The roses at Regent’s Park

Posted on by sudhagee

Work-wise, mid-March to mid-May is a little crazy for me—my department works on all days without a break during this period. Though my colleagues and I (and our families) are used to the punishing work schedule, it does get a little stressful at times. And that’s the cue to take a break, even if it is for a short while. We have our different ways of de-stressing. I do it by taking a little walk, talking to a friend on the phone, reading something funny, going through my digital photograph collection …

Earlier today, when work and deadlines loomed and threatened to overwhelm me, I decided to take a break by taking a walk. A virtual walk. A virtual walk in Regent’s Park, London—one of my favourite places in the world. Regent’s Park is one of the Royal Parks in London and has over 100 acres for outdoor sports activities. Located in Central London, the Regent’s Park is over 400 acres in size and includes the world-famous Queen Mary’s Gardens. The official website claims that the Gardens have 400 varieties of roses, as well as a collection of delphiniums and begonias.

During my year in London (2008-2009), it was a place that I walked in, relaxed in, picnicked in … It was a place that gave me refuge when studies or homesickness overwhelmed me. It was, in many ways, my own personal space in spite of being a public park, something that wasn’t too difficult considering I lived opposite the Park ! I have such a connection with the Park, that even thousands of miles away in Mumbai, it is not too difficult to do a virtual walk whenever I feel like, especially when I have photographs of Regent’s Park. One of my favourite sets of photos is of of the roses at the Queen Mary’s Gardens 🙂

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Mumbai Lens: The zodiac window

Posted on by sudhagee

This blog post was featured in the “Around the Blog” section of the DNA newspaper published on May 7, 2012 (pg.6).

That Mumbai has many hidden treasures is something that is underscored now and then when I experience or unearth something interesting about this city. But Mumbai still manages to surprise me with the sheer variety. For example, when I attended an exhibition at Mumbai University’s Cowasjee Jehangir Convocation Hall at its Fort Campus earlier this year, it was not just the exhibits that caught my eye.

This was my first (and so far only) time that I have visited the Convocation Hall, whose grand interiors are stunning, with elaborate detailing, stained glass windows, teak wooden seats, exquisite grill work, etc. But the the large stained glass window over the entrance to the Hall is probably the grandest and most stunning feature of them all.

The Zodiac Window at the Cowasjee Jahangir Convocation Hall of the University of Mumbai

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Let’s have some humour, please

Posted on by sudhagee

The Guest Post Series on “My Favourite Things” has contributions by those sharing my interests in travel, books, music, and on issues that I am passionate about. These posts are not always by fellow bloggers, and the guest authors are always those who have interesting experiences to share.

Today’s guest post is by Srinayan, the infrequent blogger of The Random Walkaround. An engineer by profession, he took up blogging a little over a year ago and writes on many topics, but always with sensitive insight and understated humour. Srinayan, however, prefers to be known as a lethargic blogger who is long on intent, but somehow falls short on delivery. That is probably why I have given up on waiting for an original guest post from him and, instead, am re-posting one of his old posts. A post that I liked very much, and a post that is quite relevant for our times.

We are living in a terrible world and doomsday is just around the corner; or so we are led to believe by television, newspapers, the internet and all other oracles of wisdom. Nothing seems to going to right for humanity—Greece, the Euro crisis, Wall Street, US debt, climate change, rogue states, etc. Closer home we have inflation, falling stock markets, the Lokpal Bill, 2G and scams of every kind and size. The list is ever growing; you only have to add your pet angst to it.

Whatever happened to that wonderful therapeutic called humour? I don’t mean the stand up comic type which is in vogue today; rather, the sly poke in the ribs that reminds us that, even if all is not well with the world, we are doing fine and having a good laugh about it.

Welcome to The Little World of Don Camillo.

In the context of its time, post-World War II Europe was just as insecure and dangerous as the world is today. While the common folk grappled with economic hardship, their political leadership was preoccupied with ideological realignments or preventing them. As a farcical consequence, depending on your leanings, all problems owed their roots to communism or opposition to it. Black couldn’t get blacker and white, whiter.

