Scenes from many lives.

India, in all its glory - ever changing scenes of daily life which delight and surprise. The world is not flat and boring but full of colourful  moments which are there for us to admire and share.

A Theyyam performance from Kerala. 

Washing drying, the army squashing up and snack time. 

 The Fire engine complete with man in compartment cleaning his ears. 

The kids from Ducklings School at the Festival. The little boy in the middle got up and asked a question of the panel. 

 Breakfast on the roadside.

 A break in the day - let sleeping dogs lie and the army officers read their papers.

Remember these?

 The other participants at the Literary Festival 

Young and old on the road

The Jaipur Literature Festival 2019

There are 184 sessions and many evening events and music concerts. To balance my enjoyment with my love of sharing I will cherry pick some of my favourites, the quotes, the titles and books and the authors and personalities.

Ben Okri the author of "The Famished Road" on writing fiction "Authors need to have a wildness to write so as not to diminish the source from where writing comes from". His foundational context is the way his mother told stories, elliptical, never having a point, trying to calm him down as he was an unruly child. He then spent years trying to make sense of them.

Sven Beckert author of "The Empire of Cotton" looking at the global history of cotton and how it was crucial to the development of capitalism. Most countries depended on it in the first industrial revolution and 350 million people are still engaged in its production and manufacture in the world.

Andrea de Robilant "Autumn in Venice, Ernest Hemingway and his last muse" the story of Ernest Hemingway and Adriana, an 18 year old Italian girl who Ernest Hemingway met when he was 49 and who became his muse when he was in Venice. His writing took off once more and soon after he wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" for which he won the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize.

Zachary Leanard on "The life of Saul Bellow"- several volumes of a very full life.

Jenny Uglow on Mr Lear. A life of Art and Nonsense" She loves choosing strange individuals as her subject matter and Lear certainly fits that bill.He loved nonsense and made up a lot of it that we are all so familiar with like the Owl and the Pussy Cat and was prone to using words like splendidophoropherostiphongious to describe his mood.

No Book - But a panel on Brexit with Nikesh Shah, Sir Roy Strong, Rachel Johnson moderated by James Crabtree. Rachel, Sister of Boris saying"Try spending Xmas in my house where one brother is ardent Leave and the other Remain". Nikesh, "I like the EU, I like immigrants". Crabtree urging us to read the Chumocracy by Pankaj Mishra in the NYT- A possible outcome to the whole debacle - indefinite leave to remain!

Simon Sebag Montefiore on the incredible lives and times of the Romanovs. Blood and Gore, Killing and betrayals and some sexy liaisons thrown in for good measure. A very lively look at Russian History.

Yann Martel Life after Pi- how he created his story, one believable and one unbelievable and how he married the two together reminding us that the wealth of the earth belongs to us all.

Anuradha Roy - Her new book "All the lives we never lived" is a wonderful blending of real people with fiction- so Tagore and Walter Spiez are protagonists in her new novel written with her usual attention to detail and the senses. Liberating her female protagonist who leaves behind a son and husband to pursue a completely different life.  I loved her session.

The indefatigable Mary Beard on SPQR- her book about the senate and people of Rome. Its importance on the world stage and uncovering how people lived and died.

A panel with Germaine Greer, Mary Beard, Reni Eddo Lodge and Bee Rowlatt. Germaine told us why women fake orgasm among other interesting snippets.

Learning all about the Kumb Mela - what it means, why people go and the amazing work of some young girls who took photographic records poems and oral histories of the last three. Why you would want to join 110 million others on the way ... to bathe in the Ganges. Photo from todays BBC edition and the article about how people are lost and found at the mela.

Finding Vishu

In one of my first visits to the Literary festival I met a young tuk - tuk drive called Vishu. He dressed like a Bollywood star and looked like one. He stood apart from the other drivers. I have never seen such eyelashes on a man. I wrote an article about him for the Indian Magazine "Culturama" and he proudly kept it in his tuk tuk to show all his passengers.
Sitting in a session this year, there he was in front of me. Is this just a lucky coincidence? Did he seek me out among the thousand of participants?I don't think I will ever know.

Good looking and groomed, his waistcoat the same vibrant colour I remember he wore a couple of years ago.The next day there he was again looking even more the part - yes he is a bit of an enigma.

 I asked him about his life and he is seemingly happy ferrying people back and forth.No partner as yet. There is a comforting familiarity in returning after a two year absence and finding Vishu. 

