A Kodak Moment!

First published on September 17, 2010 republishing here --simply because this is one of the most read posts, can you believe it----I think it is because of that one famous name here---Elliot Erwitt....even then, I remember it because of the incident and because I was so new here.....

A picture by Elliot Erwitt


A day ago, on BBC/NPR they interviewed Elliot Erwitt about his photographs and new exhibition. I was working on my computer, and the interview provided the background sound. But my ears perked up when the interviewer started talking about two of his photographs. One was that of Nixon poking Khrushchev, in reality over some food debate, but often used to depict the differences in their ideology and the second one of two lovers in a rear view mirror, and the ocean as a background,.

I had not caught the name of the photographer, since I was multitasking but based on the photos described, I found many sites dedicated to Elliot Erwitt, the photographer.

So, I put this here, not just to share the joy of this serendipitous find (photographer), but also a reminder of the ease of finding things on the net, courtesy google and many other search engines.

Ever wonder, with apprehension ofcourse, what people could find about us….or worst, what they could imply with what they found about us……

That is one reason facebook scares me. I use it as a bulletin board to highlight a few news stories, or sometimes to put up short movies that I make. But I want to log out of that place just as quickly as I enter, often to respond to a polite comment. Entering that page makes me feel like entering a crowded room where people are busy throwing pokes, superpokes, casual jests at each other, without making much meaning out of our human interaction.

So, at the risk of being considered technophobe, I keep a very distant relation with FB.

I read an article a while ago ‘Our digitally undying memories’ which hinted at the fact that it will be very difficult to recreate ourselves. If we once identified with an ideology that we will not be able to change, or go back and say, I do not believe that anymore.

Are we giving up our right to change our minds? As Bertrand Russell had responded to *would you be willing to die for your ideas?*

-No, they are only ideas, and I can always change my mind!

I certainly hope not, because that would mean lack of growth, and triumph of rigidity!

And to get back to our picture here, well, I hope that such casual moments are caught on camera to give us those 'Sigh' moments, but I also hope that we .....ah, sometimes a sentence better left unsaid....so that the readers can complete it as they wish.

That's freedom for you!!

Twitter Treatment!!

As the year ends, let us read some nice comments on twitter, India ---caring people, using twitter....may you all find such people around you....

Special Som Sverige (Special like Sweden)

So, to save time and maintain memories, I write these short ones.  I have increased my learning of Swedish by three times. I spend nearly 2 hrs everyday on Swedish. It is hard, I go back and forth, but I really want to learn. Not just need to, but want to. Love of languages has always been my weakness. But knowing a language and a culture takes time.  

Other than that, I am taking pictures. Even when I am not sure what I am going to do with them. But there is so much we can say in images.  See the above image? It is just bananas right, with a picture of a monkey on top.  Look at the note closely...

Welcome, All you children, help yourself to a banana!!  Imagine coming to a grocery store like WalMart, and seeing this!!  This was taken in ICA--a store, very much built on the concept of WalMart.  Has been since the 1970s.  And getting bigger and bigger. I did another short post on it (A Rose for No Reason), years ago.  But these things, such as this above, do make one smile...!! 

Surviving, but Smiling

Got this image from one of the social media platforms. Do not want to mention much details except that his woman was asked to start working---she is a flower seller outside a temple, by her husband.  He wanted her to get confidence.  If I remember correctly, he passed away shortly afterwards and she talked about how his support helped her sustain her family with this simple job, that both brought her joy and a daily earning. Stories of men and women helping each other and loving each other, especially from non-western countries are not shared often (_though they exist in plenty)---so wanted to share....

Where Else But India!!

Took the sometime last year!!  Like you can see in the following picture, it says, India is the only place in the world, where all times exist simultaneously.  Any doubt that the above picture actually shows it!!  Was in the passenger's seat when I took it and well----image etched in my mind!!  (as are so many others).  But I love this aspect of India.  I love the craziness, and liveliness of that country. People often ask me why do I not return, well, I do not know. Working there is not something that I know much of. left so long ago. I also think work environment can be stifling.  But I would love to sit there and write and write about the country.  Or be paid simply to take pictures of this country filled with love, life, mystery, misery, joy, and all that life is made of!!

