Sonnet and Acrostics - Gal Raquel Lemos

When a couple of weeks ago you heard from your mentor: "We're so glad to have you as part of this family"...

... And after lunchtime yesterday you've heard from her husband: "You know you're like a child to us"...

... When in the afternoon one of the senior committee members of the senior citizen welfare organization you work for ('Ashvasan') comes to you with such a 'gift' to be published on the foundation's newsletter...

... Then you are just thankfull, emotioned and feeling gratified, and any little trouble is automatically erased (again life is answering the slightest of my feelings of doubt with no delay)...

... And you just know you have to share it with your loved ones.

I had no words. I just cried and cried while she read it out loud.....................

SONNET & ACROSTICS

GAL RAQUEL LEMOS

Glamour and youth entered Ashvasan with your arrival
Amidst all of us veterans
Lofty, loving thoughts of the young will be incorporated with your presence
Robust and radiant your looks and your dancing ability immaculate
Always a smile on your face
Quietly you accomplish your work to perfection
Under the protective canopy of Ashvasan
Energizing your activities and experiences
Lasting love and affection, we shower on you
Loving tales of Portugal and its life there you’ve told us
Eager we are to learn more about your country
Marvel, we do at your ability to learn and absorb
Older people like us welcome you in our midst
Sweet and simple person like you can definitely teach us a thing or two

By Indu Subramaniam
24.09.08

* 'GAL' stands for 'Girl' (american slang/ accent)

What is it about Art that...?

What is about ART that moves so many? Artists, aspiring artists, art promoters, art lovers (so called 'rasikas' in India), creatives, donors, investors, even occasional appreciators...

My mentor has been telling me about it... And I've been thinking... And it makes sense. I guess enough to finally have some understanding on why I myself wanna nurture Art throughout my life and - at least middle term most surely - devote myself professionally to it.

In this scope, allow me to refer you to the words I wrote for my mentor's speech yesterday, after another of many inspiring/ profoundly orienting talks. Contains also some insight into the concept of the space that I work in - www.smritinandan.org (please bear in mind that it's a non-profit organization, an essencially family funded hall); also beware of the spirit of this 'un-aged 83 springs' person of reference for whom I work...

Friends, Rasikas,

Be very welcome to this journey through the evolution of Kathak Dance, by Dr. Vaibhavi Joshipura.

I am very happy to see such a gathering of artists and art lovers to see Vaibhavi’s programme. I am sure I speak in the name of both of us if I say we’re very honoured to have you all here this evening.
Because --- you see --- rasikas can’t be without artists and art itself would lack its purpose if there were no rasikas. But for an artist it is something even more appreciated to have fellow artists as expectators; to have the chance to perform also for actual artists, as will happen here today, is something very rare and valuable. We think this should happen more often, I mean --- having artists supporting each other, so we are very thankful for your presence today.

This space where we’re sitting, Smriti Nandan Cultural Centre, has been created with that exact purpose: we see it as a small intimate place that artists should regard as their own, a space for artists and rasikas to meet, and a space for experimentation like the programme happening here this evening. I will be circulating the Membership form where you can see the kind of programmes we have been presenting bearing this concept in mind.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate all these people who are here today – NAME, NAME, NAME, NAME, NAME… -, who have created institutions and nurtured them throughout the years, disregarding any hurdles.
I know what it takes to keep an institution going, how much effort and perseverance it demands - because I’m doing it myself -, so I would like to express my most sincere and fratern word of appreciation.

Also, allow me: as artists should support one another, also institutions like ours should help each other’s efforts.
It is on everyone’s best interest, and above all our public’s, that we cooperate, that we share an understanding, don’t you think?
I am thinking of matters such as clash of major events on the same day, punctuality, sound levels in halls --- There are many ways in which we could benefit from joining together.
Let us hope we can seat together, all of us, one of these days --- or, I dare to say, even periodically --- and work out ways in which things could be modified in order to make our halls more cohesive.

I invite you all to participate in the programmes that happen in Smriti-Nandan; I invite you to treat this as your own space (a space for creativity to soar, as I like to call it) and give us a helping hand. I will naturally be very happy myself if I can be of any help in your projects and endeavours.
After all, we all aim to the same, we are all working to facilitate art lovers’ access to art.

