Overhauling a Vintage item

We have a conversation starter at home now.  A rare one at it. Its right there on the coffee table as a center piece and none misses it. I take every opportunity to tell anyone who is willing to listen, or otherwise, about how it came to be.

During our recent trip to J’s tharavad in a pristine village called Vellarvally, Kerala, J chanced upon some household items that he had seen and used as a child, stashed away  in a storeroom, where they keep all and sundry. 

Overcome by nostalgia or whatever the emotion was, he brought some of them to Chennai. I was surprised and a bit annoyed, initially,  at the junk,  that found way to our home, simply to add to the clutter. Looking at it, I thought it was made of iron, but J disagreed vehemently. But then a sudden brainwave asked me why not get it polished and use it as a show-piece at home. 

I am going to be done with the suspense of what it is and here is a picture of what J brought home which I thought was a piece of trash.

Cut to the chase, the Vintage Iron box, after an extensive lacquer polishing, looks like this now.  Yep.   

Doesn’t it look as if it is just out of Jeweler's shop rather than from an attic? Apparently, it is made of brass as J kept saying.

Joe’s brother-in-law who recently visited us could not believe it was the same coal iron box he must have seen at the tharavad many years ago.

As though I have given it a new lease of life, which otherwise would never have seen the light of a day. Every astonished look makes me feel proud about salvaging junk (at least what I thought it was) into a piece of treasure.

All Agog!

There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise someone you immensely like by giving them a surprise when they least expect it.

And that exactly is the purpose of this post.

So who is that I am trying to stun?  That you will figure out as you read on.

Gils is my blog friend from my virtual world. 

And No.  He is not the one I am trying to  astonish. 

But I have to introduce him in this post to you all to set the context.  He is a perseverant blogger with 1034 posts ( as of now) to his credit.  He is a voracious reader and writes about a whole bunch of stuff, like book and movie reviews, poems, short stories, plays (yes, that included), about IT his bread winning field and puts up a lot of his perspectives about life in general.   What I love about his posts are the pun and clean humor.

There is a new addition to the topics and that happens to be his junior and its amazing to see the world through Gils’ juniors’ eyes. 

Recently I was reading one of his posts about Junior being adamant about a green toy train and he was not convinced about any other coloured train.  After many attempts in many elite places, they finally found one in a pavement shop and he settled only when he got what he had in mind.

I still haven’t reached the person whom I am trying to surprise.   Context setting is still on. No wonder one of my dear ones told me, I am not known for coherence.  He really said that to me, amidst a fight. Now I know, why!

There was a comment on that post that said, If it were me, I would have asked for Ferrari 488 Spider. 

While at Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi, during our recent trip, I dragged J into their retail space which had an impressive collection of branded products and memorabilia and pestered the store guys to show me the scale model of Ferrari 488 Spider and here is the picture of my Magnum Opus surprise for you RAMESH! :-)

Post script :

1.  Ramesh, I didn't buy that for you because, they didn't have a red colored one.

2.  Gils, I couldn't find that post on your blog anymore, though I searched for it in your blog.

Dubai Diaries

Joe and I have been married for 24 years 14 days and 8 hours ( give or take ), as of today.

The year was 1995, January 30^th, and it happens to be Martyrs day. 

Celebrating Anniversaries ( whatever they maybe) helps us to get back from the daily grind, look back and relive some of the past. Wish I had started a tradition of some kind, which we had followed religiously over these 24 years, but since I haven’t, every year it has been different.

But I do take some effort in surprising J with some strange, but unique gifts and most times I have caught him off-guard.

The ones that I could recollect now are a set of tablas,  he knows classical music and played the tabla in his younger days. First time visitors to our house, usually notice it and J feels, I take the trouble of finding unique gifts as a means of fishing for compliments.  One of the years it was a Bosch toolkit, which he hugged around and kept looking at, romantically, for atleast a couple of days.  Even today, he refuses to let anyone else handle it.  😊

The ground work for a gift is usually done much ahead, the cues picked up from unexpected conversations and its feels good to astonish him once in a while. One of the years I got him a rosary made of Rudhraksha seeds which is a topic of conversation in many of our family parties, as he wears them on grand occasions.

