Love the mountains and feel spiritually lifted when I come back to them And I breathe easy out of the claustrophobia of the city. Innsbruck is particularly beautiful. Right now is the skiing season so I am told the town is full, but I am a few miles away in a place called Wattens where [...]
What is the identity that is India ?
Sitting in a coffee shop at Vienna airport waiting for my flight to Innsbruck. , using fast free internet (why cant we have that all over India ?). The airport is full of Indians. Going to Milan and Frankfurt mostly. This is the time of the textile fairs, so its wonderful to meet all the [...]
Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol: Whats common amongst them ?
and Helmet Newton, Marc Chagal, Brian Eno, Alexandra McQueen ? They have all done installations or sculpture/art pieces for the Swarovski museum in Wattens near Innsbruck in Austria. It is now the second most visited place in all of Austria. And now I have been asked to do an intstallation there. It is not only [...]
The so called ‘Negro’ Village in Gujarat
In Sasan Gir in Gujarat, we saw this 'Peacock Dance'. We were astonished at the style and the beat of the dance, which felt completely African. The body structure of the men performing the dance did not feel Indian either. It felt like a troop of dancers that flew in from a country in Africa. [...]
Incredible India : The Great Rann of Kutch
kaveri exulting in the sheer magnitude of the white salt desert of the Great Rann of Kutch. The largest in the world, it covers almost 10,000 sq kilometers. Formed by receeding seas that left the salty marsh land behind, it is amazing to actually see yourself walk on crunchy salt crystals and see just white [...]
Travelling
I am travelling in Gujarat with my daughter visiting the villages that keep the traditional handicrafts alive from generation to generation, the Rann of Kutch and now in the Gir forests in search of the last of the Asian lions. Many of these things will probably not survive the onslaught of our times by the [...]
Humility, simplicity
he sat here in all humility in extreme simplicity and changed the world his empty 'chair' a symbol now of the lack of leadership Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi's room at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. Visited today by my daughter Kaveri and myself. To pay our respects and homage.
Are Indians too desentisized to change anything ?
Austere wrote (to the story of a person being tortured and killed because he refused to give a 'gift' for Mayawati's birthday party) : "The lack of my own reaction frightens me Too often repeated a story. Happens. Is desensitization a survival skill? I don't know. But I don't like it " Is Austere right [...]
Merry Christmas and a cheerful New Year !!
Am in Mumbai at this time and seeing a much more somber Christmas celebrations. The Churches and other places of worship are full, but the hotels and the partying is tentative. But perhaps thats the way it was intended to be ? This last year has been dramatic. And there are somber lessons to learn. [...]
Drunken Cockroach
Does anyone remember the scene in India in Mr India where Sri jumped on the bed in alarm when she saw the cockroach ? And then realizes that unknown to her, the house was crawling with kids ? Well, I needed the cockroach to be very still for the camera as he/she eyed Sri Devi [...]