Tagged again!

*Satisfied sigh*…Yet another tag to feed my narcissistic obsessions (oh, how I love talking about myself!!). This time it’s 30 questions long!

1. Last Movie You Saw In A Theater:
   Bhoothnath. It was my mother’s day treat to my mum - she’s seeing a movie in a theater after 2 years!! Gosh. Does not speak volumes about my generosity but in my defense, I have suggested movie-escapades numerous times, only to be turned down by her with the response that we should snuggle at home with a dvd. We both loved the movie. And it was a bigger treat to see my mum giggling at the gawky irascible ghost who’d started doubting his own ghostly abilities after having met his match in a razor-sharp kid. There were some cliched emotions and a tad too many songs I’d wished the director had left out of this movie but nevertheless, this is recommended for all of you who still have the child within alive and  kicking!!
2. What Book Are You Reading?
   Re-reading “Conversations with God - Part II” by Neale Donald Walsch. (This is life-changing material)
3. Favorite Board Game:
   (Political) Games played during board meetings :P. Highly entertaining… *Wicked chuckle*
4. Favorite Magazine:
   Been ages since I’ve read any of the regular magazines. The ones I’ve been reading regularly these days are in-flight magazines *smirk*.
5. Favorite Smells:
   The smell of rain on earth. Warm smell of a hug. Smell of hot tea on a cold evening. Jasmine flowers. Freshly baked croissants. Babies (except when they’ve pottied :)). Countless other smells that remind me constantly what a pleasure it is to be alive.
6. Favorite Sound:
   Pitter patter of rain, on a window sill/roof. The delighted gurgle of an infant.
   The sleepy baritone murmurs of my husband on the phone when I have just woken him up with my call
   The sound of a flute, a mridangam, a ghunghroo…
7. Worst Feeling In The World:
   Fear.
8. What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake?
   *Squirm* 5 more minutes, please, please… *sets alarm to snooze*
9. Favorite Fast Food Place:
   Don’t particularly crave “fast-food”. I prefer good food served in a luxurious, candle-light, wine-dine setting ;-).
10. Future Child’s Name:
    My teen-diary has about 150 children names, penned laboriously by me for the naming needs of my entire battalion of cousins. There were a few names out of the lot that I never shared however. Those were my favorites; the ones I’d kept to decide upon when I had a child of my own someday.
    Now if you think I am going to list them here, you’ve got another thing coming mister!
11. Finish This Statement. “If I Had A Lot of Money I’d…”
    Pay my MBA course fee, elaborately furnish our new apartment (with expensive designer stuff) and fund hubby n me for a romantic trip around Europe.
    (Ah. What lovely and pleasant visions… oh wait. This was just a rhetorical question, not reality! *Pouting in self-pity* :()
12. Do You Drive Fast?
    I hope to be out on the roads as a significant threat to public health very soon. And I think I can achieve enough danger without even attempting speed-driving.
13. Do You Sleep With A Stuffed Animal?
    I do NOT like stuffed animals. I did have a stuffed Koala Bear as a child - someone gifted it to me - but I kept him in a showcase, preferring to sleep on my own :). Now of course, I have a non-stuffed, non-animal cuddly alternative
14. Storms-Cool or Scary?
    Cool when I kick up the storm. Scary when my hubby does the honours…hehe.
15. What Was Your First Car?
