Macau

I climbed the steps of the passenger ferry to its wet deck and was almost blown out by the ferocity of the wind and drizzle ,managing to  reach the railings gingerly I faced the fury of the splashing surf which hit my face .
It was exhilarating though dangerous .

I was in the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau and my daughter like the rest of the passengers was dozing off in the comfortable seats below while I lumbered up to get a taste of the sea ,after a few minutes of the Titanic experience I soberly came down to sit in the many empty seats .
It was late afternoon .

we had stayed in Hong Kong for three days touching the most important places including its famed Disneyland and the Buddha at Nong ping village though the fog hid the Buddha amongst its white folds and now we were off to Macao . read  http://hariwrite.blogspot.com/2014/03/hari-in-hong-kong.html
Macau got its name obviously from the Portugese who till 15 years back ruled it and according to their treaty with China gave it back in 1999 ,
Macau is famous for its casinos and is as capitalistic as China is communistic !
of course we all know how China turned chameleon and got the best of both these days but they kept Hong kong and Macao as specially administered regions with only defence and its major policies under them while local government managed the  currency laws and taxes ! !


The A..ma temple is one dedicated to Matzu or Godess of the sea ( Amma in tamil is name given to Durga goddess and Matsya in Sanskrit is fish )
one needs to dip into history  to realise that the whole world was a village always !,
This temple was facing the sea and had guided the ships in the ocean by its lights from its lamps and fire  ,
when the Portugese sailor Alvarado and his fleet came here in his fleet in the 1530 probably from Goa and kerala in India they asked the locals the name of the place and got the  answer as Ma ge and they probably indicated the temple but the Portuges thought it was the name of the place and Ma Ge became  Macau in their language    .
Like any smart colonist the Portugese put their foot in  as merchants initially slowly taking over the place .
For years they ruled the place in a pattern of continuous journey of conquests from Goa to Malacca in Malaysia ,Timor and finally to Macau and along with them they brought their language culture religion architecture cuisine and also sowed their descendants on these countries !

We alighted in the huge Macau port and went through immigration quickly
 it was visa on arrival ,most countries that depended on tourism had least restrictions for entry into them
we came out to a bus stand where buses belonging to several luxury hotels were waiting for their customers ,
Our West End hotel did not have one
 I just managed to call them with my Hong Kong sim and was told to get into a bus of a particular hotel as they had an arrangement with them and we did that .
We got into Hotel Sintras bus !

Macau was a busy city with huge casinos, it was  a mini Los angeles where all major casinos like MGM had their presence

 it was raining when we got down in hotel Sintra

The spacious lobby was gaily lit and to our surprise ladies in full regal attire danced with lamps in their hands to welcome the guests !
we shied away as we were not from the said hotel !
we realised we had to walk a long way to reach our west end hotel  which was not very pleasant task as we had to drag our heavy suitcases through busy roads ,finally we reached our hotel and complained to the receptionist on their misinformation they just stared at us in response and gave us our keys !

After quickly freshening ourselves we were off to the Historical Senado square laid with geometrical patterns on its floor ,this patterned floors in major squares was a Portuguese style and was also said to be there  in Lisbon and some south American countries
There were lot of shops as it was a touristy area and  a coloured fountain and as it was raining we returned quickly with just having a quick fried rice as dinner .
Back in the hotel we had a restful slumber as the rain lullabied us to sleep .
The next morning I could see the wharf from my window and the distant seas with boats and ships bobbing up and down it was through these waters that the Portuguese would have sailed into the country slowly taking it up to make it theirs .

We walked to the famous A-ma temple through a city waking up to another day ,
old men and women crawled along painstakingly slowly
 small food places were already open serving hot chow mein to their hungry customers
 suited and booted executives and smart well dressed women were seen scurrying to their jobs in Casinos or in nearby Hong Kong
children waked with their bags in a world of homework's and imaginations
workers jaunted around purposefully with their tools hanging on them
the pavement shops were opening up as their owners arranged the wares .
We reached the temple after a walk of more than three kilometres
 it was a nice alcove of trees a square with lots of shops small statutes and a big crowd for that time of the day
incense smoked from everywhere and the main temple was on a small hillock
the steps ahead had several landings with smaller idols all revered with incense and candles
many prayed in these places while others gazed from the balconies at the horizon and the city that lay before them .

