelessly in love happens and hold on to that feeling.

    But then the most important thing about love is to love, whatever the type of love, that love actually benefits because in holding on to a loving feeling or a sense of love one undergoes the following physiological changes. Specific areas in the brain are activated in love, the limbic and reward centers, since the limbic system is about emotion and memory, these are strong when related to love. There is also an increase in dopamine and noradrenaline, these cause butterflies in the stomach, and at the same time, negative thinking and judgment are vastly reduced. We do not judge what we love. And to be in a state of non-judgment is to be living your best life. Love happens in the brain and floods the entire system allowing us to perceive life without red flags and with rose-tinted glasses. We do not choose who we love or what we love, that is not a matter of choice, yet we simply love. Even in the case of self-love, it is not a matter of choice, we cannot choose to love ourselves, we just simply love ourselves or we don’t. Have you seen a person who loves themselves, right not the next-door narcissist whose self-love is marked by blinders, but someone who genuinely loves themselves? They don’t wake up and choose to love themselves, they just do and lucky are they if they do, that would just mean that their brain approves of them, and what a wonderful way it is to be in sync with the self, vibing with the self. Again it is not a forced upon state, it just is a state. Loving someone or something is truly random, something or someone doesn’t have to be the best for one to feel a deep sense of connection, it just has to be the random choosing of the brain that clicks or simply vibes for one reason or none.

    By all means love the dog, the self, the gym, or the neighbor! The thing about love is that it makes one the best version of themselves, and that is its redeeming factor. We may not choose what we love but let’s cherish what we love, for though it may be random, yet it is doing a whole lot of good in your body, and good is great. People in love have dopamine-rich centers in the brain according to a Harvard Medical Study and this love can last forever too if it does. And these feelings of reward in the brain, literally reward the brain, which then works with a better sense of perception facilitating positive feelings in general. If one can turn one’s attention to the things one loves, everything else may simply fall over on the wayside, requiring no care or bother. Love might be nature’s best chemical cocktail though it continues to elude science and entice us!

    ❤

  • The Shark who had us in splits!

    Watching Shark Tank India is the most fun thing at the moment, the entrepreneurs who are coming up with the most fun ideas, making everything seem possible, the products that are at times path-breaking and other times extremely relevant, and finally the sharks who are so entertaining and inspiring in equal measure. We all have our favorite sharks, the ones who watch the show, (one of the few shows that are actually worth watching with a 6 year old amidst all the gore) mine keeps oscillating between Vineeta Singh (of Sugar) and Aman Gupta (of Boat) but yesterday hearing the man in real, who keeps it so real, was such a treat!

    Starting out with a video presentation introducing himself, that man obviously needed no introduction, but putting out an introduction there that was so lively with bollywood references, music reminded my of Barney from ‘How I met your Mother’ and the Sanju movie, where Sanjay Dutts Dad makes a playlist depending on what value he wanted to impart to his son. After a very power-packed introduction featuring dialogues by Ranbir Kapoor, Shahrukh Khan and music that is of relevance to his story and importance to him he conveyed what life was to him. A very unique and fun way to get the audience interested for sure. Here are a few pointers he made all in a very fun and playful vibe, what with the very Delhi hindi, it did get me all nostalgic and a lot will be lost as I summarise in English but then, oh well.

