22nd june 2010-2nd day of my cycle trip

2nd day of my cycle tour in switzerland.

Aarua to Burgdorf cycle route no 8 and no 5 aare river route, and route no 44 --80klm

i feel like a rag now. today the morning was perfect the camera started working and balz gave me another camera too his 10 yrs sons. so now i have two cameras. for the time being no sharing photos as for now all my body parts are telling who they are sp my bum.

as the day started perfect with everything intact and the sun up after 10days lovely weather i think the summer just started. my freind offered me a better bike with 21 gear..wow got trilled and became greedy. left the 7 gear at aarua and took this bike. but the bike had lots of problems. the gear was so tight that i was cycling like a snail. maybe 8 klm per hour. and today was the longest day 80 klm... anyways i have reached and in one peice.

dagmar and family hosting me had lovely broken wheat then bread, cheese, fried cheese and beer.

today fell once yday once and today i lost my was once. so not bad. but now the cycle is repaired so i hope the ride to bern tomorrow will be good.

now off to bed

21st june 2010-1st day of my cycle dairy

FISRT day of my cycle tour in switzerland.

Zurich to Aarua cycle route no 66 and no 5, 55klm


as ususal luck was not with me sp in the morning

i took out my cycle which was completely dressed up. came out of the appartment and the door got locked-- with all my things inside. so i stood outside for two hours for somebody to open the main door. got delayed. that means one watercolour less.

ok on the road finding the route it is all marked but still it is difficult. in villages they speak only german and i only know my indian english. still managed well with sign language.

next tragedy the camera just decided not to work. full night charged the battery. first i thought i dint bring the battery then found it then dint find the memory chip that i found and then the camera says no will not open. sigh.

now in freinds place thought i will charge but now found out i forgot my charger -- so no fotos. now the documentation is only the water colour.

did 3 water colour in baden.

the landscape is mind blowing iching to photograph but i think is a good excercise to stop going click click like the japanese.

suddenly started cycling on the motor way and i was stopped by two gentlemen who got scared for me and made me go back all the way and find my route.

lost two times but still could find meet the route in the end.

sadhyo and blaz hosting dinner tonight.

tomorrow to burgdorf snother 60klm which might become 70 if i get lost.

Hindu weds Christian-- part – 2

Hindu weds Christian-- part – 2

The Institution of a marriage, its theory, its rigid conservativeness, its history/geography remains same if you marry the same caste + language or be a dare devil and go for love marriage or inter-multi lingual or religion....

XXX(name changed) who is from a Mangalorean or Kundapur brahmin family married a Keralean siren Christian. The best part here is --in their respective religion they are the purest, so which means + X+ = very pure. but this theory of mine dint go too well with my relatives. They said the purity remains parallel like a railways line it can never meet. But i have seen railway lines cross each other !

All kinds of function happened –the couple dint escape any form of religious drama from both the side. Actually the wedding was never ending.

Engagement :

dint attend so i have no clue. But my status of being the villain no 1 came down to 3^rd or 4^th position. As relatives thought i might not be the main culprit of encouraging these kinds of milap.

Registration:

you can register any property from land to house to gold to partner. The office looks like a typical govt off. The Que. looks very funny, people have come to register their marriage which means legally you are married and people have also come to register their property.

The groom was very keen in putting the mangal sutra on the brides neck to own the property i suppose. 

Anyways it was an off of all kinds of property registration.

Afternoon lunch from the groom side:

Thou i had to wear a saree so i looked paccka one activist. This particular saree i might have worn for my brothers shadi and few more cousins shadi. As I dont get a chance to wear a saree so any shadi i wear this particular saree which is a kantha stitched one.

This was in a place called tamarind tree—nice antique place, means it is made of all antique things. 65+ all are antique. Had one nice small pond, it seems it was a well which was converted into pond. The tamarind tree of-cource from where the name derived still stands.

The manager latter informed me after our function the place will be given for a film shoot. So the place where we arranged the tables for people to eat, a huge big open chatra(mantap open air hall) will become the heros bedroom. The films name is super and the hero is The Upendra who had made films like: “A”, “Upendra upendra” etc..

this film title is also funny, why? Because the “super” is not in a word format it is an image of the hand:

Christian blessings

The father gave a long speech which included Bhagwat geeta to some TV commercial to explain how all religion is one and we are all bhai bhai. (but reality is reality). This church is a very old british church which has an address of Bangalore-1. 

Reception

In a 5star hotel, with all kinds of hum sab ek hai emotional speeches .....

Hindu blessings

mangal sutra was very important here – i escaped this i dont know how my luck was with me. This is some Swaminarayan temple. Why this happened in the end because to show the relatives that the groom hasn't yet changed his religion he is still Only Yours. 

Graha pravesh

All ashirvad kind of things happened. North karnataka food which was so yum and to die for was served. The only good thing in the whole event was the food. 