As we advance into the marriage, it’s really difficult to keep up the standard of surprises, as you run out of choices.  There’s no way out other than growing up into the armor that you have created.

He does try his part too, given the fact that surprising a woman is not as easy as it is for me.

This year, it was him who came up with a proposal of holidaying in Dubai, and asked me to work out the schedule, which I did.  I had plans for the anniversary and kept it a secret till the last week.

And guess what?  I booked a Helicopter ride around Dubai.  He was thrilled to bits.     

Dubai Police Academy, with whom we were booked, had elaborate and stringent procedures – being at the venue an hour in advance, security checks at multiple points, a session on how to embark and disembark, stuff that you can carry and what you cannot, what you can and cant touch , ID cards, earphones, security check again, someone to put on the complex seat belts, life jackets, etc., etc.,. 

And until we get on the heli, we would never know the seating arrangements as the seating is based on the weight of individual passengers and they would distribute us accordingly  to balance out the weight. 

While we were clicking away pictures, amidst the rhythmic wop – wop sound of helicopters that was landing and taking off, I was praying with a smile, that J gets to sit in front along with the Pilot.   Paired  with us were an Arab couple, the man heavily set and almost burly and a petite wife. 

My prayers were answered, J got to sit with the Pilot and had a beaming smile.  

I sat smugly next to the Arab guy, knowing I managed to surprise Joe, yet again.

P.S : I have been telling Joe, I wanted a picture with an Arab guy and you see, my wish was fulfilled too.

Joe getting strapped - and that's how beaming that he can get.

That's a snapshot of us - 24th year together.

Arrival delayed exactly by an year

I landed up on this post while I was rummaging through my drafts and realized it is good to be posted, except that is exactly an year late.

Better late than never, don't they say?

Publishing this post, without any edits!

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I will start this new year with an interesting post.   Ahem. 

I know this is not new year, we are almost done with the month of January and I have stopped writing interesting posts.   Self check – so did you ever write an interesting post ? okay lets swipe these questions under the carpet.  Of late, the best I am getting at is swiping stuff under the carpet.

Yep.

Okay now back to my blog post topic.

I just completed 23 years in marriage last Marty’s day.  Don’t ask me the connection, but my parents were those humorous people who hid an uncanny riddle to all those who attended our wedding on 30^th January 1995.   None got it though, then.  Who will be the martyr among-st us was the riddle.  Dawned on the bride and groom later and they are still deciding who it is.

So this anniversary I was in Kochi, where the hubby now works and spent a beautiful weekend with my paternal cousins celebrating a church feast which is an absolutely fantabulous event in the parts where my cousins live. Kalparamba in Thrissur to be specific. The entire family jing bang around, hubby dear was the chief guest of the day. The son-in laws always get special treatment. With atleast 50 of them from my dads family, food, drinks and fireworks ( the real ones at church) there was a frenzy  at my dad’s paternal home to which our own anniversary added a dash of spirits.

Dennu had come halfheartedly and was loitering around  without actually being recognized by some of the family members.   His hair and beard covered his face and he had grown beyond recognition to most of my ageing uncles, aunts and cousins.  Most people kept their doubts to themselves and kept smiling at him wondering who he was.

One of the aunts though, couldn’t hold her curiosity at the way he was talking to me, and blurted out – silencing even the sounds of fireworks going on in the church. 

Are you her brother or her husband? ( surely her eyesight was on the decline and it was late into the night.  So, blame it on the lack of illumination)

You should have seen Dennu’s face.  The cheeks that were visible, just a bit of them through those untamed beard,  went crimson red. For no reason he looked at me, opened his mouth in awe, and then collected himself and said, No I am her son.   2 minutes silence – that was for the martyrs day.  I could see Dennu was not amused.

Couple of more instances where we had to go silent, this time, they checked if he was my brother.    After that, anyone coming close to Dennu got an explanation of how he is related to J and me even before they asked.  Every one bemused how the naughty child has grown up to a nice young man and showered him with all their love.

After the feast Dennu left for Chennai, as he is preparing for his GRE exams and wanted J and me to have a day for ourselves on our anniversary.

I come back home this morning on 31^st January, after a fun day of loafing and movie and lots of talking to J and Dennu opens the door.

My turn to get startled!

