Worshiping on the beach: Mahabalipuram

Located on the Coromandel Coast, Mahabalipuram is a 7th century port city that served as the capital of the Pallavas.

The beach at Mahabalipuram

When we were planning our vacation, I had initially thought of spending a couple of days at Mahabalipuram, but things didn’t quite work out the way I’d hoped. Still, since it was just a 2–2.5 hour drive from Pondicherry, and could easily be covered as a day trip, I was determined to visit the city.

Mahabalipuram, referred to as an “open-air museum,” (similar to Nawalgarh in Rajasthan) is home to a wide variety of architectural styles, from rock-cut caves to temples hewn out of a single rock to gorgeous bas-reliefs. Some believe that the area was a school for sculptors, and this does seem plausible as the many different sculptures and types of architecture found here could easily have been demonstrated by instructors and practiced on by students.

Panch Rathas, Mahabalipuram

Nowhere is this more evident than at the Pancha Rathas (five chariots), where each Ratha – carved from a single piece of granite – depicts a different style of sculpting. In addition to the chariots are a few animal sculptures, notably a lion and an elephant, which were also carved from a single rock.

Opposite the Pancha Rathas complex is a huge, open air complex where stone workers have their workshops. This is a great place to see artists at work and pick up souvenirs to take back home.

The Varaha Cave temple is located in a park (entrance free), which is also dotted with a lot of other stone temples and sculptures. The entrance to the temple is guarded by lions, carved into the base of the pillars, while Pallava doorkeepers guard the main mandapa. The four walls of the mandapa have large sculptured panels – the Northern panel depicts Vishnu as Varaha (the boar) holding up Bhumi (the earth goddess).

A carving at the Varaha Temple, Mahabalipuram

Once you see the temple, take a walk through the park, which is home to a ton of monkeys! The husband and me walked about a bit, until the sheer number of monkeys spooked us and we decided to turn back. I was keen to explore a bit more, but the hubs was tired, so he sat it out while I went on to explore some of the other old temple structures perched high up on rolling hills. Some of these places were rather simple, but the views were breathtaking.

One of the monkey's wheedled an ice cream from a tourist and was sitting on a trunk enjoying the treat!

All this walking about in the heat was getting us rather irritable, so we decided to get some lunch before continuing further. I wanted to have some seafood, so the driver took us to a place called Luna Magica, which I had heard about and wanted to try. The hubs took one look at all the fresh fish there and decided he couldn’t eat anything there! A brief argument conversation later, we decided to move out and find another place to eat. We ended up at a beach café, I don’t remember the name, where I did get some coastal food, but it was nowhere close to what I expected! Has anyone been to Luna Magica? Is the food as good as the reviews say it is?

Arjuna's penance

Oh well! The food debacle behind us, our next stop was Arjuna’s Penance. Measuring 27 meters by 9 meters and carved on two gigantic stones, the bas-relief is among the largest in the world. The carving breathes life into the Panchatantra story of Ganges’ descent from the Himalayan mountains. Legend has it that King Bhagirath brought Ganges down from heaven to purify the souls of his ancestors, but when he realized that doing so would flood the earth, he prayed to Lord Shiva to intervene. Shiva allowed Ganga to descend on his head, allowing the flood to trickle through his hair, dispersing the waters safely in innumerable streams worldwide. The most famous part of the mural is the cleft between the rocks, which depicts Shiva’s descent from Heaven through the colossal waterfall.

Shore Temple, Mahabalipuram

The highlight of Mahabalipuram, though, is the 60 ft high, 5-story high Shore Temple, built on a 50 ft square platform overlooking the Bay of Bengal. In contrast to the rest of the rock cut temples in this city, the Shore Temple is built from dressed stone, and is one the important structural temples in South India.

The temple is a combination of three shrines. The main shrine is dedicated to Shiva as is the smaller second shrine. A small third shrine, between the two, is dedicated to a reclining Vishnu. The outer wall of the shrine to Vishnu and the inner side of the boundary wall are extensively sculptured and topped by large sculptures of Nandi. The whole temple has this wind swept look though, as the stone has slowly eroded away. The carvings still retain their beauty, but you can clearly see the damage that is being caused by wind erosion.