    I don’t have a car yet. I am about to buy one soon, but I’m on the lookout for something that can survive lots of damage… one that isn’t pretty :).
16. Favourite drink?
    Fruit Smoothies! (Recently was pretty impressed by a banana-strawberry combo)
    Mango milkshakes (I have wonderful memories of many a milkshake guzzled down on rainy afternoons…*smacking lips*)
17. Finish This Statement, “If I Had The Time I Would …..”
    I’m striving to be independent of time from now on. No more driving myself up a wall, counting the minutes left on my  watch. This is a new mantra of mine - “I have all that I want, just need to re-prioritize and live each moment fully”.
18. Do You Eat The Stems On Broccoli?
    I don’t like wasting food, so yes, I do eat the stems; But only if I choose to eat broccoli at all
19. If You Could Dye Your Hair Any Color, What Would Be Your Choice?
    Blonde and burgundy streaks for sure!!
20. Name All The Different Cities/Towns You Have Lived In.
    The main ones in chronological order: Anand-Gujarat (born, and kindergarten years), Dammam-KSA (schooling), Cochin-Kerala (college), Bangalore-Karnataka (work), Erlangen-Germany (work again), Sharjah-UAE (my hubby’s there!).
21. Favorite Sports To Watch:
    With the luxury the TV has become these days for me, I simply have more things to watch than sports. But otherwise, I do like  tennis, pool and cricket. And since my hubby is a football fanatic, I am trying to get better acquainted with that too in a bid to avoid “remote-control” fights. *Screws up eyes indicating concentrated thought*.
22. One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You:
    Is being a fraud mallu, named after a popular accompaniment to south indian breakfast foods, a nice thing?
    Well, a bachelor boy (though not for long probably) he’s extremely talented at penning humorous conversations and satirical notes (specially about mallu eccentricities :)). NC: thank you for the tag!
23. What’s Under Your Bed?
    Would like to say bhoothnath, but its probably dustnath for now
24. Would You Like To Be Born As Yourself Again?
    The answer to this question would depend on what is meant by “yourself”. I believe that the soul lives forever, so definitely, it will be me who’s back :). However, I have lived a good life as this persona, and more than wanting to be the same again, I would want to be surrounded by the people I love in this life… whenever and whoever I am born as again.
25. Morning Person or Night Owl?
    Owl, for sure. My energy peaks after 8 p.m. (*psst*… secretly: people report that I’m much more inclined to bounce about and giggle after this crucial hour ;)). However sunny-spirited a person I am otherwise, the morning sun sees me as the worst grouch on the planet - Waking up in the mornings is the biggest test for my willpower.
26. Over Easy Or Sunny Side Up?
    Sunny side up ( I hope! )
27. Favorite Place To Relax:
    I am generally a person who can relax anywhere as long as I’m tuned into my ipod. But my most favorite place is a beautiful hammock, at the Taj Coral Reef, Maldives beach - tied just outside my honeymoon beach villa. One could lay there under the shade of trees, listening to the waves of the sea 10 feet away, hear the birds chirping and never know what time meant. And to have your love next to you in such a place is … bliss 
28. Favorite Pie:
    Apple crumble.
29. Favorite Ice Cream Flavor:
    The king of all flavours - Vanilla.
30. Of all The People You Tagged This To, Who’s Most Likely To Respond First?
    I pass this onto the following hapless victims *Evil laugh* ;): Ooomz, Karthick, Raman Sir and Sawani.

