Love at First Sight...

Hello again Phantoms,


Now last Sunday, as you must be well aware now, I was in Nagercoil and all of a sudden someone suggested that we go to Padmanabhapuram Palace in the morning. But the others were more interested in just lazing around and chatting as it was a Sunday. Now, I turned on all my powers of nagging and got everyone ready and made that trip happen. As much as I love simply sitting down and talking aimlessly I love the outdoors and the chance to explore new stuff more and I wasn't going to miss this one.

And I am so Happy that I somehow managed to get there as the place was so beautiful. It was love at first sight for me. The place was quiet, not crowded and filled with architectural beauty. Now when I say Architectural beauty do not expect the grandeur of the palaces of Rajasthan. The place is very humble compared to the monuments of the North but it is historically very rich.

It has the traditional Kerala styled architecture with slated roofs and extensive wood-work. What is surprising is the entire flooring is not done with stones or brick but by a concoction of coconut water and fruit of some special trees and a whole lot of fine stuff so that the place is kept cool always.

I always used to think that there were some similarities between the Chinese Architecture and the Keralite Architecture, well this is perhaps because Kerala had extensive trade and commerce with China in the past. These similarities are well pronounced in this palace where the wood-carvings on the roof the King's chambers are beautifully done with dragons spitting fire. The palace also has quite a collection of furniture presented to the Kings by Chinese traders.



Being a person interested in the South Indian classical arts, I was defintiely thrilled to walk in the corridors through which Raja Swati Tirunal,the great Carnatic Music Composer and Vadivelu, one of the Tanjore Quartet who formulated Sadhir(Bharatanatyam of today) once walked.

Of course, the "Kanadi thara" or the glass floored hall caught my attention. It is a floor in the palace made of all the stuff I mentioned above and polished to such perfection that one can see one's face on the floor(am not joking). The place seemed vaguely familiar and later I came to know that the famous dance sequence of Shobana's for Manichithrathazhu was filmed here. Now that explained why the Palace seemed so familiar.

The palace has an extensive collection of paintings which are so beautiful, the entire Rasleela of Krishna is depicted through beautiful glass framed paintings. Also the important events of the many kings' reign painted on big canvases by artists of yore are displayed.

The Palace has devoted a separate section to showcase the sculpture work from the area and it is huge and has some very beautiful pieces of art. I wish to go back again and explore the place not having to worry about it getting late.

Then for all those shopaholics out there, the shops outside sell numerous beautiful handicraft works at reasonable prices. I bought a nice ram made of teak wood(or atleast i was told that) as a gift for the best Arian in the world - Me!!!

Let me sum it all up. If you love Art in any of its various forms Padmanabhapuram is a must-see place for you! If you are not much into the arts still you will find this Palace to be an interesting place as all my skeptical friends who thought that palaces are not their kind of place too enjoyed this one.


So , If any of you phantoms visit Padmanabhapuram do let me know we can have a long or short chat about this place which I LOVE.....!!!


Bye again Phantoms....

Standing at the Door of a Train compartment on a Dark Dark Night...

Hiya Phantoms,


Last week my gang of seven guys and I made a trip to Nagercoil to one of my friends, Jerin's house. We started off on Friday Night by train. It was by far the most exciting Train Journey I ve ever had. The Coimbatore - Nagercoil express was speeding into the dark and silent wilderness disturbing the calm all around. I walked upto the door to my compartment and stood looking out for quite a while and recorded all the thoughts that crossed my mind to share with you guys.

Let me start by telling you a fact that all of you must be well aware of " Train Travel is AMAZING"

It was such a pleasant night on the train, the warm summer air gently brushed against me as its calm was ripped by the Train. It was very pleasant and everything just seemed perfect. Now let me haphazardly describe the important events of that journey.

Unlike in the Morning nothing is clear at Night. All those weird dark shapes cast by trees, shrubs, and bushes leave a lot to our imagination. I'd love to traverse the same way back again but by daylight to check how far my imagination and reality coincides.

I saw innumerable villages pass me by and wondered," Are all these people even aware of this soul watching them go by? What must they be all upto in their homes? What dreams must be playing in the eyes of those asleep?"

Then all of a sudden another train whhoooooooshed past me in the opposite direction frightening me out of my senses. Although I stood well inside my train safely, the sudden countenance of the other train instilled fear in my mind. Otherwise nothing about the dark outside seemed to scare me.

I could feel the warm summer night work itself on me. Looking down I could see how beautifully and meticulously the various tracks joined and separated through the light in my train. These train drivers must be really intellingent folks to find their way in this impossible jungle of train tracks.

