Craftworks One

Attended a private party to celebrate our neighbourhood brew pub's one year on earth. Fab evening and night. 

The band for the evening was Suresh Peters' and (I never would have expected it) Prasanna. Now, I've heard Prasanna play when I was a impressionable teen. He's ex-IIT and just google or YT him please. No further intros needed. 

Great evening. What topped it off for me was that Prassi played Blues for Saraswati, impromptu though it was, on a personal request from me. We got talking and then some. 

Excellent company as well - Nandita for starters (superlative) as well as Roma, Tony, Pooja and Jiggesh, Smita and Akhauri, Zibi and Navin and several other folks we met through the evening. Great banter and fun all through. I had some excellent conversation with Tony, which will probably need a separate blog post, or more likely a blog by itself.   

Lively music including some terrific tamil and hindi songs. I became quite inebriated on the whisky and the food - pork, chicken, prawns, et al. 

So much so that I danced to Roadhouse Blues, the finale of the evening, with my beautiful missus. 

Special thanks to Ajay Nagarajan of Craftworks, Kamal, Adrian, and all the TE-H staff for a great night out. 

Tomorrow is another day. 

PS: Prasanna is back in B'lore soon and we will be watching him performat  Craftworks. A "Save the Date" for sure!!

Father Time

Took Atri out this afternoon for burgers and ice cream to our neighbourhood mall. 

I ate the burger, he ate the fries. We then went to Cream n' Desserts for ice cream. Atri loves their chocolate scoop and I usually go for the Fig and Honey (my favourite flavour of all).

One evidently happy lad!!

A Krash Kourse in Kollywood

On the way back from a one day trip to Chennai.

My cab driver to the terminal, a lad named Karthik, seemed most enterprising. He and five other friends run a private ferry service to the airport, rail and bus stations. 

In between taking fresh bookings for the night, I received a crash course on the Tamil film industry.  

We discussed the relative popularity of Surya and Vijay, the box office success of new comer Siva Karthikeyan (?), the oomph appeal of Anushka Shetty, Tamannah and Bindu Madhavi as well as the rising fortunes of comedian Santhanam. 

Also touched upon the music of Anirudh, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Harris Jayaraj. 

An entertaining ride to say the least. Have received recos for a few Tam flicks as well. Which I shall attend to soon. 

Nom Nom Nom - Chinese Style

Went for lunch to Yauatcha on 1 MG Road. I've eaten at their London counterpart as well as their sister restaurant, Hakka San.

Starters were classic prawn dumplings and a plate of crispy duck rolls (with Hoisin sauce). I gorged on both. 

The dumplings were cooked to perfection, no sticky dough tearing and mucking up the edges of the chopsticks. As was the prawn filling inside - pink and nicely steamed. 

The rolls contained a generous portion of shredded duck. Well cooked without sacrificing the taste of the meat. 

It is also a HUGE and I mean HUGE relief to eat with a pair of good wooden chopsticks - not the slippery plastic ones or the disposable pairs you encounter usually. 

My mains comprised the Mongolian Lamb Chops served with Udon noodles, Sprouts and mock meat, accompanied by a black pepper sauce.

The chops were good. Marinated well and cooked right. I could chew and swallow the meat quite easily, rather than feel it turn to tasteless rubber in my mouth (yes, I have sampled Camlin erasers as a child, hurr hurr). 

The only taste that put me off was an slight excess of salt in both the chops and the noodles. So, overall 7-8/10 for mains. 

Dessert was an excellent raspberry delice served with dark chocolate mousse and raspberry ice-cream. Apparently the most popular dessert on the menu; I did not argue much and truthfully, I did enjoy it. So, full marks to the punters who preceded me. 

All in all, an excellent lunch. 8.5/10 overall. 

YT Picks

A YouTube find from yesterday.  I think John Lawton is a severely underrated vocalist.  I preferred this version to Sloman's from the Conquest album



Happy listening!

A Curtain Raiser: The Vedic Originals

Before I get into a discussion about the rudra-adhyāya and the ensuing vasordhāra, a brief introduction is needed on the vedic originals - brahmanaspati-vishnu-rudra - of the puranic and present day triad - brahma-vishnu-śiva.

The deities in the veda were ascribed importance based on the functions that they performed in the internal and external planes; functions that were directly causal for the psychological discipline and progression of the rśi.  To that extent, the three godheads - brahmanaspati-rudra-vishnu - provided the conditions of the vedic sacrifice and assisted it from behind; unlike their more active counterparts including agni, indra, aśvin, varuna, mitra and the maruts.

brahmanaspati - the deity within us that creates by the Word (brahma) - creates the divine consciousness within us as also sends it on its way from the pathways of darkness to those of light, towards their supreme goal.

rudra - the deity within us that supplies the upward push to the divine consciousness created by brahma - is the violent force that leads the charge; intolerant of defect and crookedness, he battles against the forces of evil - vala, vritra and pani, among others, smiting them down and breaking defective formations on the journey upward.  This is the violent aspect that is first propitiated in the rudra-adhyāya.  rudra has an aspect that is benign, as well.  Called on for aid, he heals all wounds and suffering. He is the master of the force that acts in the planes and the one who enjoys the final liberty and peace.

vishnu - the deity who sits in the plane of bliss - supplies space, the ordered movement of the planes and the ascending levels to support the creations of brahma and the actions of rudra's force.

It is to rudra - the godhead of destruction and benevolence - that I will soon return to. 

anuvāka 4.5.1 through 4.5.11 of the taittirīya samhitā deal with propitiating the destructive aspect of rudra.  anuvāka 4.7.1 through 4.7.11 seeks the blessings of rudra, given to us as various vital and mental powers.  anuvāka 4.7.12 through 4.7.15 deal with the birth of plenitude and all energies in us, and concludes with a prayer of thanksgiving to several deities.

Onward and upward.

PS: I remain grateful to that great teacher, śri aurobindo, whose guidance I always receive, within and from beyond.

Onam and then some. . .

Went to the temple for my usual Monday prayers which involves chanting the rudram-chamakam. 

I had just finished the first part of the chant and was starting the second part when I had an epiphany of sorts.

Indescribable but it sort of filled me completely and the bliss just brought tears to my eyes. Had to literally pause a while before I started off again. 

Also recited the purusha-sūktam and the nārāyana-sūktam, something I have not done in a long while. 

My mind is quite clear about the future course of action and what I need to do to reclaim lost plenitude.

Attended an onam lunch at a friend's residence. A very tasty and varied meal. One that I was quite grateful for. 

A thought runs through my head now. One that I read from a Tom Holt novel, "Losses are a bit like diamonds. You've got to be careful about cutting them, or you end up doing a lot of expensive damage."

On that sombre note, I will ruminate further into the evening. 

S

PS: I think a post on the plenitude spoken of in the rudram-chamakam is long overdue. I shall start gathering the relevant material.