Caught in Action !!

This is a photo blog, aka Plog :-)

In the last post I had elaborated on my theatre venture as Leonarda Cianciulli, an Italian Serial killer at Allinace Francaise, Chennai on 5th of January 2019.  5.30 pm.

Sharing some pictures with you all before my own excitement dies down and will let the pictures do the talking for a change!

Finally the Curtain call

Nyepi

This is a guest post from one of the girls babes who was part of the effervescent gang that is determined to enjoy life to its fullest.  

When I suggested if the girls babes can come up with a guest post, lively as she is, Sudha jumped at it and even before I batted my eyelid, was done with a beautiful post. 

Here we go with the first guest post, ever, on my blog (yaaaayyyy).

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While researching about what we will do in Bali, I got to know that one of the days of the trip is going to be a ‘silent-day’. Silence is such an oxymoron when 4 of us are together, we never had a dull moment :-). Then I read further and found out that there are no activities on that day. People fast and are confined to their homes, even the airport is closed!!  That did not deter our spirits. Also, found out many people plan to go to Bali to immerse themselves in this cultural and religious festival. 

Some of the high end resorts also have Nyepi day activities like Spa, special breakfast, access to pool etc. So that brought me back to one of the agendas of the trip – self pampering :-) it would be a welcome chance to disconnect and witness a centuries-old tradition on an island where religion and ceremony play a pivotal role in daily life. Though Indonesia is predominately a Muslim country, Balinese people follow Hinduism.  Already day dreaming about the temples, architecture, beaches, Nyepi added a new pleasantly surprised dimension to the trip.

The Balinese new year, Nyepi,  otherwise known as silent day, coincides with Ugadi and few other Indian regional New Year dates. The day is dedicated to worship and there are large Ogoh-Ogoh, demon like statues built and paraded throughout Bali. The Ogoh-Ogoh are believed to scare away the evil spirits that visit Bali during this time. Also on Nyepi day due to the practice of no lights, no fire (no cooking), no travel, no noise the  evil spirit thinks that no life form is existing in Bali and they go back. Also its noteworthy that even the airports remain closed on this day.

First sight of much awaited Ogoh-Ogoh.  He looks scary doesnt he?

Good reason for Bali being called ‘the island of the Gods’. There are offerings to God kept at each shop, house entrances, street intersections and even inside the cars, boogies etc.  The offerings consists of flowers, rice, leaves on a handmade coconut palm leaf plate or bowl. Coconut palm leaves are used in decoration in the temples and to hold other forms of offering too.

offering on a road side in a coconut palm container

Decoration made of coconut palm leaves

Coconut palm decoration in front of a temple

Ubud is the cultural centre of Bali and we got to stay there at Santi Mandela. Vincy had dedicated a whole blog about this place, you can read it, here, in the earlier post.

The day before Nyepi :

From Ubud, we left to Nusa Dua the beach haven. On the way we witnessed many processions. We found that the days preceding Nyepi, there are huge processions that take the Ogoh-Ogoh along the road to the family temples. Each clan, if I can say have their own temples and each of them compete on whose procession and Ogoh-Ogoh is better.  Most men wear customized t-shirts, most women wear their traditional costume for the parade. They walk with offerings perched on their head. Again bamboo vase like baskets carry fruits, flowers etc.

The decorated Guardian statues in front of a temple, also called as Dwarapalas, on the eve of Nyepi

We also saw school going children in their uniform having a parade of their own. The Ogoh-Ogoh looked less scary. The whole island comes together to celebrate this.

We reached Hilton en-route to Tanah Lot - what a picturesque temple, there should be a blog on that as well.  Nusa Dua Hilton is a luxurious beach resort. We stepped out for lunch and found an Indian restaurant. We were secretly craving for Indian food :-) I would admit. 

The Evening is the day for the grand Nusa Dua parade. We found the temple venue and took a cab to witness the celebration. There were  Huge Ogoh-Ogoh, accompanied by people carrying fire torches.  The people were dressed thematically. We found people playing different kinds of percussion and wind instruments.   There were dance and music performances from each clan. Its equivalent to our Kovil Thiruvizha (temple festival), complete with chariots, band, music et all.  But not the commotion and noise. It was surreal.  We noticed that the people were with devotion, committed to the success of the parade.  The events were synchronized, and onlookers were also well behaved. Was a night to remember.

