heavenly blooms...

Singapore Botanical Garden on Christmas day, 2010!!

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You'll Never Dance Alone(YNDA) concert 2010

Watching kids in their own world is great fun in itself. We travel backwards in time and relate to our own experiences. Waiting in the dressing room 'patiently', waiting for our turn to put on makeup (mostly teachers to apply it on us), last minute touch ups, rehearsals etc are great fun at a first glance, but back then, new costumes induced itchiness and if its not really fitting, it gave an uncomfortable feeling.Lipstick made us smile artificially and I was never happy seeing myself in the mirror after a heavy make-up. On top of that, eating food and drinking water were Herculean tasks.Heart beating fast or skipping a beat as the items were called one by one are unforgettable.

But, today's kids are more relaxed.Each one's personality shines through even at this young age. On the rehearsal day and the actual day of 'You'll Never Dance Alone' (YNDA) concert Aishwarya and her fellow dance-mates were having fun all along. Mommys had to reapply makeup few times to show the cute blushes standing out and reaching the audience's eyes as every few hours the blushes disappeared mysteriously ;-) Their hairs were sprayed with glitters and all were looking super cute in tee and jeans.

Something that hasn't changed over the years is the picture of caring parents patiently waiting in the dressing room, helping with make-up and feeding kids. I still remember the parents of my primary school best-friend Jomol's parents (I remember the father's face) feeding us and being with us all along the show. They used to sit in the rehearsal room and now I wonder how many times they would have really missed the show...I could meet similar parents here as well...my heartfelt thanks to them, because of the thought that our kids are in safe hands, we could sit and watch the show peacefully.

Sitting in the dressing room, I was secretly learning new games and a new version of ABCD song :D,

"ABCDEFG, HIJKLMNOP, QRS, TUV, WX, Y and Zee,

Now I know my ABC, next time wont you learn from me..."

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Christmas thoughts!!

Back at home, Christmas arrived with foggy winter mornings, aroma of fruit cakes, fragrance of dewy pink roses, merriment of holidays after exams, Christmas carols at night, glittery paper-stars decorating the entrance of every home, seasonal bazaars selling new year and Christmas greeting cards and sparklers.Of all these,journey through the rugged mountain terrains of Kerala with hair pin roads and the vacation spent in the eastern highlands used to be the most exciting part. The roads were carved along the mountains and all along one side were high mountains while the other were deep valleys. Peeping through the window one could see the hair pin curves down the mountain looking like threads folded and vehicles appeared to be slow moving tiny insects balancing on those. Huge water falls appeared like tiny springs and the tea plantations blanketing the mountains added to the rich and lush green beauty of the highlands. I have the feeling of inertia while travelling, I wish every journey is endless and as a child I had distinct signs along the way indicating nearness to the destination and that always gave me a melancholy feeling.

All along the Christmas vacation the Sun rose late and that gave an excuse to wake up late. Roses of all shades of red and pink and white grew rather well in that climate. I felt that the way people talk there was greatly influenced by the climate. Their voice had the fast rhythm to chase away cold and the slight shivering induced by it. Cardamom and pepper grew well and we kids had great time playing in make-shift homes and kitchens in their shades. Going for movies and visiting temples with relatives, in the evening used to be great fun. Street lights were a rarity and I remember closing my eyes and hanging onto mom's hand while walking amidst cardamom plantation when all we could hear was the symphony of crickets. As we kids grew up uncles got married and settled in different locations, cousins grew big and the stories they told me walking around the courtyard changed from fairy tales to film stories and novels...Childhood left me...but still Christmas comes accompanied by foggy mornings and as I sleep I see a starry night and a group of cheerful carol singers led by 'Santa Clau's coming to my door step singing 'jingle bells' and 'Silent Night' ....

Christmas Tree at Vivo City

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Time!!

Clocks in our home are all set to different time.Clocks in the living room, kitchen and master bedroom run fifteen minutes faster while those in papa's and Achu's rooms sync with Starhub set top box. My watch is set five minutes ahead of acutal time and I almost forgot where from I picked up this habit of living 'ahead' of time. This is a puzzle for our little Achu.