Getting down from the crowd we walked back to the square which was the historical part of Macau the Senado Square .
Largo do Senado is a public square in the centre of Macau
The square was said to have been there even  during the Ming dynasty and the Portugese had their parades here ,a statue for a Portugese soldier called Mesquita had been removed by the Chinese as he was responsible for many Chinese soldiers to die during their hostilities and instead there is now a colourful fountain and the place is called the Fountain
The Portugese have paved the floors of the square with designer stones into a distinct pattern and the square has an array of heritage buildings around it like the St Domingos church ,the Cathedral,the ruins of St Pauls cathedral the museum etc and hundreds of designer shops Chinese food restaurants snack bars and it was full of bustle and activity .
The steps to the ruins of st Pauls cathedral led to its magnificent façade which is the only thing left after its three major fires and the museum nearby treasured many valuable artifacts it also gave alofty perch to view the city nearby was the Grand lisboa one of the many casinos dotting the city
we went into the St Domingos church which is a heritage site and awed at its cavernous hall and ornamental altar

we restricted our trip with this small bit of history not venturing to the rich luxurious happening world of the casinos and their ambiences as we had to take a cab after a quick lunch back to the port and check in for our flight to Malaysia from Hong Kong
the flight was direct from Macau port
one got into  the ferry after emigration and transported by ferry ( almost an hour and more )to Hong kong airport port !
This  took us straight into the gate in  Hong kong airport and to our flight to Kuala Lumpur and back to Brunei !!!!

Soaring spirits

September 24th circa 2014 is a date to be chiselled in gold for India .
The land of snake charmers and rope walkers ,the land of myths and legends ,the land where over the years men had invaded and plundered attracted by its culture ,artistic sophistication spiritual superiority when the rest of the world had savages roaming its forests ,


They had come in hordes one after the other and inculcated inoculated and subjugated the people of this country to their way of lives but India absorbed assimilated and melded them as its own ,
it was a cauldron of religions , a potpourri of thoughts , a meltdown of beliefs where the final product was its Indianess .
With  freedom from the British yoke it saw poverty to the level of abjection
 it saw crass political chicanery at its worst
it saw unrest communal and casteist conflagrations nurtured by its greedy leaders who behaved worser than the colonists who had ruled it over the ages .
Mediocrity lorded over it as it stood secluded from the progress of other countries by its backward inward looking policies which constipated its thoughts and action to a loveless populace who plodded through their dreary lives while the rare few  used deceit and cheating and violence to haul riches .
but during all this time there was always that group of people who believed in honesty hard work dedication and patriotism ,
the Tatas Birlas and Ambanis may have had different formulas to achieve success but they all showed what Indians could achieve .
there was great brain drain from the talented who felt mediocrity was only recognised in their sad country and had to fly to far shores to realise their potentials but they harboured a great love in their hardened souls for their beloved country
With time the Indian diaspora was becoming well known as they conquered several pinnacles of success in commerce ,information technology medicine ,entertainment and science
The youth of the country started dreaming big ignited by a great scientist statesman who was its president Sri Abdul Kalam Sir ,though several pockets in the country succumbed to the ill temptations of luring conmen called politicians
Even literate states like Kerala found their youth astray led by these pied pipers who took them to doom while badlands like Bihar succumbed to violence and gang wars and caste killings
 states like Uttar Pradesh were positioned off by its notorious political pawn masters who played men against men and collected their loot
these wretched politicians have always been the curse of this blessed land .


In those halcyon days when India was stigmatised and shunned by a hypocritical world for blasting its nuclear bomb in 1974 its scientists had to depend on their own meagre resources and knowledge they were primitive attempts in space technology then  but the men of those days like Vikram Sarabhai ,Abdul Kalam and Satish Dawan were men made of Vivekanda swamijis muscles of steel and nerves of iron for they produced as if by magic slow and steady progress as they built their rockets and missiles all by themselves .
like any other skilled in this country things were done at low cost compared to other countries who gloated over  their costly successes .
Slowly and steadily the Indian elephant has woken up with excellent support by its political masters specially the people with higher realms of power and the sincerity and hard work of these men and women were realised to reach heights of success unrivalled .
A country where more than 300 million people live on less than one dollar a day could launch 10 satellites in a go beating the Russians who could only do with eight this was just done a few days back and many of us including me never knew of this ,
a country which knows every other run of Sachin Tendulkar in minute details never comes to know of such facts for the media never highlights the achievements of its scientists or its defence personnel who have more heroic tales to tell than all the Khans in Bollywood can tell together !