We had a quiet night by the beach. Stars looked bigger and brighter, and we all felt we might not have seen so many stars in the regular sky (pollution).

Here comes the Nyepi day : We had a grand buffet breakfast, and spent the day resort bound.

I could sum it up as : Lots of chirp, chatter and cheer. Eat, sleep and repeat. Photos, photos and more photos. Sun, sand, and pool.. Rest, relax and rejuvenate.. Wonderful vacation with a day for ourselves. No regrets whatsoever. We learned that, there is no other day like this ! Anywhere else in the World – Nyepi – Balinese New Year.

A week after the trip during my conversation with Rosy, she said – When will we ever get another chance to gaze at the stars, lying down at the beach?

A wonderful experience, for the eyes and the soul.

Santi Mandela, Bali

After a really long and tiring Journey, the fever and my nausea had gotten the better of me by then, but it didn’t dampen any of our spirits though,  we reached Den Pasar airport at Bali after a brief transit at Kuala Lumpur International airport. Santi Mandela Villa & Spa, a peaceful resort which was an hours’ drive from the airport was our first stop at Bali.   Sudha had done pretty good homework before choosing this resort and had amply educated us girls about the geography of Bali.

A panoramic view of  Santi Mandela 
 From one of the cottage balconies to the other 

Our Cohort met Kevin, who would be our friendly guide for the entire trip, as soon as we disembarked. I remember Kevin introducing himself in his traditional Bali name, it must have been the look on our faces, that he insisted,  we all call him Kevin. Apparently that happens to be his sons name.  Fourth son. Kevin is a young man with a ready smile, extremely helpful,  knows when to intrude and when to stop his banter, and makes real good effort to speak in English.  In fact, he pauses quite a bit during his speech in an attempt to be  clear and effective in his communication.   Every single day, pretty early in the morning, Kevin would show up punctually and we know our day is going to be fine.

The best part was that,  Kevin came dressed in traditional Balinese  costume on all the days of our trip.  Traditional Balinese dresses are colorful and aesthetically pleasing.  Large portion of the population, at least the places we went to, chose to wear the traditional clothing like our guide Kevin.   Kevin’s costume was mostly collared half sleeved shirt with floral motifs and it was paired with Sarong which is just a layer of dark colored cloth tied around the waist.  Kevin wore two sarongs, the regular sarong on the inside, and a shorter sarong called "Saput" on the outside, so the regular sarong shows underneath.  We girls, much to his embarrassment, asked him the details, and Kevin told us all about it with a shy smile.  We even tried touching his clothes and we saw him go pink in the cheeks.  He also wore a head band, which is called Destar. Balinese women we saw were pretty, petite and wore more colorful clothes along  with an innocent coy smile.  The girls at the resort too wore Sarongs and paired it with lace tops.  Unlike men they did not wear any head gears.

The cohort with Kevin, our Guide,
 dressed in traditional Balinese costume

Santi Mandela is set in some 4 hectares of hillside garden, on the outskirts of a scenic village called Ubud. The entire resort is set in a calm, serene and pristine surrounding, we felt the peace of Bali even during the night that we landed there.  Panaraga Giri river, flows right through the resort and the sound of the flowing water had a calming  effect on us, the girls from the bustling metros.  We really couldn’t get enough of the river, and loved to watch it flow.  And there was no escaping it – The Boga Mandala restaurant  and the swimming pool overlooks the river.  There is a little river dam across this river within the resort, that can be seen from many places in the resort and it was such a pleasant sight.

another view of the river

In fact, when we reached the resort, it was quite late in the evening and from the entrance we were transported by a buggie.  It was pretty dark and we had to cross the river dam and that’s when we heard the sound of the raging waters of the river first.

Imagine a serene, tranquil place with a mild drizzle and sound of water flowing interrupted mercilessly by the constant shrill sounds of cicada’s.   That’s when all of us fell in love with Bali, with Santi Mandala and within few hours of setting foot om the shores of Bali.

