Category: That & This

‘Meeting’ MF Husain in London

Posted on by sudhagee

Christmas Eve 2008. London. At around 7.30 pm that evening, you could have found me at Hyde Park with two friends, Bharath and Krithika. Three Indians with varying degrees of homesickness. Hyde Park was more crowded than usual that day—apart from the casual visitors and walkers and joggers, it was full of revelers at the Christmas Fair being held at the Park. We, too, joined the revelers, but after some time found it unbearably noisy and decided to leave.

We took a path that appeared to have fewer people and after some time found ourselves in the Kensington Gardens. As we were walking along and chatting about that and this, I suddenly noticed a building in the distance all lit up and covered by what appeared to be extremely colourful graffiti—at least from where we were standing.

Curious, we decided to investigate. As we walked closer, we discovered that it was not colourful graffiti, but paintings that were hung on the exterior walls of the building. They were glowing in the dark and against the silhouette of the building, it was a sight to behold.

Photograph: Sylvain Deleu. Photo Courtesy: http://www.serpentinegallery.org

The exterior walls of the Serpentine Gallery showcase MF Husain’s works

And what an architectural frame! They could not have described it more aptly. It was amazing to see these works of art displayed the way they were, outside the confines of a sterile, gallery interior. Once I got over the unexpected shock of seeing Husain’s works displayed as such, I was able to just stand back and enjoy them. Even though it was quite cold that evening, just looking at the pictures warmed me up.

Reds, yellows, oranges and blues. All my favourite colours in one frame

Allowing Husain’s vibrant and colourful paintings to surround me with their warmth, I felt some of my homesickness dissipate, and suddenly cold, grey, sunless London was bearable. I sent a heartfelt, but silent thank you to MF Husain for making me feel happier than I had felt in days.

Yesterday, when I read of MF Husain’s death, I immediately remembered that evening when he, or rather his paintings, helped me tide over homesickness. For someone who was hounded in the country of his birth, forced to give up his citizenship, publicly declared his homesickness and yearn to come back to India—I wonder what comforted him and kept him going.

R.I.P. Maqbool Fida Husain.

1 year, 99 posts, 70,338 words…

Posted on by sudhagee

A little over a year back, I started a blog. This blog, to be precise and on 2 June 2011 My Favourite Things celebrated its first blogoversary. 🙂

Looking back, it’s actually surprising that I started blogging. You see, I didn’t have too high an opinion of blogs—I found many of them narcissistic, self-obsessed, and opinionated. But what irritated me the most was bad language and a complete disregard for spellings and punctuation. My dislike for blogs was so great that I got into a rather heated and completely unnecessary exchange with a close friend about blogging and bloggers. The poor guy had just started a blog and I jumped down his throat with a “Not you too!”, and said many things better not shared here. Once again, I’m sorry, Aniruddha.

My Favourite Things is actually my third blog, and currently the only active one. My earlier two attempts at blogging (you can read them here and here), were done under duress. Both were assignments as part of my postgraduate coursework, which I would have failed if I did not complete those blog assignments. I didn’t take to blogging happily. I grumbled and pouted and researched and cursed and wrote and rewrote and edited and re-edited and published blog post after blog post for the assignments. But something changed during those 3–4 months of assignment blogging. I discovered that I enjoyed writing, and what’s more, I could write too ! The grades and feedback that I received for the blog assignments only confirmed what I felt.

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Hospitalisation, health insurance and TPA woes: A first-hand experience

Posted on by sudhagee

A couple of months back, my Appa (father) was unwell enough to require hospitalisation. It was a very stressful period for all us, but the stress factor came not so much from his illness or hospitalisation or treatment or care and recovery, but from an unexpected source—his health insurance’s Third Party Administrator (TPA), who created delays and blocks at every step, making the actual hospital stay seem almost like a vacation in comparison.

Both my parents are covered in the health insurance plan offered by the organisation I work in, and this was the first time I was availing of medical insurance, which is administered by a well-known TPA. The insurance plan I am covered under offers a “cashless” hospitalisation facility in most of the well-known hospitals in Mumbai. A reason to feel relaxed about and not have palpitations. Right? Wrong !

Appa had been having fever, which showed no signs of abating in spite of medication and care at home, as well as his doctor’s supervision. After a week of battling with the fever, his doctor advised hospitalisation for investigations and focussed treatment at a well-known hospital, close to our house. Once this decision was taken, my brothers and I got into action—while they would get him ready for the hospitalisation, I would get the insurance and TPA formalities sorted out.

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The Tower Bridge of London: One bridge, many photos

Posted on by sudhagee

I had just got my first digital camera when I arrived in London and the iconic Tower Bridge was the subject of my first few photographs. Quite pleased with the results, I never lost an opportunity to photograph this London icon. This meant that by the time I left London a year later, I had quite a few photographs of the Tower Bridge. Presenting a selection from that collection, beginning with that first photograph.

September 25, 2008: My first photograph of the Tower Bridge in London.

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My car collection

Posted on by sudhagee

I do not own a car (or a two-wheeler or any other type of four-wheeler) and neither do I see myself owning one. For one, I am a great fan of public transport, and living in a city like Mumbai, I have never had to worry about transport. Second, I do not want to contribute to the existing traffic chaos and pollution by adding my vehicle to it. And third, I can’t drive. Yes, I have been told it is shocking that I can’t drive, but hey, that’s one skill I’m quite comfortable not having. But all this has not stopped me from liking cars. In fact, I consider vintage cars as works of art, and seeing a Volkswagen Beetle on the road gives me a high.

I realised only lately that I didn’t just like cars. I loved them. I discovered 94 photos of cars (I counted, honest!) during yet another attempt to bring some order to my ever-growing, unmanageable, digital photos. Surprisingly, there were no photographs of Volkswagen Beetles—though there were lots of photos of vintage cars as well as photographs of strange-looking and quirky cars.

Presenting some of them the cars from “my car collection” 😀

Hampstead Village, London: A pretty strange looking car, called Cube !

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Two incidents and a lesson

Posted on by sudhagee

I was 16 and in my last year of school when the first incident happened. School had finished for the day and I was waiting for a rickshaw outside my school to take me to the railway station, from where I would take a train home. Hearing a rickshaw approach behind me, I turned hoping that it would be empty. It wasn’t and as it sped by me, I saw a horrific sight. A man and a woman were struggling in the rickshaw and the man had a knife in his hand.

Photo Courtesy: Istock photos

I saw all this in a flash and for a moment I thought that I had imagined the whole thing. But then I reasoned that I couldn’t have imagined the glint of the knife, could I? Just then an empty rickshaw came and I saw to my relief that the driver was someone I knew, in the sense that I had travelled in his rickshaw many times.

I told the driver about what I had just seen and asked if we should give chase. The driver said that I must have imagined the knife and what I must have witnessed was some friendly “wrestling” between a couple. Besides, wouldn’t the rickshaw driver have done something if he sensed that there was something wrong going on? No, no, I must have had a stressful day, and it would not do for a girl like me to have such an active imagination. I should concentrate on my studies and try to get home as quickly as possible. With these words of advice, he dropped me off at the railway station.

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