Twenty- five Seven

Saturday’s Art show

May 12, 2012

It was really after a long time that I enjoyed a weekend. Partly it was because Anna Shetty was home for a two day break. We spent the two days doing nothing much: just relaxing and catching up with all the odd jobs that needed to be done, eating mangoes, baking in my new oven and just being. The best part was a visit to the art galleries where we saw an exhibition of Badri Naryan’s paintings on show at the Viewing Room, Colaba.

I love Badri Narayan’s style which is simplistically complicated. And I love the Viewing Room which is one large white room on the top of an old building on Colaba Causeway. The huge walls and sheer size make picture viewing a sheer treat .

Badri is getting on in age and finds it difficult to produce the paintings as effortlessly as he did in the past – but the works on display still show his characteristic attention to detail and the sheer fancifulness of flying unicorns and crowned kings. I love his bit of whimsy rooted in ancient myths.

I discovered a new art gallery yesterday – This gallery has been around for many years but I only got to know of it last year. Maninder Dawar who runs India Fine Art Gallery at Film Centre Tardeo is the only dealer of Vaikuntam in Mumbai. This gallery too is well appointed and easy to visit with ample car parking which is rare in this city of Mumbai.

Vaikuntam’s strong images of Telangana people are unusual and striking. The bright, vibrant colours capture the essence of his people – traditional, strong and earthy.

These two shows currently in the city by two senior Indian artists are indeed a treat to the eyes as welcome as the rain clouds gathering slowly in the sky .
An apple a day

May 10, 2012

Consultancy and consultants

My father has been a doctor for all of my life and I have grown up with stories of how he has to consult in Corridors, Elevators , Parties and even the occasional railway platform where he’s had patients accost him with the problem of the Pimple-before-the-Wedding or Itch-they-can’t-control.

But he’s not the only one having to deal with advice in strange places. I, as a mere mortal living an ordinary life, have been the recipient of odd advice from strange sources all my life too! I’ve had a grouchy old grandma watching me handle a decidedly yellow infant in a crowded lift, tell me how a chain of fresh garlic pods will cure jaundice, or a pretty young thing by the poolside recounting her sister’s experience of dealing with a febrile toddler by pouring brandy over the navel and bringing down temperature sharply! I’ve also heard advice that slathering feet with a balm and cladding them with socks the whole night through would make a chesty cough vanish miraculously by sunrise! And of course being a sucker for free advice I do follow the tips that are easiest to follow albeit with a trace of scepticism.

There are more cures than there are diseases and I’ve tried all kinds of stuff like the Kampuchean Mushroom Therapy, the Regulat therapy, the Lemon juice weight reduction therapy and even the Flaxseed in the morning therapy to bring down my Cholesterol ( in case I have it!). So when some one suggested an apple first thing in the morning and a Vit B complex tablet late at night ( apart from the regular medications ) as an easy way to bring down Sugar levels, I tried it out on Hubby dear.

And I’m pleased to share with all of you that this works!

Since there are so many diabetics who find it hard to walk or diet and control their sugars, this then is an easy way out.

Try it! You don’t really have any thing to lose but your sugar levels.
Changing families

May 8, 2012

It was around two in the afternoon. It was hot and the fan made slow circles in the air. Nam Ju had come for her English lesson and we were having a pleasant conversation about a Korean lady who provides accommodation for Korean ex-pats living in Mumbai without their families. The phone rang and she attended to it. Her voice suddenly turned shocked and soon her eyes welled with tears. I asked her what happened and she said that she just hear news that her grand aunt in law had passed away.
“She was fine only three years ago,” she told me. ” She was 96 years old but very healthy and strong. Her daughter in law who is 66 is in fact sickly. Because she is sick she put the old lady in an old people home.”
In Korea it is customary for children to look after their old parents and the old auntie lived with her son for over forty years. But when his own wife became too weak to look after the mother in law, they very reluctantly put her in a home. Both the son and his wife and the old lady were miserable about this but there was nothing they could do.

But things are changing in Korea, Nam Ju told me, hers will be the last generation to look after their old parents. She says that she and her husband will either live on their own or move into an old age home. I told her that the same thing is happening to our country too. With modernisation and Westernisation we will have no place in our children’s lives. I wonder if this is a good thing or bad.

This is a fine example of an old age home in Pune. It is modern and well constructed and many of my friends have already got apartments here. So perhaps it is not such a bad idea after all.

Saturday’s Art show

An apple a day

Consultancy and consultants

Changing families