Vedasri Siddamsetty

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  • The Sanctuaries of Ancient Greece.

    Beautiful bodies are vessels for beautiful minds and are where strong moral compasses dwell. So believed the ancient greeks, as a corollary good minds only live in good bodies, hence a lot of effort was made to maintain strong, healthy and beautiful bodies chiselled to perfection. If a person was beautiful externally, with ripped abdomen or shapely curves, it was believed that they had a beautiful mind too, and also a very sound morality. Therefore a lot of work was done to keep the physical body highly attractive, today we see a huge number of statues peppered across the Peloponnese and Greece in general in nude, even Leonidas the Spartan has his statue all equipped with his arrow, shield and helmet, in utter nude. Clothed statues with the ripple of cloth were introduced by the Romans and are the proponents of the Greco-Roman period in art and architecture when Greece and Roman influences overlapped. The body in nude was to display its beauty. Sanctuaries or places of healing were important centres that people would travel to to heal their bodies and perhaps minds, keeping themselves healthy and in turn beautiful.

    The centres of healing that are very impressive in their remains today are those at Delphi and Epidauraus. In Delphi, the stunning sloping landscape embraces in its midst the temple of Apollo, where the famous Oracle would dish out her prophecies, the theatre and a stadium. in Epidaurus, also a major centre of healing the theatre’s stunning acoustic properties are still keenly felt and enjoyed. The ancient Greek theater was a sacred space that allowed audiences to overlook the city, countryside, and ocean, and encapsulate the sky. The sky was the most prominent feature in the visual field of the spectator, and the Greek terms for sky were interchangeable with the word for heaven. Though the stage buildings do not remain, considering they were built in the 5th century, it is a marvel that the theater with its stepped seating still stands today. In Delphi, an Agora sets the tone to journey up to the hill top where the stadium sits, while in Epidaurus, the lay of the land is more flattened and all the parts of the sanctuary are laid out with some buildings still a lot more intact. These sanctuaries are the most beautiful remains of the ancient Greek architecture.

    While Roman architecture follows rules stringently, we see such spectacular and proportionate architecture all over Rome and Italy, they also came in much after the Greeks in the timeline of history, they have the rulebook fine-tuned and applied. But in Greece where it all began, the golden ratio, the optical illusions in building design, they embraced nature and the tenet that the site is everything and the architect seeks answers from the site in its landscape, using nature for inference and inspiration. Nature and site are two things that the Greeks widely embraced. For if the site is sloping, the Greek buildings are built embracing the lay of the land as we find in Delphi or even in Oia, while in the buildings of Rome, the human spirit and enterprise were valued as prime and sites were even razed to make way for enormous spirited architecture. But in Greece the building always married the site, in tandem, flowing with it effortlessly. The beauty of nature is never surpassed in these beautiful buildings, that sometimes frame, sometimes encapsulate, sometimes perch onto the site, like we see in the temple of Apollo, or the monasteries of Varlum and Holy Trinity among the others, but for the most part, in Greek architecture, nature is the wind beneath the wings of architecture, nature is the sanctuary, and then beauty is the consequence.

  • Kalambaka & Meteroa

    Meteora is a rock formation in Northwestern Greece, that holds atop it, Eastern Orthodox monasteries. Kalambaka is a city at the foothills of these monasteries that makes access to the monasteries easier for the tourists, it has a dessert by its name that is a pudding of sorts with walnut cake and condensed milk! Yet the monks of the monasteries built them during the times of the prosecution of the Christians by the Turks, the Ottoman empire. The monks fled to Meteora and built their monasteries on top of the over 500 m high rock formations who’s tops are unconnected to any part of the land, soaring into the sky. The sight of these rocks with the monasteries atop them is stunning to say the least, and the climb up to the monasteries, lets say is quite a hike. The way the monks went up is too interesting though as they did not climb by foot, or use cable cars like they use now, they would be airlifted through a rope cage, a net cage, not every different from how fishes are pulled out of water! The net cages would pull up a bunch of monks every once in a while through an elaborate turnstile pulley system. Thankfully we trekked up to the monastery!