Kiddie Ads

Getting kids to feature in ads in one sure shot way of getting me to pay attention :). And I know I speak for a large majority of the crowd that gets swayed when teensy weensy children come on your screen and endorse so many of those brands out there. There have been very few adverts I haven’t liked featuring kids - and those would usually be the ones that make kids mouth unnatural or precocious lines.

In the recent past, there have been lots of ads that have grabbed attention, and have kids in central roles - such as the “Sorry Bol“, Hutch You and I ad, and Lead India. But my personal favorites are the following:

• One of the earliest kiddie ads that I can never forget - the Dhara ‘Jilebi?’ ad. This kid is yummier than the jilebis in the ad - SO adorable :).

• Awarded, and forwarded all across the internet - the Greenply “Savitri” ad. Simply superb!

• I never knew the name of this bank, till this kid stepped into an ad, and showed me what the right ad can do for brand recognition - the Bank of India ”Piggybank” ad:

• Finally, a childhood ad that I remember so well just because its theme song invokes such nostalgic memories… This is a Lebanese ad for Nido milk powder. This ad didn’t work because of a particular kid - it was just the pout of the child going to school for the first time, and the tears welling up in the mother’s eyes that was enough to tug at heart strings across the world :).

Mmmm. Wonderful, aren’t they all?

Update: Karthick has just posted the new Vodafone Customer Service ad featuring a little girl and yes, the Hutch puppypug! See it here Indian Vodafone Commercial - Happy to Help (Full).

123/5 for “Ageless Body, Timeless Mind”

Have you ever heard of someone taking a tag after 10 months? Well, that’s exactly what I’m out to do right now. Its been 10 months since Ooomz has tagged me with his 123/5 post, and here I am responding to it now! (In my defense, I’ve got the time only now you see ;)).

A brief repeat of the rules of the tag - its all about writing what’s written in the 5th paragraph of the page 123 of the book I’m reading right now. In my case, the book is ”Ageless Body, Timeless Mind” by Deepak Chopra. Here goes (the 4th paragraph of the page, since there is no 5th para, and my move is as per the rules):

There is no denying that free-radical damage occurs and is suspiciously linked with aging, along with cancer and heart disease, the two leading causes of death. Yet it has not been shown that older people necessarily have higher levels of free-radicals in their cells, or lower levels of antioxidants. What I’d like to suggest is that free-radical damage is but one type of imbalance that can occur at the level of cellular intelligence when the balance tips towards entropy. If the body’s intelligence is at full strength, disorder and chaos do not attack a cell. The basic tenet of life extension - preventing free-radical damage before it occurs - is sound. To do that, however, we need to understand a cell’s intelligence directly.

Profound, eh? :). Well, this is the first book I’m reading, authored by Deepak Chopra - a pioneer in mind-body medicine, and holistic healing. Before reading this book, I was acquainted with metaphysics, healing and a bit of quantum physics (Autobiography of a Yogi by Swami Paramahamsa Yogananda comes to mind). But this book has introduced to me some mind-boggling concepts, especially in Part One “The Land Where No One is Old”. Referring to the body as a storehouse of energy and information, Deepak analyses its biochemistry and drives home the importance of awareness in definining its intelligence, processes and existence in this dimension. Part Two speaks about Aging and Awareness, and with it the plot thickens - merging theory with case studies and exercises. With “Defeating Entropy”, “The Science of Longevity” and “Breaking the Spell of Mortality” - the other three remaining parts, the mind-body can no longer be relegated to being an incomprehensible, indisciplined instrument. Deepak tries to bring to light our unconscious programming that’s the root cause of sickness, deterioration, and also seeks to break moulds of how we’ve perceived growth and aging. Deepak’s writing is not for the faint hearted  - some lines/paras would need two to three reads for the full breadth of its significance to sink inside you. Interpretations could vary and even change the whole dimension of your thought - especially since concepts of time, space and reality, all fade into oblivion.

The above paragraph is an excerpt, and concludes a chapter titled as “The Free-Radical Theory” in Part Three. The chapter tries to expose the paradoxical nature of free-radicals, once thought of as the enemy because of its contribution to cellular damage, till it was proved that they are beneficial also in maintaining the body’s balance and protecting it. The chapter and the paragraph seek to show a bigger picture to the Free-Radical debate, by encouraging us to see beyond the damage, examine and solve the original cause. What I also found relevant in the chapter is the mention of how people are (even today!!) always so ready to consume antioxidants, vitamins and other drugs (beta carotenes, vitamin B, C, E, zinc etc), in the belief that they’re contributing to their personal health and life extension, when in reality these may end up doing more damage than good.

Coming back to the purposes of this post - apart from my need to take up the tag in the first place :), it also lets me tell you that if you have the time and interest in all of the above, pick up this book, or atleast read up on material in this line of thought - be aware of your body, and know that the way you perceive, understand and choose to change will make all the difference. There’s a lot out there that you probably don’t know, yet!

P.S. Ideally I’m supposed to tag 5 people. But then, I choose to just throw open this tag to anyone else who thinks they’re reading an interesting book and would like to talk about it.

An end to the hiatus - Part III - Happy New Year!!!

So, 2007 has been amazing.