And --- have you ever stopped to think why is that? Why is it that we sticked to Art irrespective of all the challenges artists and art promoters face?
What is it about ART that moves us?
---------
I believe that it is the fact that Art allows us to transcend ourselves. Art gives us a unique insight into what there is to life beyond the pragmatism of our daily living. It provides us with a taste of the extase the spirit can achieve, and what could be more valuable than that?

The truth is art gives us a lot, but it also demands a lot of effort.
That is why I would like to take the occasion to pay tribute to all artists who take up this activity that demands them to give so much of themselves.
I especially would like to pay tribute to Women such as Vaibhavi who, apart from being a qualified dentist, a home maker and a mother that spends quality time with her children, at the same time she finds the strength and the spirit to nurture art and creativity, achieving excellence in the Dance field.
As a dancer, Vaibhavi has --- (BIO-DATA)---
--- and I am marvelled at her ability to do so many things with such devotion.
I believe Women have this special quality of multi-task, but the fact that they manage to do all these things in our country, and still dedicate to art, is something truly remarkable, so to finalize my already so long introduction, I pay tribute to all women artists.

Thank you.

By the way... Kathak Dance performance/ lecture was amazing and a true success! 100 people attended, aplauded and complimented. Our efforts compensated.

Small little details

Again I must first of all refer to the fact that I don't mean to convey any sort of prejudice in these facts, but simply to make a note of my observations in a totally random order and with completely arbitrary choice of words.

I am FOR Cultural Diversity. That's one of my biggest passions in life. That's what I'm here for. So... :

Did you know that here in India they...

• have uneven stones (moving ones, sometimes) building most of the sidewalks?
• have all sorts of litter all over many sidewalks, roads and water flows?
• have a tremendous amount of traffic polution, that makes me wear a scarf in my mouth and nose while travelling (even policemen wear it sometimes!)?
• (those who are Hindus) have many gods they pray to (each person or family having their favourite) but consider them all as being different manifestations of the same God (God as in supreme Being, father to all existence)?
• put flowers in women and children hairs and tikas (little variously shaped dots) in their forehead on a daily basis?
• (being men) many times won't even speak to women ('cause they're women)?
• have lower water tap, a bucket and a little cup in every bathroom (often instead of toilet paper)?
• have a film production industry [Bollywood] that is bigger than Hollywood?
• tend to have 5, 10, even 15 times more staff for any task than western countries do as there is overpopulation and salaries are very low?
• have someone outside stores and supermarkets keeping your bags and back-packs as you're going in, someone as cashier, someone putting your groceries in bags, then sometimes another counter to pay and then you have to have your bill stamped by a guard on your way out - how practicall is this (remember in the two last parts you're already having heavy bags all over your hands)? and this is when you, having ordered a juice or anything else two meters far, don't have to bring yourself the ticket showing your order to the hands of another employee, who will then give it to the one who's actually making the juice for you. Ah, and don't forget it!, specially if you're a woman, you'll most likely have to come back yourself and meet your drink in the counter where it was being prepared instead of having it being brought to you
• call "hands" to the whole arms?
• may ask you for more than 4 times the value of something just trying their best change to cheat you and make profit?
• have the best technological intelligence, the best Management and Computer Science universities in the world, the best software and 3rd generation technology being developed, the best adaptation to different language accents - this being also why so many crucial international company services are being outsourced in India?
• prefer having boy childs than girls (namely because girls imply that you'll have to get them maried, and as parents you'll be obliged to giving a big financial sum to the broom added many times to offering house, car, etc) - "prefer" being a very light word in many cases?
• usually have even the strongest of women, the most accomplished ones, 'bending' to the word, presence and authority of their husbands?
• have to be maried by 25 y.o. (being a girl), or otherwise you'll most likely be considered to be disgracing yourself and your life?
• from upper-middle class up, specially educated people: even among themselves tend to mix their local language or hindi with many occurences of english expressions? and some simply speak english 90% of the time, and always in official ocasions, like events and meeetings?
• seem to have the most varied cuisine in the world and find the most incredible and delicious ways of presenting and working over vegetables?
• are in their biggest majority vegetarians?
• are not supposed to eat cow as this animal is thought of as being god? (have you ever heard the expression "holy cow!"? currently it stands for the same as "holy mother of jesus" - even for american adopters already :) )
• have a significant cristian community, who for the past week has been wearing a bright pinkish orangy colour in all of their clothing (men to women, children to seniors) as last week it was Saint Mary's day?
• don't use that much of "please", "thank you" or "sorry" and even find it weird when we make too much use of it?
• in many cases have to be insisted with many times in order to get things done?
• have a hard time saying they "don't know" so you have a problem with knowing if they really understood you, or if they are in the same wave length as you; or if in fact they're just saying something for the sake of answering your question, even if they're indicating you the exact opposite direction to the one you needed?
• (specially when they are service providers) are usually too optimism (or should I say deceiving?) when it comes to TIME(ings), which makes them say "in 2 minutes" or "in 5 minutes" too often? - Me and friends immediately say or think: "yeah, 5 INDIAN minutes!". While they do this, they often perform this particular circling movement with a closed wrist and fingers in a pinacle - that corresponds to the " 'more-or-less'-also-non-assertive-same-type-of-feeling" as in their NODDING of the head... Read about it below:
• have an assertivity problem in many cases which may be highly related to this nodding of the head that is supposed to mean "yes" but is too similar to "maybe" or even "no"? - I ACTUALLY CAUGHT THIS FEATURE and I'm being mocked by friends all the time for this :D
• (the auto-drivers) often don't even answer to you when you say where you wanna go - they just drive away (if they even stopped the vehicle to talk to you, that's for a start) if they're not interested in taking you there? they also often have their meters truncated so that they go faster than the actual distance you're covering? they charge (officially) one and a half meter after 9.30 pm? often don't have their license updated and still they're driving on the roads?
• know they can bribe their way out of a traffic police fine?
• have various items of food being cooked and sold on the street, among traffic smokes and all sorts of city smells and passer-bys? and that this food is many times very good and even deserves an american tv show totally dedicated to Indian Street Cuisine? and that the the same (street exhibition) goes for vegetables, whose sale is announced in characterisitically nosy-sounding moving screams as they are transported in bikes supporting a platform?