    Today the monks use a cable car to reach atop to the monasteries, some of the monasteries have been converted to nunneries, yet their schedules remain gruelling as they embark on a journey to look inwards. The monastic cells have tiny windows, though with a spectacular views to encourage the monks to look inwards. Every monastery or nunnery has a church of the Greek Orthodox type that looks stunning with art in gold covering the walls. The art is filled with symbolism to tell a story to even those who could not read or write. The cross around the halos were used to depict Jesus Christ across his different ages, while the hand gestures of the monks painted gave away whether the monk was a saint or a martyr. While the monasteries today are a huge tourist attraction they continue to remain centres of worship. The beautiful elevations of these centres of internal reflection make for a stunning view during the golden hours of the day, of sunrise and sunset.

    From the ground up Kalambaka has all the makings of a small greek town and serves up delicious fare of almost all cuisines, while up at Meteora, the priests each a largely what I term a spiritual fare. Today the monks also make their own merchandise and products including honey, cheese and mysterious beeswax that they claim can cure any issue of the body and mind, simply by rubbing some onto the skin or ingesting it to cure a common cold! The monks are in black for their day to day dressing and wear white and golden robes during important events. Even today children receive communion from these monks. In Greece every baby born is considered to be in the Christian fold of Greek Orthodoxy. Monks voluntarily enter the fold abiding to the tough diktats, giving up all their possessions to the church and are free to leave if they wish to. The higher purpose of their lives, to be closer to their Gods is vastly cherished and chased in their lifetime!

  • Its Greek to Me!

    The Greek Gods are mythical legends, with epics and stories that display their grand values, a lot like the Indian Gods, yet unlike the Indian Gods, worship to the Greek Gods have been long lost to the advent of the Romans, then the Christians and then the Turks, now becoming a tale in the chaos of the ruins in Greece. With enough on their plate, the economic crises, the unemployment crises, Greece also now has to deal with the crippling effects of global warming, environment change and over-tourism. The day we were at the acropolis, 18000 people were said to be visiting and slotting people into different times also did not seem to help. Present day Greece is probably a lot different from that of the antiquity, yet many phrases and even ideologies of the present, if I may say even philosophy come from the times of Ancient Greece. The idea of the individual and views of the individual, hence democracy came from the country that had to look seaward as the land was untenable. The azure blue waters of the Mediterranean connects Greece and its over 6000 islands to different countries and cultures, a confluence of many parts that were as different as ever.

    The Greek revolution cemented its form and created a basis for a republic in the 18th century, yet it was one of the first countries in Europe to become a republic soon after the Industrial revolution. Early civilisations were found even under the archeological site of Olympia and by the looks of Greece, digging under its untenable lands a whole new world could easily be found anywhere in Greece, and an expensive task at that, the government stops excavations more due to the lack of funds rather than a lack of content! Greek philosophers like Socrates, Epictetus, mathematicians like Pythagorus, thinkers Plato, physicist like Aristotle, are a few of the many that have laid foundations of the way we derive and experience the modern world. The modern Olympic games that happen once in 4 years finds its base from the land of the Peloponnese, the mainland of Greece, that began in great earnest and even had the power to pause wars as the people of the land prepared to compete earliest for running followed by wrestling, boxing, javelin and discus. Over the centuries it was paused by early Christian emperors before being revived in the 18th Century by historical enthusiasts.

    My journey across the Peloponnese brought me up close with the ancient and the modern Greek culture, to its Gods, who apparently threw rocks at each other bringing forth the make of the land, with its modern day architecture and its ruins of the past, with concepts in architecture like those of the golden ratio, the use of light in architecture, the significance of white in architecture and the stories that its culture weaves. The modern day country is juxtaposed against its past, having lost most of its mythology, unless for the sake of tourism, Zeus isn’t worshipped, yet his stories of valour and pomp surround the world. The Romans are said to have adopted the Greek Gods, and Indian Gods are some where likened to their Greek counterparts, yet many of the major Greek impressions are in ruins or ruined by the advent of the following centuries and its rulers who imposed new religions and wiped out the past not just in reality but also from the minds of the people. While the ancient Greek states fought for power against each other, the Athenians against the Spartans, the Ionions against the Corinths, they finally united against the Turks, expanding their Naval power. Yet the Byzantium empire ruling from Constantinople extrapolated a branch of Christianity that now is known as Greek Orthodoxy paving its way all across the east of Europe and all the way to Russia.