The temple is separated from the rest of the beach, which reminded me a bit of the beaches of Goa…next time we plan a trip down South, I’ll definitely block a couple of days for a stay at Mahabalipuram!

The Road Goes Ever On – J R R Tolkien

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

Book review: Mornings in Jenin – Susan Abulhawa

Mornings in Jenin tells the story of the Abulheja family. The patriarchs of the family, Haj Yehya and Basima, live in the small village of Ein Hod. The novel opens in 1941, during the olive harvest season as Yehya and his family and neighbours gather to pick the fruit. The first few pages (and years) set the stage for the family, introducing us to Yehya’s sons Hassan and Darweesh, Hassan’s Jewish friend Ari Perlstein, and Dalia, the Bedouin girl who steals their heart.

“In a distant time, before history marched over the hills and shattered present and future, before wind grabbed the land at one corner and shook it of its name and character, before Amal was born, a small village east of Haifa lived quietly on figs and olives, open frontiers and sunshine.”

Their idyllic life is shattered by the “nakba” (cataclysm) in 1948, when the Israelis forced the villagers of Ein Hod off their land and sent them to the refugee camp in Jenin. Narrated by Amal, Hassan and Dalia’s daughter who is born in the refugee camp, Mornings in Jenin traces the story of her brothers – Yousef, whose love for his wife Fatima and for Palestine will set him on a collision course with his brother David (Ishmael), who was lost during the nakba and brought up as a Jew. It also interweaves Amal’s tale of love and loss, of her enduring friendship with Huda and mornings spent with her father, of living through the loss of her parents – her father as a casualty of the Six Day War, her mother as she lost her mind after that war – of moving to a Jerusalem orphanage to study, settling in the US, falling in love, and returning to Jenin with her daughter.

Kids at the Jenin camp (Image via Flickr)

This is by no means an easy book to read – it’s filled with pathos and loss, sorrow and separation, death and loss – but the prose is lyrical and the writing fluid. I came to love some of the characters and found myself wishing and hoping they’d pull through, but unfortunately, not all of them will.

This is the first book I have come across that presents the Palestinian point of view. It isn’t unbiased – there is the matter of Hassan’s Jewish friend Ari Perlstein who disappears after the first few pages and only puts in an appearance at the end of the narrative and of Israeli attacks on Jenin apparently without any provocation from Palestinians – but it is an important book.

“The story of one family in an obscure village, visited one day by a history that was not its own, and forever trapped by longing between roots and soil. It was a tale of war, its chilling, burning, and chilling-again fire. Of furious love and a suicide bomber. Of a girl who escaped her destiny to become a word, drained of its meaning. Of grown children sifting through the madness to find their relevance. Of a truth that pushed its way through lies, emerging fro a crack, a scar, in a man’s face.”

The Jewish suffering is well-known thanks to the many excellent books available on the holocaust and the creation of Israel – Leon Uris’ Exodus, Schindler’s List, Anne Frank’s Diary and Man’s Search for Meaning are just a few examples. With Mornings in Jenin, readers will finally get to hear the Palestinian voice, to know of the many atrocities committed in refugee camps in that area, and maybe, to gain a better understanding of the “Palestinian situation”.

In closing, I’d say that this book is a must read for anyone who is interested in the Israel-Palestine issue, and even for those who are not.

Creative technology

I’ve been checking out the Google Art Project, and it’s been fun! As I was browsing around the website though, I got to thinking about how much technology has evolved.

Remember My Space? It started as a place to hang out and make friends, for artists to get noticed, to upload their music. Then came Facebook, and now My Space is history.

In this constantly evolving technology scene, there’s a lot that’s being done to foster and promote creativity. There are places like Flick and Piccasa where you can share your photography and art work and connect with millions of artists from around the world. Your Flickr stream can work like a catalog for your photography, or you could start up a photo blog to showcase your pictures.

If you’re a musician, there are sites like soundcloud.com where you can upload your music for everyone to hear. If you’d like, you can even allow listeners to download your tracks.