Kreeda: Play Time: Some Board Games of India

Kreeda is a sanskrit word meaning Play.  The root 'Kri' means action.   So, listen to these words that may make sense Karya (work, task), Karma (action, action/reaction), Krum (order, as in sequence.  Which order are the books kept in? Which Krum?)

Sanskrit, is said to be one of the most mathematical language.  Another example, Gri the root.  Greh--meaning house.  The same word is used for planets. E.g. Shani (Saturn)-- is a Greh.  Eclipse then? Grehan! The incomplete or only partial planet.

A picture of Alpana/Rangoli/Kolam at Dubai airport to commemorate Diwali, the Hindu festival of light!!

From the same root---Garbh--meaning womb.  Garbvati, meaning pregnant woman. Or the one carrying in her womb. Ending in 'i' is usually feminine, and those ending in 'aa' are usually masculine. 

Greh--house, Gram--village, Grehast---the householder --a person with family life--married people are said to be in 'Grehast ashram (stage)' the life stage that involves maximum interaction with society. Not your study years, not your youth, not retirement years.  But the Grehast ashram.  Strictly between 25-50 and loosely between 50-75, when weaning away from society begins.

This is interesting to me, because I recently  learnt about the 'integral unity' of Hinduism. The words, the music, the art, the festivals, are all interconnected and usually refer to the land mass that is India, or even larger, usually south asia, since both Pakistan and Bangladesh were a part of India until 1947 (complicated, but have little time to explain).

This post however is about 'Kreeda'--play.  A story about reviving old Indian games. A concept I learnt only 2-3 years ago as I was learning about Hinduism is 'integral unity'.  So, treatise/works like Arthshastra were then to be found in stories for children under 'Panchtantra' or 'Jataka tales', both of which have much overlap with Aseop fables.  The former were clearly used for strategy and followed principles mentioned in some old texts. Aseop fables seemed to have absorbed some of these  ((travelling Greeks _(also invaders), Europeans and Arabs (while later they came as invaders, earlier there was much exchange of knowledge.  Arabs were one of the first to take Indian numerals to the west, --often called Arabic numerals ---early arabic texts credit India for those numbers that we take for granted.  By the time it arrived in the west, the concept of connection with India was erased.)) but do not associate it with strategy to be used in war and statecraft.

Snakes and ladders, which is so common around the world, was a game to teach children about the concept of karma and reincarnation.  However, when it was picked up by the west and simply called 'Snakes and Ladders' it lost its connection to being an instructional game.  Originally called Gyan Chaupar or Moksha Patam --Knowledge path, or path to achieve Moksha (Nirvana)--the game was a way to introduce children to the concepts that would make them weigh their actions as those that took them to the path of moksha or not. 

Chess, at least, everyone knows is from India.  Again a game of strategy requires forward thinking, planning and math to play it well. A good game can last days.  I remember my father telling me about a story where a shopkeeper kept a chess board complete with the set on his counter and how two of his customers played each other for months, without ever having met. 

Another game called Pachisi, now called Ludo, also originated in India. Here we can read more about this. 

This post was actually inspired by a recent news story about these young people who have started an online store to sell these games.  The games, they say, cannot be sold on Amazon, since they are all handmade and hand painted by local artists with environmentally friendly colours. 

Please read if you are interested.  Also, my knowledge of Sanskrit is limited, so the examples I gave are correct in their meaning, I am not too sure about the 'root words and how they work'. But I have written that section from my understanding of the meaning and how these words are used. I find a remarkable pattern, compared to other non-Indian languages that I study/ and know a bit of. 

Swedish Haiku

Swedish Autumn, Like Nowhere Else!!

My first year in Sweden, years and years ago..ha, ha...I went to this music festival. A colleague played there so I went with another colleague. Both of us had started together, and he wanted to attend.  Soon as we arrived at the festival, we were all in different directions.  All following what we liked about the festival.  There was a young man, who was writing Haikus.  He would write a personal one for everyone who visited.  