To be continued as I experience it. ***

Kerala - 'God's Own Country'

Days go by full of experience, joy and fulfillment...

... and I tell you nothing about them! Ups!

NOW IS THE TIME.

August 14th brought me to a wonderful experience: Kochin, in the State of Kerala - a.k.a. "God's own country". I could tell why. From the cosy low built streets to the profound greenery, everything invites you to stay in Fort Kochin.

I reached my first touristy destiny in India in a boat departing from Ernakulam Town. We ate well, did some shopping, had some mango milkshakes, walked around town and made sure we experienced fish as we were in a costal city.

Going through the longest of my trips here (5 nights including two in the train), I could tell you all about my naked Ayurvedic massage made by two women in a shadowy room with never-ending oil; about a sinagogue that had the store next-door renting pieces of clothing to cover your elbows, legs, chest... for Rs.10, so that we would go in the holly place; about the dirty rooms where I was lucky to have Mariana's sheet to put over the hotel's stained ones; about the portuguese historical heritage a little bit all over Kochin's monuments; about the train trips where I easily decide to sleep 12 hours in a row so I sleep the journeys through (not without some amusement on my trip mates' part - jealousy, I'd call it! :P) (also, not without having Andre waking me up gently every once in a while to eat, shift beds, give my passport to the controler, etc :) *** ); about the fish we bought in the market and brought to be cooked in a restaurant...

But I'll tell you about what amazed me the most: Backwaters in Alleppey and Kathakalli Dance. Not that many words to describe it though.

Kathakali was simply the most colourful dance I've ever seen and most definitelly the most expressive facials I think I'll ever experience. A mixture of theatre and movement, telling a story with no spoken lines, loads of clothes and accessories and facial make up that takes 1h30 to be done... Kathakali surprises you from the beginning. Almost everything happens in their faces, so for that you're first given a thorough demonstration of the lexic that will be used in the play. I could never imagine face could combine so many movements and convey so many different emotions having support of no words! The drums, tabla and classical vocal only help the environment. Amazing actors, amazing expressive technic - very demanding, very precise, very communicative.

