Dreams Unlimited

Picked this up on a whim at the Chennai airport earlier this year. I was intrigued by the story of how the book ended up getting translated. It was originally written in French by  Ari Gautier and translated to English by Blake Smith. Ari commented on Blake's essay. He expressed irritation as it failed to mention current francophone writers and only mentioned the writer whose work Blake had just translated. What followed was a series of interactions that ended up with this masterpiece.  The book retains many Tamil words like thinnai, kaili, vaatiyar, suruttu etc. which gives it an authentic feel. The characters are only referenced by their nick-names – Joseph One-and-a-half eyes ( he squinted ), Three-balls six-faces ( he had 3 balls ), Emile Kozhukattai-head ( his head was like a watermelon ), Killer Widow ( she supposedly murdered her husband ) etc. Having mean, hilarious nicknames is a common phenomenon in Indian households with everyone forgetting your actual name because nobod

Mark Twain called Benares 'older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together'.  Called Kashi in the Vedas and more recently Varanasi, Benares is one of the oldest cities in the world. The temple, and the king's honorofic have Kashi in their name ( Ka shi Vishwanath Temple, Kashi Naresh ); the university, the saree, and the paan have Banaras in it ( Benares Hindu University, Banarasi sarees, Banarasi paan ). Have not come across anything with Varanasi in it except the airport and the train station. Personally I prefer Benares; that was what I was calling it while planning my travel, while there and upon my return when talking about my trip. I was in Benares for 5 days in the December of 2021 when there was a cold wave. It was a solo trip. I limited my interactions with the locals and other travelers.  My first trip to Benares was 8 years back in the November of 2013 for a friend's wedding but I had not ex

 Let’s play twister, with a slight twist. Self: “Designed for a complicated solution in a simple and elegant manner.” Satisfaction. Referee: “Left hand to red.”   “Two people on my team are on unplanned leave today” Irritation. “Right hand to blue”   “Stuck in a traffic jam.” Frustration. “Left leg to yellow.”   “A decadent dark chocolate cake slice with tea.” Pleasure. “Right leg to green.”   “Watching the sunset.” Joy. “Nose to blue.”   With each experience, each emotion, the mind keeps getting further twisted. No yoga pose can accurately describe the mental shape that has emerged. It is easy to get so contorted that you forget you can end the game and stand up straight, even if for a few minutes every day. That is a powerful reset. This is what my meditation practice is to me - untangling myself and taking a pause before jumping into the twister of life again.

She had it all - a seven-figure salary, a debt-free house, a comfortable lifestyle. She was proud of all that she had accomplished. One day, she came across someone earning an eight-figure salary. Self-doubt crept in. Was she not good enough? Maybe she should have asked for that promotion. Was she top management material? Why didn’t she pursue her start-up idea? Was the fear of failure keeping her from reaching her true potential? She picked up a magazine featuring the 10 most beautiful houses in the country. Hers seemed ordinary and pale in comparison. Maybe it needed a coat of paint, some more furniture – expensive looking furniture and art work from renowned artists. She just had two house plants – others had managed to make their home an oasis of greenery. Maybe she just needed a bigger, more spacious house. Her current home overlooked the street and all she could hear were sounds of the traffic. How lovely would it be to have a sea-facing house and constantly be calmed by the

 Does a good deed done with a bad intention count as good? How about a bad deed done with a good intention? Good / bad have a moral judgement associated with them. Also, there is no clear rulebook calling out what’s good and what’s bad. It’s subjective; one man’s good can be another’s bad. Even terrorists believe they are doing the right thing and will be rewarded for their actions. To a neutral observer, the outcome is all that matters. If you give to charity only to save tax, would it still count as contribution? Yes, it would. It did enable someone to pay their medical bills, put a roof over someone’s head or provide a meal to someone. It did make a difference; whether you intended that or not. The difference being the satisfaction you get out of the act. Worth experimenting to see how changing your intention changes your experience. A strong intention can do miracles. When the covid pandemic struck, Sonu Sood stood up and did for the country what even elected leaders could not

If you want to know more about the beaches and party scenes in Goa, this is not the place; if you want to know about the villages, the heritage buildings, the forts, the food; then read right on. I do not enjoy going to a place without knowing the history, the context or any backstory. These help me connect to the place, understand events that took place there, the people living in the place - their preferences, their way of life, and the architecture styles.  I did extensive research for nearly a week and finalized a skeleton of an itinerary for myself (wanted to keep things fluid with a loose structure). I was staying at a resort on Betalbatim beach. Chose this beach as it is not crowded - perfect for my morning and evening walks on the beach. Will divide this post into five parts - Loutolim (village of noted cartoonist Mario Miranda), Divar Island, Panaji (capital city of Goa), forts (Reis Magos and Cabo de Rama) and finally food! Loutolim :- Mario Miranda's work speaks to me. H