The train was flying by with such speed and the mildly cool summer air gently touched my face. The canopy of stars above only added to this beautiful feeling. Soon, I had to go back into my compartment as people wanted the door closed as they were falling asleep. And also because the door is close to the toilet and I couldn't bear to see all those sheepish looks of those who came to use it on seeing me.

Luckily I had to fight with none to take the lower berth and for long I was looking out of the window. And trust me , "NOTHING can be more pleasurable than lying down on the lower berth of a train with your window open and listening to Shreya Ghoshal and Sonu Nigam sing Piyu Bole while watching the scenaries fly by."

Of all that i could see outside my window the palm trees (especially the nongu trees) captured my eye the most. They give a a poignant and beautiful silhouette feel to the entire scene. To me they represented Beauty in all her simplicity.

A little cranky incident, there was this one man standing near our speeding train's track and watching it intently at such an unearthly hour. I just wanted to shout out " Hey! I am watching you too" - but , thank god, I had the good sense to control my mouth.

Two kids were travelling next to us and they were so excited about travelling by train. Probably their first time.They were jumping all over their sleeper seats. One of them was with the mother and the other with the father. Their enthusiasm was so contagious!

Now the kid with the mother also comes down wanting to sleep next to the window forcing their dad to to sleep in such a weird poise with half his bodyoutside the seat. "Don't be too happy girls, once you dose off one of you will go back up", my mind was telling the two kids.

Oh my God!!!! The mother of the two kids is sitting and texting someone on her mobile while her husband is struggling with the two excited kids. Wonder what she is upto :-O ! Haha!! Truly, people-watching is such a nice pastime.

We pass so many small but beautiful temples built so close to the track. Invariably the doors to the sanctum are closed and there is just one light in the mandapams. I couldn't help wondering what Devi inside would be doing- sleeplessly guarding her devotees or would she be fast asleep herself?

Soon I pass out from the tiredness of the beautiful day that it had been. And on waking, the next morning, I shifted to the empty side lower berth. The Sun hadn't yet come out but was announcing his arrival from Far Far Away. We passed by places untouched by the ravages of ultra-modernization. We passed by innumerable lotus-ponds blooming with our National Flower.

Now that much is about our journey to Nagercoil and now let me quickly in a few words explain the Sunday Night journey back!

First it was almighty cold and I had to wake up so many times in the night and adjust my position or try in vain to control the cold by shutting the window. I was at the side- lower berth this time.

The moon was just outside my window offering to travel with me and keep me company! The reflection of the moon suddenly and randomly appeared on the ground exposing the numerous ponds in the area which were camouflaged in the dark. Oh Nagercoil and its surrounding areas are such beautiful places even by night. And this time my freinds too joined me near the door those few minutes I stood by it!

I just want to get into a train and have a never-ending journey. I'll be able survive even without food and water when on a train, i guess!

Thats it Phantoms about Standing at the door of a compartment on dark dark night(s).

Bye for now!

Have a great Sunday!

Sunday

Hey there Phantoms,

The world is full of surprises and things as small as the varieties in the common things we use in our daily life can strike wonder in us. Just to think of what a visionary and imaginative person our creator is, strikes awe in me.

Now why am I praising God so much today??? There is a reason. I had gone shopping with my mom and just as i entered the Pazhamudhir Nilayam in Erode to get some fruits for my friends, I spotted something strange. Yellow coloured water melons. And I was surprised and it evoked all those above emotions in me. For this was an aberration or a normal thing that i 've never beheld before. Well see it , and come to your own conclusions.


Bye for the week.

Have a fantastic week ahead!

Unexpected Visitor....

Hey Phantoms.....

How was your week???? I didn't know how this one went by so quickly. And here I'am already, writing or rather typing a new post for you.

This morning at around ten o' clock I had a surprise visitor from my neighbor's house. Guess who it was? It was a beautiful white duck from my neighbours farm. He was so cute and he was sitting on the metal sheet we had put up over the servant's toilet in our home.




Now, let me tell you, my house is in the second floor of our Hospital and that brought in the surprise factor. Till today I didn't know that ducks could fly. I knew they could swim pretty well. But fly, no! This was news to me and I was excited. I ran around clicking pictures. Not very technically great snaps but , all the same, they are snaps.

(The first four were when he/she flew from on top of the toilet to on top of our house-proper.)

Good Night for now.

Check out these birds and let me know what you think of them.

Childhood

There is no time in Life like Childhood, Phantoms! I realised that yesterday when I was clicking away madly at some of the AWESOME poises my six year old nephew was giving me when I had gone to worship our family deity in our native place. And am sure most of you guys would agree with me.

For once I am not gonna talk but let my pictures do the talking......