Now backwaters was a dream come true! Travelling in a boat through a river: great conditions, great food, great music, great environment, great staff, great shrimp (king size!) bought in an island on the way, stopping only to have lunch and dinner, and to sleep... it seemed really like God had decided to gift us the bestest of moments. Me, Mariana, André, Ahmed, Eduardo and Michelle... we just staggered at such never ending beauty as Palm Trees, bushes, rice plantations, women washing their hair in the river, children running and asking you for pens, and many many other backwaters... pass by you though as if they were a painting: I mean, one perfect painting after the other. Great neaty rooms and leaving room, and a maitress with sheets and cusheons just at the edge of the boat - where we relaxed, gave ourselves to sun, sleep and talks, enjoyed music, games, snacks... and that moving beauty life gifted us with. Undescribable.

Hampi - the ultimate landscape experience, and everything that followed... I shall leave to another post. LOVE YOU!! ***

Some things never change... Others...

Some things never change...

(although I believe I can change the ones I really decide I should - not without some effort though: try to guess which ones I'm refering to...)

• I listen to Kizombas practically everyday
• When I talk to my closest of friends (just like yesterday ;) ), it seems like no time has passed and no distance is there - some things are simply eternal and overcome any judgement, wording or traceable limits
• I still have trouble going up in the morning and tend to stay in bed a little bit too long
• I still don't know how but always find myself entertained until too late in the night (I wonder: could this have anything to do with the waking up part of it? :P Trust me, I tuck in a little bit longer even if I've slept for 12 hours - owl style? What can I do? That's just me ever since I remember: at night, that's when I'm creative, energetic, with time for myself :) ...
• Lately, lacking dancing - DANCING HAS BEEN FORBIDEN IN BANGALORE CLUBS FOR THE PAST 3 WEEKS!!: can you imagine me living in such a city if this wasn't about to change in a matter of weeks?... - at night (among other things, namely domestic tasks), I dance and sing to both my years and sometimes the girls sleeping upstairs' - ups! have been trying to control, I swear! :P
• Have my yoghurt with cereal almost every day
• Have been being asked to write texts and to revise scripts

... On others I am fortunate to get confirmation checks...

• Love colour! Love travelling! Love nature! Love smiles! Love international friends! Love speaking other laguages! Love dancing! Love people! Love cucumber! Love scarfs! :)
• Ages flatten down when souls - the true Beings - and not bodies connect

... The rest changes in you for good and is simply destined to make you grow within!

• Started liking to eat with my hands (the most unconceivable thing in my culture of origin: the first times, you feel like you're doing something wrong as this is what would be told if you did the same while you were being brought up)
• No bugs or ants or dirt or smell around me disgust me to any level of real disturbance at this point
• Love indian food with all its exquisitness, SPICES (!), never-ending colous, textures and tastes
• I am now carefull with night time, don't take transportation alone at those hours either, walk with my eyes down as I don't want to cross the eyes of men, and whenever posible hold my brother-friends' arms or simply stand behind them as some kind of psichological shield (specially when travelling) - Gabiru, Deepak, you guys are the best protectors ever - luv'u!
• I cherish now what before I had never thought of because I took it for granted: the possibility of allowing yourself to feel (most of the girls and boys here will see their spouses only once to thrice before the day of their marriage...)

Also to be continued...

Olive oil: gods' nectar

To tell you the 'lightest' of my examples, but maybe the most obvious at least for tendencially pragmatic minds:

Olive oil is a very rare and hence very expensive thing in India (being imported namely from Spain). To give you a comparison, a 1 liter bottle may cost me an amount corresponding to 13 travels home-work.

Another fact that most of you know: olive oil is essencial in european cooking, namely portuguese, and me personally I use it for practically everything.

So of course I bought a bottle, but obviously kept it saved for a controled use.

Last week, while bringing the bottle back to my room after cooking, it was slippery so it fell off my hands to become an oil lake and dozens of glass pieces in my room floor.

For a minute, I was pissed off and thought only that 300 ruppees (3/4 of the content) were there lying on the floor - not to speak of the inconvenience and the mess. I commented this with my friends, the fact that what had gotten broken was exactly the ingredient that I cherished the most and had spent money on because "I couldn't live without olive oil".

But then, as lately with everything, I decided to accept what had happened and believe, also as always, that it had happened for a reason (one of them being clearly that I should have been more carefull and next time, I will). The hidden reason, there'll always be some, was yet to be discovered.