Not to be left behind, even smartphones have some cool apps that allow you to create and share. There’s LaDiDa, a reverse karaoke app for people like me with limited musical abilities. Instead of forcing you to sing a song in a specific key, the app will automatically choose the key and change the chords for you so that all you have to do is sing. Here’s a demo:

Then there are apps like the Pudding Camera, that gives you a combination of different kinds of camera and film and allows you to click some really creative pictures. This picture was clicking using the Fantasy camera and a Noir film. Pretty cool, eh? That’s straight from the camera, absolutely no post processing involved!

If you’re an artist, there are a ton of applications for you, like Anatomy for Artists: Proportions, which that offers a high-quality reference guide for artist.

There are so many cool innovations and applications that are making it easier and simpler for people to create and share online.

What are some of your favorite places to share your creations, and which are your favorite apps?

You might also like:

It’s magical when technology meets art

Friday Frame #13: Falls of Leny

Falls of Leny, Scotland Photo taken in 1890. Image via Library of Congress

(More Friday Frames)

If you have any artwork or photography to share, please leave a comment, a link back to your blog and your e-mail address, and I’ll feature it on an upcoming Friday Frame!

The Book of Tomorrow – Cecelia Ahern

The Book of Tomorrow tells the story of 16-year old Tamara. Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she’s like almost any other girl her age and of her class – interested in boys and flashy stuff, lashing out at her parents, rebelling against things around here. Until tragedy strikes and her family is bankrupt, at which time they move out to the country to stay with her mother’s brother at a ruined castle.

While there, Tamara finds a book at a traveling library – an empty book that miraculously has an entry for the next day’s events. Using those entries and clues, Tamara is about to uncover a secret that has been hidden 17 years.

I think the novel is aimed at tweens, and with this category, it should be a hit.

Cecelia Ahern has done a great job of writing from a 16-year old’s point of view, and she builds up her characters and the plot well. You pretty much find things out along with Tamara, and can feel her excitement and frustrations. The novel is pretty well-crafted, but then you’d expect that from Cecelia Ahern, and should keep tweens (and maybe some adults too) engrossed as they wait to find out what comes next.

If you were hoping for something along the lines of P.S. I Love You, though, you just might be disappointed.

Overall, I’d say you could pick it up for a quick, light read on a rainy day.

Stylishly yours

Last Sunday, I got the Stylish Blog Award from my bloggie friend Reenie, and then, just as I was thinking of posting it on my blog and had the nomination list all ready, yesterday, my buddy Ann (who I was going to nominate, btw) nominated me too! So, that means I have myself two Stylish Blog Awards, making me doubly stylish! 😉

To accept this award, I’m supposed to thank the person who awarded me – Reenie, Ann, you gals rock! Thank you! – share 7 things about myself and pass it on to some more stylish bloggers. There’s a number confusion here, ’cause one says 15, the other 7 – I guess I’m gonna bend the rules!

First up, 7 things you probably didn’t know about Modern Gypsy:

1) I’m generally a very happy-go-lucky person, which also means that at times when I NEED to take action, I don’t. At such times, my friends push me, yell at me and motivate me – and I love them for it!

2) I started out as a dog lover, but once I met the husband and realized his fear of dogs and love for cats, I became a cat lover myself. So now, I’m one of the few people who loves both dogs and cats.

3) I cry easily at the movies, in real life situations, though, it takes a lot to get me to shed those tears.

4) I LOVE comedy – but of the intelligent variety. Think The Birdcage.

5) I hate cooking, unless I’m trying out a new, exotic dish, like a Spanish Express Paella (recipe to come on the blog soon!).

6) My dream job would be one as a travel writer and photographer. I LOVE traveling, exploring different cities, cultures and cuisines, and clicking away like there’s no tomorrow. I’d love to be able to hold an exhibition combining photography and art. Some day, hopefully!

7) I’m fascinated with divination and the Tarot, and am learning how to read the cards.

Now, on to nominating the award to some of my fellow bloggers! I can’t nominate Reenie and Ann, since they both nominated me. So, I hereby nominate these great bloggers with the Stylish Blogger Award! Do hop over and say hi!

Jade at No Longer 25 writes about her favorite things: family, friends, food, travel and gardening.