A clean shaven face.   Elated, shocked at his transformation, I ask Dennu Why Baby, why?  I had told you an umpteen number of times to look civilized and how come you have done this now?

Dennu gives me an intense look and a meaningful smile and says,  Maa, the brother bit was okay, but I couldn’t take the husband part.

ROFLing

I know it’s a bit too late to wish you guys a happy new year.

Magic

The mesmerizing voice slowly

Builds up the adrenaline rush and

Gets her heady

Burst of magic comes alive in her

The walls built over a period of time

Sluggishly cease to exist

And she pours out all that is in her heart and soul

Working up the charm of a little girl that once she was

The voice has dwindled

She only has the letters now, and scarce

Pieces of her heart tucked into words

That she could never say out aloud

The summery perfumes of March pained her

Made her feel like an infinitesimal being

Drunk with a starry void

Dark and tormented, furor of passion.

Ray was what she was called

She was a ray of sunshine with a radiating smile

Her love was pure, golden, but limited

Always doomed, to expire

Vincy Joseph

Bragging about my Theatre ventures

The theatre group that I am part of, called Theatre Brats, when we  came up with our first ever show “ 7 tales at 7 “ as part of our graduation mandate from a Theatre workshop that I attended through EVAM at Chennai, had an amazing response and our show ran a full house at Alliance Francaise.

I can’t believe I told you the story about how I got into theatre so crisply.  😊

That reminds me, I had done something similar to a Monologue of a middle class woman, who suffers at the hand of her husband and how she solves her problems – by killing her husband in the end. J came down to watch our show and my play was titled “The final blow”.  After the show, he came up and asked me, if he should come back home with me or he has to leave to Kochi the same night. 

Our first show was on December 9^th 2017 and exactly after 6 months, on June 9^th 2018, the group got together yet again, with the same director, Hari Ramakrishnan, aka the brat tamer with a bigger and a better show titled “Six fable cart”   with 6 short plays.   This time we were doing 2 shows one at 4 and  the other at 7 pm on the same day.   I was playing the role of a TV show anchor, which actually is a spoof of a Vijay TV serial and the first time I was trying out humour.  And the best was Dennu, got into Theatre along with me, after all those rehearsals that happened at home and we both did the play together.

Infact, Dennu was definitely a much better actor than me.  You see it is difficult to teach a old dog new tricks.

On June 9^th, Indian Express carried this article about our group and Ta-Da, my picture came in the papers! Yes. I am going to flaunt it here to you all 😊

That's me as Lalitha, in Final blow, after killing my husband Vikram.

This time for the Veshadaris show, I was only one invited from Theatre brats group, and on 5^th January, as usual after my morning walk, on my way back, my friend Kuttan’s wife, Nancy calls up and asks, Is that your picture in the paper?  I hadn’t even looked at the papers then.

This time, The Hindu carried, my picture and was talking about the show. Wonder why, they chose my picture over the other 6 actors, I thought this was a very hastily put together picture of the psycho!

January 5^th, Theatre brats were putting up a show at IITM park for the corporates and I could not join them due to this commitment. I was so excited and showed Dennu the paper and saw him taking a picture of it.  I almost thought he was so proud, and here is his Instagram status for that day.   

Grief

After the initial brutal shock of loss

It creeps in slowly

In waves, maybe

And in the most unsuspecting ways

Ambushes while driving alone in the car

While in the shower engulfing the soul 

While getting ready to work

Amidst all the people around you

A picture, a place, a scent and some memories

Or a voice

All of a sudden hits you

How so very much you miss someone

Your breath catches

Tears roll down the cheeks

The sadness is so humungous

That its almost physically painful

Grief is living two lives

On the outside you pretend all is well

In the other, in solitude

the heart screams in pain

Vincy Joseph

5^th Jan 2019

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

My Gangsta girls

The year started with a Theatre show on 5^th of January 2019 for which I have been on rehearsals during the holiday season.

I was trying out a completely new genre of Theatre, which resembles a monologue, but really is a Soliloquy, laced with physical theatre, a form of theatre which uses physical movements to convey the expressions and story.  The play was titled “Heroes and Psychos” where six theatre artists, were showcasing the real life stories  of 3 unsung heroes and 3 weird pyscho’s.

There you go.  No prizes for guessing that I got to do the role of a Psycho. 