ISRO has even been accused of spending crores of rupees  when the countries poor has no food to eat accused some
 but for every dollar spent it could  earn two ,
ISRO budget was  less than one billion a year compared to NASAs 17 billion
 For its singular achievement of placing Mangalyaan in the Maritian orbit today it spent 78 million dollars while the makes of the Hollywood movie Gravity spent 200 million!
Today India has satellites floating over our heads that can count the number of soldiers marching in a regiment anywhere on the earth ,it is in a premier position to grab the 140 billion satellite launch market and its now getting into line with big boys of the space industry by catching up in their won game and how !
Indian satellite cartostat viewing from high above 600km can even distinguish an object as small as a car !
with plans to shoot off Mangalyaan to the moon next it plans to carry instruments of other countries like Sweden free of cost while countries like China or Japan only carry their own .
Loka Samasta Sukhino  Bhava has always been the soul phrase of India .


Dr G Madhavan Nair chairman of ISRO succinctly puts it as twenty years from now when space travel is likely to become mundane like air travel today we don't want Indians to buy tickets on other peoples space vehicles !
Mangalyaan has reached its destination with clockwork precision its engines fired from the great distance as it hid behind the huge planet Mars and it worked like a trained commando or ballet dancer with its moves so perfect and graceful astounding the world at one tenth the cost of similar flights .


We are eternally grateful and proud of the men and women who by their sheer determination hard work and sharp  intellect took our country soaring into the skies
yes SOARING INTO THE SKIES


 (I acknowledge my thanks to the article by Mr.Pallava Bhagla for some facts used in this blogpost )

Hundred feet journey ..film review

Some films are known as feel good movies
such movies do not fall into genres like action ,horror, romantic,or tragic they are just there and one watches them and feels good !
one such delightful film I saw recently on the big screen was the hundred foot journey .
directed by Lasse Hallstorm based on best selling novel written by Richard C Morais .
It has Om Puri in a central role with Manish Dayal as his son .
Music by A.R Rehman

Its about an Indian family of restaurant owners who after a personal tragedy lose the mother and the whole family migrate to U.K. where they manage to start a Tandoor restaurant near Heathrow Airport but right on the flight path with dangerously flying planes swishing over their tandoori concoctions and upsetting their applecart ,OmPuri the father with his three grown up children and two smaller ones decides to try his luck in France which was said to have a more saner climate and manages to get past immigration and land up in a small village by quirk of destiny where he takes a huge dilapidated ex hotel to start his Maison De Mumbai ,only problem is just across the road is a French Michelin starred gourmet restaurant owned by Madam Mallory and the initial half is about the war of competition between the two hotels with radically different cuisines
Om Puri has a disdain to French cuisine and considers it as relatively underdeveloped in finesse when compared to Indian cuisine which has over the ages evolved and matured into a highly complex art while the French chefs across considers his curries as crass incidentally this exited me a lot as I share a lot of Om Puris thoughts too .
Amongst his children who are also excellent chefs the elder son Kadham is a genius and learns French cuisine with the help of one of the junior chefs in the French restaurant on whom he also develops a romantic interest ,to make the story short Khadam goes on to work n the French restaurant later becomes famous and is spirited away to Paris where he becomes a celebrity chef while the French and Indian restaureres become close in the village and become like one happy family Khadam returns back from all the limelight to the village and start working in the French Restaurant and thus back to his girl too
Watching the film is a pleasant experience one gets no surprises but one enjoys the visuals the music and the gentleness of life
watch it please
 

The royal Grandfather

The Zamorins ruled over North kerala for many years with pomp and power .
Vasco Da Gama the Portugese Adventurer and sailor had stepped into the shores of calicut and was amazed at the kingdom and its people and their prosperity
 Though he was treated with hospitality he showed his true color by slowly usurping the land by way of setting a trade post a routine ploy but the samorin drove him away and rest is history
 The British later slowly and steadily stemmed and curbed the powers of the samorins and with free India former Prime minister Indira Gandhi reduced the family to penury by denying even the privy purse given to other royals
the samorins too were never wise enough to excel themselves in education and adapt to modernity like the Travancore and Cochin Rajas who still held on to a great part of their wealth .