The little river dam that we need to cross to
reach the resort's lobby from the entrance

The tropical flora and fauna, reminded me so much about Gods own country to which somehow all four of us were connected.   Our cottages were nestled in a lush green rain forest, surrounded by water sources and we had booked honeymoon suites for ourselves.  :-) After all it was an all girls trip.  The rooms were quite spacious made of wood and the roof of the cottage was covered with some kind of hay like stuff, the typical Bali roofs and we all loved the open to sky showering spaces with huge bathtubs.  We all laughed and giggled about the bathtubs and how we need to be careful in them.  We had large balconies where we usually had our late night get-together's, dancing and huddling before we went off to sleep and we also did some early morning photo shoots.

The interiors of our cottages - The peacock shaped setting
 of the Towels, bathtub, open to sky showering spaces

multiple shades of green in a
fancy plant
that grew on a concrete wall

Green is always a soothing and peaceful colour.  A million shades of  green could be spotted  in this resort ranging from the luxurious Emerald green to the dark matte Shamrock and the springtime Mint green to the striking  loud parakeet green and we reveled in its natural beauty,  Santi Mandala was love at first sight for all of us and on the days we stayed there, we were looking forward so much to get back to the resort in the evenings.

The Panaraga Giri River with the temple within the resort in the background

This place also had a little waterfall, a temple, a space for teaching cookery classes, a great Spa, and multiple cottages in different nooks and corners with the traditional Balinese architecture.  The entire resort had well manicured bright verdant lawns all around with air so pure that we could feel its freshness in every breath and it completely rejuvenated us.

Santi Mandala was the perfect quiet hideaway for us girls at Bali and just the right retreat away from the crowds.

P.S:  Just figured out that this looks like a review for Santi Mandela, but it is not.  And I am not being paid for this.

And finally here we are, "the babes"  at Santi Mandela, Bali

posing at the Swimming pool - part of our early morning photo shoot - Jay, Sudha, Rosy and Moi :-)

The babes again

A couple of swans that didn't seem to move
 from that spot throughout our stay

 Phew !!! that was one long post with an overload of photos!

My first 10km Marathon

 Woohooo….  Yes I completed my first 10 K Marathon.   I cannot believe I have done it.  Yet, it is true. From a person panting for breath if I ran 10 feet together, running all the 10 kms for a marathon, I have come a long way!

It all started with the early morning regular walks that I have been consistent at  ( at least one claim to fame ).   Now that I have been at it for the last 3 years, and I do not miss out an opportunity to talk about it, the moment someone starts about exercise or fitness routine.  Talking about my walking routine, may sound like self-praise, but in essence the more I make it public, the difficult it is for me to back out – great technique.  Try it with your inconsistencies and see what miracles it can bring about. 

I should thank my friend Sudha who tells me often, that I am doing the most difficult of stuff like walking every day.  I started believing her when she followed my footsteps and started the walking habit. I felt that I had to continue this habit, to ensure she stays inspired.

It was during this time, I got to know that Kumar who works in my organisation, in the same premise and  in the same floor as mine, is a marathon runner.  He had done 4 full marathons and more than 10 half Marathons.  During our corridor / water cooler conversations I got to know more about his marathons and when this Wipro Chennai Marathon was announced sometime in September, Sudha and I decided to enrol.  Kumar was encouraging and was generous with his tips on how to practice for a marathon and how different it is from walking. 

During one such tips session,  we rechristened Kumar as Coach Kumar.  I have to tell you all this about Kumar – when I first met Kumar, he had a nice little pigtail and I loved it.  None of my friends till then had sported a pigtail and I thought he looked quite modern and savvy.  Not many men can carry it well enough and Kumar kind of managed it well.  And these days, Coach Kumar sports a man bun and he continues to be the only man in my organisation who I can ogle at :-) :-) didn’t I digress there and divulge a big secret?  I hope Kumar does not read this he he he…

We also kind of forced him to come to the walking trail that I go to, to train us for the marathon.  Coach kumar didn’t have much choice – we kind of bulldozed him to be our coach and also garnered more women power  by adding 3 more women to our marathon group.  Coach Kumar was a sweetheart and he came with us every Saturday for the practice run.  4 women and coaching us could have been a nightmare for him.  He started with the 1 minute run and 1 minute walk routine.  This was moved to higher sprints of running and lesser walking.  The first few weeks were only 6k running and walking and the last few weeks we started doing the 10 k walking  and running. 