Yes. Leanarda Cianciulli,  An Italian serial killer, famously known as the soap killer. You can read up about her here..

I had to pinch myself when the director Chandrasekhar, called me and said, Madam, when I wrote the script for this play, I had you in mind and knew you will fit this role really well.  I refused initially, saying I cannot take demanding rehearsal schedules, but he managed to persuade me to take it up.  Apparently Chandru and Sudharsan (both from the theatre fraternity and from a group called Veshadharis in Chennai) had seen one of my shows and wanted to work with me.   

After reading the script, I wasn’t sure if they meant to compliment me by that.  That’s another point of discussion.

After the first rehearsal, Chandru told me you sound like a anchor / Trainer and need to overact.  Overact 200 percent!!!  Really?  For heaven sake, yes I am in the Learning industry more than I have been in Theatre, and I am going to sound like a trainer!!

J told me “just be yourself Vincy”  merciless pun indeed.

Once I was committed, there was no turning back.  Rehearsals, practice at home, writing the lines down to get them really into my aging brain. Yeah I do all of that stuff.  The most interesting part is I keep practicing my lines while I am driving, and at a signal, scared the hell out of a guy who was staring at me, by the elaborate use of my hands.  Was I embarrassed?  No!!

I, Once went  to the rehearsals late and it was closing time at AF ( Alliance Franciase at Chennai) and the director wanted to wrap it up.  I wouldn’t budge, I wanted a rehearsal and did it in the open Amphitheatre at AF.  The whole place was crowded with people, and as part of physical theatre, I had to act like picking up an imaginary axe and kill a woman..  There was a mother and a 6 – 7 year old son sitting at the far end of one of rows I was acting, and I walked upto them and bent down to pick up the imaginary axe and swung it.  They looked perplexed and walked away from there much to the amusement of the audience who were watching me perform.  

It was hard work, but I was enjoying it, most importantly it gave me the most important distraction I needed.

The other 5 artists were all much senior to me in theatre experience and one of the guys had a 20 year experience in theatre.   I even stopped watching other’s rehearsals, so I wouldn’t get petrified looking at their performances.

I wasn’t marketing the play much, as I wasn’t sure of myself.  Anyway on the show day, my loyal gang of girls, Jay and Sudha came in, on their own, without any bit of persuasion.  Same was the case with Anita, my seafarer friend, who is on her short vacation from her work in a Cruise ship at Royal Caribbean,  yeah can you believe I have friend who works in a cruise ship as a learning consultant, a three stripe officer?

Onstage, it is a different story -  I forget myself and turn into Leonarda.

The curtain call over, I walked upto the girls, Jay and Sudha and the look on their eyes said it all.  Worth all the hard work.  Full of praises, they said I was convincing as a serial killer and really looked like one too on stage.  Then they added, next girls trip Vincy, we don’t want to share room with you.  We don’t want to be turned into teacakes and soaps.

Ashwani, a co-artiste and probably the best of all I have seen so far, came up to me and said, by the second killing I started hating you Vincy. That’s an amazing recognition of the role I played. I actually had a few girls who wanted a picture with me, after appreciating my performance.

I had to drop off Anita on my return and she explained how she always looked upto me about how I managed multiple stuff at home and office,  and asked me, how did you do that acting bit Vincy?  Visibly shaken by the act of Psychos, she told me she is so proud of me. The adrenaline rush after the show during the curtain call, and while these appreciations pour in, is worth every bit of hard work. 

The next day morning there was messages / calls from the Gangsta again.   Jay says she woke up in the middle of the night and remembered my murderous face.  Sudha elaborated on how I transitioned from expressions of happiness, anger, love, sadness and being a pyscho. I was on Anita’s WhatsApp status mentioning, she is in awe of me.

That’s when I realized how important it is to have your own Gang of Girls and this MEME made more sense than ever !!!!

Ushering in 2019

First things first. Happy New Year folks !!

Considering the fact that last year I actually came up with a new year wish in April,  I have gotten better. Hopefully.

Here is a wish that I have for all of you, from the bottom of my heart. 

May this year be filled with magic, dreams, health, joy, peace and love.  I hope you get to read some fine books, make some art or capture brilliant moments in photos and memories. And I truly hope each of you get to Carpe Diem – Seize the day, enjoy every moment in a distracted world and make your lives extraordinary.

