In Search of a Home

Welcome!! Swagat, Dumela, Valkommen, Jee Aayan Noo, Tashreef, Bula, Swasdee, Bienvenido, Tashi Delek. Thanks for joining me......


Monday, July 31, 2017

Wine Berries


They look like any old red berries, but a little more delicate. 





A little more tart



A little more liquidy



A litte more juicy





A closer look (click on the picture to enlarge it)--makes them look like glass marbles.  Good for making chutneys, adding in salads and perfect for making jams.  But, all things apart, just beautiful to look at, and a reminder of summer.  Summer in Scandinavia.  Wine berries are not very well known, and may be that is why, it will be difficult to describe their taste,--not very sweet, juicy and yet with acerbic taste, and a little dry on the tongue---just like all things unique.  

May be, may be, it is important not to be famous, to be unique!!

Friday, July 21, 2017

Magic Monday!!


It was just a regular monday and I was returning home from a grocery shop.  You know a regular day, when I noticed the warmth of sun behind me, and its large presence on the building ahead. It was past 9 pm. I turned around to see dear Sun's beautiful face!



And Lord Sun smiled at me. Surya Dev, in Sanskrit.  Sol in Swedish and Spanish.  Soleil in French, and Sole in Italian!!
During summer, dear Sun definitely makes its presence known for long-long hours. My Swedish  mom has always asked me to 'absorb' the sun in summer and in early autumn before it starts to gets dark.



And got these pictures, just to remind myself ---that I am lucky see  to this magic.  That turns 'manic' to 'magic'--every summer!!  Working becomes easier, and in some ways if we are focussed much can get done, only with sunshine and magic.  



Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Myths: True or False, Alive or Dead?


An Image of a Phoenix, that I printed out and coloured a while ago!! 


So, some notes from when I was writing about digital media.  But this one is very important in considering our lives, especially when we are thinking of religions and a way to guide ourselves.  


''Myths are not true or false, but dead or alive.' (Mosco, V, p. 3: The Digital Sublime)

I think of this in terms of Hinduism.  Hinduism's myths are alive, we believe in Lord Rama's Qualities, we believe that Mother Sita's qualities can be embodied.  And it is those values that makes a man worthy of being called, 'Purshottam' (best among men) and Maa Sita, the embodiment of both strength and conviction. 


This one sentence by Mosco allows me to lead directly into many a class lessons!!




Teachings of Rumi



Another one that has resurrected!!  Teaching of Rumi, from shortly before I moved to Fiji. I used to spend endless hours at Barnes and Nobles to simply absorb as much as I could with my favourite tea and calming and cool music in the background.  I had a feeling that I will not get that in Fiji, even though sun and sunny days will make up for the cold and rainy days...in some ways.  Books, and book stores would become rare.  And they were.  They were certainly not as fancy.

This one, I wrote down, during the time I used to spend time with Mr. Montgomery, a senior gentleman who I befriended, and who taught me much about books, and laughing at life, in a matter of 12 months that we knew each other before I left. He deserves a post!!

PS: Do you notice that the writing has deteriorated already?  This is post graduate school.  I already seem in so much rush, and not quite together....as if running out of time. Boy, the things our own handwriting---interaction between pen and paper tells us....

So, here is the beautiful poem:

Drowned in my sorrow
Why do you torment me too?

Bent to the ground by the world,
Why do you kick me too?
I received my life from You,


Tell me, do you want it back?


Rumi, Teachings of Rumi


Dear Tear!!






As I has stated earlier, I am in a middle of massive cleaning organising, ----something I have done for many years---but this is different. This comes from understanding that I have lived in one place for a while and there are many things that I have not used.  And I need to get rid of these things or make a part of my archives --pdfs and jpegs. 


And I have looked at this sheet for a few years now. It was a part of an old planner, may be even from when I was a teen.  After a few years of lugging the planner around, something where I used to log how many letters I had responded to, who needed to be contacted and whose birthday card and git was overdue, I threw the planner out, but kept a few sheets.  This one always brought me a smile and a bit of a sadness. Seriously, what a soppily sentimental child.  And I can say this, since it was 'I' who wrote this--'you idiot, you think you are philosophical!!'

But then again as an adult, I could say, 'its a part of growing up'.  We know ourselves from what we notice.  And what we notice and pay attention to becomes an important part in how we treat others. In that sense, I know for sure that I was always oversensitive to the pain of others. 

So, here it is, verbatim, just for those who cannot read my handwriting, which believe it or not, is much much better than what it is today!!


Dear Tear,

I, a human being, want to write to you about your making an appearance in our lives. 

You never seem to leave us, once you appear in our first breath--you appear in same form with various intensities for various reasons.

Well, for all the questions I have of my younger self, I must say, this is quite profound for a teenager, and while not sure what the following sentences were going to be (this is all there was, I never worked on it afterwards)--its true.  Tears appear for various reasons and with various intensities.

With our first physical pain, even if it was just a pin prick or a bug bite, first emotional pain, when a friend does not like us the way we like them, first really emotional pain, the unrequited love, pain of childbirth--quite literal for women and sympathetic for men, the pain of loosing people we love, and still a very profound pain, that is often not acknowledged--the pain of being invisible, of being ignored, of not being seen.