On Saturday afternoon, Achu and myself were rushing to her hip-hop class and I was reminding her to walk faster. She was asking me the time each and every minute and when we were almost reaching I said, "Achu just five more minutes for the class to start, but I am sure we will reach on time." for which Achu replied with a sad expression.

"Amma, but how about the time on teacher Edwin's clock??"

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Memoirs of a distant past!!

On a Sunday afternoon I was busy tidying up my cupboard when a medium sized thick lock book with light pink plastic hard cover and floral design caught my attention. I couldn't go ahead but sit and read the contents cover to cover. Its my 'autograph'- name given to a personal diary where friends jot down short messages at the time of parting. Even after sixteen long years the cover looked polished except a rusting lock and a hairline crack .I am a lover of souvenirs and memoirs of the past and even had the habit of collecting sands from the beaches I have been to. Small tokens which could bring memories of a friend, or past incidents are treasures that I keep.

The fragrance of the pages of the book reminded me of the last few days of my school and college life. It's then that we get busy writing 'autographs'.While reading through the baby pink, apple green, pale yellow pages of the book, I realised that I was smiling. Varied hand writings, distinct personalities, individual styles of writing, unique degrees of attachment, discrete nationalities and races, dissimilar faces- all appeared in front of me as in a motion picture. From one liner to those extending few pages, from simple stickers to photographs, from cliches to poetry, the pages were full of love, liking and genuine opinion. Mostly well wishes and very few criticisms, everyone told their minds out while writing the parting words.

From one of the last pages a beautiful 'mayilpeeli' (peacock feather doesn't sound so nice) winked at me. I remember you Smitha...when you wrote 'ente mayilpeeli kunjine valarthan njan ninne eelpikkunnu'(I am giving this baby peacock feather to you to nurture), I was least aware that after these many years, I would cherish it so very much. yes Smitha, its well and fine and still as beautiful as ever and safe in my autograph. Justin, you wanted to be the last one to write...I leave most of the names unwritten... I hope you do cherish our times together as I do.

Dear friends, some of you, I parted with a hug, some with a smile and yet others with eyes full of tears. As I closed the book, tears ran down my cheeks, a unique feeling which comes across my mind when I truly miss something, flashed my mind... I knew I had a treasure in my hand which is invaluable to me...

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Deepavali in Singapore!!

As the dusk settled, the streets of Little India were buzzling with cars, people on shopping spree and onlookers like us taking snaps and enjoying the colours, fragance and frenzy of deepavali bazar. The streets glowed in electric blue, purple, yellow and orange lights. Home far away from home was in all its beauty.Every festival comes with lot of happiness, energy and hope and when it leaves, there is a silent promise to comeback year after year to satiate the human mind which finds delight in having something to look forward to...

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'Lars'ified Week!!

11 Oct-15 Oct ~~ A week 'Lars'ified by training, Danish candies, Good humour, Good food and Good English.

Lars introduced me to Danish 'Licorise'. According to Wikipedia 'Salty liquorice, salmiak or salmiakki is a variety of liquorice that contains a relatively large amount of ammonium chloride ("salmiac") in addition to the liquorice root extract, sugar and starch or gum arabic that constitute regular liquorice. Ammonium chloride has a spicy taste that vaguely resembles that of sodium chloride (table salt). However, salty liquorice does not necessarily contain any sodium. Although some types of regular liquorice can also contain a small amount of ammonium chloride, salty liquorice can contain up to about 8 percent of ammonium chloride. Moreover, the salty taste is typically less masked by a high sugar content compared to regular liquorice.[1]

Salty liquorice candies are almost always black or very dark brown and can range from very soft to very hard and may be brittle. The other colours used are white and variants of grey. Carbon black is used as a food colouring agent in these candies.'

