Thought Waves

Pineapple Chicken Cooking is a creative art. Many ingredients go into making a dish and many flavors add to it. To give an appetizing look, all it takes is to add colors, garnish with different greens and reds. With Foodstagrammers, Bloggers and Kitchen pages in social media art of making a dish is at our fingertips. Gone are the days when cook books and diaries occupied the kitchen shelves. Fusion foods are the in thing now, with all creativity to blend in the different cuisines. A decorated dish is like a bouquet of flower which brings happiness to the eye of the beholder. I am not sure if I am the right person to write this blog because I am not a big foodie. I eat to keep alive and not the live to eat type. Neither am I the bold type to try out the Vietnamese snake blood soup nor the alukap (Water beetle) fried of Rural Thailand. Since the world has turned out to be a travellers paradise we always get the food of our palate everywhere we go. But trying out the cuisine of a...

I heard about Tholpavakoothu, a Shadow puppetry, from my father. In his childhood days this art was performed during the Temple festival in Palghat from 10 pm to day break. I never got a chance to see it in Kerala. It was an amazing moment to see it in Singapore as a part of Kalaa Utsavam 2014. Tholpavakoothu Tholpavakoothu is a unique shadow puppet theatre from Kerala which is preserved as a family tradition by the Pulavars community. Temples in India were places to impart knowledge and different art forms thrived in there in times. Tholpavakoothu is a ritualistic art form dedicated to Bhagavati, the mother Goddess and performed during the Temple Festivals, Utsavams. This puppetry is performed in Koothu Mandapam, a specially constructed theatre in front of the temple during the months of January to May. During the times when the entertainments were mainly by live performers many art forms thrived in Kerala. Tholpavakoothu was a way to narrate the epic stories using puppets. The...

Bintan - View from Seaplane Bintan is one of the largest land mass of Indonesia's Riau Archipelago. The Island flourished as a trading spot between India and China in the Third Century. Now it is more popularly known as Getaway Island across the shores of Singapore. An 85 minutes ferry ride from Tenah Merah Ferry Terminal, Island is an ideal place to holiday with many resorts springing up along the shores. The Bintan Lagoon Resort ferries guests directly to the Resort. We took the 9 am ferry. Bintan Lagoon Resort Weekends attract lots of golfers to the holiday Island. Immigration is in front of the Resort for On Arrival Visas. The ferry ride along the South China Sea was quite smooth though I was prepared with bags for my seasickness on a turbulent sea ride. A mini bus takes us to the lobby of the hotel and we were welcomed by local Indonesian dancers. Welcome dancer at Bintan Lagoon Resort The check-in was fast and we soon set out to Pasar Oleh Oleh, Kamp...

Be it in any country, a year before election time, unfolds the 'tamasha' in a Democracy. We hear of new promises from Representatives. "Well, well then, what about the old lists? It goes down the drain....then the 'Yojanas' (Schemes) for farmers, slum dwellers etc are all over the media, I really wonder if it really reaches the people or just remaining in the visual media. I am not a big fan of Politicians. Sometimes they resemble to me the religious preachers who manipulate the Psyche of the mob. As an onlooker, it is too obvious to see the opportunist behaviour of the Representatives to get the pie. Few tamashas to put in, is mainly of the Vice-President of Congress who gets to know things a bit too late and then follows the show stealing act. The Ordinance Bill, Lokpal Bill, Quota of gas cylinders per household were in the Parliament for a while..why then is his act of sudden outburst during the Ordinance bill against the status quo of convicted politicians, ...

As the title goes, we were going to our native on a festive season after five years. Every time I go home, I start collecting gifts for relatives and friends. The excitement of going to my native is immense and an array of childhood memories bubble up. As a child, I always felt the festive mornings were brighter than other days, with a devotional songs and fragrance of incense sticks in the air, which made me unusually bright and happy. Being of a generation which saw the transition of techie life, with Radios, Tape recorders, Videos replaced by Smart phones, Tablets and Ultrabooks, Internet TVs, we did have a childhood with seldom use of electronic gadgets. We played outdoors, ran around bushes and ended up with rashes and bruises, climbed trees to pluck fruits, smelt flowers, sipped nectar of some flowers. All these might seem strange to this generation because most of them live in apartments, where plants and trees are put up for beautification of the landscape. The festive day...

I visited Wayanad in the year 2005 and there could be a lot of changes to the tourism of that area now. If I didn't put my experience into words, I wouldn't be doing justice to one of the most beautiful places on earth. The idea to visit Wayanad started because of my search to stay in 'Tree houses'. I could call it my childhood fantasy to live on a Tree house. My web search led me to located Treehouses at Idukki and Wayanad in Kerala, India. We chose to go to Wayanad and booked ourselves for two nights stay at a cottage and one night stay at the Treetop House at the Jungle Park Resort, Vythiri, Wayanad. Nestled amidst the blissfully preserved tropical rain forest, the Tree houses are about 86 feet high. We alighted at Kozhikode Railway Station and headed towards Wayanad by the Resort's car. We travelled through the town of Kozhikode and then the hairpin roads to Wayanad. The ride to the Resort from Vythiri- NH17 was by an yesteryear Jeep through an un...