What  an year 2018 was !!! Phew!!

It was thrilling to begin with, and then the shockers came by.  The unbelievable and the most unexpected stuff happened in my life.  Glad, I am done with it. The year I mean and not the pain, yet.

From a virtual space where I came by to share all that was happening in my life, to look back and cherish, this blog space to me, is transforming into something that is going to be part of my therapy.  

This year, more than all these years I look forward to coming here and spending time with you all.  I am going to do that for selfish reasons. 

You would be there for me, Wont you?

Pradeep

How do I  introduce  Pradeep to all  of you? I  really  got to think, so  that I can do  that without getting emotional.

Pradeep is a tall, sinewy gentleman brimming with positive spirit, so full of chivalry and etiquette.  If you have served the Indian Army, you would learn it automatically, I guess.  Ah, and he always wears a cap.

I got to meet him sometime around 2015 in our walking track that I frequent and the friendly person he is, waved a big hi loudly, with a broad smile.  I liked him instantly.

I don’t remember how we got speaking, but many of the days this man’s “Hi Ms. Vincy“ got me going an entire day, presumably.  I always wish him back saying "Hi Pradeep" ( the only name I remember from the people on the track other than Susan, my friend)  with a smile from my soul, which I reserve for only special people.

Our walk timings were different and Pradeep always jogs and so, on most days we crossed each other, but on few days, I would hear the cheerful greeting coming in from behind and passing me – perhaps Pradeep was late those days. I have seen Pradeep cycling upto the track and he carries a little backpack.

I remember this very clearly – A Monday in November 2016, I had a particularly bad weekend, 7^th of November, I reached the walking track, gloomy and dejected wondering how I was going manage my own company.  I heard a voice asking me, can I walk with you today, Ms. Vincy?  I found that invite god sent. Pradeep, it was, and the only time we walked together.

He told me lot of stuff that day, we shared details about our families, he spoke about spirituality, our faith and how the spirit had led him all through his life and yes about stuff like Machine Learning that he is interested in.  And in the passing he also told me he was a grade IV cancer survivor having gone through multiple surgeries and is on extreme medication.  But he said that so positively, that I didn’t dare ask him anything more about his ailment – he didn’t look like he was ailing.   I thanked Pradeep profusely  for lifting my spirits up on that particularly bad morning.

Pradeep became an instant motivator for me.  When my spirits were down, all I had to do was to think of Pradeep and my positivity jumped several notches up. 

One of the days, out of the blue, he checked if he can mentor my son.  I couldn’t believe he was offering a help without being asked.  Pradeep was head of Training at Blue Dart Aviation, after his stint in army, and told me he was already mentoring some youngsters.  Unbelievably Pradeep called Dennu the very day I sent the contact, not only did he mentor him, he got him an amazing internship Project, at Blue dart Aviation attached to the Chennai airport and Dennu found it so interesting that he was totally excited.  He was part of the complete check of Blue Dart Boeing 757 as part of his internship.  An enormous favour I was not probably entitled to, really. 

J wanted to meet Pradeep  and one day during January this year, we finally met up - J and I, Pradeep and Anita ( Pradeep’s wife), and made plans to meet up for dinner sometime when J comes down from Cochin.

Pradeep’s trips to the walking track was getting less frequent and I stayed in touch with him once in a while through messages, but realised the ailment was playing havoc with his life.  He preferred landlines and specific timings and I was more worried about being a bother whenever I wanted to call him.

In the month of May, on one of my regular walk back, a fellow walker, who has hardly spoken to me, stopped me and said, Your friend from the airport, he passed away.  I couldn’t comprehend who he was speaking about, and kept looking at him.  He said Madam, he is the only one who you speak to in the walking track, and then it suddenly struck me.  PRADEEP.  God.

Anita, Pradeep’s wife, called Dennu a couple of days later and told him about his demise and how both of them used to pray for the youngsters that Pradeep used to mentor. That was so touching.  I spoke to Anita too, and she was so full of composure and told me they were expecting this and were prepared. Apparently during his last few days, he was on palliative care at Military hospital, Chennai. He was taken to Bangalore the same day he passed away and his Funeral was there.

Does God take away the real good ones early?