    1. In sales the only thing one needs to have is no ego. At all!
    2. India is an aspirational market, the idea is not to make cheaper products, but valuable products that can be got for a steal. Remember Nano failed he says.
    3. An entrepreneur’s soul is restless, it simply has to be.
    4. The customer is GOD. This is says is the only marketing advice that anyone running a business needs. The best ways to market is to wear clothes with your brand name on it, he is in BOAT shirts 95% of the time, be your own brand ambassador and then bring on board several brand ambassadors who are relevant with the times, not just one as the Indian market is super diverse. Being relevant to the consumer makes or breaks anything. If K-Pop and Badshah are trending and their values vibe with yours then they are the apt ambassadors.
    5. Its a new India and anyone can do anything. ABC always works in India, Astrology, Bollywood and Cricket he says.
    6. Life Mantra is to do what floats your boat, literally. Doing what you like is very important. Enjoying it while one’s doing something is crucial for success. Quoting a very popular Shah Rukh Khan dialogue from teh movie Kal ho na ho he says joyo, haso, muskurao, kya pata kal ho na ho! Live, Laugh, Smile as you never know what happens tomorrow, he also believes that in life one really never knows what is in store next. If there is nothing you want to do, then simply do nothing. Life does not need to be lived doing something you dont want, then one would never do it well.
    7. Be gentle with your employees as this is a ‘resignation in my pocket generation’ if you push them than they will say you are hurting my mental balance and will leave, just because it is a generation that is not motivated by money, a much more privileged generation. Having a work culture that echoes with the generation is also very important.
    8. Being yourself, being authentic, there is a trend of being pseudo-intellectuals in India today or a show-off, he says if you don’t like to read and like to watch reels then that’s just you, so wing it as you live and you’ll be comfortable and relaxed thereby being more productive. There is a ton of creativity and knowledge in the reels that go viral these days. The health food is a trend and while everyone is probably chewing on cud, chew on what works for you!
    9. As an investor betting on people rather than numbers works best. An entrepreneur turning investor is always a better investor than a VC turned investor mainly in the ability to take a risk is surpassed in an entrepreneur.
    10. Think Big! Instead lining up outside Apple, think of building an Indian company that people all over the world will line up outside.
    11. Finally, he says, Masti ke liye kaam karo, translating to do things for the fun of it.
    12. Book suggestion: Essentially Mira by Mira Kulkarni the founder of Forest Essentials (sharing his wife’s recommendation, since he hasn’t read even one book in his life)
    13. Movie recommendation: Air (the story of Nike)

    The shark who had us in splits and sold us our dreams!

  • The Book of Everlasting things

    Reading is therapy and I indulged in a whole lot of it last night! This book seemed like wonderful at the start, infact it was a book club read, and the author so sweet, so softspoken coming down a lineage of refugees who came in after a rather painful partition, the family of the famous Khan Market bookstore Bahrisons, had me literally swooning at my nostalgia of it all. So when I bit into the book I was certain to be swept off my feet. This oral historian going door to door in Lahore and Delhi, talking to the salon girls while getting her nails done at the Lahore Gymkhana, the elitest of them all and listening to stories of a time gone by, then weaving them all into a fiction piece written with such fineness, I did expect a lot. But then the subject, the World War 1, then the World War 2 and the partition adept with a tome of human emotion just felt so very hard to read, imagine the living of it.

    The British and their Moutbatten sandwiching India between two Pakistans would be the cruelest thing that the Bristish could have done to their territory, I am not at all impressed by their ruling. The ground reality is so grim even after so many years of the Partition, and the fight for literally no great rhyme or reason is the saddest of it all. The love story that Aanchal Malhotra weaves into the narrative ends with no sweetness at all, just like the Partition and although the settings that she finds in the book could read very pretty, think Paris, Lahore, Kannauj, Amritsar, Delhi and the likes, there is so much sadness of the time that tinges the landscape that there really seems to be no hope. Even the hidden gestures are lost with the overbearing grief in the air. The subject of perfumery is also that of luxury and not of the mere and mortal, yet even the settings add no beauty to the grimness of it all.

    While I hope sadness is not the only everlasting thing, looking at the beauty of the world is an art on it’s own and sometimes finding it may require happiness. Thats a definite given. There is no beauty in sadness, like there is no mirth in complaint and no joy in lack. There needs to be happiness for joy, gratefulness for mirth and abundance for joy, that is a given and that is my takeaway from this book. Thank God most countries have nuclear power and World War 3 is unthinkable, forget doable, and thank God that the British rule no countries anymore. That wisdom or even empathy was definitely in lacking! I wonder today, having lived in Delhi, what a great city it really is, embracing all the atrocities of the past, reinventing itself and carrying on as an amalgamation of so many things that it brings together, a cauldron of cultures. The posh colonies of Delhi today were all once refugee camps that saw the worst of human condition, yet grew out of the ashes. While other parts of India never saw what Delhi saw, we cannot even relate down here in the south, my love and respect for Delhi and it’s people is really on the rise, reading this book, that holds first hand account on the happenings in history.

