Passion...unbridled

Minimalism

I am NOT a minimalistic person, but the credit behind this post goes to Cee’s minimalistic photo challenge- I could not find any photograph that was suitable for this entry! I thought I could write a blog post sharing where I can and where I can absolutely not be minimalistic. (And the post starts with an image that is quite the opposite of minimalism…)

Just one thought against minimalism: It may be clutter-free and visually appealing, but it is not natural. Nature celebrates abundance, diversity and clutter, and everything follows the second law of thermodynamics: left alone, the state of entropy (i.e. disorder) of any system increases!

I celebrate minimalism in:

1. Writing scientific articles: Brevity is tantamount to elegance here.

2. Power point presentations: I try to put minimal data on my power point slides- easier for the audience to follow.

3. Packing for travel: I travel really light. (The added expense of checked baggage, along with traveling with a young child have taught me to minimize my load further.) One pair of shoes (that I am wearing), light clothes that can layer up, books are downloaded to the kindle app on my i-phone, and no laptop make up my travel gear. My i-phone is usually enough to browse the web, check in for flights and even provide directions while walking. (I do carry a small point-and shoot camera because I hate taking pictures with my phone).

Kindle for i-phone with my books on it…

4. Accessorizing: Usually I wear one or two pieces of jewelry or a scarf (though my collection is anything but minimalistic). I do keep only one non-fussy watch though.

Wow! This list is even shorter than I thought…and two of those entries are work-related, which is more of a learned behavior than instinct…Anyway, coming to all the ways in which I am quite the opposite:

1. Apparel: I come from a colorful land…where textiles are dyed in rich hues, embroidered and embellished with colored threads, where intricate patterns are woven in to fabrics, where white and black are both inauspicious (white- mourning and widowhood, black-evil). No wonder I find it difficult to stick to the all-black formula that is so popular in the US…I prefer pinks and reds, and prints to solids..

(This is also why accessories make it to the list above- my apparel is too bright and colorful!)

Image of brightly printed textile

2. Home Decor: Again, I gravitate towards bright home furnishings and wall decor, drawing inspiration from Indian craft.

3. The printed word: (except scientific writing) I love elaborate expressions and idiomatic language.

4. Cooking: I add every ingredient I like when I cook (all kinds of spices, ginger, greens, yogurt etc.) Results vary.

Well, let’s keep things even, so my list will be truncated here.

Do you believe in minimalism? How do you practice it?

Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge

Some fun entries for this challenge are:

1. The Mosquito- sculpture at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey

2. Hanging Car- at Di Rosa Preserve, Napa Valley

3. Graffiti- displayed outside a store in New Delhi, India

Enjoy!

“Holy” or “sweet”?

I was eating pasta with basil pesto sauce the other day, and was reminded of the holy basil…

Now everyone is familiar with sweet basil, the one that is used in Italian cuisine. Personally, I love the flavor imparted by sweet basil, and have used it in Indian cooking too. However, in India, there is no sweet basil. What we have is the “holy basil”, that has religious connotations and is used for its medicinal properties.

So the holy basil (aka Tulsi) is a house plant closely related to the sweet basil that is supposed to be planted (in a pot or otherwise) in every Hindu household, usually in the center of the courtyard. Every morning, all members of the household would pray around the Tulsi plant after their ablutions and water it at the same time. After that, you were free to pluck the leaves of the plant and use them for its medicinal properties (for stress relief, cough/ bronchitis, headaches etc.), but not as food. However, Tulsi leaves are commonly brewed with tea to which they impart a wonderful aroma. I remember consuming cup after cup of tea with Tulsi leaves when afflicted with a cold.

The one caveat is that we cannot pluck the leaves on Sunday..I guess it has something to do with Sunday being the day of the Sun God, and Tulsi needs sunlight for its growth.

Once I bought a Tulsi plant from a Hindu temple in Philadelphia, since I was nostalgic for tea infused with its leaves (I had been trying to use sweet basil leaves, without the same effect). My mother cautioned me that I needed to water the plant regularly because “killing” it was sinful…I am not religious anyway, and the plant ended up being destroyed during snowy weather.

