Anu with Joseph, our tour driver
Picture taken in Hampi, Karnataka
The Observer Observed
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Category Archives: observing
Observing From A Distance: Part 2
Observing From A Distance: Part 1
A nun from the Sacramentine Sisters of Bethlehem.
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Picture taken in the Grotto of the Lady Mary in Bethlehem
A Certain Aloofness
A tourist observes the evening street-life of India from her guest-house balcony.
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Picture taken in Pattalam, Fort Cochin.
Northern Exposure: Part 5
Adopting a posture.
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Picture taken on the road to Gangtok, Sikkim, during my travels in northern India.
Three Characters In Search Of An Author
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Three strangers across a crowded room:
Each is alone.
One stands in silent thought;
One eats but, as if shamed, never raises his eyes from the table;
One, like myself, absorbed by those around him.
I capture their image then go on my way,
No wiser of their world or worries.
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“Whatever is a reality today, whatever you touch and believe in and that seems real for you today, is going to be
- like the reality of yesterday –
an illusion tomorrow.”
Luigi Pirandello
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Pictures taken in the Sri Krishna Cafe, Cochin.
Well Poised
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Or simply well posed?
It’s a question I often ask
Of myself..
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Picture of a passing rider, taken in Palace Road, Cochin.
Back On The Road
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It was Friday. We had been travelling for eight days.
The wonders of Hampi and Mysore still floated in and out of my thoughts.
The diverse temples were almost merging into a single amorphous memory.
But our travels were not over.
It was time to get back on the road.
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Before setting out again, there is usually the small matter of re-packing to be dealt with:
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My own packing skills show neither forethought nor patience.
Nowadays, I collect together what seems necessary, then leave my kind staff to do the rest.
A few minutes later, having compared my selection with what he thinks proper, Anu will invariably return with suggestions, such as:
“Papa, I think maybe you wanting some inner-wear*?”
(*Indian English for underwear)
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He is practically always right. My planning is well on the way to becoming reliably unreliable.
Perhaps I am better suited to observing life from the sidelines.
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On The Road
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A long journey lay ahead of us.
Leaving our hotel in Belur early, we decided to take breakfast on the road.
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On my first visit to India, any thought of eating in one of the countless, road-side restaurants induced emotions ranging from a tight-lipped “I think not” to something verging on hypochondriacal terror.
Their cleanliness and décor can prove challenging to a Western eye.
But I have since learnt that the food served is invariably tasty, cheap and safe!
As expected, breakfast in this establishment was far better than any we had eaten in our tourist-class hotels.
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Back on the road, there was little to do but observe:
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Take lunch:
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Then observe once more:
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While the scenery changed:
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Until finally we reached Hampi,
Our hotel,
Cool showers
And cooler beers.
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Tinsel Town
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Inadvertently finding yourself in the midst of a film-shoot is not unusual here.
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Though barely known outside of India, “Mollywood” is big business and attracts devoted fans. The industry is based in Cochin where there are plentiful scenic locations to act as movie backdrops.
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“It’s a wrap”
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All Aboard
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The Fort Cochin Ferry:
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(From a crossing last week)
Café Lite
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Sunday morning called for another breakfast at the Sri Krishna Café,
A sensual feast of taste, smell and colour.
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With just un soupçon of people watching, on the side.
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In Focus
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“To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.”
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Picture from The Telegraph
Are You Sitting Comfortably?
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Then I’ll begin.
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Ghost In The Machine
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“…creatures walk the earth unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep” John Milton
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“I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself.”
William Shakespeare
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Caught In The Rush Hour
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“Rush hour: That hour when the traffic is almost at a standstill”
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I find I have fallen in love with my adopted home
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Morning Shadow
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We often speak of evening shadows.
But with the coming of dawn, our attention seems held only by the new light.
Is there an innate reluctance to focus on what departs?
A preoccupation with what takes its place?
Perhaps it is the contrast which captures our attention.
Morning shadow
maybe an illusion
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We perceive merely an absence of the light;
the last trace of night’s darkness.
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Fine Art
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Kerala has just one college of fine art.
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On Saturday I travelled to Thrissur, and spent my happy hour at their graduation exhibition.
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Tropical Greys
Even the tropics have their grey days.
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Days when tourists fade away, leaving the beach to local lads
And livestock.
Days when all seems strangely muted.
When colour struggles to force its way through the rocks,
iron and concrete.
Days when skies, seas and ships are grey in uniformity:
And slow in motion.
Days when men stand watching,
And apparently, waiting.
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Looking for a Sign?
India is a land of few road-maps
But many signs.
The signs point out countless opportunities, pathways and destinations.
Knowledge
Literature
Nourishment
Together with experiments in a foreign language.
New signs
And forgotten signs
The very same road may be signed as masculine when you join it
But, just a few yards further, shows gender confusion.
A colonial sign, from the Dutch East India Company,
VOC
Stands opposite a sign for sport events.
A busy entanglement of signs
For the tourist
The traveller
The Divine
And the deceased.
Perhaps the trick is to know where you’re going…