I’ve travelled in Europe (albeit at the excuse of work :)), and I’ve gotten married - infact, spent more than half a year in nurturing and giving wings to a relationship that promises to take me on a joy ride, into the sunset of the future  - with my partner for life.

Other important things have happened too, materialistically and professionally speaking. Materialistically (actually *technologically*):

1) I’ve FINALLY got myself a Laptop in July this year. This is after contemplating the extreme step (for a person who thinks as much as I do, of course ;)) first in August last year!  It’s an HP Pavilion dv2000 - and in addition to being sleek and chic, it is top-class in terms of features. The experience so far has been worth every penny spent, and I look forward to more “intimate” times with this new companion of mine (of course, second to you-know-who ;)).

2) To utilize my laptop effectively, I also got a BSNL DataOne Broadband connection at home. Getting the connection was probably the only thorn in the bed of roses last year - whew. What a wait!! (although I know people who’ve endured far more than me) - how many times did I go up and down the road that leads to the Telecom office in BTM?! (In case anyone needs directions, you know whom to approach!!). The connection (UL900) thankfully is great in terms of speed, and download capability - and I’ve just discovered the pleasures of watching movies online :), at YouTube & Google Videos. So, three cheers to internet liberation at home!

3) I’ve also got an Apple 80 GB Video iPod as a companion for all the nightmarish journeys on Bangalore’s famed Hosur Road (although I must divulge that BTM Main Road is worthier of the honour now) - from home to office and back. If all this time, I was worried about storing my 15 GB songs somewhere, my iPod ensures that I have this worry no longer. And looking at the bright side, I still have 65 GB left to fill!! Its musical-heaven for me these days… *Dreamy smile*.

To avoid being labelled an incorrigible show-off, I resist the temptation to list all the other material gains

As for work, this year has been hectic. But it’s also been extremely productive - the year has ended with a promotion, incredible insight, new distinct directions of growth, and I’ve fulfilled one of my long standing goals at work (Gosh, can it get better than this?) - so I’m heaving huge sighs of satisfaction.

Standing where I do now and looking back at the year past, I also go back to my Happy New Year post - way back in December 2006:

“2007 promises to be an important year in my life… what with lots of professional and personal changes on the horizon. I don’t have any material/physically quantifiable resolutions yet, and generally never do, since I doubt my ability (*smirk*) to stick to them with a steadfast resolve.”

I (tongue-in-cheek) state that the resolutions I made, still stand; Much easier to stick to them you see, than for e.g., the tried and tested I-promise-to-exercise-and-lose-weight one ;). Any more new ones? - would have to be only one:

• Be grateful to God and to myself.  Thank you God, - for being there, showing me the way - in fact, the countless ways, and proving that “No matter how screwed up you perceive your life to be, never underestimate God’s love that rescues you right back” is completely true. And my last vote of thanks goes to myself - for falling, but knowing enough to pick myself up, wipe the tears and stumble onwards with vigour. For learning that life is best lived with the least complexity - just a dash of innocence, a thimble of honesty, a pinch of hope and loads and loads of Love.

Happy New Year everybody!!!

P.S. Last year this time, I also exulted at having my blog registering 10,000 visitors. Today, its speeding towards 50,000! So, although I did announce a closure of vote of thanks, it cannot be truly closed unless I count you out there - Thank YOU :). And yes, I will see you later!

I’m an ENFJ! What are you?

This seems to be the season for personality analysis tests, what with me getting multiple requests to take them and find out what I am

I started off the week by doing a test that told me what gender my brain was. Here’s a brief description of the test, from the page:

Some researchers say that men can have ‘women’s brains’ and that women can think more like men.
Find out more about ‘brain sex’ differences by taking the Sex ID test:

• Get a brain sex profile and find out if you think like a man or a woman.
• See if you can gaze into someone’s eyes and know what they’re thinking.
• Find out why scientists are interested in the length of your fingers.
• See how your results relate to theories about brain sex.