My own Mothers father Padinjare kollothe Manavedan Raja was part of Mangavu kovilakkam  ( Western palace )
His name was PCM Raja and he was known to all as Thampuran a name given to the royal family members .

Now my grandfather never had the airs of anything of the sort nor did he look like a king he was just another bald grandfather who snuffed and sneezed his retired existence .

with a bushy grey whisker he was stout and short a bit on the rotund side too ,he used to wear baggy bush shirts and white dhoti ,was quite healthy pottering all the time in the garden and planting things
he was more a silent type
Definitely i did not get that trait from him
he and my grandmother Valliyil karthiyayani amma were a great combo
she was fair short with curly hair and had a dignified air on her .

she was very pious and would visit the nearby Shariyyikal Bagavathy temple our family diety in the morning and evening
 it was our habit ( me and cousins ) to way lay her on way back from the temple  to taste the delicious thrimadhiram or sweet prasad she brought back
 she would ask us to put some sandal paste on our forehead too but we were never keen on that part of the deal .

she was also very particular that we sit at dusk together in front of the lamp and chant prayers for at least half an hour ,me and cousins would have all thoughts in our minds other than prayers at these times and would be giggling away admidst our pious garblings
 Hard of hearing and sitting  with closed eyes our  grandma would never know all this but our grandpa though sitting in the portico reading something in the dimming light was well aware of the goings on he would grunt once in a while to show he knew all but would never interfere .
those days there was no electricity in the big house so after an early dinner and gulping grandmothers fresh glass of frothing milk from our resident cows we would go up to the bedrooms to giggle a lot and try to sleep
It was talk time for grandpa and grandma then .
Grandma being deaf felt she had to shout for anyone to hear her so she would bellow at my grandfather thampurannu kelkunnundo  ? can you hear me ?
then a small voice would pipe in .......hmmmm tell
what I am saying you can you hear and you just said ...... market !
hey paranjollu ..... please tell
and this would go on till they felt tired enough to retire to their bedroom .

once when I was around 12 years and had gone there for a holiday there was none other than me and both of them as by then my cousins had moved to another place .
 I was sadly told to sleep in another room as I was now a big boy
 The Kovilakkam house was huge and was built for around 50 to 60 people of an extended family and with only three people which included poor me it was massive and dark and to my mind full of strange beings walking around .
The small lamp would go off in the wind  and in the pitch darkness the only solace was my grandparents talking with each other .
after some time this too would stop as they may  have felt sleepy
The huge grounds on the side of my room was particularly frightening as in those days in old Nair houses most family members who passed away were creamated in a far flung corner within the house itself  .
To my mind all my ancestors would find it convenient to go for a walk precisely then
 With the rain pattering and occasional thunders rumbling illumination by lightening would reflect strange figurines in the life size mirror opposite my bed
enough was enough I  felt then .
I was in that age when in the daytime I felt I was an adult but by night a small frightened child .
Again living in a big city like Madras with bright lights I wasn't used to pitch darkness with background noises

slowly I would take courage and howl ....Grandpa
grandpa
yes....... you still not slept
oh no .about to sleep , just wondering if I need to come to your room

why are you wondering so  ?..... this from my grandpa who knew is was a clever ploy from a frightened me

well you both old people all alone maybe you are afraid so I can look after you that's why .....
oh good ...please do come my son ..he would save me
I would immediately go there and as I went I would hear him say ....Avannu pedia .....thats he is afraid and both of them would chuckle

Grandpas morning visit to the Parappanangadi market was an event by itself .
 occasionally he would ask me to come which was a treat
He would go around 10 am in the blistering sun shaded by his huge umbrella walking all five kilometers one way
 he would meet countless people on the way who would reverently en quire Thampurans well being
fter chatting with all of them we would reach the Railway station and the market nearby by afternoon
he would buy me a Nannari sarpath which was the spirte of those days
 the cool liquid was a real relief for my parched throat after his shopping list was exhausted he would get one of the patient teenage boys in the market to carry his purchases as we returned back to a late lunch
I would lie down exhausted while he would change and go into the garden to potter around .