The absurdity of the situation was too much for an Italian called Giovanni Guareschi. He reacted by creating two characters, a priest named Don Camillo and his communist adversary, Peppone, in a village in the Po river valley in Northern Italy. The battle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie was truly joined and the several comic confrontation between the two reflected the pointlessness of the discourse of the time.

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Museum Treasure: The 3 Saraswatis

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The Padmanabhapuram Palace Complex, which is situated about 50 km from Thiruvananthapuram, has a heritage museum with exhibits that range from household articles to coins to sculptures and paintings to object d’ arts. The museum is located in the 400-year-old Thekee Kottaram (or Southern palace).

I visited the Padmanabhapuram Palace Complex in November 1998 and spent a very happy afternoon exploring it and pottering among the museum exhibits. This collection of 3 Saraswati figurines at the museum caught my eye.

About 12″ in height, these exquisitely carved wooden sculptures stood out for their craftsmanship. As I gazed into the calm and serene features of the figurines, I couldn’t help wondering as to why one rarely comes across Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of learning, knowledge and wisdom. There are hardly any temples dedicated to Saraswati and even in art she is not a favourite subject for painters and sculptors alike.

Is it because we know that learning, knowledge and wisdom do not really come easy and even the Goddess cannot help if one is not willing to work hard for it? Or is it because material benefits are preferred over the intellect?

The Museum Treasure Series is all about artifacts found in museums with an interesting history and story attached to them. You can read more from this series here.

My “now” song: Yesterday once more

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Do you ever have a song, an idea, a storyline, or an image stuck in your head? And it just refuses to go away? For some time at least? I have this with music—it could be a song, an instrumental piece, a jingle, etc. This becomes my “now’”song, and the “nowness”  (pardon my English here) could be for any length of time.

My now song is “Yesterday once more” by The Carpenters from their 1973 album Now & Then and written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis.

Along with the heat and humidity, the summer brings on nostalgia for me. Of summers spent with my maternal grandparents in Mumbai. Of golden mangoes, chilled sugarcane juice and bhelpuri. Of cricket and hide & seek with cousins and friends. Of Pallankuzhi and stories with Paati. Of reading story books in the hot afternoons. Of listening to the radio and singing along . . .

I was thinking about all this while travelling to work by bus today morning. And almost on cue, as if approving of my nostalgic thoughts, a co-passenger’s mobile phone rang. Can you guess what the ringtone was? Yesterday once more. 😀

So what nostalgic memories (and songs) do you associate with summers? Tell, tell 🙂

Why didn’t you take up Arts?

Posted on by sudhagee

Yesterday, a colleague had dropped in to my office. Not to discuss work, but to talk about this blog of mine. She had recently come across my blog and to my surprise, had actually gone through each one of them ! Over a cup of tea, she offered some comments and suggestions, and then out of the blue asked me, “Sudha, why did you study science? Why didn’t you take up Arts?”

That one question was enough to transport me back to January 1992, a time when I was doing my M.Sc. in Geology. The first semester results has just been declared then and I was feeling quite pleased with myself as I had done very well. It was also the time to choose our optional subjects for the coming year. In my Department, a dissertation was an optional module in lieu of 4 papers, something that was preferred by most students. But since I was rather keen on a research experience, a dissertation it was for me, which meant that I had to find a teacher willing to guide me and supervise my work.

So off I went to Prof. A, who was a good teacher and seemed like someone who could be a good guide too. Prof. A first heard out my desire to do a dissertation and have him as my guide. Then he gave me a lecture on the rigours of field work, the dangers for a girl like me to be out in the field alone, how I would be better off opting for the 4 extra papers rather than doing research, how I had all the time in the world to do research, etc. He cited examples of women students who had left their research halfway unable to cope with field work and the problems it created later. He sent me off after telling me to think about what he had said.

I thought over it and next day, I went back to him more determined than ever before to do a dissertation. The same conversation ensued and this ping-pong game lasted for a few days till Prof. A burst out with impatience and irritation, ‘Why didn’t you take up Arts? Why Science and why Geology, in particular? Geology is not for girls.’ After ranting in a similar vein for some time, Prof. A finally refused to guide my dissertation.

Though very disappointed, I did not lose heart and approached the other professors in my department. All of them refused.

Their reason: My gender.

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