    While the Gods may have their stories of eating stone, marrying each other and then the mortals to form a web of Gods, Titans and Demi-Gods, all scripted in the Greek epics of Iliad and the Odyssey, they are rather confusing and hugely complicated, just try reading one of the Homer’s epics and you would know what I am talking about, beautiful faces still dot the country rich in its culture and heritage, faces that could still launch a thousand ships! The rather handsome country is beautiful in its people and also the landscape at large. Th idea of beauty is something even the ancient greeks took very seriously, for a beautiful body is a vessel containing a beautiful mind, a beautiful soul and hence a strong moral compass. Each of the 6000 islands have their own distinct quality apart from the mainland, the white buildings of Mykonos and Santorini are the most popular, but even Naxos, Paros and the mighty of them all, Crete have their beauty intact. While Athens, the capital is notorious for its protests, Athens is also called, “The City of Protests”, it is home to the mighty Parthenon, that every architect would want to visit. Even with it’s roof blown off by the Turks, its Doric columns still stand towering and a plenty to give a glimpse of what it would have been like. From on top of the Acropolis, Athens looks wild and mighty, yet all white till where the eyes can see. In the past the great Greek temples were all painted in vibrant colours in reds, blues, greens that contrasted with the shite of the building stones or stuccos, many of the islands and towns delectable pastel combinations that truly work today. The idea that buildings look best in white against the blue sky is not lost on the people today of Athens but mostly of Mykonos and Santorini, an architectural insight that totally resonates with me. The beauty? Well, its Greek to me!

    The places featured in this journey are Kalambaka, Meteora, Delphi, Olympia, Nafplio, Galaxidi, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Athens, Mykonos and Santorini.

  • Using HI in a world of AI

    ‘Where are the renders?’ is a very often heard statement in the world of interior design and architecture. My Lighting vendor to pop the question at me, very vehemently, in fact, he wouldn’t just let me go. He wanted me to tell him what it exactly looks like! What are lights like? How’s the feel of the space? But if I knew exactly what I wanted, and then where is the question of collaboration of bringing forth something that was not there before? Everybody from Lighting vendors to clients to carpet layers want to see what the final look will be even before the process is started. As done now this wasn’t always how things were done in the earlier times when the architect would be the director with the vision in his or her head, directing the site and how people would flawlessly completely trust the designer or the person whose vision it is, but today that has changed quite a bit when everybody wants to know what is it going to look like because nobody has the patience or even the trust to wait till it is complete. Everybody wants to know how is it going to look and then once you give them how is going to look then the scramble begins to find the exact same lights that look exactly like the picture, to find the carpet that can be put, which looks exactly like the picture, the picture is not worth 1000 words it’s worth 1000 lives when that is being replicated into what spaces in a world of AI. In fact, it’s getting more and more pristine, exact to the point that all that the person has to do once the Artist impression is done is to follow it to the team, the process of Design is no longer a process anymore. It is an endpoint you have the endpoint in the picture in mind and everybody works collectively to bring that picture to life now that is a normal that is how architecture works that is how the interior design world works.

    I tried to do one project a little differently this time, the final 3D was not in anybody’s head, including not even mine as the architect as a director of the project, the final picture was not in my mind too, and as the days went by and selections kept happening, the process evolved. What aligned stayed and what didn’t didn’t make the cut. Considering I have been trained as an architect trained to make these full proof, bullet-proof plans, elevation and renders well, it took a heavy dose of HI or human intelligence to bring this project to fruition. Taking things by the fly of the seat of my pants required a whole different mindset though. The need to be present at every moment on site is what it takes to employ human intelligence as against artificial intelligence. When things are not planned and there is no endpoint in sight, then the whole point is in the now. And to trust that what it will be, will be something that what it is meant to be. This way of employing human and on the site as work progress as things came together, required a teeny bit of planning but not to the point of excess with every stitch has been thought of, of course, every stage has been thought of, but when it was meant to be thought of not way in advance. Using human intelligence over artificial intelligence or rather employing human intelligence when it is necessary when it is a call of the day is a very liberating experience and instead of planning way in advance and knowing exactly what something is going to be when you can trust and be open to what it could be, it also feels very freeing and hence liberating. it is the state of not knowing and being okay with not knowing that brings us to places which we could have never imagined. It is the place for human intelligence come to the forefront, and we stopped relying on intelligence that we have built through artificial means. in fact to create content to write about what I am thinking is so easy to use Meta, to use these various platforms that use AI to construct a world of words, but without the human element in it, it is quite nothing. Without a render or a 3-D in hand, it has been quite an experience without a goal post. I’m sure life is also going to be quite interesting when we take each day as it comes and move forward, knowing what we are going to have at the end of the day is a combination of a multitude of tiny decisions that were made in a state of being present.