It feels so nice to just look at these pictures; How great would it be to always have the fun and the energy-level the guy in the pictures is having???


With that thought let me sign off for the week phantoms.

Bye! Keep haunting me.....

Have a great week ahead...

OH......What a Grrreat Day....

Hey Phantoms,

Hope you're all doing fine after a wonderful weekend. Today was so much fun. I got up early to watch the Academy Awards Function and I tell you these people in Hollywood go all out to make the event special every year. Everything fascinated me about it from the stage design to the ambiance and the audience that were seated in the Kodak Theater. Just loved it.

Although Merryl not winning the Best Actress in a Leading Role was bad, I was happy for Kathryn Bigelow and her film The Hurt Locker. As for Avatar, there is nothing to fret about guys. They already have the biggest box office record on their side and it will be the biggest film in the history of film making and also in its future for atleast another decade.

Then I had my Driving License Exams. Now why do all these RTO officers act as if they are the busiest people in the world. And man are they lazy? The guy just asked me to bring the parked car and stop in front of the office so that he can see me behind the Driving Wheel. And thats it , I got my license. You know atleast for protocol's sake he could've asked me to drive for sometime. But I swear I don't care now. I am just Happy and relieved that it is all over.Thanks for all those prayers that you phantoms filled the air with for me.

And the best part I am bunking college the whole day. There is a significant bit of the ceremony that I missed today, so I am gonna sit up and catch the re-telecast.

You guys too try to catch it. It was an awesome function as far as I saw it.

Bye for now Phantoms.

More Love and More Power to you guys

Hullo Guys....

It wasn't a very bad day today. But a complete non-veg free Sunday does break my heart or atleast my tummy says so. But anyways I'll compensate for all that tomorrow when I am back at college.

Well for a long time I used to wonder when I get the news of Grandparents of my friends passing away "Will my Grandparents go too?" This was because after years and years of hard work in the fields my paternal grandparents were study and fit and no illness was able to as much as shake a finger of theirs. I was just coming to the conclusion that they were going to be like that for eternity when all of a sudden my dad's mom started showing clear signs of ageing.

She is so scared of death and now she has all of a sudden realised that everyone born will have to die and that her time is not far. She developed a Psychiatric condition called "Panic disorder" where she is constantly scared that something might happen to her when physically she is her same fit self. This has taken a toll on her. She looks tired and so lifeless these days. For patient's with this condition the sight of a doctor is like having seen God (luckily we have two good doctors in the family and a third one is on his way) and she is on medications for it.

But what aggravates her situation is the nightmares she has been having for the past few days. Her dreams have been filled with previously dead and gone relatives trying to get on to her back. If that gives me the creeps, just think of the condition of this already demented woman.


Now that brings us to our discussion. Will our old age too be cowded with fright and doubt? Is there a possible way to grow old without fear? Is death that bad?

May sound like very philosophical questions but each one of us would think of these things at some point in our life. Why not that point be today?? And do share it with me so that I may have some light too.....


So phantoms thats it for about a week or two....Keep haunting me....

For now Good Night and you guys in my dreams.....

Hey Guys....Booze Talk ! ! !

Sorry....Sorry.....Sorry....First of all sorry that the promised piece didn't appear,but that is one comedy we'll talk about later today. And sorry for the long long absence. I couldn't keep up with you as blogging from my mobile is bugging and I can't get the text aligned the way I want them to appear from my mobile. So I'll say Hi everytime I get to a computer that has a connection.

Now actually I wanted to write about my first experience tasting booze. I was going to a cocktail party hosted by our college for all the participants and the volunteers of the SURGICON the next evening. I did go. And my plan was to taste it there and get back and write about it. Very confidently , I walked up to the counter, took a glass and filled it with ice. Then , trust me , I don't know what happened . All I know is the next minute I had left the glass on the counter and was speeding away from it. Well thats the limit of my guts perhaps. So that explains everything " No Booze! So No Article!"


But man , the party was hardcore fun. Danced the entire evening with friends and I didn't even care about dinner. And yes laughed my heart out seeing so many drunk guys doing crazy stuff on and out of the dance floor. Pity some of them were my own professors.Well I don't want to say more about this fun in public anymore.

But that brings me to ask you people some serious questions and do some serious brain-storming. Do you think it is right for an Institution to sponsor a drink party for its own students???

Is it right for teachers/professors to take alcohol and dance in the company of the students under their care???

I was thinking of these things ever since I came back from that much-enjoyed party. Hope you Phantas are also giving this a good thought and going to enlighten me about your thought waves ....


Bye for now...

And Goodie Nite....

Am waiting to be Haunted with your thoughts....