Saturday, August 23, 2014

I Watched This Artist Doing Wonders With His Small Knife!

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We went for a wedding at Coimbatore, a couple of days back.  The wedding went on very well. The food was very good!!! But we still talk about the vegetable carving they displayed at the choultry!

It is a fashion nowadays to display this art during weddings.  I had admired this art at many weddings.   I saw some beautiful art on copra (dry coconut) also here.  It came from Bangalore, which is famous for copra art.  Then we saw this man carving a pumpkin...peeling/scraping the outer skin thinly off from the veg. and then drawing small small squares on it with a wooden pencil-like stick with a sharp tip.  Then started sketching the design for carving. Nearby was a nearly finished crocodile (!) which was created out of bitter gourds.  He has got a couple of small, sharp knives. He holds the knife closely in his fingers and carves these images beautifully.  One assistant was chopping cabbage on the floor, red and green, separately.  When I asked Samy, the artist, 'is it for the cows?' (I thought he was cutting the wastes!), he said that it was for decoration!  I regret for not taking a picture of him when he was working.  I was standing there and watching for a long time! It was magic! Now, to the images.  Click on the pictures to have a better look:


So many images! You can see the cabbage strips on the floor!

The beautiful peacock! All the brinjals, carrots, beetroots, moolis were sliced and pinned.  The feathers were balanced on a couple of banana stems first and then removed or are they under the 'feathers'?!

I think, this was the best image! Half-way image/sculpture of the bitter gourd crocodile...You can notice the scraped pumpkin on the side which turned into Ganesha later! The crocodile is without teeth here, at this stage!
Crocodile with sharp lauki (bottle gourd) vegetable teeth and mooli, beetroot eyes! Now, I notice the carrot bits in its teeth, blood?! Bottle gourd snake is lying nearby! And '(beetroot) smiling rabbit' is sitting happily! Lauki is the main vegetable used here, I feel.
Southekai/cucumber tortoise!
Birds out of mooli, lauki, carrot and beetroot! The flowers were looking very natural!

The penguins out of big brinjal, small brinjal and carrots!
Srinivasa image out of red pumpkin!Beautiful, isn't it?
Ganesha with garland, modak, etc.   Even the sacred thread is there!

I admire this young artist and I would like him to go places.  He deserves it.  I should have taken his picture when he was working...

His address:

T.M.Samy,
Excellent Carving,
Vegetable & Ice Carving Decoration,
30, RR Layout,
New Siddhapudur,
Coimbatore-641044

Phone: 9885281100, 9698981100

Email: excellentcarving@gmail.com

Friday, August 15, 2014

Sabko Swatantrata Diwas Ki Shubh Kaamnaayein...!






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Sunday, August 10, 2014

Desert Roses...My Small Green Space In Our Balcony!

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I took this picture from ground level.  Once the flowers bloom, they stay fresh for many days! And butterflies come to feed themselves! Notice it in my profile picture! It was taken from one of the plants!

The branch of the tree gives a good look for the picture,  I feel! Click on the pictures to have a better look!

These plants are around 18 years old! They need very less water and maintenance is zero! Very easy to manage.  This plant grows from seeds.  I had posted the pictures of the earlier.  Here it is.


Close-up picture of the flower

This is the seed which had burst open and the tiny seeds flew all over the place!

I had a lovely garden in my old house.  Many varieties of Jasmine and exora/Vrutshippoo  flowers were there.  Here, in this house I have got 2 varieties of jasmine in two pots in another balcony.   I did many post on our garden in the old house.  Some are here and here.

Last week a seed burst out from one of these plants and I sowed some seeds in a pot.  Hope I get more plants of this variety!



Monday, August 4, 2014

Humen Tumse Pyaar Kitna...Har Din Hum Aapko Yaad Karten Hain, Gungunaate Hain, Aapke Gaanen!

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The legend called Kishore Kumar!

Today is the 85th Birth Anniversary of our famous Kishore Kumar, Hindi Film playback singer, actor, director, lyricist, composer, the list goes on...a multi-faceted personality.

As all my friends know, my day begins with MS Subbulakshmi's Vishnu Sahasranaama first and then the radio is switched on.  From Vividh Bharati's Sangeet Sarita programme, I start hearing Kishore, Rafi, Manna Dey, Latha and Asha's songs! They seem to repeat the songs often but I never get bored.  Kishore is the first favourite of all the members in my family.  I have written many times, about how crazy my  elder son was and is, about Kishore Kumar's songs.  My mood lifts up as soon as I hear his voice! We can recognise Latha's voice the decade of the song, since she started singing from a small girl to middle age and now old age...her voice changed slowly (Latha is my favourite singer too!).  But Kishore Kumar's is the same from the mid 40's to the late 80's.  You can know more about him with this wiki link here.