    It is then a win of the human intelligence, of humanity, of the human being rather than the human doing. The world that celebrates achievement that celebrates a state of doing that celebrates a state of achieving should also balance the state of being of being present of being so that what is done is done through complete mindfulness, through a state of being, that taps into intelligence born of humour, the human mind, which is more than intelligence, and one that starts to be intuition.

    The biggest lesson of working with human intelligence versus artificial intelligence has been the idea of not setting goals of not having any end points, treating the very moment as an end in itself. Of course, every moment is worked with great sincerity, it is not about not having an idea of where to go, but about allowing the moment to show up with decisions of what to do next. 

  • Faith over science

    Over the last month or so, I have had the good fortune of visiting a lot of temples starting with the temple at Yadagirigutta in Telangana to the new Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Telangana to yesterday going to our family gods family Temple in Adavanahalli, a Shiva Temple. While all the temples were very beautiful, in fact, the Yadagirigutta temple was recently renovated for 1800 crore and looked worth much more than that. Our family God’s Temple is where we witnessed like my six year-old, called it magic or probably science. As the Purohit conveyed our seeking to the Lord answered by blessing with flowers. It was a sight to be hold very thrilling, and it kind of piqued our senses.

    While the average atheist would question, the existence of God not to mention the multitude of rituals, even his non-compromising view, would have to bend with the coming of faith. While science explains a whole lot of things, including the beginning of the universe and the happenings of physics explain the natural world to us, chemistry conveys to the molecular gist of things and Biology explains the processes of living beings there is no doubt that there is something that super sees all of these and that is probably faith. so when the Purohit asked to God for blessings and he replied with a tumble of flowers from his head, my six year old immediately turned to me, and said Amma is this magic or is this science while a part of me want to tell him that it is sign. another part of me. wanted to keep it a little magic, so part of me said that yes, when the pura Purohit was speaking loudly and creating a vibration through his sound that shook the flowers and made it fall. I also looked at him and said it would not have happened. If God didn’t want to, so it is somewhere the whole world is magical.

    As religion knows no bounds in India with a lot of rituals, a lot of gods, it is our way of making sense of the universe. But as long as all, these gods are mainly asking us for morality, for sensibility and for actually living harmoniously among each other, probably chanting to keep our mind, calm, or Communal feeling when celebrating the festivals together it is a beautiful way to celebrate existence. Religion could be a beautiful way to celebrate life.and when religious sentiments or rather even sentiments are hurt like the recent controversy at Tirupati with their Laddu, it makes no sense as the basis of religion shakes. The whole point of having religion is to celebrate the magic that is life to celebrate the magic. that is God for none of us know yet what is true, but we cannot also know that it is not true, believing and God is a personal choice. Being part of religion. Somehow doesn’t be a personal choice because of the community that religion brings along with it. The various aspect of various religions basically ask us to be aware of ourselves and whether is chanting the name of Krishna or Jesus or whoever if it is bringing closer to ourselves, then it works, and then religion is really truly magical.

    While being scientific is amazing, it is great to believe in the power of science. It is great to decode the word molecule by molecule atom atom probably proton by proton or electron by electron. It is amazing to be a part of this beautiful world with a laisse faire attitude too to just know that the universe works itself out at by atom or proton by proton, for that one has to have faith faith that the universe is working faith that things are working. Things are moving the way they should things gravitate to what they need to while we do what we need to, India is a secular country and there are various religions that are practised in India. The diversity is beautiful. In fact even in Hinduism I have been learning more about why things are the way they are very recently whether the Chatur mass or the time and Lord Vishnu sleeps, or it’s the time of the gods one after the other till December till Diwali, when all the gods come down to earth, it’s a bit of mythology, but it’s also about something that keeps us looking forward to anything in life, and the secret of happiness is to look forward to something that you want to happen And festivals. Do just that it keeps us always looking forward, so while science can explain how the sun rises or why the Earth is round and gives us proof helps us believe in that and not expound further, and further, even if we do the moon affects water on earth, it pulls the oceans up, rising the tide or letting it go and lowering the tide, have you ever seen a low tide, and how much of the ocean is actually visible at that time, it’s crazy. It’s truly crazy and so is the power of religion. It has the power to lift us up to our highest high and hopefully doesn’t bring us down to a lowest lows as long as we follow the middle path in religion and in life and well balance things out with faith, and that is backed by science, we should truly experience the magic that life brings to us. Faith then with, and not over science!