Coach kept us motivated, shared his own running experiences and his friends’ experiences.  He continued being part of his own group of runners “Pillar Pacers”, practising on Sundays for his full marathon, but yet found time to coach us on Saturdays for the last 3 months. 

The Marathon originally was scheduled on December 11^th 2016, but cyclone Vardah made sure that it was postponed to 8^th of January 2017.  Coach could not join us as his Full Marathon was flagged off at 4.30 am and ours started at 7.30 am.

The running itself, the frenzied running crowds, the people who were cheering the runners, the pacers, the sun, the roads of my city – it was nothing less than a fantastic experience.  Months of training, pain, perseverance, rising against your own will all culminated into one thought for me on 8^th of January.   RUN VINCY RUN.   I told myself, unless you faint, you will not stop running.  I enjoyed the sights, thanked the volunteers, people cheering the runners, musicians playing loud music along the way, the adrelanine rush when the tagline of Wipro Chennai Marathon “Gummthalakadi Gummava, Chennainna Summava!!” was played (sorry to those who do not understand Tamil, this is not a phrase but an emotion & cannot be translated ) – I took it all in savoured every moment of it and ran the entire 10 km.  Most importantly with a broad smile.

I completed my first 10 K in 1 hour 45 mins and 2 secs.   Not a great timing, but to me it is incredible that i even attempted it.

Like I mentioned in FB after posting the Marathon pictures, “Strength does not come from doing what you can, but from overcoming stuff that you thought you cannot do”

The warm-up stretches before the run

The four of us who trained together at the starting point Napier's Bridge as soon as we arrived

picture clicked while running on Adyar bridge - notice the sea of Runners in front of me.

With Karthik TM, my friend, of EVAM theater fame.  He was the pacer for us.  Can you believe he ran in a Panchagajam?

The Medal

every muscle aching - but the smile says it all

Going back in Time

During a chat with a long time friend and a soul mate, a very uncomfortable topic cropped up and my friend accused me of coming to conclusion without sufficient  accurate data.  I was certain about the topic in discussion and I also remembered a post I had scribbled on the topic years back.

In the pursuit of hunting down that post, I starting going back to my old blog posts. And I did find the post which had additional data points that supported my case with the friend I was having the chat with and I also clarified later, but it definitely ruffled some peace of my mind over stuff that I had pushed away to an irretrievable nook of my memory.

Anyways..

The best part of going through the posts was to remember and relive the past experiences. While reading certain blog posts it was amazing to see the emotions they evoked -  some sweet memories, some bitter and sometimes a  mix of  both. Couple of posts on my grandmom choked me a bit and some brought tears ( Like many women, I seem to have a never ending stream of it stashed away somewhere). A little time travel back upto 2006 and boom I came up on this post here.

For those who do want to take the trouble of going to the link, here is a synopsis.  My first trip to Australia back in 2006, was searching for a catholic church to go for my Sunday mass.  Google maps and GPS were alien to me those days and people around weren't familiar with a catholic church.  I counted on divine mercy and the lord showed up gloriously through a bright green rosary along with an Lebanese lady called Lorraine and she ended up gifting the rosary to me saying, the Lord wants me to give it to you.

This story is a simple memory of the past grace that I received from my maker.  The story of my maker answering me when I called out to him in despair.

And I here is the picture of Lorraine ( with her rosary) and me near Paramatta river, in Sydney.

Notice Lorainne's Rosary how visible it is? 

And here is the same rosary gifted to me, by Lorainne, that I use even today after almost 11 years in memory of that grace. 

The Rosary that Lorainne gifted me, 11 years old now.

And I love the fact that this space helps me to travel back in time. 

In tribute of the love you guys show me dear Ramesh and Rekha

I am such a lousy blogger and yet the love I get from my blog friends, especially Ramesh and Rekha has been tremendous.  I read your comments for the earlier post and I thought I should put this down for you :-)

This one is for the encouragement you give me to blog more :-) 

There is a recent, new found Joy in my life, which has been pending to be a post for a while :-) as usual.