The Artisan Designers of Kutch

Indian fabrics are spectacular in themselves but when they are taken and lovingly transformed by talented designers into the most appealing tunics, saris and shalwar kameezes exhibiting Ajrakh block design, embroidery and weaving, that is when you regret that extra naan and the jelabis in syrup you wolfed down at lunch. Not that I could for a moment entertain the thought of wearing any of the amazing clothes we saw at the fashion show organised by the Festival. Dreaming about it, now that is another matter!

Zentangle

And there she was against a big black iron gate - a garage opening - where her art lay hanging on the railings. Black and white mainly but with occasional splashes of colour they are, what she describes as zentangle art. This immediately reminded me of my son whose doodles grace his walls, his pen leading him into a calmer, wider world where he can focus on the specific or see the bigger picture. She does the art for the same reason, to add sanity to her weekends so that she is not nagging her husband about the minutia in life. She moves them adroitly onto a white sheet and compartmentalises them and makes them visually attractive and does so knowing there is no perfection but purpose. 

Her name is Aakanksha which means desire and she explains that her parents had two children.The first was a boy and welcome he was. But they wanted a girl (hurray)  and they waited ten years for her to arrive. Their desire for her was overwhelming and embracing so her name says it all.

She is a lovely woman, the kind that I know India can raise. Kind, smart, funny, creative and independent. Aakanksha is a surgeon working in the Jaipur Hospital and this is what she does on her time off. Her dad keeps telling her to add colour but somehow she is happy mainly with the black and white effect and you can see why. 

Now my friend Catherine said I should not let her buy any more art this trip. So I have failed miserably in keeping her from this. She bought one of her drawings. I have however succeeded in finding a new friend and a story that we can both delight in. 

Safe to Unlock

On my desk I found this notice - A package designed to appeal to the single woman traveller in India. In my room a CCTV camera is on 24/7 showing me the corridor outside. I am in a designated wing of the Hotel. Welcome initiatives? 

I always read the papers when I am here and on each day I pick up yet another incidence of violence against children, women, transgenders and other vulnerable groups. It has been six years almost to the day when I left India on the back of the horrendous rape of the young college girl on a bus from which she subsequently died. This initiative in my hotel will appeal to the western traveller but what about the rest of the population I wonder? When will those women and children be safe as they are entitled to expect of their lives? Patriarchy still holds strong. Sons need to be brought up with a whole different view of the world and mothers and fathers can do so much in getting these attitudes changed. I would like to say I have seen improvements but the papers speak of a continuation of the violence... on what is almost a daily basis. 

In all the years I lived here, and now, I have never felt unsafe or threatened and the majority could not be more welcoming and hospitable. The sad reality though is that there are many, many more who not only feel unsafe, they often don't live to tell the tale. Safe to unlock and venture forth? Sadly not. India celebrates its many achievements today. Women in Government, women as Jet pilots. There is more work to be done so that everyone can celebrate living freely and safely in this vast and inclusive sub- continent. 

Arriving in India

A sea of Indians surge forward, defying the air stewardess's entreaties to stay in their seats, eager it seems, to step onto the hallowed horror of the carpet in Terminal 3. A horror imprinted on a lot of our minds. I too march on, momentarily confused as there seemed to be no passport check out for me. A guard redirected me to a new area entirely for foreigners, grouped into sticker visas and E- visas. Perplexed passengers in both columns as the wrong pieces of paper were held up. Eventually I escape to collect a very slothful suitcase that took almost 40 minutes to appear, while the first assault of the senses was well under way. Curry leaves. Suitcase in hand I exit and mercifully see my name, held up by a five foot Feroz, spiffily dressed, speaking perfect English, a Muslim who has become an atheist and now reads about religions and philosophy. The half of his face blackened by a terrible injury of a firecracker that had backfired and narrowly missed his eye. He explained that because of this injury he was unable to drive but would leave me in the capable hands of Massud, also Muslim, hennaed hair, very quiet by contrast. We drove into the city in a phalange of white cars, trucks and motorcycles that squeezed us into the smallest area of bitumen at any one time. It took a while, and the saving grace was seeing Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Presidential Palace on Raisina Hill silhouetted against the fading light and the hazy mist. Magical. It made me nostalgic for the elaborate and colourful celebrations of Indian Republic Day on the 26th of January which we would watch every year coming down the hill and the playing of the Last Post. 

Into the Imperial Hotel, https://theimperialindia.com where the second assault to the senses takes place.This one very different. Jasmine scented corridors, rooms and atriums. Orchids suspended from the ceilings and history heavy on the walls, trophies and medals, paintings and sketches of the time since it was built in the 1930s and before. It has a freshness and smartness about it which is only achieved by the tireless work of many.

The sea of Indians fade into the billion or more, as I capture my final image of the day, and I settle down to a good night's sleep in a regal bed. 