The test has a series of logic-based puzzles, some face ’n eye-gazing (to know how intuitive you are), some calculations and voila! Your brain sex profile is out. As I had suspected all along in my life ;-), the test told me that I had a mostly male brain - or think like a man.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that I need to have a sex change ;)… I think the whole assumption in the test is that “logical, mathematical” thinking is a typically male characteristic, while “intuitive, feeling-based” thinking is a typically female characteristic. I scored well on all of the logical/mathematical tests (not a surprise, considering my profession also validates my ability ;)), and since there were more of them than intuitive tests (where also I did score well), I was mapped to have a “more male” brain.

Mid-week, I got a suggestion from Raman Sir that I should attempt the Jung Typology Test to discover which of the Myers-Briggs personality types I was. I did, and discovered that I am an ENFJ - Extroverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging Personality - also known as the Idealist/Teacher. If you’re left saying “Whaa…t??”, then here are some of the  (very flattering) descriptions to give you a general idea of what I am [*Halo on my head*] -

From Portrait of the Teacher Idealist:

The eNFj, rightly called the educative mentor or Teacher for short is especially capable of educing or calling forth those inner potentials each learner possesses. Teachers expect the very best of those around them, and this expectation, usually expressed as enthusiastic encouragement, motivates action in others and the desire to live up to their expectations. Teachers value harmonious human relations about all else, can handle people with charm and concern, and are usually popular wherever they are. They are found in no more than 2 or 3 percent of the population. 

From ENFJ Profile:

Many ENFJs have tremendous power to manipulate others with their phenomenal interpersonal skills and unique salesmanship. But it’s usually not meant as manipulation — ENFJs generally believe in their dreams, and see themselves as helpers and enablers, which they usually are. ENFJs are global learners. Some can juggle an amazing number of responsibilities or projects simultaneously. Many ENFJs have tremendous entrepreneurial ability.

Whoa! Too much, I say ;)…Truthfully though, I was quite surprised to see the word “Teacher” in my profile, since that is something I enjoy doing the most.

Wait, I’m not done. Don’t you wanna know what type of blogger I am? Here it is from Bloginality:

As a weblogger, ENFJ’s enjoy the relationships with other bloggers because of their rich insights and people skills. Even while they enjoy journaling, they may still feel alone in their thoughts despite the number of people linking to them.

Hmmm, that could explain my title “Lonely In Space”… [*Contemplative*].

TeamTechnology tells me what type of a person I am in the team environment:

In a team environment, the ENFJ can contribute by:

• promoting insight and common understanding amongst the team
• facilitating discussions, encouraging contributions from all team members by asking questions in a structured way
• seeking to arrive at consensus decisions
• focusing on areas of agreement and building on others’ proposals
• bringing discussions to positive conclusions

Sounds good. Now, I realize why I am so obsessed with structure, conclusions and consensus. Now, here’s the not-so-nice part (Just to bring me back to earth level from the clouds):

The potential ways in which an ENFJ can irritate others include:

• talking too much
• avoiding conflict and not giving criticism when it is needed
• taking criticism personally

Ahem. Talking too much?… me?? I guess that’s a dead give-away considering that you can judge my verbal ability from the length of my blog posts. Yup, I need some cellotape on my mouth, sometimes.

And finally, here’s what I can be at home, from ENFJ - The Sage:

ENFJ’s are socially adept and make excellent companions and mates. They also are deeply devoted to their children, yet tend not to be domineering to either the children or mate. In fact, the ENFJ is so even-tempered that he or she can be victimized by a mate who might have become more and more demanding.

:O. Victim, huh? Well, that should teach me to keep an eye open for demanding mates ;-).

All in all, the personal profiling was fun. And the personality typing was amazing, because much of it fit the description I had in my head of my *best* self.

For those of you, who have some time on your hands, I would suggest that you attempt to find out your type too… who knows, it could be a real revelation!!