Anyway, coming back to holy basil versus sweet basil, the former has smaller leaves, and a very different flavor. They are more pungent and spicier then the latter, and are never used in Indian cooking, probably for the same reason.

That’s all, I just wanted to share how cultural differences are intertwined with differences in flora..

Here is an image of the holy basil courtesy http://www.theherbalist.com:

Here is an image of sweet basil courtesy http://www.imgarcade.com:

Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge: 2014

Again, this is a really interesting challenge, and here are my entries..

I have included tree-lined roads, a coastal highway, staircase of a popular tourist destination (Doges Palace) in Venice, Italy, and a canal in Venice.

Enjoy!

Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge-Warmth

Hi everyone! I was away on a short vacation and did not post anything new. I’ve been itching to contribute to the photo challenges…so here we are!

The first photograph is that of Christmas lights at home, which denote the warmth of home to me.

The second photograph is that of one of the hot water springs (Emerald Pool) at Yellowstone National Park, with steam clearly visible.

Hope you like my version of warmth!

Columns

This pictorial post is about symmetrical columns-just enjoy the images of vertical beauty! Trees at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, California Entrance for the bridegroom’s party at an Indian wedding Trees symmetrically planted in New York City The Venetian, Las Vegas

Yellow- part II- in response to The Daily Post’s challenge

Could not get enough of the theme “Yellow” from The Daily Post’s challenge. So here are some more images!Wall art at the Musuem of Art and Design, New York CityYellow raincoatsYellow roses

Elmo and Cookie Monster Chairs

The Inscrutable Indians

Disclaimer: This post is just meant to be humorous. I have no intentions of making fun of either my parent culture or my adopted culture.

I come from a strange land on the other side of the world…the land of elephants and snake charmers, where women are as good as slaves, where we break out in to song and dance in the middle of the road, and where we worship a million gods, some of them with elephant heads….

Well, this is clearly an exaggeration. I don’t think people in general think of Indians that way. Even so, there are a few myths about Indian practices that I feel compelled to break…these two are the most common questions I get:

Arranged marriage

The rest of the world seems incapable of grasping what that means. How to do you agree to spend your life with a stranger?? Well, first of all, your spouse is rarely a complete stranger nowadays. You know something about them….Moreover, the popular misconception that everyone is forced in to marrying someone they do not want is completely baseless. Well, it does happen, but not most of the time!

Want to know the best part of an arranged marriage? Since your parents agreed to the match before you did, both sides will take care to preserve your marriage. That’s a huge safety net!

The other nice part- in the beginning, it’s like opening a new page of a book everyday….life is exciting as in the first blush of love, without the heartache!

Finally, after 1-2 years, it does not matter whether it was an arranged marriage or not…you are just “married”!

Vegetarianism

I am vegetarian, which means I do not eat meat or FISH (or seafood). I am not vegan, so I do consume milk and milk products. Many Indians are vegetarian. And no, it is not because of religion, so changing my religion (people have blatantly said that they would change their religion if they were me) is pointless. It’s not because I am a PETA member. Finally, I most certainly don’t miss eating meat, because I never grew up eating it. It’s like I don’t miss watching French movies because I never grew up speaking French!

Poor me, how do I get my protein? I eat dairy, which is rich in protein. I can also name a number of other plant foods like legumes that have proteins…and I don’t consume all the cholesterol that’s there in animal products..

I have to tell you that Indians eat a stupendous variety of plants and plant products. Do you know we eat lotus stem?

Finally, why are so many Indians vegetarian? Well, my ancestors belonged to one of the earliest civilizations of the world, in one of the most fertile river plains in the world (the Gangetic plain), and they could cultivate enough to fulfil their dietary needs without hunting animals…People ate what they could find in those days, so Indians living along the coast have eaten fish for centuries..

That’s enough of a rant, I guess. Now, of course, I have to add pictures of some sort…

The first photograph shows shows the “Trinity” in Indian mythology- made of the creator, the preserver and the destroyer, all components of a supreme power..

The second one shows a typical wedding venue with the throne for the bride and groom.

The third one shows brass statues of a few Hindu Gods.

Enjoy!

throne

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge- Cities and City Buildings

So this is an interesting one, and easy for me!