We need a BIG BUZZ around this one

https://www.serenataflowers.com/pollennation/guide-to-flower-pollination/

Artists at the Gallery of Modern Art are exhibiting living beehives to explain the precarious state of bees in the world and the disastrous consequences of living in a world without bees. They remind us to look at our relationship to the natural world and to warn of impeding climate changes and extinction of so many of the species. Bees are essential pollinators of plants.

The BBC has just published an interesting article http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190117-the-young-woman-who-wants-to-put-bees-in-your-office on one woman's efforts to do something constructive about this problem. 

Books have been written and poems have been recited but the decimation of bees seems to continue unabated. Is this something we can stop or reverse? The Hubby got a Beehive for Xmas. He is in the process of building it and varnishing it before we go out to get the swarm, but in the meantime we are heading to a workshop on the FLOW HIVE an Australian invention that has met with great success https://www.honeyflow.com.au

On the 11th of February we are heading to Ipswich to listen to Darryl Ryan who is an expert on Flow Hives and who will talk to us about the benefits of a beehive in an urban environment and the impact of bees on our lives. He will also demonstrate bee handling and honey harvest and provide us with Bee hats to allow us to get close to the bees.

There will be delicious honey to buy and morning tea provided. The fee is $50 which is a bargain for the expert know- how that Darryl is kind enough to share with us. If you are interested in joining a small group which is going on Monday the 11th of February 2019 from 10 -1pm please email me at marina.marangos@gmail.com or send me a message on Facebook.

Looking for the Scarlet Sided Pobblebonk

There is no better feeling at the beginning of each new year then getting out there, exploring nature and just exercising those slightly fat laden thighs and hips. We did exactly that yesterday and spent a wonderful day among the canopy of the rain forest in a place called Skywalk https://www.rainforestskywalk.com.au.

A walkway built high up in the canopy of the rainforest.The rainforest is alive with the calls of birds and cicadas. We were looking for many creatures but in particular the Scarlet Sided Pobblebonk. The Skywalk is in an area called Tamborine, a beautiful plateau of mountains about an hour and a half from Brisbane, with gorgeous mountain trails and cool breezes.

The Scarlet Sided Pobblebonk proved elusive, (here is a photo taken by Robert Ashdown) which shows clearly how apt the name is - the scarlet bit that is ! There is an explanation for the bonk - its call is like a bonk or a dunk. Dont know about the Pobble though.

 It is one of the many frogs that can be sighted in this particular area.

What we did see were two Magnificent Fruit Doves also known as the Wompoo Dove. We think it was a mother and a baby as the mother kept flying off, finding some tasty fruit and bringing it back to the baby. They were extremely difficult to spot as they blend into the leaves but a flutter warned us and after that we got some lovely sightings of them. This is a photo which I didn't take but cant find who to credit it to. 

We got all tangled up in the undergrowth looking for the amazing Richmond Birdwing Butterfly which we saw fleetingly floating by- iridescent blues and greens shining against a backdrop of sky.

Later on in the day we stood at a Lookout and read the sign to see what we were looking out at, and there in front of us was Mount Misery. Here it is in the distance, that little peak. Yes I agree its miserably insubstantial, bu there is no doubting its existence in amongst the lovely green leaves. Can't imagine why it deserved to be named as such but we smiled and wished it a less miserable 2019.

Finally as if to seal the unconventional nature of the day there in that sky was the moon as I had never seen it before. Upside down. Made us feel truly Down Under !

Brissie at sunset.

I took this photo in a moment when C had gone for a pee. Sometimes the colour and timing is just fleeting and this is all it takes to capture it. In this age of filters and photoshopping I can say I am quite proud of this one. No interventions on this at all, just captured in that flash of redness in the sky which paints everything around it and gives off a warm and all embracing glow. 

A sunset worth remembering in a city worth living in. 

Lost and Found - Moffat Beach

Spent an idyllic day by the seaside on Moffat beach. I went into the ocean and one of the waves managed to instantly take me, turn me upside down, shake me all around and spew me out by the beach, in what I can only describe as a less then elegant exit. I had sand in every orifice and hair in my mouth. My hair scrunchy had disappeared in the froth.The feeling of being completely powerless to the force of that wave was overwhelming. No messing with this water. Reminds me of the French word which describes that sensation wonderfully : Boulouverser ! What do you do when a wave takes hold of you - Ride another - so in I went again and managed to stay, bobbing happily in the deeper water just beyond the surf. After a while I went for a walk along the beach, and there, hugging the shore line, by a rock pool, was my scrunchy. The year has started out well. Challenging yet invigorating! Lost and found. That feeling of having gained something from nothing. And for you all colours, beautiful ones, by the ocean to share.