Following is the one for me. I kept it in my office, hanging on a board for all these years.  But, as I was organising, I typed it down, so that I can immortalise my first August in Sweden and that sweet boy, who chose to give people the gift of word.

Interestingly, I understand this now, I can actually understand this beautiful poem...

Dimman sänker sig
Över min svala skogs tjärn
Solen är min vän

The Fog descends
over my cold (cool) forest lake
the Sun is my friend

At the bottom he scribbled this note.  I did not understand much.  But today I see how he is using words ...to create poetry...


sjön --lake ---not tjärn (meaning star) as written
svala _(cool) not kalla (meaning cold)!!

When we Follow Sva-Dharma!!

Self explanatory. Follow this photographer on social media. Has a way with words, getting popular by the day. Uses is iPhone to take pics of Delhi. Yes, just Delhi, and mostly Delhi. Also writes a blog called, 'The Delhi Walla'. now writes for magazines. Had given up on a proper life, since was not the 'engineer' material like his siblings. Now, one of the  most celebrated photographer.

Recently, had an exhibition of his pics in Europe (I think)  Here is a wiki entry on him. 

That is what happens when we follow 'Sva (self) Dharma (potential/quality--this word has no english equivalent, people have also used it for religion, etc. )  But basically it means when you follow what you are naturally good at, bounty comes....---in ways you cannot imagine. 

And another picture that i think is just beautiful!! What a caption!!

Colourful Holidays

I often get into arguments with people over religion. It is a recent phenomenon. Although I started to feel that when I first left India....but it was meeting with people who have mono-ideologies.  One--I believe or not believe (that can also include communism and atheism).  So one of the many things that I love, absolutely love about Hinduism is its diversity. Not only do we have several holidays--well more than several--but also every region has its own special flavour.  So, I found out about this holiday only a few years ago.  Celebrated in central India.  And look here at gorgeous women, driving bikes, for another festival, which comes in spring (shorter than 2 minutes).  

Following is a spring festival in Assam--the north east.  Women wear these sarees made of natural fibre....its called Bihu

And the following one is from Punjab, technically from where my grandparents came. A spring festival--harvest season.  Look at just the different outfits.  They also celebrated with different foods and there are different outfits associated with it.  I mean, even an untrained eye can see the difference. So, it is not a subtle difference that someone needs to explain to you. 

Just some of the things, that I love...color and celebrating nature. 

Swedish Traditions @sweden---Cinnamon Buns & Pizza days

The one in green that says, Fössta Tossdan i mass--is my favourite.  Its what they call a Pincess Torta---a Princess Cake.  Light sponge cake with cream filling, covered with marzipan paste!!  Absolute delight to look at and a tickle for your taste buds--well a very gentle tickle.  Its the after taste that is so filling, so refreshing and so good. 

So, the next thing they did a poll on was which cake would people like to learn about.  Guess which one won? Which one would you have like to learn about? Mine would have been the Marzipan cake day....for obvious reasons.....

There is a term called Lördag goodies!!  Meaning Saturday sweets!!  A Swedish tradition to allow children and adults to hog sweets.  But there is also the 'pizza time' which is usually the weekends. Essentially, weekends are a free pass to gorge on not so healthy foods!!

Although the following tweet gives a different story, most of my colleagues have told me that pizza became really popular only in the 1980s.  And believe it or not, there were no Malls, called Gallerias, in Sweden until 1990s!!  The same time India got them...damn that liberalisation....

Despite living here for so long, I still think I know so little about this country.  my language is much much better (I study everyday for 30-60 minutes)---and the more I learn, the more I am convinced, that I will forever remain ignorant about so many things in this country or any other country that I have lived in, including India.

Yellow in the Green

As you can see the picture was taken in June of 2017. And all you see --notice the following picture is a line of yellow in the green.  The yellow are the majs crops (corn).  Although ripen every fall --from summer onwards, one can see the line of yellow grow in the green fields---and ah, it is such a delight-----visible through my window both on train and bus rides to and fro from Stockholm. 