Every now and then in the walking track, when I see a tall guy around the corner, I wonder if it is Pradeep. Then I realise he is no more.

As I am writing this, I am wondering if this has something to do with me changing my walking track to St. Thomas Mount.

Post Script :

Miss you deeply Pradeep.  You Rest in Peace.

Pura Tanah Lot

It is raining Guest posts in my blogspace.  Though i am yet to successfully persuade Jay and Rosy to come up with a post of their choice, I got lucky with Sudha, yet again.  Proximity helps - she sits in the same floor as mine at office, and we tag along.  I had to just hint it  to her and ta-da, she was done with the post.

And hey hold on there.  Just realized this is the 200th post on my blog. Taking a bow to imaginary sounds of trumpets and trombones :-) :-) :-)   Whattay a nice way to celebrate it through Sudha's post.

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Pura Tanah Lot

Pura Tanah Lot - cliff scenary. This temple is in the sea.

Tanah Lot (Land in the sea), is one of the most photographed temples of Bali. I knew about this place even before we did any internet research. I have seen it on travel shows and magazines, and the name is etched in my mind. It was kind of a personal bucket list tick off. Was so excited that we would finally be able to go there. Was kind of missing my better half, (just 3^rd day of the trip!) as we both wanted to go there. Anyway, no more thoughts about him, it’s after all a girls trip. True to its expectation this place was splendid and even now, when I think of it, brings in images of the rock temple in the ocean. The sun kissed waves sparkle like diamonds and the sapphire blue, deep blue and varying colors of the ocean stretches till your eye can see. The sound of the crashing waves were soothing and the whole experience was mystic.  We went to this temple on our way from Ubud, the town of arts and culture, to Nusa Dua the beach area of high end luxury resorts.

Do you see the Ganesha Mural bang in the middle of a paddie?

The road to the temple was so scenic. Brought back memories of Kerala. Interestingly all babes are natives of ‘Gods own country’. Paddy fields, coconut trees and vistas of clean green rice terraces as they call it. Some of the houses even had wall murals.  Kevin explained that most traditional joint family dwellings, have their family deity as a part of small temple, inside their house compound.

There was a meandering walkway from the parking lot to the seashore, to enter the temple. On the way there were small shops and shacks selling knick-knacks and memorabilia. We were busy either posing or taking pictures, I took advantage of my DSLR lens to zoom in and see the temple that lie far ahead. While we walked we came across a group of visitors posing with a live snake. We have seen this in many touristy areas, and it brought back memories of our earlier trip where Rosy posed with a tiger cub, at Bangkok. Never in my wildest dreams I would have thought of touching and petting a snake. It was yellow in colour, ribbed and spattered with black and white patterns. As I clicked pictures of the snake the babes went out and reached for it. The snake vendor (for want of a better name), happily handed it over to us. I gave my phone to another visitor and Kevin took the camera and we had our videos and photos of carrying the snake. 

The babes with a live python.  Arent they all pretty pretty? ( we were actually terrified :-) )

Selfie with Snake

I was quite apprehensive. Vincy took the lead and was nearest the snake's head. I managed to dodge and carry it only for a brief moment.  We were cooing and hooting and I guess the poor snake must have become used to this from the various visitors who carry her. This was an unplanned, unexpected adventure if I can say. The video lays testimony to the fun we had for a brief moment with her. I even went ahead and clicked a selfie with her. Vincy by the end of it got over the fear and went ahead and laid down near her basket, and I caught it on camera :-).

Vincy posing with our new snakie babe friend

Moving on, we went inside a courtyard, part of the smaller temple, the main temple was even further away and its entry was forbidden to the non-Balinese visitors. It is believed that lots of sacred snakes in the ocean, guard this temple, which was built in the 15^th century.  Pura Segara, translates to "Sea temples", a pura that is located by the sea to appease the sea Gods and deities. The Balinese believe that the shore temples protect the country from the vagaries of the ocean. This temple was overlooking the Indian Ocean. The temples in Bali are built mainly by the volcanic frothy lava rocks that solidified over the years. Mostly black and shades of grey, the temples are not painted and retained the original rustic look.

