Diversity

In the evening, all of us, kids in the hostel sat in a line by the wall. Sisters, the nuns at the convent school distribute the snacks. We have no idea of what is going to be the catch of the day. This wont last long. The snacks have been collected (forced to give away) from the kids who brought them from home after vacation. This was necessary. There were other kids- Chenchus who probably didnt bring any and many others who brought less. Imagine the cauldron with all sweets and savory snacks from different households.

The corner store

In this short excerpt from an essay by Eudora Welty, few lines that sum up a store's fascination.

"It was up to you to remember what you came for, while your eye traveled from cans of sardines to tin whistles to ice-cream salt to harmonicas to fly-paper(over your head, batting around on a thread beneath the blades of the ceiling fan, stuck with its testimonial catch)."

As a kid, the store that I frequented had a lady who was very tall like a Greek sculpture. Later she had a baby too. Statue of Liberty.

Between ends and beginnings

The carrots in 'Chicken cashew salad' at Cheesecake factory. A big fan of Broccoli. Even I dont understand this. But I wasnt always like this. There was a time when I had to give up on rice. Is that possible? And before that I had to eat all raw vegetables. Siddha Samadhi Yoga. And that wasnt the only change. I had to move for college.
When I joined this program my parentd would have thought that it will do me good. A healthy student can face college better. The ending of the program just about coincided with the beginning of college. Such being the schedule, feeling weak from the lack of comfort food, I was not up to battling the anxiety of coping in a college where there would 424 students who have proved themselves to be better than me.

All in a day

Pittsburgh Steelers ABC: My First Alphabet Book (My First Alphabet Books (Michaelson Entertainment)) 

Last Monday I was upto many things.
Least of which was dropping a car key into the recycle dumpster before a license extension task.
Once there my eyes scanned at 'when driving at 65 miles per hour, to halt it takes a distance longer than a football field'.
This line is from Saturday Evening Post, January/February , 1975 included in Patterns Plus

A walk by a dried lake

It is a weekend of clouds. A relief in many months. A week ago, the dam burst. I should have expected the loss of water. There is water in some spots just a surface of it. There are small fish, dried and slaked in mud. A bicycle. Many crate skeletons and tires.
When I started the walk, I was torn between two choices - one of taking the routine walk which would bring back the routine of months ago and the other of going east. In the east direction, there has been some development- a mall. Long time ago, I couldnt take that path as there was no path. On the northern side too, new condominiums have come up, the lake and park have been built on that side too. I wasnt sure if the northern and southern side were connected. Between these two banks there is a disconnected bank. So we need two connections. To find out I have to walk ahead. I havent done that in a while. Exploring by walk.
First section SE. There are about 10 turkey vultures in air and on land. One seems to be bothering another. I can see their necks red. When they soar, the white of their wings. I wished to sit on the bank steps, in their line of sight but police cordons prevented it. As I kept walking I saw a great blue heron still with its right foot lifted at an angle and that can only mean one thing, it has found a prey. Sure enough, its bill sticks out of a water with a fish in it. I go as far as the path leads me to a 'no trespassing' sign. I trace the steps back and cross the bridge.
Second section NE. I have never been this side. As I walk ahead, there is a small dog with bark. The owner, dog and I are in a triangle. I freeze to let the distance between them reduce. There are a set of high chairs around a table. I could sit here another time with a book. I pass another bridge. Then come viewing areas of ponds with yellow water lilies and a strict instruction to stay on the path. I almost reach curry road. Time to turn around. kill deers. Sandpipers. Snowy egrets. Doves. Grackles. House Finches.
Once I reach the main bridge, I am in a familiar terrain. While crossing by the marina, I find a small silver fish partly hanging from a railing. In the front part only the eye ring remains like a snail. Its strange that the wind did not lodge it down. I think of Tisdale's essay of ' The sutra of maggits and blowflies' and find a sticky looking secretion by the side which would have been the adhesive. What led the bird leave its food in haste?
Next week I want to head west.
A kid looks at the countdown number of the traffic and says ' Run, we have only 3 min' to his parents.
Yesterday two kids walking on each side of a parent are running with their little feet, hands held, to make the light. A girl and a kid who just fell are jumping that they are close to mojo yogurt and that they can have icecream.

Rain

This year I waited for the rain
for three and a half weeks
The first two weekends there
were clouds with a faint smell of
shower
This weekend there were 3 drops.

Monday 10 drops.
Yesterday earth sent
a phantom wet smell.
Clouds and odors carry the
trust away

I drifted into the daily chores
Loud patter
In the balcony I reach my hands
out into the air
hands dripping, I wonder if
I should go for the drench

Today the medium rain
is a state where
I stay in it for a while
like I would in the sun

Forests

The trees in the canopy determine the trees in the understory and sometimes the trees in the understory can replace the predominant species.

The Life of The Forest.Jack McCormick.

Painting Light with its concept of shadow having a colour.

The green in Gustave Caillebotte's Boats and Shed on the Bank of the Seine reminded of the painting in yupha's Thai kitchen.


Jean Baptiste Camille Corot's Forest of Fontainebleau with the cow, made me wonder if it is possible to draw it as in the shades. Then I moved onto the rock fissure, then the trees. Smaller trees around merge into a huge one.

My new interest in trees has me reading Trees of North America and The Life of the forest

To date, I have identified Sycamore and fig trees from the guide. I felt the need for a guide after spotting a shrub in the South mountains on Holberts trail with its pod that I wanted to know more about.

Sometimes when I leaf through the book, one leaf does look very different from the other, even the pine cones. Just like how the kind of birds increase as we keep paying attention to them.

When I see the picture of a bird in a picture with text identifying an animal, I want to know of the bird too.

Laundry Drying of Gustave Caillebotte looks like smoke from a factory or the top of a factory.

Infrared reflectography shows all the underdrawings on a canvas.

Talk of the building

Conversations with Frank Gehry

I came across Frank Gehry as an architect in a movie on Louis Kahn.

Each building brings with it the chance of using a new material.In this book, looking at models of Weisman Art Museum in brown (may be wood), white and metal, I could see how each material lends a different look to the building. The wooden seeming one recalled adobe houses.

Lewis Library and its Finnish influence?

pg.94 Gehry left models(metal)outside for an entire year to see how different seasons affect the building.

About
Tempe Centre of Arts architecture and more.

Urban Decay

When cliff dwellers left
their homes
it wasnt a blight.

Grand Motions

The Great Railway Bazaar Train through Asia by Paul theroux

Books with maps have never disappointed me.

His encounters with some kind of people seem to be so skewed. He has a very good style of making any kind of conversations fit into the book. A town that I was in had its train station at one end. If it can be generalized then his travel is only through the edges of towns meeting certain kinds of people and those experiences wont be a good sample of the whole.

In a para, he sums up how trains in different countries are different with different amenities.

I wasnt prepared for his experiences in Japan.

Power and thereof

Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habits of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.

Alexis de Tocquille

Once in power, every effort will be done to not lose it. If possible even to gain more power. To gain new powers, new weaknesses have to be brought about somewhere. When competitive, the artifice is limited to one side of the table.

Crossing borders

The place to study, work, live - all away from home is foreign. The days leading to the departure- the crossing of the border.

Why I read

I saw a sentence with 'subvert' in it. It was the last sentence in a para.

That is a word I cant come up with in writing. It scares me. Still I read.

Trepan, Palacles in 'The Sutra of Maggots and Blowflies'

Status of a situation

Know the problem. Know the device.
How far can the device highlight your problem?

we do not directly know of the problem. A tool tells us that something is not right.
when the tool stops talking, how to guess the happening?

Problem hiding a problem.