Here it seems like someone just drew a line.  Actually these crops are used to make majsolja --corn oil....which is used often in salads.  The grains grown the most in ancient times in Sweden were rye and barley  (click on the link to read more about it).

Anyway, these yellow lines, catch my eye every year. I also saw them in Prague's country side.  In India, it is the mustard fields, (here look at a video. Watch the whole thing, really beautiful).  These fields have been part of poetry and movie songs for ages. One has to bow to the bounty and big heart of mother earth!!

Swedish Traditions @sweden.se

So, in 2011, Sweden started this twitter account @sweden, to promote Swedish culture and help the world understand more about Sweden. 

In first week of October of 2018, that is last week, the account came to an end, having completed 7 years of continuous information on Sweden, Swedish towns, culture, history, foods and traditions.

It was supposed to be all positive, not much political but more information. For example, if elections were going on, they would report it.

I got a bit nostalgic, since I had been following the account for the last three years.  I learnt so much and had so much fun. I also participated by re-tweeting and responding to some of the comments.  Sometimes even in Swedish.

So, I saved some fun tweets from last week, and share them here with you, both to document the account, and share some swedish traditions.  Although some of them have been shared on this blog earlier, I think the curators, (there was a new one every week), added some more researched information, which could be fun for people to learn.  Btw, I have not had the time yet, but last year I started working on a website, just to present information on Sweden.  I will continue that. Right now the projects have been stalled due to several other things, including working on a new youtube channel.  But --I have a couple of websites in the works to start writing formally and sharing the information that I gather by researching countries.

So, here goes the tweets.

So here the curator asked the followers, which were --do not remember clearly but surely more than 100,000--'Which Swedish Xmas character would they like to know more about.' And the response was Julbocken--The Julbock.  The Christmas goat.  Jul is generally the term for Xmas, although it is said that Jul predates Christianity.  Is is more like festival of lights during the darkest season of the year, which today is Xmas.  I had written about it earlier....here..

Julbock--mountain goat-- was the symbol, rather than Jultomte--Santa/Christmas troll---for Christmas.  By 20th century, Jultomte had almost replaced as the main symbol. Although still used today, Julbock is a secondary Xmas symbol. 

So, the is Jultomte. Notice he is a troll and not really a Santa. he is short, and wears green, sometimes grey outfits. Red and round Santa, which is quite common now is gift of Cocalization of Christmas.  Today in Sweden, you can buy both Santas and JulTomtes, short and unpleasant looking but still friendly trolls. 

Xmas gifts were delivered by men dressed as Julbock and not Jultomte.  Both Christianzation and Americanization can be the reason for this.  The role of animals was reduced because of the former and the latter, normalised 'red suit santa' promoted by cocacola around the world. 

Saving Space: Creative Cycle Park

Been really sick for the last ten days.  So, its not going to be too exciting for sometime. Just trying to recover.  Back to work, although not feeling quite 100%. Here is a pic from New Zealand, cycle parks. I had never seen these kinds.  Yes, they are designed---obviously to save space.  It works, I guess, but the other ones --the kinds you get in long sheds, can house many more.  I heard they used to have parks for strollers as well, especially at the bus stops and train stations. 

And the cover on top prevents them from rain.....

Student Paintings

The department I am in is in the film and art department, so we are treated to music rehearsals and recitals, sketches and paintings, 2-D and 3-D art.  The following are paintings from a theme on tea.  A favourite one.  And very special to asia.  All the following paintings are student paintings.  

A monk with a tea cup. 

Tea Plantation

Fika, usually with coffee is such an important aspect of Swedish culture!!  But here I guess, the 'teapot' represents tea!!

This was a photograph, but obviously altered for effect.  Women and Fika. Following are the notes with the images. In this picture as the following placard states, the photographers wanted to show people eating different kinds of food and drink, vegetarian, and fast-food included.