Infact, from the day one, of finding this out, I have been planning on writing a post about this, but by now, you must be quite aware of my skills in procrastination and my wayward ways of coming up with a post.

Every morning for the last three or four months, I wake up at 5.30 am – yes I know it is an ungodly hour, but if there is a will there is a way :)

In around 10 – 12 minutes I am all ready to go for my Morning Walk , a time I spend with my own thoughts, converse with myself, thank god for all the mercies I have received in life and generally do some introspection.

It all started when J and I thought whatever we little we ate was just accumulating in the wrong places on our bodies and our lack of exercise was showing up much more than ever. We decided to go for brisk morning walks everyday.

And then we went around for almost a month trying out different routes around our place for a peaceful walk and from where our house was located to anywhere close to 6 – 7 kms was chaotic traffic, narrow roads and walking was a herculean task. And this was at around 5.45 am in the morning. 300 meters from our home is a national highway where vehicles in their maddening rush to reach destinations, and also taking advantage of the lean traffic in the morning, speed past creating a racing scene. Coming back home alive and in one piece was becoming an every day achievement. And moreover we felt more hassled than relaxed. We continued our pursuit for a quieter place for a walk and then we found this blissful route completely out of the blue.

Somehow, with all his reviews / intermittent official trips that he takes, J lost interest and dropped off from this routine, but will join me once in a while. now and then.

This place where I go for a walk now is approximately little over a kilometer from my place and once I enter the route it is pure Joy. Peace takes over, allowing me to linger on some natural sounds of some unknown birds and insects, warm sunshine, and fragrance of a variety of wild flowers along the path, setting in serenity and giving the much needed replenishment to continue through the day.

I guess this walk way comes under the jurisdiction of the Officers Training Academy, Chennai as I hear the soliders shouting in cadence while marching, as I walk along, and I also see some of the uniformed officers in bikes, sometimes in horses and sometimes they ride together in bicycles / motorcycles as part of their daily routine in a road perpendicular to the road that I take.

It is so amazing, for a while I forget that i live in a Metropolitan city. I will stop here and put up some pictures  to do further talking.



River on my right side, thick grwoth of tress and bushes on the left side, thats how this path starts and this is how the skyline is on some days.



My feet - enjoying the walk



The rustic walking track

Isnt this place asking you walk more?



The picture says it all!!



Wild flowers on a particular strech in the walkway

Most part of the walk way is lined with this wild flowers - miles and miles of it.

a close up shot of these wild flowers - arent they pretty?

My husband and his toys !!!

My better half constantly tries to reinvent himself and carries on with his single most tryst of impressing me constantly with new stuff every now and then or so I would like to believe. Just because he does not read my blog, unless forced upon him, I am aware I cannot write whatever I would like him to do, cleverly masqueraded as stuff that he does for my sake.

Jokes apart, he is definitely a creative person and does come up with stuff that continues to impress me, even if that ( impressing me) is not his intention. Sometimes I feel I am so easy to please .. whatever.

One of the days, this was a couple of years back, my man came up with me to the terrace of our house, claiming to help me, but engaged himself in making a toy that really amused me. I still have this toy with me, fragile now, after drying and the wear & tear of the years gone by and the shifting of our home we did in-between. I will post a couple of shots of this toy that he made in a few minutes from the sheaves of coconut palm that is at a reachable distance from our terrace, though the coconut palm itself belongs to our neighbor.

So, here goes the process of creation of this Cuboid.

Every year on Palm Sunday, most congregations of Christians celebrate Palm Sunday just the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem and Palm Sunday is marked by the distribution of palm leaves to the assembled worshipers at Church. In Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, that we belong to, palm leaves are blessed during Palm Sunday ceremony and a Procession takes place holding the palms.

The palms are brought home and kept till the next year and returned to the church prior to Ash Wednesday. This year after we came back home, my hubby dear overcome by creativity showed his prowess on the poor palms and the result was yet another interesting piece of art and here goes the process of transformation of these palm Sunday blessed palms. ( not to mention, I have preserved them too..)