The Slow Arrow of Beauty

Pretty little school girls from a small town on the Kerala-Karnataka border

What is beauty? It’s such a strange term. What may appear breathtaking to me may be less than ordinary to someone else and yet we live in a culture where every once in a while a man or a woman is put up on a pedestal of being fine creations of God. This makes no sense. Surrounding ourselves with unachievable, often technically enhanced, beauty keeps us from appreciating the most simplistic, often miss-able beauty that passes us by ever too discreetly. I love how Nietzsche describes it. For only he could.

“The Slow Arrow of Beauty. The most noble kind of beauty is that which does not carry us away suddenly, whose attacks are not violent or intoxicating (this kind easily awakens disgust), but rather the kind of beauty which infiltrates slowly, which we carry along with us almost unnoticed, and meet up with again in heart, it takes complete possession of us, filling our eyes with tears, our hearts with longing.” Pg 104, verse 149, Human, All Too Human

Much love,

Rapunzels of Kerala

Young girls in Wayanad

I love the women of my country – so beautiful, hard-working and strong. Carving their paths, against all odds, in a man's world. While that's true about most of the country, where the testosterone outshines the estrogen, there's always Kerala - the god's own country and the shining beacon of hope to the women around the world. Mother Earth hasn't only blessed this utopic state with breathtaking beauty but also the highest ratio of females (reaffirming the natural beauty, I guess). The fairer sex enjoys its spot in sunshine here. Women work, study and continue to bring hope to their sisters across the nation. Seeing the social and political atmosphere, we could all use some female inspiration. While I could list number of reasons that make the women in these parts exceptional, I choose to share a very small (almost insignificant) reason that makes these women remarkable to me. I'm always fascinated by people who do important things and make them appear so simple and effortless. Meet the women of Kerala. I don't understand how they manage to keep up their traditionally long, wavy, medusa-like manes and yet get their day's work done. They go around doing their business – taking the public transport, farming, walking around the dusty roads with their immaculately done-up hair, loosely hanging down their shoulders. No comfortable ponytails or I-mean-business buns, just thick, shiny, black hair, massaged with coconut oil, brushing their strong shoulders as they unapologetically celebrate their womanhood. It's magical. They are like goddesses. At least to me. As I sit in my bed, typing this post with my hair tied up in a messy scrunchy bun, I wish I could be a little less shabby.

In Kollam

In Kollam

At Munroe Island, Kollam

In Kollam

There's more posts coming from my recent trip to Kerala.
Come back soon.

Much love.

The Indie Initiation

“...the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!' What did they call such young people in Goethe's Germany?”  

- On The Road, Jack Kerouac

These are the people who inspire me. These are the people I want to be counted in someday. These are the people who were there at the NH7 Weekender, Pune. At least in that environment, in those colours, the bright lights, the drunken haze and the magical sound of music, everybody looked like energy was literally flowing out of them and feeding the so happy and satisfied. If only we could live our life making music, making each other happy and counting the smaller joys of life, everything would make so much sense. But till that happens we'll just have to hold on to these beautiful memories and wait for the next NH7 Weekender. Wish I could share the music... Ankur Tewari & the Ghalat family, King Creosote, Swarathma, Papon and the East India Company, Reggae Rajahs, Bhayanak Maut, Mother Jane, Imoge Heap... my head is still ringing with the beautiful music. So many artists that I'd never heard before. It feels like a giant, professionally run crash course into Indie music. A class I'd like to enroll to more often.

 

Much love,

Where I lay my head is home

Deep within a valley, far away, rests a lake. Beautiful as any sight can be. With trees so green that it's hard to believe. With travellers coming together and musicians too. Their sound like pied piper pulling us in. Deeper we go, more mesmerising the sounds become. The deafening silence broken by melodic notes. If this isn't paradise, what is? Maybe the wanderlust is taking over me. Or, the rhythm is still lingering inside my head. I can't forget the three absolutely surreal days I spent at the little hamlet town called Naukuchiatal. My camera went into overdrive as did my trance-induced body. With every music genre being represented by some of country's best talents, it comes as no surprise that the music festival was named 'Escape.' An escape it certainly was!

Much Love,

Observations at WIFW #3 - Editors keep it cool.

Unlike the Carine Roitfields and Anna Dello Russos of the world, the Indian fashion editors like to keep it (relatively) simple and chic. Though there are a few exceptions, I'm sure we would love to see more drama! Its about time we start wearing our heart on the sleeve, non? (see what i did there?) Though it must be said they look so intimidating with their prada bags and perfect manis, they are surprisingly sweet to talk to and encourage the blogger scene (okay maybe not all of them!) 

While we are all fairly familiar with all these glossies (and pretty much feed on them), its good to  know the hardworking souls working behind the scenes, who months in advance scout the global trends, introduce us to the fashion front - runners and inspire us to look past the bad hair days!

So here's to the Editors:

Edward Lalempuria, Anaita Adjania Shroff, Bandana Tewari, Shruti Thacker

Karuna Laungani, Divyak D'Souza, Mohan 

Amandeep Kaur, Pearl Shah, Neena Haridas



Nandini Bhalla, Cosmopolitan, Sujata Assomull, Harper's Bazaar



Sohiny Das, Verve.  Ekta Rajani, Grazia