It was very nice of Lars to keep a dustbin right in front of me after offering me a licorice and reminding  me that its absolutely OK to spit it out :-) But I disappointed him... and he had a story to take back home ;-) ... "He did talk to me after that!! ;-)" was his reply when someone asked him about our boss' reaction after tasting the candy. (rofl!!). That was the only pleasant experience (I guess) Lars had about trying to introduce it to non-Danish...

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Mid-Autumn festival in Singapore

The mid-autumn festival is here and we can see moon cakes everywhere in Singapore. Thanks to all the wonderful colleagues for those delicious moon cakes. Chinatown as usual is buzzing with locals and tourists and we had an unplanned quick visit last weekend, to see the lanterns, the shops, the tourists and the shopkeepers trying to coax tourists into their shops. Walking along the footpath I felt an air of merriment and relaxation.Tourists as well as locals were trying to pose in front of the lantern backdrop. Far away from home we do miss all the local festivals but occasions like this do bring back a little cheer except that a great deal of smile and casual, friendly chit chats are missing here ...

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Achu with the lamp

'Achu with the lamp' painted by Sajeev

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Singapore's first 'snake boat' race

When I witnessed Singapore's first 'snake boat' race

This was conducted at Chinese Garden in association with Onam festival. The boats were nowhere near the authentic snake boats (chundan vallam) from Kerala. In God's own country, this is a sport which exhibits great degree of team spirit and held in connection with Onam. For enthusiastic expat malayalis of Singapore this was an attempt to clone the celebrations and enjoy it with the spirit we do back at home. It was first of its kind in Singapore and I hope that it will improve with time...

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Five Hundred Miles

Achu playing Five Hundred Miles!!


The pallavi of the hindi song  "Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye" sounds so much like this!!

Beautiful music and lyrics...
Jab koi baat bigad jaaye jab koi mushkil pad jaaye
Tum dena saath mera o humnawaaz...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue33F72PuTo

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My favourite shopping spots in Singapore!!

Art.friend at Bras Basah Complex

Spotlight at Plaza Singapura

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The paradise of flamboyant birds at Jurong Bird Park!!

If you ask me to choose between Jurong Bird Park and the Singapore Zoo(the best visit ever to the zoo was two years back when it was drizzling and we roamed around in our raincoats!! how wonderful is to feel the rain without getting wet), I would definitely go for the bird park. Birds are so vibrant and flamboyant. Aren't they as colourful as flowers??? Why are animals not made so??? The higher forms of life might have evolved to look beyond the colours or that which entice the eye. There could be some science behind it. My love for bird park could be because it is the first place Sajeev took me to visit in Singapore. I still remember fighting with him for taking more pictures of birds than mine with his SLR :-) It was long eight years ago and now I have learned to admire and love photography and to tune my eyes to see hidden portraits in nature...

 from a recent visit

*********************Solitude**********************

                                    

****************Just you and me!!***************

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Do what you will, always walk where you like, your steps, do as you please I'll back you up." -Dave Matthews Band

"I will follow you to the ends of the world." — Khaled Hosseini

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Oh my darling Clementine-by Aish!!

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NDP rehearsal on 24 July 2010

Kannan is the first to wake up on weekends. It was not different yesterday morning as well. Both Sajeev and I rushed to catch the 11 0' clock show of 'Inception' at Causeway Point in Woodlands. After two and a half hours of watching rapid thrilling moments of dream invasion my mind was in a maze (mess???). Entering the spiral/circular stairs from the carpark of Marina Square, rushing to watch NDP rehearsal, I felt like being in a 'paradox'. Which layer of dream was I in?? I wished that my time was compounded by being in the deepest possible layer (According to Hindu Mythology one day of Brahma equals 4320 million human years!!! time compounding???). Well, I didn't have a totem to check out which layer I was in.