He came to to Bombay with his brother, Ashok Kumar, who was a famous actor then,  to do playback singing.  But became famous by singing along with acting, in movies.  At some period, he was so busy acting in films that Rafi sang some songs for Kishore Kumar in some movies! He was a good actor playing serious roles plus a great comedian.  But all of us remember him for his eternal songs in Hindi films.  He had sung all types of songs from classical, semi classical to masti bhari songs! All the music directors were after him.  His tantrums were legendary.  An example is here via an interview he gave to Pritish Nandy, the famous journalist for the then famous magazine,  Illustrated weekly:

Pritish Nandy: I understand you are quitting Bombay and going away to Khandwa...
Kishore Kumar: Who can live in this stupid, friendless city where everyone seeks to exploit you every moment of the day? Can you trust anyone out here? Is anyone trustworthy? Is anyone a friend you can count on? I am determined to get out of this futile rat race and live as I've always wanted to. In my native Khandwa, the land of my forefathers. Who wants to die in this ugly city?                                                                                                                                                               
PN: If you didn't like Bombay, why did you stay back? For fame? For money?
KK: I was conned into it. I only wanted to sing. Never to act. But somehow, thanks to peculiar circumstances, I was persuaded to act in the movies. I hated every moment of it and tried virtually every trick to get out of it. I muffed my lines, pretended to be crazy, shaved my head off, played difficult, began yodelling in the midst of tragic scenes, told Meena Kumari what I was supposed to tell Bina Rai in some other film - but they still wouldn't let me go. I screamed, ranted, went cuckoo. But who cared? They were just determined to make me a star.
                                                                                                                                       
PN: But you succeeded, after your fashion...
KK: Of course I did. I was the biggest draw after Dilip Kumar. There were so many films I was doing in those days that I had to run from one set to the other, changing on the way. Imagine me. My shirts flying off, my trousers falling off, my wig coming off while I'm running from one set to the other. Very often I would mix up my lines and look angry in a romantic scene or romantic in the midst of a fierce battle. It was terrible and I hated it. It evoked nightmares of school. Directors were like schoolteachers. Do this. Do that. Don't do this. Don't do that. I dreaded it. That's why I would often escape.
                                                                                                                                                                                                  
 
PN: Is that why you prefer to be a loner?
 
KK: Look, I don't smoke, drink or socialise. I never go to parties. If that makes me a loner, fine. I am happy this way. I go to work and I come back straight home. To watch my horror movies, play with my spooks, talk to my trees, sing. In this avaricious world, every creative person is bound to be lonely. How can you deny me that right?                                                                                                           He was acting as if he was crazy, but was very very intelligent, eccentric, you can say.                                                                                                                                      Both Latha and Asha used to say in some interviews that he used to cut jokes all the time and their voice used to get 'kharaash' with all the laughing, before recording the songs.  So they tried not to laugh, but Kishore would not let them stay sober!  Everybody who came across him loved him.  You can read more about him in the link and get alarmed or just laugh!  I feel like copy-pasting the whole interview but pushed myself to stop! I regret that he died very early in his life...he was just 58.                                                                                                                                   You can read about his career and other information in the wiki link I quoted in the beginning.  Now, let me write about my favourite songs of Kishore!                                                                                                                                     He is a good comedian, I said.  Have a look here in this song.  Suni Dutt also is here who was a famous hero of those days, but here, he is not 'visible' at all:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          He sang for Dev Anand in many movies.                                                                     Both Latha and Kishore's voices are superb here.                                                                                                                                                  and here!                                                                                                                                      He sang for Sanjay Dutt here                                                                                                                                    This is my favourite song.  Kishore is singing for his brother Ashok Kumar.  You can see Tanuja also (Kajol's mother!).  Music director is Kishore Kumar. I think he produced this movie. Here is the song.                                                                                                                                    This song is from 'Amar Prem'.   Rajesh Khanna's famous movie.  All the songs in this movie are good.  One sample is here:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          'Aradhana' was a hit movie of those days.  All the songs by music director, SD Burman in this movie, were famous.  One is here.                                                                                                                                    Kishore is singing for Amitabh here.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         This song is from the famous movie, 'Julie'.  I love this song.                                                                                                                                                                               Kishore is singing for Amitabh in Shiv-Hari's music, for the film, 'Silsila'.  My favourite song. Again all the songs in this movie are hits.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Only Kishore and Amitabh can do justice to this song, 'paan banaras wala'!                                                                                                                                      Another masti song of Kishore, picturised on Randhir Kapoor and his wife Babita (Ranbir Kapoor's parents!) is here.  Lovely song.                                                                                                                                       This is a sad song, but a very good song.                                                                                                                                                                                                        This is  my most favourite song picturized on Amitabh. Kishore's voice is at its best! Such a deeeeep voice! Music is by Bappi Lahiri! Here it is!                                                                                                                        Let me conclude this post, reluctantly, with a happy song! Still so many of my favourite songs are there.  I might make another post with them.  He was not classically trained, but he was able to sing any type of songs.  He was a gifted person.  He is going to live in the hearts of all music lovers forever.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           P.S.: Please mention your favourites in the comment section!                                                                           How did I forget to add the songs of this movie, Aandhi?! All the songs are good.  It is here                                                   Another favourite song which should not have been left out! Enjoy this!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
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