P.S. Similar Posts from my friends

• What Jungian type are you? by The Visitor
• Open Intentions Initiative by RKVS Raman
• The type logic by Umesh Gopinath

Weird things I do

Yet another tag - this time I’ve been tagged by Karthick, and I’ve got to list down 6 of the weird stuff I do in life [I wonder how difficult this is going to be]… Here goes:

• Wake up at 1 in the night, switch on the TV, make a cup of black tea, and sip it in contentment while watching some program on Travel and Living, or some age-old movie that’s playing in a movie channel. The whole exercise lasts for about an hour, and is usually initiated by a couple of sneezes, or a sudden runny nose that I develop in the middle of the night. As I go back to sleep after an hour, warmed by the tea, the runny nose curbed, and my mind fresh from the mental activity of watching the telly, I also mull on how this has become one of the tiny pleasures of my life now
• Turn off the gas knob and the main electricity switch, whilst leaving home, and going back to check both of them atleast 3 more times, before I finally lock the door. When I come back home, I inevitably first sniff the air, make sure there is no smell of gas around, and then switch on the lights. I’m completely paranoid about this, and I’ve never been sure why - maybe I died of a gas leak accident in my previous life.
• While travelling on a train/airplane/bus, and the train is going too fast for comfort (this usually happens in the dead of the night - I, the night prowler, am awake as usual ;)), or the airplane is experiencing turbulence, or the bus is veering on the edge of the road (and there is a steep drop on that side), I pray to God. I tell Him “Oh God… Please take care of me and my fellow passengers. I’m relying on you. However, in case I do have to die today, please take care of my parents”.
• When I hear the sound of rain outside for the first time, I run, open the nearest door/window, take a deep breath (to experience the smell that the dry earth emanates when it first rains), put my hands out, collect a few droplets in my palms and then wipe my face with that. And then I have an enigmatic smile on my face
• I weep buckets (yeah, *smirk*… *blush*) when I am alone at home, and watching a movie that features some sort of a sob-story. The last time I did this was last weekend, when I watched The Deep End of the Ocean starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Whoopi Goldberg, Treat Williams, Jonathan Jackson etc, on Sony Pix. The movie was about a family that has their 3 yr old son kidnapped, only to have him turn up on their doorstep, 9 years later. Very poignant, touching story, that dealt with the trauma and guilt of the mother (Michelle Pfeiffer, wonderful as usual), and of the family, that almost falls apart. A particular scene where the distraught mother (5 hrs after she’s realized the boy is missing), sees the child’s picture, and becomes hysterical, screaming and crying - it had me in copious tears. I wondered afterwards, whether I would have cried so much had I been in someone else’s company - hmmm, guess not :).
• I used to cross my fingers and make a wish whenever I saw a mail-van. It was actually a wierd practice that I (and countless other girls) followed in college (I wonder how many now have even heard of it…). Let me explain the meaning of the practice - we used to believe that when you saw a mail-van, you could make a wish (and the crossing of fingers would symbolize that) - the fingers had then to be un-crossed only when you saw a four legged animal(?!!, yeah, I know, can’t believe that we thought up such things)… Anway this was then supposed to make our wishes come true. Of course, not many of my wishes ever came true, but my belief was pretty strong then, so I would still persist. And till today, sometimes involuntarily, I spy the red vehicle on the road and make the crossing gesture. And then remember that it was after all, just a silly game :). However, more than the silliness of the practice, what brings a smile to my face today is  the realization about how gullible and trusting we’d been at that age - and how cynicism hadn’t invaded our thoughts then. *Sigh*… those were the days.

Yay! I’m done. Phew. *Wipes sweat off brow*.

I’m not going to tag anyone specific here … if anyone is interested to take up the tag, they’re welcome! Meanwhile, I think I enjoyed writing about my idiosyncrasies here - I guess everybody has some wierd quirks that are hidden under the layers of their personality - its fun to write about them once in a while

Pictures from my Onam Holiday

To compensate for my prolonged absence on my blog, I thought I’d share the pretty pictures from my recently concluded Onam vacation at home

In the first part of the trip, I went to the Thirumanthamkunnu Temple, about 3 km beyond Perinthalmanna, Malappuram Dist, Kerala, India.

