Driving

I was looking through some old trips pics when I found these. I was driving, and Shraddha was toying around with my camera.

This was in mid-morning.

This was late in the evening:

No I don’t always drive with my mouth open… only while yawning. We have a trip or two coming up. Hopefully my shutter finger will get some serious exercise!

Update: here’s a “normal” pic of me driving, shot by my sister.

Texas Ashram, Part 1

Millions have visited Art of Living’s Ashram in Bangalore, and the ones in Germany and Canada. Not many know about the up and coming Ashram we have in Texas though.

Guruji visited the property in September 2005 and gave the go-ahead to purchase it as our newest Ashram. It used to be a bed-n-breakfast place called Reagan Wells Ranch, nestled in the Texas Hill Country, 90 miles west of the madding crowds of San Antonio. It came as a package of about 150 acres of land, a large hall or two for us to use as meditation halls, a kitchen, a dining hall, and several buildings for housing. It had enough to start from to make it a world-class home for Art of Living family.

My TTC1 was the first course to start at this Ashram, in December 2005. However it wasn’t the first course to be completed there; there was a 4-day silence retreat over the new year weekend that got over before our TTC did.

At the time the buildings were getting old and some of them were in poor condition. We used a small kitchen because the large one wasn’t in good enough shape. Beds, ACs, heaters, and bathrooms were all showing their age. It was a good-sized ranch but it wasn’t an ashram yet. Facilities were a tad raw, funds were limited, and courses were few and far between. It took a while, but then slowly the transformation got under way.

As more courses happened there, funds trickled in. Volunteer labor came from a few dedicated individuals who stayed on the property (or drove there weekend after weekend from their home cities) to work on it. Truckloads of old junk were hauled away. New materials were bought, like flooring, paint, wood, tile, and tools.

Bit by bit the work progressed. On some weekends there were groups of 15 or more, working on different parts of the property, smiling and singing, doing sadhana together in the evening, sharing meals and songs and stories at the end of the day, nursing tired bones and aching limbs. Some weekends there was just one couple or two, toiling away on their own. Through chill winters and searing hot summers they worked.

Every bit of the Ashram you see today is a labor of love.

Cottages like Beretta, Longhorn and Aspen were worked on. One by one the rooms started to get new paint, new floors, updated electrical fixtures, updated plumbing, new beds, new mattresses, and so on. Some walls were torn down and the meditation hall was expanded. Major repairs were done, like to the kitchen floor. New bathrooms were added.

As these buildings took on their new character, they were given new names. The building formerly called the White House now serves as our main meditation hall, and is aptly named Saraswati, after the Indian goddess of learning. This hall is where our courses happen now. Early morning yoga in this hall with the sun’s first rays shining in through the windows is a divine treat.

Time for a photographic interlude, starting with the view of Saraswati as you drive up from the main road:

The area’s history is summarized in a historical marker on the road outside the middle gate (click through and see it in its full resolution to read all the text). The well with mineral water spoken of in the plaque is also on the property.

I have more photos and stories to share, watch for Part 2 and possibly Part 3 later this week.

Update: Onward to Part 2

Paryushan

Shraddha here… Anoop has been telling me to be a guest blogger on his blog for a while now. He finally gave me the idea to write a post on Paryushan and so I happily used Wikipedia and copy-pasted along with few sentences in my Gujju English. I emailed him the post and today he got around to editing it, or rather, changing it and writing it all over! So here it is, the edited version, or lets say Anoop’s version.

Recently we celebrated Paryushan, the annual 8-day festival of Jains.

I was never an orthodox strict Jain. This year Paryushan rules were particularly difficult to follow, because I’m now staying by myself with my Tamilian husband away from my Jain brood.

During Paryushan, we gather every evening for Pratikraman, or daily prayers. After we moved to the US, my family, my uncles family and my two aunts’ families all gather together for Pratikraman. My parents didn’t want the kids to go to temples for Pratikraman since the scriptures would be read too fast; they wanted us to sit through and understand their true meaning. It was great to perform Pratikraman along with my extended family. We would have dinner before sunset as was prescribed. We would refrain from eating vegetables grown underground (potatoes, onions, garlic, etc.) and during this time, we would also not eat green vegetables. So the week’s diet consists of mostly grains and pulses. The intention is that even through our diet, we hurt as few living beings as possible. Even insects are not harmed; any insects found in the home are picked up and placed outdoors. We don’t even remove cobwebs during these eight days. We do our best to support all forms of life.

The last day is called Samvatsari, where we ask for forgiveness from and grant forgiveness to everyone we know and don’t know, for any misdeeds we may have done. Quarrels and forgotten and relationships are renewed as we fold our hands and say “micchami dukkadam” or “please forgive me”.

Michhami dukkadam!

Made It In Good Shape!

It’s oficial — I’ve made it to the big three-oh. My birthday was celebrated with a small party hosted by Madhu.

PS: February post!

