Tabula Rasa...

I want to be a good story-teller. One of my fondest wishes.

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He's right. I am out of touch with reality. Maybe I am still playing with the doll-house I never had.

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This is going to be an immense learning phase. And this is going to see me change. Like never before. I can feel the sharpness of the chisel, the beating of the hammer, I hear the sound of carving, feel the roughness of sand paper and it hurts, but the end result will be beautiful. I know I'll come out clean, defined. I lack that. Definition.

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I must have been a child then. The only thing I remember about my trip to Mysore with parents is walking through a palatial place, and feeling that everything around me was big and opulent and well-lit, and mother's sighing and oohing at Ravi Varma's paintings. I don't remember the paintings, but even the child me was awed. This time I had decided to visit the museum again and see the paintings, at 26.

My day started with a tour of the Mysore palace. It's spectacular beyond words. Compared to these beautiful, intricately carved, decorative, colourful, the castles from Scotland seem cold and lifeless then. But guess they have their own story, these their own.

Then went to the Jaganmoham palace, which is now a museum. And what can I say, I loved them. Specially, the Swan messenger.



The story behind it goes like this. Princess Damayanthi is in love with King Nala and has sent a message to him. She's eagerly waiting for his reply. And a swan is on his way with the message. The story of Damayanti and King Nala is quite an interesting one. Go here. The part I liked in that story is how when all Gods disguise themselves as Nala so as to fool Damayanti in choosing them at the swayamvar, knowing well that she's in love with Nala,

Damayanti sees through them each time, as she is aware that her true beloved one is a human being and cannot be perfect, which sets him apart from the gods.

The picture above does not do justice to the painting. The real thing, it's beautiful. Her expression, the love and hope in her eyes...to be able to finally read what her love has sent...the eagerness...the wait...but the joy at finally seeing the swan...it's beautiful. Her graceful pose, folded hands, the beautiful saree, loved it.


Guess Ravi Varma must have loved female breasts :) If you see his paintings, where the female form is painted nude, the breasts, they are so perfect, so very beautiful.


           (1) Lady in the moonlight

 
                            (2) Sucking child

  
          (3) Victory of Meghanatha                              (4) Bheeshma Oath

I found the "Lady in the moonlight" painting interesting. Not only the setting is beautiful, perfect moon, clouds, a river, lady bedecked in all finery, waiting for her lover, but I hardly think she was "waiting" for him, I think her lover was already there :) If you see she barely holding the paloo of the saree and also her hair is open, which in those days was not quite the thing to do, unless you were in your personal chambers :)

The serene expression on the mother's face while the child is being fed. The perfect symmetry of the breasts...lovely, isn't it? Or then in Victory of Meghanatha or then Bheeshma Oath. All women seem to have  perfect breasts.

In the Krishna as envoy, I found it funny that Krishna's lips were painted "pink", no? I wonder how much of the stories we tell are coloured by our own imagination and beliefs.


              (5) Krishna as envoy

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Isn't it weird that not one single female, woman in the pics and paintings of the Wodeyar family was a stunning beauty? Infact, if I may say so, they were most plain, some even unattractive. The depiction of Goddesses however, that's were all the imagination seems to have been directed. But you'd think, so much money and power, kings and princes, they'd all have beautiful wives. But all these women were quite plain, draped in the finest clothes and jewelery, but the word that popped up in my head was not beautiful, but "sturdy". Child bearing machines? Maybe they had other attributes that made them suitable for the title of the princess, but beauty definitely not so.

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Anyway, on the trip to Mysore, met an Iranian female who had come all the way to learn Pranic healing to Pune and was travelling all over India, visiting different institutions. And I didn't even know there was an ashram in Pune! 

Had lunch with a taxi driver in Mysore. Yep. The first most shocking thing however is that I had lunch alone in a restaurant. Never done that before. 

The train journey on the way back to Bangalore was even more interesting than the journey from Kolkata to Patna. Nice. Will talk about that later maybe.

What I found amusing was that when I told Anoop's friends about the paintings, Ashish, one of his friend said, "Oh you like art and you read. Ah, you're the boring types". Wow :)

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And yes, new face. Archives deleted too. Don't crib :)