Well, what I am wanting to tell you is that, as always, life got back to me with the greatest of answers to such a simple thing. Acquaintances have been calling me "lucky". :)

The following day, I was in the supermarket and had almost forgotten that I had already decided that, irrespective of money, of course I'd buy a new bottle. But Rumzie was taking longer with her shopping and I ran into the olive oil shelf.

The truth is that, not only they were selling olive oil in a plastic bottle.... :), as a 1 liter cooking olive oil bottle (worth 400 rupees) was in offer if you bought an extra-virgin one. I loved the again non-coincidence and put both in my basket regardless of price. Still in the supermarket I commented with Rumela that answer life was giving to me. And it was happening unintentionally and in the day right after an event that I had considered a sad waste.

This was enough to again leave me with a feeling of thankfulness. But when I got home for some reason I noticed the price on the extra-virgin oil bottle. Then I noticed that there was no 720 Rs. registered in my receipt. For mistake, the cashiers at 'Spencer's' had registered 400 Rs., the price of the bottle that was in offer, and not the correct one. They made me pay the cheapest one and ended up offering the most expensive, saving me 320 Rs., precisely the money that I had let slip out of my hands the day before.

......

'Course my good-will made me feel like I should go back and tell them, but who would? And anyway, we're always being overcharged for everything here. So - ethical or not - here I had my little excuse.

.......

Coincidence? Most surely not. It's just life communicating clearly with me, as every day here in the most unexplainable of details.

Plus, my friends are starting to know me so well here that Deepak actually intended to offer me a bottle of olive oil yesterday, as he had seen me sad over that waste the week before (thank you dear!*). So life had already such a nice alternative reserved for me if Rumz hadn't taken longer that day at our grocery shop... :))

Magic days

- picture at 9.40 pm - local time = 5.10 pm in Portugal, my birth time.

One special day happened 2 weeks ago: I was 25 on the 25th.

It's once in a life time, as well as today's day: 08.08.08.

The day was filled with joy from 23.55 pm on the 24th.

My already big indian family spoiled me so much I felt like a little girl! My heart felt big, and pampered, and privileged, as so many remembered me, and such good surprises happened.

My portuguese FAMILY... the whole day enlightening me too. I feel [healthy] SAUDADES of you all...!

The night came and - 'lucky me'! - I went to do what I like the best, and among my companions - guess who? - my nuclear family in Bangalore: Andre, Camilla, Deepak and Rumela. Have I told you I love you? It's Youll and TRAVELLING... :)

So there we went to a 2 days extension of my birthday celebration in Tusker Valley, in Kalhatti Park, on the Nilgiri Mountains.

We went for relatively challenging trekking journeys twice, reached waterfalls and moutain peaks, saw plantations, and stood in the middle of some bear cages and the all-mighty white clouds. Almost tripped once or twice, climbed many many rocks and listened to the sound of silence and to the wisper of echo. My mates spoted foot-prints of bears, bisonts and other sorts of wild life that didn't dare to come near us.

The nights were coronated with music, bath with hot water served in buckets, eating around bonfire, playing Uno, teeling mind-cracking riddles, finding mouse poop all over your bed sheets and... Night Safari!!, where the most thrilling experiences were the raining outside the open jeep, the bang of the head on the ceiling, and the expectation to see more then one rabbit, one bisont and a couple of dears that in the end were the only ones who let themselves be spoted. (explanation: the rain makes elephants have easy access to water which makes them not need to come close to the road as they were expected to in the TUSKER valley).

Sunday brought us to a hillarious happy jeep journey, dancing our brains off towards a pleasurable chinese dinner in Ooti.

On our way to Bangalore, 1h30 hours after departure, a land-slide: sand and a tree blocking the road. Only six hours later - morning already - did a caterpiller come to remove it. Close to Bangalore, again a truck riot to delay us... Summary: 16 hour bus trip!! (was suppose to be 8 tops) HEHE! With my friends just laughing at me afterwards as I just woke up to check on the overall situation maybe 3 times during all that time. :)) God bless the sleep in these circumstances! (jealous, uh?) :P

Everyone has been telling me about me having experienced the weirdest most uncommon things in Bangalore since I got here. Uncomfortable as they may have been sometimes, again I look at them as life experience.

THANK YOU ALL FOR (close and from afar) MAKING ME FEEL HOME.