    Its a champion for joy, happiness and a lesson of relentlessness in its core!

  • Happy 2024!

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    It’s a merry age to live in today, while I love making resolutions, making ones on the 1st of Jan is more special, the beginning of a new year, a brand new journal to fill, and all the joy that novelty entails is absolutely endearing. While on an Insta binge, my feed is filled with manifestations, how to cajole the universe into giving you what you want, and the law of attraction! This is also where Gabby Bernstein a manifestation guru proclaims that she (and you) should not believe in resolutions since they allude that something needs fixing, instead, manifestation could be the rhyme of the day, for you are bringing in positive feelings, and emotions or happenings into your life, the visualization board is a popular item these days and following in the steps of Sarah Sham, the quite affluent Interior Designer I made one too, talk about being influenced, but at the end of the year, I found that life surprised me in better ways that what I could imagine! My photos play host to even more amazing things than the images that I put on my vision board. That left me with a wonderful feeling, though I did put together a vision board for this year, again am sure to be left spellbound!

    However I managed to watch a very thoughtful movie on the first day of the year, (talk about the universe nudging me in a certain direction!) called Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, the movie wasn’t exactly to my liking but the ending certainly was. At the end of the movie, Akhtar, whose lens on social commentary is impeccable, literally implores us to take note of a few resolutions that will do most of us much good. She is the outer conscience or rather the Jimmy Cricket we all need to have sitting on our shoulders. While her other movies may have had us jumping on cruises as a family or booming the Spanish tourism to stellar heights this one could just be having us book flights into ourselves. That’s possibly the only journey we all need, though may not want to be making. After showing us the tumultuous lives of today’s times she gives a blueprint or resolutions that resonated with me quite well enough to employ as my own.

    One is to put down that phone, that we are all lost into and look at life in the eye. Two is to keep it real and keep it simple, for only if you connect with yourself others can connect with you. Three is to stop the comparisons, the only person better than you in the moment is you in the future. Four is to be grateful, for what you have and also for what you dont have, perhaps it is for the better! And finally to find your tribe, for if you have real, true friends then you wouldn’t need followers! Don’t these make so much sense, there is power in authenticity, may we have more of it, may we be it.

    Take a note, maybe you’d want them on your list too!

  • Merry Christmas!

    I was given a writing prompt to write about the best gift I have received on Christmas, and while I kept thinking, what it was since we do not celebrate Christmas in our homes. We however do celebrate in our offices, and this was in one such office, doing the whole Secret Santa thing that I believe I may have received my best Christmas gift.

    The gift was a bunch of things an architect would truly appreciate from the Japanese store Muji. The no-nonsense and no-branding store is an architect’s favorite for anything as such, but my gift consisted of a set of colored pencils, a measuring tape, a ruler, pencils, erasers, and a box to fit them all. Well-designed stationery is a boon and an object of delight in equal measure. I look at it even today and absolutely revel in how pretty it is and what a mood enhancer good design really is, label or no label!

  • India Art Fair – Bengaluru Edition

    The India Art Fair in Bengaluru at Palace grounds saw art aficionados throng the palace grounds in large numbers, while we went suited and booted in our Spiderman suit we were amazed by the galleries in attendance.

    My top picks at the India Art Fair 2023 were the following, all on grammable! The Instagram handles are duly provided.