It was during my second year in medicine he passed away
 I really wish I had talked to him more to know about his childhood days when they still had some pomp and power in Calicut but it wasn't to be
but still there is a part to his story  which is very interesting which I hope to  write more elaborately maybe one day .

Varanasi the ageless city

 What does one do one when one visits one of the oldest cities in the world ?

One looks around and sees history

Be it Damascus or Istanbul two other old cities I had been to and our own Varanasi one can take good photographs and hope that the history would stick to its digital frames

I know it would never but that’s the best way to bring a feel of such a place

Varanasi or Kashi or Benares that’s three names for you has the Ganges India’s holiest river flowing through it and is the centre around which the city and its history grew .

The Kashi  Vishwanath temple stands by the side of the river in a narrow alley reached after walking with cloistering crowds ,claustrophobic shops selling flowers, incense ,sweets ,to be given as an offering to the lord .

The presence of huge bulls hardly deters ones progress as one learns to walk around living and non living things in Varanasi as true to its soul it’s a place where the fine distinction of life and after life melds and disappears into nothing ness

This is all the more truer in the burning Ghats of Harish Chandra where legend says the most honest emperor Harish Chandra who would never tell a  lie whatever be the need for it is tried by the Gods with all sorts of humiliations and finally his son dies and he dorns the garb of a Dom or funeral pyre helper as he has no money to cremate his child’s body and it is said the Harish Chandra worked in these very ghats

As the dusk settles down the river flowing melancholy none of the filth that bordered its banks could be seen but only the reflection of the burning pyres which danced in the ripples to show man that life and death is as transitory as the ripples which would never last but for the moment

This silent espousing of the philosophy of life for the attuned is Varanasi’s  uniqueness

 It silently whispers to your soul and if one were to catch that silent murmuring one would see beyond its dirt and squalor 

 But that’s no excuse for not  making the place more neater .

cleanliness is definitely next to Godliness in fact to me cleanliness comes first and so thinks our new PM Shri Narendra Modiji who is representing this holy city in the Parliament and who is lit with a passion to clean the Ganga river .

The Daswamedh  Ghat is a bigger burning Ghat .

There are many Ghats or bathing places with steps dropping down to the river .

Some were owned by erstwhile royal kingdoms some by ashrams .

On the banks sat the priests with huge matted umbrellas to protect the faithful from the blistering sun or at times the rain or the frost in the winter

The relatives of the departed  come here in hordes to perform rites for the loved ones .

 Hinduism believes that matter returns to matter and so once the bodies are burned after death their ashes are flown into holy rivers merging in them to be part of the food chain and then come back in rebirth as part of an endless   circle with the only refuge being enlightenment and relase to the supreme when one is right for it

Ecologicaly and mathematically sound principles  .

We took a boat that was rowed into the river by  a talkative boatman who told us all about the rituals and festivals of Ganga ma

Far on the distant opposite bank one could see the silhouette of Ramnagar which was the Varanasi royal families palace

HRH Vibhuti singh was the present incumbent who’s day of honour was during the boisterous Ramlila celbrations when the epic of lord Ram and his quest for his Sita across the seas enacted with so much accuracy and finesse lasting for more than a month

The whole place was a stage with areas marked as Ayodhya the forests where Ram Lakshman and Sita would retire to ,with Sita kidnapped by Ravana from Lanka across the ocean down south Rama Lakshmana with their army of monkeys retrieve her back after a righteous war and kill Ravana and his ilk .

Across the river opposite Ramnagar the area is actually called Lanka and today it s a busy market near the sprawling hundred year old centre of learning the Benares Hindu university and it is here that Ravanas effigy is burnt on the penultimate day of  Ramlila

Muslim citizens of the city consider it as a honour and their right to build this effigy as it has been over the years 

They  are as much part of their Hindu brethren in the celebrations as Hindus are for Eid celebrations when they hold Iftar  parties .

The glowing arathis and lighted lamps that float in the river as night falls is a scintillating spectacle to be watched for aeons .

And then all becomes quiet with the distant embers blowing sparks  in the burning Ghats

  The cool winds blows over the unhurried pace of the river to wait for another day in its long past .