Pittsburgh Remembered

Lately I have been taking time to do some good reading, and after a long long hiatus I return today to writing. Much obliged to BM and VM for the inspiration.

Today I remember Pittsburgh in blog. I have been encouraged to do so by a friend (he of the IBM persuasion) who is scheduled to visit Pittsburgh next week and wants to know what is worth his while to see. The first thing I should do is point him to what other worthies have written about Pittsburgh: I refer the reader to Ramesh Mahadevan’s Goodbye Pittsburg. Ramesh Mahadevan is always a delight to read, isn’t he? Being of IIT and CMU pedigree, his memories overlap with mine. Even though he didn’t go to the same IIT as I did, his piece titled IIT Garden of Love could well have been written in my IIT.

But I digress. Good old Pittsburgh. On the memories front, Carnegie Mellon obviously gets top spot. The center of my world was the area from the intersection of Forbes and Morewood to the intersection of Fifth and Craig, and the CMU campus. In the first year, that is. Later I developed an affinity to Shadyside, Walnut St, etc. as my close friends will remember. These areas of Pittsburgh have mostly old houses and school buildings and churches, with old-fashioned tree-lined streets, a kind of atmosphere I miss in Austin. Walnut Street in Shadyside and Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill are both beautiful shopping and dining areas, frequented by the CMU population.

Carnegie Mellon is a small campus, consisting of the Mall, the University Center, and a few buildings like the battleship-shaped Wean Hall where the CS-types used to hang out, and Hamerschlag Hall (with that unique structure at its top) which was the ECE building. There was the Arts Building which on the inside looked like an Italian museum with white marble columns and walls and white marble statues of nude Roman and Greek gods and goddesses with missing appendages.

A much larger campus houses the University of Pittsburgh. Its Cathedral of Learning, a sinister structure reminiscent of the Tower of Isengard, is a must-see. You can take a self-guided audio tour of the 21 Nationality Rooms inside, each of which depicts the teaching tradition of the country it represents.

At the corner of Forbes and Craig is the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of National History, and the Carnegie Science Center. If you don’t have much time in Pittsburgh, these may not be very high on your list. But there is a “flourescence and phosphorescence” display in the minerals and gemstones section for which I have a childlike fascination. In a dark room there is an exhibit of some crystals upon which lights are directed; and when these lights are switched off, the magical display of luminiscence begins. It is quite captivating; methinks it is worth the $12 admission fee.

Behind the campus is Schenley Park and the Phipps Conservatory, both of which can make for a relaxing afternoon of wandering and photography. My first rolls of SLR shooting were at Phipps shooting flowers, guided by my friend AN.

All these places are accessible by foot from the Carnegie Mellon campus. For things that are further afield, good public transport is available in the form of buses.

The Andy Warhol museum is definitely worth visiting, as is the Mattress Factory, a modern art museum that is a relatively short trip, both near the downtown area. Speaking of downtown, don’t miss the winch train ride from Station Square to Mount Washington, from where you can see all of downtown including the bridges and the confluence of the three rivers Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio. The view of the downtown lights from there is a great sight at dusk.

Public transportation definitely won’t get you to the Sri Venkateswara Temple. This temple is one of the largest in North America, and can be seen on the side of Interstate 376 as you enter Pittsburgh. As Ramesh Mahadevan mentions in his article above, the curd rice and tamarind rice there are still great, and the temple is quite crowded on Sundays. The nearby restaurant which Ramesh refers to as “Vegetarian Delight” is now called “Udipi” and was supposedly called “Dosa Hut” in an incarnation prior to this. It remains a universally made stop on the way back from the temple. Get good directions before you start; it is easy to get lost going to the temple.

Speaking of desi eating places, the “Star of India” referred to by Ramesh is still there on Craig Street. And at boundary of the Carnegie Mellon and U Pitt campuses (in front of the Hillman Library) there used to be lunch vendors operating out of their trucks on weekdays. Kashmiri’s was a regular haunt… I wonder if his truck still serves lunch there.

If you are into architecture and such, you should visit Fallingwater. This is a house built by Frank Lloyd Wright which stands on top of a waterfall, supported by cantilever beams. They have hourly short tours, but the best tour is the daily long tour that starts at 8 am and used to cost $50. The long tour is worth it, even if it means you have to book it in advance and start driving from Pittsburgh at 6:30 am. If you have even more time to spend on architectural marvels, you can visit the nearby house called Kentuck Knob, also a Wright design. Kentuck Knob has a modern sculpture garden and all, complete with a piece of the Berlin Wall and all. Laurel Caverns and Ohiopyle State Park are also within a stone’s throw of here. The Western Pennsylvania countryside is quite beautiful this time of the year.

Pittsburgh is a wonderful place. But ultimately it was the people I was with that made my life in Pittsburgh complete — you know who you are. Some of them are still in school there, and I have visited Pittsburgh once since I left CMU. I am looking forward to more visits…

Hello World

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