  • Diversity.

    Here’s a word on diversity. The more different your diet is, your workout is, your day is, your clothes are, your shoes are, may I add your friends are, the better off you are. This is fact not fiction. For the last couple of years I have been reading books on health, following influencers of health and seen first hand how health is really wealth, ask me for I have for years aided tons of money on medicines for acne, hair conditioners of every type and even astrological consults to help assuage my mental health! But what I have gathered from all the tomes of reading, is that health not wealth requires a lot of movement, a lot of diversity. Stillness may be beneficial but even that needs to be complemented by movement, the balance always tips on the diversity aspect.

    Eat the colours of the rainbow is old, eat 30 different vegetables and fruits is the new alarm, and doing so will cause no reason for alarm. There is truth to the fact that simply walking for years will hurt the joints, if it isn’t supported by strength building exercises. Also true is that there is going to be pain, in your joints or in your muscles the choice remains, workout and the muscles hurt, do not them maybe the joints will. I don’t personally think exercise is crucial, but it does offer several boons that even the lazy bones in me cannot argue with. But then the beauty of it is when a lot of different types of exercises are done, mix it up as they say. The same with reading, I have one last book that hinges on wellness for now, more lined towards the art of cooking, but after that it is time to pepper my reading list with different genres, it keeps the mind fresh. Then there is the fact that novelty keeps the mind young, alert and active, while routines are good for some new things are something else. That explains the love for travelling and the art of walking about in new cities.

    With walking is the question of shoes, and no matter how comfortable the shoe, wearing it every single day without a change could be disastrous for your foot. The human body thrives on change. So wider the shoe and the variety the better off one maybe! Even with music or podcasts, it’s a pity that AI reads your mind and serves up the exact same type of content, or even the social media gives you more of what you like, where is the mind expanding then. Then also is the company one keeps, when you are the sum of the five people you meet then you’d better watch out for who you meet! I have found that when I meet different people over different times the conversations are plentiful and refreshing. I have a friend who meets me and others once in six-months, for what is there to talk more often she says, that way one can cut off heedless gossip and malignant complaints from one’s life too. But either way there are those who you need to see everyday and those who you can see once in a while but then it’s the diversity that makes one’s life fun. Now while I go on and do something different today, it all does contribute to one final agenda in the day and that is to enrich my life and of all the others!

    P.s while this may not work in every situation or every order, it works in some! Do exercise it in caution!

  • Sri-can!

    Last evening I got to see a rather delightful movie about a man called Srikanth, a blind man who takes the world by storm, who refuses to accept a business award in a special category instead claiming to work harder and come back and win eventually. That way he does not acknowledge what we would think is a huge disability, a non-working sense of sight. The movie starts with the song “Papa Kehte hain” and plays all through, it is so apt in its use as a background score that it is still playing in my head. So peppy and aspirational just like Srikanth’s spirit. He dreams a dream, he has a vision, he has the tenacity and finally he has the humility, all the ingredients for success, also whipping up a few along the way as and when the need arises. All these do not require the visual sight, ofcourse with a little bit of help from his friends.

    The movie also touches upon heart-warming details where Srikanth with his lovely sense of humour adds a touch of extraordinary to the ordinary. When life gives you lemons they say, but this man refuses to believe that he was dished out the lemons in the first place! Rolling with the punches takes a new meaning, but all his achievement is because of who he is and should not be read in context of his physical attributes he says, that way normalising a spectrum of perceived issues. At the end of the day in life, all that matters is the lives you touched, the feelings you happily embraced and accepted the randomness of life, taking it in as bonus to the efforts one puts in. The cants are many, even in science till it is proven to be cans, and this is one such man.