Jacki at The Raven’s Spell chronicles the ever changing adventures of a stubborn, book-obsessed woman as she redefines her life, family, and self.

Adriana at La Dulce Vida, a bohemian mother of three that is inspired by all the beautiful things in life… Art, food, fashion,parenting, travel and culture.

Miranda at Mangoes and Chutney is someone I discovered while doing the 31 days to a better blog over at SITS. She offers new recipes, some Virgin Island knowledge, and a few cooking tidbits, all infused with a little humor.

I found Jennifer at Scraps of Life through her SITS feature day. Her blog is full of interesting, arty stuff that is sure to jump start your creativity!

It's magical when technology meets art

Think New York, and what comes immediately to mind? For some it’s Central Park, for others it may be Times Square, and still others may think immediately of the Statue of Liberty. Me? I’ve always thought of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The main points of attraction for me are its Egyptian art, European paintings and sculpture and medieval arts collections. I could spend a couple of days at the museum…wandering through the Temple of Dendur – a large sandstone temple that was given to the US in 1965 and was assembled in the Met’s Sackler Wing in 1978 – and examining the many Egyptian artefacts scattered through the Met’s 40 Egyptian galleries. Then there are the European masters – Monet, Vermeer, Cézanne, Van Gogh…the European sculpture gallery, with a reconstructed 16th century patio from the Spanish castle of Vélez Blanco, and the collection of Medieval art, divided between the museum and The Cloisters.

NYC: Metropolitan Museum of Art - Sackler Wing...

Temple of Dendur, Met, NY Image by wallyg via Flickr

So you can imagine my delight when I read about the Google Art Project, which brings together over 1,000 works of art by more than 400 artists. Using its Street View technology, Google has mapped 17 museums from around the world, including the Met, allowing you to take a stroll through the museum from the comfort of your own home. Each of these museums has selected one image that Google photographed using some amazingly advanced technology so that you can zoom into it in great detail – maybe greater detail than would have been possible if you were seeing it hanging on the museum wall! You “can zoom in to see Van Gogh’s famous brushwork or watch how previously hard to-see elements of an artwork suddenly become clear – such as the tiny Latin couplet which appears in Hans Holbein the Younger’s “The Merchant Georg Gisze.” You can also create a collection of your favourite works of art, add comments and share it with friends and family.

I clickety-clacked my way over to the site immediately and immersed myself in the beautiful works of art available online. As I slowly work my way through the site, I’ll start sharing my collection of favourite artwork, so stay tuned!

You can read Google’s blog post announcing the project or go straight to Google Art Project.

Excited? Hoping to find a particular museum or a favourite artist? Tell me about it in the comments!

'Tis the season of love!

Image by PinkMoose via Flickr

Happy Valentine’s day my sweets!

What a beautiful day this is – a day to celebrate love – love for yourself, your family, your pets, your significant other.

Scratch beneath the surface of the commercialization, and you’ll see that this can be a beautiful day indeed…a day to pamper yourself and your loved ones just a wee bit more than you do usually.

Here are some ideas for you.

For yourself:

Have a bubble bath with candles, wine, some music, a book
Indulge in your favorite foods – forget about health food for a day – indulge in some yummy cakes or lasagna instead
Dim the lights and meditate. Try some of the meditation music and guided meditation clips on my blog
Meet up with your girlfriends for a day out in the town
Spend the day doing something you love – photography, art, cooking…

For your significant other:

Try doing something extra special that they wouldn’t expect – for me, it would be cooking up a meal!
Rekindle the romance – light some candles, put on some soft music, curl up together and watch a movie…or talk…or…
Go hiking together
Leave a love note on the steamed up bathroom mirror

Need a last minute valentine gift idea? Try one of these!

Got any ideas of your own? Tell me!

Friday Frame #12: Christian Lacroix – Sleeping Beauty

Legendary couturier Christian Lacroix illustrates author and style expert Camilla Morton's take on Sleeping Beauty, part of her Fashion Fairytale Memoir series.

(More Friday Frames)

If you have any artwork or photography to share, please leave a comment, a link back to your blog and your e-mail address, and I’ll feature it on an upcoming Friday Frame!