 

Lava Rocks that we brought back as Souvenirs

Overall, we had no doubts on why this was the most visited and photographed place in Bali. Its best to go during sunset or sunrise, to capture the varying hues of the sky, sun rays and the shadow play, amidst the temple and ocean.  This place is so beautiful and magical, and that’s why comes up as the top attraction when you Google Bali. We posed for the cameras, we had the temple, sky and the ocean in the background and made wonderful memories  to cherish. We collected some lava rocks to bring back as souvenirs. Quenched our thirst with tender coconut and continued our journey towards the beach resort.

 

Babes posing in front of Tanah Lot

When Vincy coaxed me to write about this place, I got reminded of mentioning that there should be a blog about Tanah Lot, in the guest Nyepi blog. Little did I know that, I would get to write it and virtually relive the day. This again is a picture heavy post.

Pura Besakih

All temples in Bali are Unique and Pura Besakih is different because of its sheer size, area and number of temple structures within its complex.

Kevin, our guide, did mention there are around 23 temples within its complex and each of these temples are for different castes and they have their own festivals, culminating to more than 70 festivals a year.  This is an ancient temple, built a millennium ago, and is open to all castes in Bali, which is rare.

Pura Besakih is also the largest, most Holy Hindu Balinese temple and is referred as "Mother temple of Bali". It gets its name from the village it is located in and is in the slope of Mount Agung, which is an active volcano with its last eruption in November 2017.  It has also wrecked havoc in this area earlier, when it started spewing lava and only Pura Besakih was spared, with the lava coming close to a few meters of the temple.  The Balinese consider this a miracle and attribute it to the power of their deities.

The village road leading to Pura Besakih

We stopped at a tiny town shopping place and Kevin got us to walk into a street that led to Pura Besakih. At one the official looking buildings, ostenbily belonging to the temple, we were given bright silk Sarongs ( we picked blue) and long vibrant umbrellas.  By  then it was beginning to drizzle a bit and we had a cloudy sky threatening to open up anytime. The street itself was scenic with paddies, Mount Agung in the background and lots of greenery.  We loved those typical Balinese village houses on the street.

Babes ( with the bikes we traveled in the background)

That's when Kevin told us something interesting.  Since it is an uphill climb to the temple which is on the slope of a Agung, and large vehicles are not allowed on the street leading to the temple complex, each of will be ferried on a motorcycle to the temple, including Kevin.  As he finished saying this, a group of 5 musketeers on bikes came vrooming in front of us, excitement writ large on their broad smiles, and we rode pillion with those guys up to the temple.

It was fun to wave at one another on those bikes, while those men tried to overtaking  each other (probably to impress us) and we felt literally like school girls as we traveled a short distance to the temple.  And you know what, this whole thing was part of the package. In all that excitement of getting on a bike, we missed taking pictures.  * Sigh*

Babes wrapped in Sarongs with the Pura Besakih in the background

Child hawkers

This is also one place we met few hawkers and sadly all of them were children. As mothers we really felt sad for them. We also had to go with a new guide from the village as external guides like Kevin were not allowed. The new guide was quite reluctant and we couldn't decipher what he was speaking either.

The Candi Bentar of this temple had the largest flight of stairs among all the temples that we visited and we did a lot of stair climbing within the temple complex, although we weren't allowed into the sanctum to offer prayers.  Though Jay wasn't worried, Sudha still reminds me how she asked some people in the temple about she being a Hindu devotee and why she was not allowed in.  We were told that "foreigners are not allowed for worship".

The babes on the largest flight of stairs with the Candi Bentar in the background

Babes and Dwarapalakas draped in Sarongs.  The next day was Nyepi day and the temple gets a festive look

One of the many Meru's at Pura Besakih

The main highlight here for us were the stepped terraces and flights of stairs which ascend to a number of courtyards and brick gateways that in turn lead up to the main spire or Meru structure. There are so many of them made of special grass like material and some of these spires had moss grown extensively on it which made them look even more beautiful.  The multi tiered thatched roofs are the most recognizable feature of the Meru Towers.  The number of roofs is always odd and reflects the status of the deity to whom the shrine is dedicated.  The lowest Meru contains three tiers, while the most prestigious one contains upto 11 tiers.  Pura Besakih is the only temple where we noticed this many Meru towers signifying the importance of the temple.

Look at the number of Meru's at Pura Besakih