I dont know what else was left. Both the side ego's was satisfied, and money too spent.

How much you marry out of the system or take a revolutionary step, or how much you are environmentally conscious or environmentalist –but your roots likes to see you in a form which your ancestors planted it.

Either it is after ekta kapur or what i dont know -”mangal sutra” becomes very important. Sp among hindu men they make sure whomever women they are marrying should wear a “mangal sutra”

is it because they get excited looking at it or is it like mehendi?

Or is it a price tag

or is it a security tag-- “that is my wife”s :-)

now the issue is the wife doesn't know how to cook hmmm so every saturday for 2 hours cooking classes happening. So was thinking should i send few more candidate and earn money anyways it is a recession time.

In all this my relatives to save the boy getting married to this Christian girl did try and pray to all the hindu gods and also tried tantriks but hmm the time was not at all good so he got married, not to a fair Brahminical manglorean girl alas.....now unfortunately we will have to see not so Fair not so Pure coming generation. 

How does the “sub-conciseness” work for me here:

Is the Mangal sutra a “sub-conciseness” which all called “symbolic” among the claimed open hearted or open new thinking people?

the Family wants to be quite an Avant-garde but i just over heard them speaking about how brahmins also should get preference in education and job, now a days even the shetties and the Gowdas come in a reservation quota and they claim medical seats, so why not the Brahmins. But the Brahmins are not ready for a reservation but they should get a preference seats....

but i still want to go ahead with my G G mothers rebel move.

Archana Devi’s Chamber

Archana Devi Travels Presents

Choudhuri Bari

Archana Devi’s Chamber

3rd, 4th ,5th may 2010

someone adopts us

this is an interval --  Hindu weds christian part 2 coming soon....
Bangalore

this kitten has adopted my parents garden and my studio veranda.
posing, playing, hiding, shying from the camera

Hindu weds Christian-- part - 1

  Hindu weds Christian-- part - 1

This story I have traced of my “sub-conciseness”. Why suddenly the need to dig and get what is inside the conscious mind and sub- conscious mind? There are few reasons to this sudden awareness:

1. I just attended, no actually got my cousin married to a “Christian girl”?
2. suddenly was reminded of a friend telling me how my sub-conscious mind is powered by the brahminical thoughts, but my conscious mind actually controls it and makes it sound very politically correct.

(This reaction of my friend was not because i told him-- “of course Mayawati can make thousands of three murthy and elephant sculpture, spend crores of money on herself (the relics of power) and definitely congress has no rights to talk about it, as they have vomited Gandhi family statues and names of institutions all over the country and she has only done it in one state.... when a Dalit women leader comes to this power against the dynasty rule and shows her power which it self shows a change, thou it might be done in a “competitive” way or in a way coping the existing theory, it doesn't matter, as she has the guts and will to do it ,But then sad to hear her say there is no money for education, blah blah blah?”)
So does this mean it is my sub-conscious Brahminical mind not accepting a Dalit leader?
Maybe...need more thoughts on this.

3. they say the brahminical sub conscious roots are so strong that it never leaves you. (uff lucky i dint give birth to the next generation. But what about my legacy?)
4. there are many like this .....

what i did is an investigation of my mind and made a list of my 2 minds:

Conscious Mind: 

today it only says i am coming from a strong Mangalorean brahminical family, sp after my cousins wedding.

but till yesterday it also said:

i am an artist

i am coming from an industrial town ship – steel culture+ cosmopolitan, no language or caste bar but have a strong classification on officer/worker grades.

I am quite faded to the horizon.

I am very much rootless.

Sub-conscious Mind: 

A typical Mangalorean women—with strong headed thoughts?

Have all the roots intact?

Quite a ruckus?

Quite a riot?

love power with greed?

This sub-conscious thoughts are clear maybe because i suddenly know my mothers grandmother killed her husband.....

.....The story is interesting....

The village was Kundapore you can also spell it Kundapur, is about 36 kilometers from Udupi.

“ My maternal maternal great grand father was a high-court judge. He had 2 wives. I dont know if his 2^nd marriage was after the first wife died or had two wife's, my aunts dint answer this clearly.

I come from the 2^nd wives thread. My grandmother – my mother – and ME.

It seems my G G father was quite a violent person, he would beat up his wives. I have never seen any of his photographs or painted images but i can visualize him sitting on an arm chair on the front part of the 'Bethak-khanna or in kannada you say hebagall (sitting room)' with huge mustache. Wearing a black topi and black jacket with dhoti and a umbrella or walking stick.

It seems there was some court case going on some property dispute and my G G mothers brother was involved. The next morning judgment for this case had to be taken, and the judgment might not have favored my G G mothers brother. That evening as usual my G G father siting on the arm chair with a news paper or with few friends discussing the case and waiting for his evening tea.

My G G mother gave him his evening tea and he died on the spot or after few minutes or in few hours not sure. It seems my G G mother crushed her diamond ring into the tea and :-)