 
The Thirumanthamkunnu temple’s main deity is Parvathi Devi (the wife of the Hindu Lord Shiva). Apart from Parvathi, the temple also has the idols of Lord Shiva, Ganesha, Nagaraja (Snake-God) and other deities. The first picture is what you see as you enter the temple premises (of course, please minus the lady in the pic ;)). The second picture is that of the sanctum sanctorum. As you enter inside you see the mandap of the Goddess Parvathi, and on her right, that of Lord Shiva (which has the Shiva lingam). The devi’s mandap has a lot of beautiful mural paintings on the wall and ceiling, which depict the story of the temple.

 
This was taken at the side of the temple - in the centre of the first picture, is the flag staff (a common sight in Kerala temples) coated with real gold.

 
The first picture is the wonderful view on the side of the temple… The temple is nestled, nestled at the feet of mountains, amidst lots of greenery. The second one is a view of the steps (created out of blocks of stone) leading to the temple - imposing eh?

After the visit to the temple, I went to my mum’s native place to celebrate Onam with my wonderful large family, replete with talkative uncles, homely ‘n loving aunts, impish, cute cousins, and of course, my wonderful granny. My mum’s native place is on the border of the Palakkad Dist, and it is a b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l place - I’ve often felt that it is a testimony to Kerala’s reputation as ”God’s own country”. I clicked some pictures enroute and here they are:

 

And now for the Onam sights…

The pictures above are of a common sight (known as Thrikkakarappan) during Onam - Keralite Hindus make these pyramids out of clay and line it with rice flour (mixed with water to make a liquid). Then these clay pyramids are adorned with flowers, placed in a strategic position at the front of the house. This is part of the welcome extended by the family to the Lord Mahabali (Maveli), who is commemorated during the Onam festival (Keralites believe that he visits each and every home during the festival) in Kerala, India.

Some more Onam sights to wrap this entry up… The picture on the top left is of the traditional Onam lunch -when the members of the family come together, wear new clothes and have the traditional Onam lunch on banana leaves. There are 10+ curries or so, along with atleast 2 varieties of sweet dishes, fried chips and other assortments prepared in the average Hindu malayalee household (the traditional number for the curries I’m told is 15 to 26), and the food is served on the leaf of the banana tree (plantain). Before the advent of the steel/plastic plates, everyone in Kerala ate on these leaves - now of course, the leaf is used mostly on festival days such as Onam/Vishu, and during traditional marriages.

The second picture (on the top right) is not a still from the film Rang De Basanti’s title song :). I spotted this procession on the road on my way back home - there were these huge colorful flower-umbrella like creations which were being twirled to create a dancing effect. And in the midst of all the creations, was a Maaveli!! (i.e. a guy impersonating Lord Mahabali, who is commemorated by the Keralites during their festival Onam) - he was waving at me (sitting in the car trying to take his pic) and the rest of the public on the road, watching the procession. I could barely catch a glimpse of him in the picture as we were moving pretty fast and so unfortunately this is not clear… but I think the haze gives Maaveli a surreal effect, which is okay since he is anyway an imaginary character

The two pictures on the bottom are that of the pookkalam (flower design) - another Onam special. The pookkalam is generally done at the entrance of the house, to welcome the Lord Mahabali - in fact, Onam is celebrated over a period of 10 days, and the pookkalam is a regular on all the ten days - in the olden days, I’m told that children would go around the neighbourhood collecting flowers for the pookkalam, for the day. Now, many people buy the flowers required for the pookkalam. The picture on the bottom left is the tiny little (crude) pookkalam I’d made at my home - from some of the flowers pilfered from my mum’s garden. The one next to it is the elaborate version - but not one made by me. One enterprising department in my office had a pookkalam competition (where yours truly was a judge :)). This was the pookkalam that won the first prize - as you can see, the design is just not any arbitrary one, but showcases a couple of other Kerala sights - a snake-boat with people rowing it, and the coconut tree. Beautiful, right?

Phew… that completes my photo post from my holiday, and the wonderful festival of Onam.