The following photographs are from Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York City, Rome, Venice and Florence. Enjoy!

Five favorites-Books

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it or offer your own version in return.

–Salman Rushdie

Well said, Mr. Rushdie! No wonder your writing makes it to my list of favorite books!

So here’s the list (in random order):

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

An epic saga of the Buendia family over 100 years, the book is like Mahabharata set in Latin America. Reality and hyperbole merge seamlessly in this book..

2. Midnight’s children- Salman Rushdie

Historical events (Indian independence), unbelievable characters (eg. the girl with saucer-shaped eyes), intertwined with folklore and magic, this book is a treat to the senses. Midnight’s children refer to the all the children born at the midnight of Indian independence (August 15th 1947) who can communicate with each other telepathically…did this pique your interest?

3. Long Walk to Freedom-Nelson Mandela

An autobiography of Tata Madiba, the book chronicles his political struggle to end apartheid, his decades of imprisonment, and his regrets at being a poor father to his children even as he was the father of the nation. The book is actually fairly fast-paced for an autobiography, with no trace of self-grandiosity.

4. The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini

A book about deep friendship, betrayal and living with a guilty conscience, it is a remarkable book that spans two countries-Afghanistan and the US. Loved it more than the other books by the same author.

5. A House for Mr. Biswas- V. S. Naipaul

A book that introduced me to the Indian diaspora living in Trinidad, I love it for the simplicity of its story-telling and the undercurrent of satire. Obviously the work of a master story-teller!

Would love to hear about your favorite books!

Realizing differences

I have mentioned previously that I immigrated from India to the US (Philadelphia, PA) 8 years ago. Over the years, I realized certain things I had heard about but not seen:

It feels way colder here than in India, even at the same temperature. It’s because of the icy Arctic winds. I had read as a child that the Himalayas protect India from the polar winds, and therefore India has a milder climate as compared to China at the same latitude. I had no idea how true it was till I came here- no east-west mountain range in North America to protect us from the polar vortex!
Static electricity is so bothersome here! And there is fierce lightning everytime it rains. Never experienced natural electricity to that extent in India! Makes sense for Benjamin Franklin to have discovered electricity in Philadelphia.
I had heard the song “These are a few of my favorite things..” from the Sound of Music as a child. My favorite line was “Silver-white winters that melt in to spring…”, except that I had no idea what it felt like. I also read a lot of poems about the arrival of spring. Living in India with a milder winter, it was hard for me to appreciate the significance of spring. Now I do…it is amazing how the bare trees of winter give way to the blossoms of spring! I love the cherry blossoms in spring, that bring a promise of warmer weather every year..

That’s all for today..ciao!

Statue of Benjamin Franklin at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia

Silver white winter…Spring with cherry blossoms in Washington DC

Mother-in-law’s cushion

I read about this phrase today, and just had to write a blog post about it…read on..

This refers to the humble cactus plant and no prizes for guessing why it is named so….it has thick succulent leaves (cushion) but peppered with thorns!

Personally I am fascinated with cacti, especially the tall Saguaro cacti from Arizona that are more like armed pillars. Also, I am too lazy to water potted plants, so cacti are perfect for me to add some greenery to my living space.

Here’s some more on cacti:

In Native American culture, cactus stands for endurance and bravery. It is also symbolic of maternal love -takes very little (water) from the earth, stores vast reserves of water (love) in its succulent body, is fiercely protective of its parts (family), and will lash out at anyone (thorns) who jeopardizes its existence.
According to legend, Aztec Indians established the capital of their empire founded the capital of their empire on a spot here they saw an eagle perched on top of a large cactus. The scene has now been captured in the flag of Mexico.
Many cacti are now on the endangered list.
Cacti make great gifts for someone going through a hard time, as a symbol of endurance.
You cannot feed a cactus too much water…you’d end up killing it!

P.S. Now of course I have a few images for your viewing pleasure!

The first 4 photographs are from Berkeley Botanical Gardens. Saguaro cactus Yellow and green cactus leaves- Horticultural Center in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Cacti at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, CaliforniaFloral arrangement of Mexican flag at Caesar’s Palace Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada