Cochin Trip

Some of the visuals from the Cochin trip we did over last weekend for the wedding of a dear friend!

A Room with a view:

Out of the living room window of the apartment hotel called 'Riviera Suites' that we were staying at. This is a very nice place with a coffee shop serving best of Kerala food (that we feasted on!!). Rates affordable and service good. However, negotiating on other petty expenses and charges is a very good idea!! ;)
By the backwaters:

This is a doctored pict of the lovely Chinese Fishing nets. I could not bring myself to post the original because of the extreme amount of dirt and float in the water aroud the nets!

The pict taken from the base of the main mast of the fishing net. The flying crow I think gives it a nice creepy effect! There were zillions of crows here and hardly other birds!

Found the contrast of the two boats striking!!

People:
Saw many intriguing people sitting by the backwaters or working if they were fishermen. I tried to capture a few.

Fishermen untangling the net

He seemed to have aaaalll the time in the world!!

Looking at each other!! What must they be thinking?!! !

A man and drift wood.....

Togetherness... :)

Complication and Contemplation

Kids:
There was a group of four kids having a blast at the beach(!) They did some posing for my lens!

Fun timess!!

I aaaammmm the poooweeeeeerrrrr!!!

Malabar Escapes:


For lunch in Fort Kochi we went to this swell place called as Malabar House (- a botique hotel - amazing to say the least!) that has a restaurant called Malabar Junction. It was difficult to decide what was better - the ambience or the food!

Jew Town - A spice and antiques' market:

This sure is a must do at Cochin! There also is a beautiful synagouge here which is closed on friday and saturday and hence we had to miss it. (Same goes for the Dutch Palace. Its wise to avoid these two days as both these places are supposed to be extremely beautiful.)

Taken at an antiques' shop. There were dozens of spectacles in this shop. It all looked like a curious mixture jigsaw pieces of South Indian Architectural styles. Frankly I would not have minded carrying a couple of large vessels or a few antique columns home...but.....!!! ;) Some time in moi life, I shall!!!!!!!! We also saw in this market the world's largest 'Varpu' aka a cooking vessel 12 feet in diameter! It looked like a bathing vessel to me but the work on it was pretty good!


Well, all-n-all we had a wonderful trip! Signing off with yet another one of the nets!!!

Idea..

When an idea is talked about ad-infinitum, does the passion fizzle out?

Does it become mechanical?

Then does that passion still remain at heart and just does not come out in repeated projections?

Or does it go away all-together because of long protracted ‘talking about’ the idea?

If it is so it is dangerous… or is it?

If it is then what should be done to rekindle the passion?

Or should we?

PS: Written in the middle of a client meeting on 13/12. Just found myself wanting answers to all these questions listening to all of us sitting round the table and discussing a project..

हा एक माय मराठीच्या नावे!!!

This is a snippet from one of the recent conversations of my husband – श्री – and his friend – कॆ – who was trying to tell श्री that he is going to get married. For non-Marathi speaking of you all who are reading, sorry, but kindly abandon your effort right here as there is no way in this world that I am ever going to be able to translate this one in English! And hence here's my very first blog in Marathi!

कॆ.: अरे माझं लग्न ठरले!!
श्री.: Congratsss यार!! काय करते बायको? नाव काय तिचं? कुठे असते?
कॆ.: 'कल्याणी' (hypothetical - मला के-चं लग्न मोडावं अशी इच्छा नाहीये!!!:) ) नाव आहे तीचं! कल्याणी गड.
श्री.: 'गड'?! हे वेगळं आडनाव आहे!
कॆ.: अरे तिच्या आडनावावरुन 'म' (हा आणि एक विद्वान मित्र!) काय म्हणाला माहितेय का?? म्हणे 'गड आला पण आमचा सिंह गेला ना!'!!!

Lolzzzzz

ता.क. : आई शप्पथ असं घडल!!!

Vivah

Some movies leave me with conflicted thoughts and Vivah by Suraj Barjatya has been one.

What appealed and at the same time appalled me was what Mr. Barjatya was trying to say… so either my thoughts are convoluted or these times that we live in are… I was trying to brand this movie bourgeois and write it off as yet another one on my ‘why the hell did I watch it???’ list, but some very nice, respectable thoughts and messages kept coming back to me – The thoughts and messages that were no doubt highly relatable to the 90% of Indian population but a lot of it also relatable and learnable by the balance 10%... who think they are ‘modern’ but are hypocrites at the core…!

In the movie a number of explicit references are made about the inappropriateness in the reluctance of people in small towns to have a female child. This message might actually reach and be internalized by the audience who needs to….
But this whole thing about parents ‘finding’ the ‘right’ match gives me creeps. The families claiming ownerships of individuals bruises my sense of identity. The overtly ‘traditional’ ‘conservative’ Indian wedding/families’ thing, though can be attributed to the way of living and thinking of more than 90% of the populace, is not palatable for me. (yup I know! I am the crazy one here!)

The groom’s father mentioning that he does not want a dowry or the entire family accepting the bride even after an unfortunate accident – recognizing it as just that – an accident. These are ideas – or ideals that the society needs to understand today and showing it through films is perhaps the single most effective manner to bring it about…
But then throughout the movie the guy keeps looking for a mother/wife. Never a friend – Unacceptable.

However I think what psyched me the most was the most popular song in the movie. It means “I have the right” It might not have the same connotation as conveyed by the stark manner of my translation but the Hindi word ‘Haq’ in this respect meant only that to me…. “I have the right” And expectedly the guy keeps repeating this ad-infinitum and the girl keeps repeating her submission. Not once did the girl say that she might also have a right to something….
But maybe Mr.B is just trying to take one step at a time…… There are zillions out there who do not even believe in human rights being bestowed upon a female and I am thinking of equal rights. Quite the other end of the spectrum, isn’t it? Will telling these people to respect women help or tiny hints in entertainers like Vivah will?? Whichever does, Amen!


On a side note however, Mr. Barjatya has taken the caution to recover his money (inclusive of that lost in Main Prem Ki diwani hoon!) by extreme branding done all over the movie by (not so clever) product placement!