Power Rangers



A weaver preserving a generations-old method of weaving (called Tangalia) in a rural village in Gujarat. How I love his shirt.

Diwali Celebrations

here's some of the kitschy things you can get in the markets in the days leading up to Diwali (The Festival of Lights/biggest holiday of the year in India). can't get enough.

theme of the week: 25.oct.09

"shadows"

diptych of the week: photo of a photo

going east


GOING EAST

Elsewhere,
a babe's first words might be
ma ma, or da da
In Berkeley,
babies are born in a
lotus position
Their first word is
Karma
There might be more
Buddhists in Berkeley than
in Tibet
Some are from Tibet
but many are from
Brooklyn
Bishop George Berkeley
you got it backwards
It's "Go East, Young Man,
Go East."

-Ishmael Reed

theme of the week: 11.oct.09

"photo of a photo"

diptych of the week: red

corner of MLK and MacArthur

classic mumbai

i cannot name all the reasons i loved this moment.

The palm trees, the perfectly tended grass, the architecture...this scene makes me feel like I've time traveled back to 1930 and I'm looking out on some British admirals playing cricket. I half expect to see a turbaned Indian pop into the frame carrying chilled lemonade to serve them.

at the harbor. please don't make me leave here. ever.

taj hotel. (yep, the one from 26-nov-08). one thing i love about living here, as in california, is seeing so many birds. birds birds birds.

pappa. gateway of india.

snapshots of a weekend

getting ready for garba

I was in Gujarat last week to celebrate the end of Navratri, which is a pre-diwali 9-day celebration, and a big part of Navratri is a dance festival called Garba.

Here's a couple of pics from that night, but if you want to read about what all went down, check it out here.

cruising in Vadodara


I didn't have anywhere to put my cell phone, so here are some important numbers which I hoped wouldn't rub off.

my cousin looking for our car at the end of the night

jingle, jingle

at our mini after-party

marketing II

It turns out that Tata's Himalayan brand water has many cutesy little paragraphs on its 1 L bottles, not just the one I posted last month.

"I look back on life - it's funny how things turn out. you, the creator of beeping sirens and honking cars, yearn for the solitude of the mountains. You, a connoisseur of fast food, now gaze at water that took years to gather natural minerals as it trickled down the Himalayas to within your reach. And I, some of the purest water in the world, stand here, trapped in a bottle.

Come, enjoy the irony."

[eye roll],

shelley

theme of the week: 3.oct.09

"red"

hi friends,
we sort of skipped a week in there since i wasn't able to update, but hopefully you've seen the recently posted "typical morning" diptych and my theme pick for this week is "red." Stay tuned for our bon's diptych next Sunday on Oct 11! In the meantime, make sure to check back often because I have a lot of catching up to do and will be posting from all the happenings of last week.

cheers from Mumbai!
shelley

diptych of the week: typical morning

(click for bigger version)

[left]: Berkeley, CA

[right]: Mumbai, India
At the music school, we have class with our guru every morning. He's a big deal, the head honcho. When he arrives on the floor, everyone frenetically moves to open the door, turn on the lights, make him comfortable, and then settle into class quickly. We never really know when he's going to come though. It could be 9:30 AM, 10:00, 10:15 or anywhere in between. Since my bedroom door is exactly opposite the classroom door (pictured here), most mornings I am peeking out my door every 3 minutes to make sure I haven't missed his arrival. The tell-tale sign is if his slippers are on the mat...in which case you better get your butt inside because he's waiting. (I should add that he's one of the gentlest people I've ever ever come in contact with. Out of respect and humility, the tradition is to keep the guru from waiting on his students.)