And on a lighter note, tears also accompany intense laughter, or something as mundane  as chopping onions!!

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Appreciating Home After Visiting the World


The Above Picture was taken Back in Sweden.  I had seen these flowers for a while, but  I noticed them after I had seen them in Japan. See here

Jacqueranda, San Francisco, Palo Alto, 2007


How many times do we wish we could be some where else? The focus on travel these days is amazing. Every one talks about it.  They use Facebook as  their personal photo album and discuss travel as some sort of feat.  In my experience, I do not find the well travelled less biased or more interesting or kinder or more reliable.   They are just that 'more travelled'.  I have had deep conversations with people who never left the town they grew up in. These people have brought me wisdom of their cultures and made me seen the world from their perspective. 

Is it a reflection of who I am then? Possibly. 

I seek a certain kind of conversation and I am able to engage in it. Also, being on my own helps. Meaning, I do have family but they are scattered. I do have friends, but there is no one checking or in touch regularly, that is sad, but also allows a freedom.  That freedom has been translated into these meaningful conversations.  And I have made friends from unlikely quarters. I have friends from all age groups and many nationalities and religions. 

However, even I have not been exempt from taking my own surroundings for granted.

For example, while Frangipanis grow in India, and even in Delhi, I really did not notice them until I went to Fiji.


The same with flowers like the bird of paradise.  I remember staring at them in Fiji, the first time I saw them there, as if that was the first time I had seen them.  But I had seen them before, or had been around them before.  But not until I was in an unfamiliar territory, did I notice them.

Then, I noticed them everywhere. Especially, when the year after I travelled through Europe, I saw them in major hotel lobbies, wondering how much money they were paying for having these flowers transported.

Similarly, the flower above, I did not pay attention to until in Japan.  Only to see them in my neighbourhood, in Sweden.

What am I trying to say, that when we travel, our senses and lenses of perception sort of become clear and unbiased, only because we are in unfamiliar territory, and are obligated to notice things.

It could be the other way around as well, you know that we are too caught up in something and do not notice anything. For example, in business trips or conferences, which happens. Or for someone like me who travels a lot. But, in reality, I pay more attention. Simply because I know the limits of work, I know there are a certain hours and in others I relax.

I also keep a day or two after the conference to just unwind.  

But the truth is that I notice. Or I would not be a writer. I have always noticed flowers and trees and the color of the sky etc.

But even I, have been a prey to 'being blind to our surroundings' many times. Such that I needed to leave a place to notice something. Even Jacqueranda, which grows in India, but I first noticed in Botswana, and then when I was in San Francisco, I just pointed at it right away!!

So, I guess, travel is good for that reason, (just as it is good for us to expose ourselves to new situations)--to put us into the unfamiliar, so that we might sharpen our own perceptions, we might notice the things we ignored, we might allow more into our own sphere of recognition. We might improve as people.

But, most of the times that does not happen with travellers. For every traveller is not born with 'gene' to learn and grow.

Some travellers might know about about plants and trees, but might not want to incorporate new ideas, not want to question their own ways of thinking, and not want to interact with those who think differently from them.

In my experience, with distance and understanding the world, I have loved India more and more. With all the questions I have of the US and in someways I find it socially reprehensible, I have respected its simplicity, and a desire to reinvent itself.  While I had questioned the intellectual desert in Fiji, I miss its understanding of itself through music, meke, kava, and sunshine.  Fiji's life philosophy lived in those aspects of daily lived experience--along with a hearty laughter.

Yes, I can say that because I have considered all these countries home--for several years.

Often times, it is important for us to leave home, to realize how much wealth, and knowledge is to be found the place where we are bound by our bodies and responsibilities and connections. 

And that leaving home does not need to leave country or even town, that could be simply going for a long walk on a street that we have not walked through, in meditation, when not a single thought touches us, but we are absorbed in noticing everything around us. 

Try it, and come back and see every wall, every shelf in your own place with a new eye.  Every spoon and every fork then becomes an aid, every shelf a support, and each book a connection to the beyond, as we look at carnations standing ,in a glass vase, that were grown three states away!!








  







Summer Sights in Sweden


So, these pictures give you an image of what Sweden can be like in the middle of Summer, such a stark difference from the rest of the time in the country.  It just seems like God is Glad!! Here people, showering some 'resurrection' on you!! Notice the rain drops on the lavender, and below raindrops on Yellow. I always think of it as nature's art!!






Nameless Yellow flowers. Well, I will check the name out and come back. Till then, they remind me of Amaltas of Delhi!! Like Here



Oh and Fiji--Amaltas was in Fiji as well. These yellow flowers, look the same, might be from the same family but are not Amaltas (another pic). Regardless, they give the same sunny, yellow glory to summer like that given by Amaltas on Delhi Streets!!  




A bush fence





View on the way to to the office, from the building. 




An old time make up mirror with a jewellery drawer, in a bathroom in a Park-Restaurant (Alters Herrgård-Alters Garden)


Some of the Old Blogs with a similar topic are here, if you are interested in looking at some more picts!!

Bike For Berries

Magic of Midsummer

MidSummer Sights in Sweden