Blog 127 - Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali
Originally uploaded by thepluginguy

Blog 113 - Poetry - Vikram Seth

Finally, I got my hands over the poetry book that I had been looking for since a long time. It is wonderful when one’s office is at a stone’s throw distance from two cozy bookshops.

If you are wondering why am I so much animated about this? Read these two poems from the book.

Voices

Voices in my head,

Chanting, “Kisses. Bread.

Prove yourself. Fight. Shove.

Learn. Earn. Look for love,”

Drown a lesser voice.

Silent now of choice:

“Breathe in peace, and be

Still, for once, like me.”

Sit

Sit, drink your coffee here; your work can wait awhile.

You’re twenty-six, and still have some time of life ahead.

No need for wit; just talk vacuities, and I’ll

Reciprocate in kind, or laugh at you instead.

The world is too opaque, distressing, and profound.

These twenty minutes’ rendezvous will make my day:

To sit here in the sun, with grackles all around,

Staring with beady eyes, and you two feet away.

I do not need to describe more, just that a few more, Vikram Seth poems can be read at minstrels, where I came across my first Seth poetry.

Blog 109 - Photoblog - Lalbagh Flower Show

Glimpses of the Lalbagh Independence Week (Aug' 08) Flower Show. Lalbagh wore such a beautiful look with bright marigolds lined all across the park. I visited the flower show on a cloudy Tuesday morning. Some pictures from the Flower Show.

Blog 107 - Hope is the thing with feathers...

Hope is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Some more of Dickinson's poems can be read over here.

Blog 103 - Water Lilies at Rangashankara

Water Lilies
Originally uploaded by thepluginguy

Theater can cast a mesmerizing effect on you. The subtle shift of emotions just by a twitch of an eyebrow and a casual dialogue between strangers leading to a wonderful story. Last weekend I saw a play called Water Lilies Trilogy at Rangashankara.

Water Lilies Trilogy as the name suggests is a sequence of three short stories, Fawn Lilies, Water Lilies and Black Lilies each part played by a couple who meet by chance and this casual rendezvous leads to a story linking them.

Fawn Lilies, the part that I loved the most is set up in a park in Ohio where a Telugu bird-watching dietician meets a gay vagabond who tells an unusual tale about his life. Coming from a troubled background and unsure about relationships he ends up stealing a guitar and taking a road to nowhere and is broke to the last quarter. By chance he meets an old dude (a green campaign runner) who encourages him to become a Tree Sitter.

The couple presents an intimate picture and the way the vagabond describes his Tree Sitting experiences is amazing! About all kinds of birds and animals up there, the big tree colony and the bizarre experiences up there. The dietician has come over a broken relationship with her long time boyfriend, Salim an avid bird-watcher who due certain circumstances ends up choosing fighting a holy war in Palestine over love.

The story ends with the vagabond describing about how he came across fawn lilies grown amidst harsh conditions and then out of sudden the magical light falling on lilies making them incandescent almost surreal; present calmness amidst rush and harsh circumstances.

Water Lilies, is set up in an art museum. A lady from Srilanka is spellbound and almost brought to tears by water lilies a painting by Monet. A Texan banker and a Sunday painter who is not much impressed by Monet and thinks that life is not all sweet as painted by Monet; Lovely landscapes and gardens full of flowers. He is astonished that someone is doing second round around Monet’s paintings and a casual conversation between them leads to story that changes his impressions forever.

The story ends with an emotional recital of a poem, To Paint a Water Lily.

Black Lilies, the last story of the sequence is set up in an airport just two days after 9/11. In this story a Serbo-Hungarian writer, a noble prizewinner acclaimed for one of the darkest novels converses with a schoolteacher from Tamilnadu who is afraid of thunderstorms and about catching her connecting flight back to India but is brave enough to face death and succeeds in showing the writer a different perspective toward life and the darkness that surrounds him.

The play has a backdrop of soothing music played on piano.

Overall it was a different experience. The ambiance at Rangashankara is great and the rainy Bangalore evening added to the mood.

Blog 101 - Photoblog - Frangipani

There is a lore which says that the name Frangipani derives from a perfume created by an Italian family of the same name. Read More at Flowers Of India

Common name: Frangipani, Plumeria, {Golenchi/Golachin गुलैन्ची, गुलाचिन, Champa चम्पा} (Hindi), Khageleihao angouba (Manipuri), Kathgolop (Bengali), நெல ஸம்பங்கி Nela sampangi (Tamil), चाफ़ा (Marathi), Chaempae चँपें (Konkani)

Frangipani
Originally uploaded by thepluginguy

Frangipani
Originally uploaded by thepluginguy

Frangipani
Originally uploaded by thepluginguy

Frangipani
Originally uploaded by thepluginguy

Frangipani
Originally uploaded by thepluginguy

Blog 097 - A flight of fancy - Birding at Ranganathittu

Painted Stork in flight

A flight of fancy on a windswept field

Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?
…
There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, A state of bliss

Ranganathittu Island

Birding at Ranganathittu

One fine day bored of cubicle life, Rama (a photography enthusiast friend of mine) and I decided to go for a Birding trip. Ranganathittu was the obvious choice.

Painted Stork

We took an early morning 5:30 ksrtc bus from Majestic till Srirangapatna and then a bumpy auto ride till Ranganathittu and reached there around 8:30. Though the official timings are from 9:00 the park official allowed us inside for a regular fee and without tickets :)

Little Egret

Being an early morning on a lazy Saturday, the park was almost empty. The well maintained park, the twitter of birds and the pleasant sunshine made the experience more memorable and the photography a lot easier!

Pair of Spoonbills

Ranganathittu is a series of six islets on bank of Kaveri River and there are guided-boat rides available to watch the birds.

Painted Stork

We took a guided boat trip. (A guided-boat ride costs around 250 bucks and lasts for around half an hour) Murgesh, our guide and boat driver was well versed with the birds in the sanctuary and answered most of our questions patiently. And assured us from time to time that we were visiting the park at the right time of the year.

Marsh Crocodile

Sighting a marsh crocodile is common in the river and we got a few glimpses of crocodiles.

Grey Heron

There is an informative signboard in the park that speaks about bird watching as a hobby, the lack of money and the incomparable happiness in bird watching. This was my first birding trip and it has been such a wonderful experience and memories still linger on mind!

Spoonbill

Some Useful Links:
About Ranganathittu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganathittu_Bird_Sanctuary

Birding places near Ranganathittu:
Karanji Lake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karanji_Lake
Kokkare Bellur: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokrebellur

Birding in Bangalore - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bngbirds/

Spoonbill

PS:
Pictures were clicked using Canon S3IS – TV Mode.
The, ‘Learning to Fly’ lyrics in this post does not necessarily relate to this birding trip. It’s just that I have been listening and re-listening to Floyd while writing this post but then that is the magic of Floyd lyrics it helps you relate to many wonderful things!

Blog 089 - There's no there...

There's not there.
That elusive "there" with the job, the beach house, the dream, it's not out there. There is here. It's in you... right now.
- Extract from speech by Brian Kenny