The year end post

As another year draws to a close , I realize it is only a gateway to the next .. Though we seem to make a big deal about year ends and New years , we only carry ourselves into the new year !

How different the new year would be ,  depends on what difference we bring about in our own selves .. Yes there are things we can never anticipate and this is  something to be hopeful or apprehensive about … but how we meet the year is entirely up to us .

But a New year does excite me !  A time  to reflect on what went by and make plans for what could be .

 "Hope springs eternal" famously wrote British Poet Alexander Pope in his  "An essay on man" and it is in basic human nature to find things to be hopeful about !

So Welcome 2022 ! Show us what you got !

Soul Food

 

Saw this simmering in a friend's kitchen .. was mesmerized by the colours and the way it was all coming together .. had to take a quick taste .. Gosh .. food for the soul..

Food for me  is all about being hearty , simple , flavorful and those that get made without much of a fuss. Am also for all the local flavours and produce. 

My mothers' cooking remains the biggest influence and I cherish her delicious cooking . some of the tastes are just etched on the memory and going home always is a chance to indulge in some comfort food.

I have a collection of cook books , but the note book I keep going back to  is the one which has my mother's recipes .

Here's to warmth , comfort , health and a bowl of great food !

Lost Art

 

Spotted this letter box in a recent vacation and I was almost wistful for the lost art of writing and posting letters.. inland- letters as they used to be called and the post cards.

Growing up these were the most trusted forms of communication and I remember waiting with anticipation to the postman on a cycle to stop by at our home . and Mom reading out aloud letters from her sisters .... I have written quite a few too and also had a pen-friend in Germany , a lovely girl who I used to write you . wonder how that correspondence stopped .

With the Email of the 90s and the instant messaging of the current times , letter writing is all but a lost art .. a relic of the past .....

I still write long hand letters to friends , of course ending up couriering them ... 

Sometimes slow does seem romantic , in these instant times :)

Goddess atop a hill

Pandavagiri Aikunnu Bhagavathy temple .. atop a hillock .. just about 9 kms from Thrissur town is all kinds of beautiful..

Breathtaking views of the surroundings suffused with divinity and serenity and the majestic goddess overlooking her lay ....

The temple steeped in antiquity is said to be consecrated by Lord Parasurama and visited by the Pandava princes with Draupadi during their year in exile performing austerities . The hillock is also believed to have been the abode of many ascetics and continues to be so ...An oasis of tranquility on a hillock...

White Lotus

A White Lotus Abloom ...

A study in serenity.. of centered-ness and one pointed focus to ascend , sustain and bloom .. from the murky depths to the light above..

From the booklet " The White Lotus " by Sri Parvathi Kumar , this line has stayed with me ...

"Show up that which is beautiful in you , show up that which is tender in you , show up that which is light in you , show up that which is the unfoldment in you and let the show  be in stillness and in silence "

Also brings to mind , my encounter with a yogi , long years back who introduced the magic of silence to me..,,,

A year of writing

I start off on the year long editing assignment! I am hoping to do good amounts of reading , putting out monthly e- news letters and also involve my community of readers to write  too. There will also be a printed souvenir to be released along the way along with a  fundraising for the same . 

Writing has been and will be my mode of creative expression and am just delighted that I have a forum to engage in writing with a purpose  .

The proverbial "butterflies in stomach" feeling is definitely there .The deadlines and the frequent output that will be needed does seem daunting but  am determined to enjoy this as best as I  can and do the  best I possibly could .

Just because , this is so much up my street !

Getting away

Just as we gradually get out of the Lockdown of 2021 following the second wave.. a brief get away.. 

25  few kms away , My friend , Dr S and I  arrive at Chittanda ,a  hamlet of rice fields and a beautiful Kathyayini temple. Dr S owns a piece of land here which she is converting to a vegetable patch with the help of a local farmer . The land is now all cleaned and primed for the farming and we have the happy task of planting  fruit tress in the fringes and see the sprouting in the various patches. The land over looks a vast expanse of paddy fields and the sky stretching every where beyond the hills...

The quiet of the area is soothing .. just the rustle of the wind ..darkening clouds announcing rain ..  egrets and king fishers pecking at the soil and snooping over the temple pond . and a flock of ducks finding their way back to the water.. mom led by a few tiny ones ...

So happy to be soaking in so much beauty ...