Inception is a brilliant movie among the ones I watched recently and it manipulates an interesting topic which was given different dimensions by ancient Indian writers calling what we see and experience as 'maya' (that which is not real) as well as the scientists, psychiatrists and philosophers of modern era. The blue eyes of the romantic hero of 'Titanic' has done a good job in expressing the myriads of internal struggle he is going through wandering into the forbidden territories of another mind. Insanity might be such a delirious illusioned state where one might be in a totally different world of thoughts, which for them is the sole reality. I was awakened from my thoughts when Achu pulled my hand pointing to the sky and shouting "Amma, look there!!". Two  F16 Falcon fighter jets of Singapore Armed forces were coming from two opposite directions, intersected at an imaginary point in the sky in the difference of few milliseconds and left, leaving the spectators in awe and excitement. Its a common display of Air shows but watching this live brings the same excitement I had while watching it for the very first time, years ago. By the time it disappeared into the sky, another jet made its way and sore high vertically up. I was thinking about the g-force the pilot must be experiencing. Sajeev was explaining about what his friend who used to be an f16 pilot explained to him about the experience of such displays in the sky. By this time the parade had started and we walked to the side of the road to watch the colourful parade. It was to my surprise that I saw representatives of HDB, ERA, Sebmbcorp Marine, Singtel etc. marching. We were waiting to cross the road to reach Esplanade- Theatres on the Bay. One lady carrying a musical instrument (I assume its a cello because it was as tall as she was) was almost at her heights of impatience to cross the road. She was clashing with the security personal telling that she had to reach her work on time. He temporarily quietened her requesting to wait few minutes more, but she was no one to wait, took her instrument and walked along the side of the road ignoring traffic and security was shaking his head. Finally, the parade on one of the two way roads was almost over when an old couple ignored the security and crossed the road. The crowd which patiently waited for so long laughed seeing this. Finally we crossed the road and ran to get a good spot to watch the fire works and Sajeev wanted to experiment different shutter speed, exposure etc. from a good angle with his camera.

The river front of Esplanade is a spectacular place. We always enjoy being there. The skyscrapers of Singapore city silhouetted against the sky. Fullerton seemed like a gem.We got a fine spot facing the Marina Bay Sands. I was imagining it to be a lost boat in a flood landing exactly on top of three tall buildings when the water settled down. But its an architectural marvel. Sajeev was busy adjusting the camera on tripod and Achu was suddenly hungry and was busy with her snacks. Moon was partially hidden by clouds and Achu was trying to 'pick' moon with her index finger and thumb looking through one eye. She was desperately trying to show it to me, but how much ever I looked, her angle was not mine and finally I had to agree that I could 'really' see the moon between her tiny fingers. Though the bay was crowded, there was a tranquility, looking at the waves on the water formed by light breeze. Malay teens were next to us, cracking jokes and one guy was mockingly proposing to the girl saying "let the water be our witness". Bad habit of overhearing ??? nah!!! it happened very near me so no choice.

Suddenly there was a thunderous explosion and two spectacular floral fireworks were displayed against the sky...the crowd marvelled 'wow.....!!'. There was a long gap after that, but I admire the patience of the people of this country. There wasn't even a loud conversation. After a while there was a  booming sound and an explosion, everyone looked behind, yeah it was from the Suntec followed by a few from Maybank. That was expected!! Again right over the waters, a spectacular, colourful, breathtaking display of fire. I stopped taking pictures and enjoyed it with my full attention. Its a joy, its a pleasure to be felt and can never be completely duplicated in words, pictures or videos. Its to be seen by naked eyes, felt by ears, live. The wonderful display carried on for minutes and when it ended there was pin drop silence and then it was broken by a clap, followed by another and then by the excited crowd... We returned, being satisfied and happy about the visual treat. While walking along the waterfront amidst the dispersing crowd I realised, I was not dreaming , there was no inception, it was my reality... a reality where I truly belonged!!!

Marina Bay Sands

the whispering of the waves of the waterfront, silent witness reflecting all that comes over it, reached my ears through the breeze, "the show is over, crowd is gone!!come back again!!"

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"A thing of beauty is a joy forever"-Singapore Garden Festival 2010

very cute miniature landscape-loved it

passion

nature's wonderful colour sense!!!

The hat tilted over his face remided me of MJ ;)

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