    1. The first and foremost artist comes from Udaipur, the Royal city of Rajasthan embarking on Pichwai art. While Pichwai art is generally very beautiful, the Pichwaiwala is a family business with every member of the family contributing to art work, passed down over generations. My favorite was the white ones with such nuances and finesse that wanting one on the walls of my house was but for natural.
    2. Mysore Traditional Painting by Prerana Achithya @royal_heritage1 has several Tanjores, but the most beautiful work is a modern representation of Raja Ravi Varma’s art, only in more quirky colors and happier proportions.
    3. Anisha Jain Art @anishajainart is such happy girl-next-door art that any artist could feel that could be done myself, yet the colors provide such whimsical fancy and colorful gaiety that happiness feels like is just round the corner.
    4. Ganesh Doddamani has a website by that name, has done some worthy allegories on Hampi, but the funnest piece that caught my attention was the upturned terratotta pots painted in bright hues, quite abstractly and summoned together in a grid, fancy as ever.
    5. Rohan Khuntale communicable @ khuntalerohan@gmail.com impressed by 5 year old, with an effervescent collection of cars, the real fancy ones that are also really vintage. The composition of these fast beauties could be the lucky charm on the walls, where the cars mean for motion.
    6. Kathraj N (9844300600) on the other hand, deeply appeals to one’s mythological spirit with almost dream-like representations of Gods and Demi-Gods, in action at the very word go.
    7. Monica Ghule @ghulemonica paints her childhood memories but the girl in the pictures is so endearing, sometimes with a bob-pin in her hair or sometimes looking up at the sky in free wonder.
    8. Anukta Mukherjee Ghosh @studianukta does the tremendously popular Varanasi river fronts that most artists ask me for these days. The rishis and munis were not such favorites with me as her impressions of the riverfront.

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  • MAP – Bengaluru

    The best memories are not captured. And thats what the security advised me as we entered the Axis Bank gallery at the Museum of Art and Photography that houses the current exhibition titled the Kanchana Chitra Ramayana of Banaras curated at the Museum of Art and Photography. The beautiful book by Tulsidas showcasing the mighty Hindu epic comprised of 1100 pages, 80 of which have been displayed at this showcase. The beautiful pages all framed by a golden border are succinctly lit up. Patronised by the royal court of Banaras this exhibition is curated by the late Kavita Singh and Parul Singh. While the miniature painting style originally brought to India by the Mughals and extensively features their Mughal gardens looked very splendid featuring the main characters of the Ramayana, the Garuda pakshi, who has a celebrity status in our house at the moment and all the other milestones in India’s greatest epic. The create your own miniature painting was a rather cute touch felicitating the gallery exhibit!

    On another floor is an exhibition by the British artist Alexander Gorlizki, along with Riyaz Uddin and Pink Studio Jaipur, that takes a rather fantastical spin on the old world paintings from the gallery’s collection. This feature title “What the Camera cannot see” brings out whimsical elements into serious moments. Again the quirks are so mirthful and joy-ridden that it had us in splits as we went from one screen to the other. Black and white photos with flamingoes and what not, that usually would not been there come together and become magical on another note. Again holding forth aplenty is the third exhibit that says Visible/Invisible showcasing women and their glories, dooms, challenges in great alacrity. I for one was happy to spot Jamini Roy’s, Raja Ravi Varma’s exploits and some lesser to me known artists.

    On the whole the Museum of Art and Photography located in the heart of Bangalore, opposite the famous Cubbon Park has its heart in the right place. Funded totally by the tech-giants of the city, there is a Kiran Mazumdar Shaw auditorium, the Infosys foundation gallery, the Wipro gallery among others, boasting of donors both famous and anonymous. It is a state-of-the-art gallery unlike its nemesis run by the government on the other side of the street. For a minute I wasn’t sure if I were in India at all. The galleries are interspersed by research laboratories that work on art, rather work on conserving art. The museum shop selling wares by Jamini Roy, was way too expensive, but then a slice of art is expensive no matter to the doer or the seeker! The infrastructure at the MAP could well put Moma to shame, though much more meagre in size. The exhibits were fun to the next level and mostly Indian, except for the Gorlizki, however he was so much fun too. I sure hope the museum turns out its curations just as often as we feel like visiting, or has classes for art aficionados like us, mastering Varma’s style may just be what we like.

    P.s. I was also served a reminder on why this blog makes sense, celebrating words without pictures, makes the gram totally lost and them readers win!