    The best thing about Srikanth is his spirit for sure, not to mention his intelligence, I barely remembered Ohm’s law when my brother quizzed me about it recently while I have always loved physics. The human brain is so malleable, when unused the neurons happily die and build newer ones that is useful for the situation life presents one, like I now have developed patience with a 7-year old who detests reading and doesnt want to learn. Thats the beauty of the brain and of the human body, it always finds a way when it wants to, whether it is self-healing acne or cancer. Repressed emotions that are said to cause un-ease and hence disease, are released from the brain when the brain seems fit. The brain and hence the mind is super powerful, with or without the senses, and what can be said of the spirit, when aligned, we are all in, bound to win, even when playing blind!

  • There’s something about AutoCad!

    I barely draft drawings these days, but when I do it is just the best thing ever. Heard of being in a flow state? Well doing a drawing on AutoCad or probably any computer-aided design software puts one in a major state of flow. Or perhaps it is about the act of design or the act of building up a world a whole new creative world that’s inception is in one’s brain and magically enchanting it into reality is probably just as fun. But this entire morning as my fingers went snap snap on the keyboard and the brain kept conjuring up a dozen possibilities of what the room could be or what the piece of furniture could be, I didn’t realise the time slipping literally through my fingers. As an architectural apprentice I couldn’t wait for the day when I didn’t need to draft and could be the architect about town doing her thing, and now being that architect about town, I know the importance of a well-drawn drawing! Not to mention a correctly drawn drawing! A creative person I was told would never want to be a manager as managing people aka controlling people is as far from creativity as possible and I find that opinion rather true. The act of actually making something is a conversation between a real person and a possibility, possibilities which we know could be plenty.

    That is the beauty of design and possibly of life that is so dynamic, the ever-changing nature of life should be celebrated and given its due. For all the times I wasn’t in a state of flow I wonder, what a waste of time! For now, there is AutoCAD and plenty of rooms to design. There is something so magical about AutoCAD, and Sketchup and Photoshop but the blank sheet of paper with a drawing instrument does trump it all, it is eternal enchanting as thoughts flow out of the minds into the white expanse.

  • Indian Railways

    All through school and college, travelling through traverses of India rail travel proved one of the only ways to capture the miles across the country. The other way mostly was by road driving through the southern states mostly, with my brother and I plonked in the back seat. Rail travel always meant more people, crazy locales and activities that allowed kids to move freely, take a walk whenever we please not to mention all the hanging by the monkey bars! Now with a little kid in my precinct I was just reminded of how much fun train travel can be. The British are much lauded for laying the extensive railways. From the toy train in Shimla (there is nothing you like about it, except being laid in wood) to the Vista dome in Karnataka, to the efficient Vande Bharat, the good old Rajdhani and Shatabdis, now with the Link Hoffman Bush coaches and finally the Palace on Wheels, there is quite something for everyone.

    When my maternal grandfather was posted in the Railways as an Accountant General he officially travelled in coaches that were fitted like a home. And with him I had the fortune of travelling in those, that could only be exciting for a child. Literally it opens up thinking on what a room should be like or what a train should be like. When on Vande Bharat one is quite well fed with food brought in every hour or so, in the older coaches the charm of train travel is very much intact. If people are not the forte then first class travel is totally recommended, off late I find myself not wanting to indulge in small conversations so I simply stick my nose in a book. But my 6 year old is quite a chatty one and soon we find ourselves about others plans, where they are heading and what they’ve been up to, throw in some parenting tips or life goals that everyone seems to be giving away for free these days!

    Indian Railways is upgrading yet it’s holding on to the coaches that were running earlier that reach smaller stations. The quaint stations with three or less platforms reach the inner parts of India, the Bharat that is the soul of the country. Recently I watched a movie called Laapata Ladies that also provides a look into this inner India that is so simple and aims for similar things in life that binds us all as one. While the platforms can do a lot better, a great number of platforms are revamping to be sustainable achieving LEED ratings of gold or platinum. While the air-conditioning for the coaches blast off, the heat generated by them are dumped on the platforms making the platforms quite hot and chaotic. (This is probably the case in our cities, with CSIR incentivising not using an iron, but more on that later) The overbridges aren’t a really enough and I’d like underground walkways a lot better!! When flying has become a lot more convenient and economical the astronomical impact it has on the planet is undeniable. Anyone remember how Thunberg took a solar powered boat to the Climate Summit to make a point? If only the Indian railways could be solar powered and the platform connections could be subterranean, the otherwise comparatively sustainable mode of travel would win even bigger.

  • 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!