My Art World..part 2

It is unfortunate that I cannot do any fine work with my right hand for some time and all I can do all day I reading or writing or watching TV. Normally my days are occupied with various activities such as making dolls or stuff toys or any other handicraft stuff. I love to be surrounded by my own art work and keep adding them. I love to share my own artwork with my family too. My presence is visible through my art work and I feel good. Here in Spain, my brothers house is filled up with some of my works. Like this painting in oils This ship made from straws, cloth, twine and glass pieces and painted in bronze and red This collage of paper, cotton and wool and painted in acrylics This vase made in decoupage, This still life also in decoupage This portrait of my nieces and nephew in crayons and markers Birds in thread work A wall hanging in wool Guru Nanak in black and gold I hope to make more, there are still empty walls here waiting to be dressed up, if only my lazy right hand cooperates. ps: To view more of my art world visit http://chat-with-pushpee.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-art-world.html and http://chat-with-pushpee.blogspot.com/2008/03/woman-of-leisure.html from my archives

Visit to Playa San Marco

¨¨I don’t wish to go too far, a small drive will do¨ I tell my brother as I make myself comfortable in his car. We drive through the steep slope, pass through ancient Drago trees, a rich agricultural landscape and descend to the sheltered harbour down to San Marco beach surrounded by breathtaking scenery. Tenerife’s beaches have got the lot with plenty of nudist, black sand and golden sand beaches off the beaten track to suit; provided you know where to look…and Playa San Marco is the beach very close to my house, although quite far from the city. The peculiar thing about San Marco is its black shiny sand. The weather is cooler in this part of the island and therefore it is less crowded than the other beaches. It is mainly visited by locals. Some 70’s style apartment blocks on one side of the beach don’t make for the prettiest of vistas, but this small beach, beside a fishing harbour and backed by fish restaurants, has a certain charm. These restaurants are well known for their fish and Spanish rice dish called Paella It’s set in a sheltered inlet, which makes it suitable for kids. Although it is late evening, there are many people still soaking in water. Stunning vistas always impress; however, they’re pretty much an essential of any decent walk. The real ‘well I’ll go to the foot of the stairs’ moments are the unexpected surprises, especially when they’re to be found only a hop, skip and a jump away. Slowly and carefully I walk down towards the even path to reach the restaurants. There is a small church tucked between the restaurants. My niece informs me that it is regularly visited by locals and during San Marco fiestas, there is much activity here. We wait for a coffee as we watch the sun set down into waters, behind the hills. I glance in my watch, the sun has disappeared and the sky has all shades of red and blue and it is 9 30 pm.

Poetry and Story telling Performance.....

Last evening, I was invited for music, poetry and story-telling performance by a famous group of Tenerife called Sol Y Sombra. After dinner, we went to ´´Casa de Los Caceres´´ which is a heritage building, in Icod de Los Vinos, made of wood and stones. During day, there are many art exhibitions held in this place which exhibits the art and culture of Canarias. The show was held in the patio of this cultural centre and we were greeted with a glass of iced-gin tonic with basil leaves, and we sat there under the open skies, sipping the drink and watching the show. The patio, which is in the centre of the building, is surrounded by wooden windows of all the exhibit rooms, and it was from one of those windows, that we heard the musical voice of a singer, we looked up and saw him move from one window to another with a candle in his hand, his song resonating the patio as he walked down the steps behind the patio and he finally emerged the patio to present the show. The mood was set. There were musicians playing guitar/piano and the two artists who kept us captivated with their songs, poems and animated stories. There was a good interaction between the live music and the song. After each performance, the actors and musicians kissed each other expressing their gratitude and there was loud applause. The audience clearly mesmerised, wanted as many story telling performances as they could get. One could see that each artist performed with great passion, showing stunning melodic creativity and an ever fertile imagination. Although I am not too fluent in my Spanish, I could still follow the story from their powerful expressions. Such was the show that has clung to my memory and I am still relishing the tunes…..

Now Pappu should learn to dance too....tsk! tsk!

The lyrics of the song “Pappu can’t dance sala” of the film 'Jaane tu..na Janne na..(sung by Blaze, Mohd. Aslam, Tanvi, Anupama Deshpande, Benny Dayal,Darshana, Satish Subramanium) is getting quite popular and has everyone dancing on its music except Pappu and it has interesting words too that is something like... Pappu is Popular, a muscular, a bachelor, spectacular Driving girls crazy With blue eyes, like English man In fast cars A Rado watch A Gucci perfume But Pappu can’t dance. Oh Halla! Tirkit tana tirkit tana teeri tana let’s dance Tirkit tana tirkit tana teeri tana let’s dance But, What has Pappu to say about that? Should we be careful in selecting names? My friend tells me that people with names such as Pappu or Baby never grow up and it is an embarrassment to their families when they are grown ups, and their childish behavior never change. Few years ago, we had ads on chocolates, in which Pappu had passed his exams and whole town was celebrating his success because he was an adult and had finally passed after many years of failures. All other smarter Pappu were apologetic. Also there was another ad which abused the name ‘Hari’ It said H for Hitler, A for Arrogant, R for Rascal, I for Idiot. One parent complained that his son (his name Hari) was continuously harassed by his peers and he wanted the ad to be striked off the network. It is strange that I have never met any person with the name ‘Pran. Maybe the parents were afraid that their son would turn out to be a villain as the character in films. Media and films have channelled our pattern of thinking. Few months ago, my friend was searching a name for her dark-skinned daughter-in-law, I suggested ´Saloni´ and she refused to talk to me for days….. So, do the names really matter? Does ‘Himmat Singh’ really have courage? Will Relax Singh ever find a job? And how do we say a polite goodbye to Tata in native Hindi language? I'm trying to get to the idea of whether such superstitions exist or are they merely fabrication. You can get many or most people to agree on whether some things are bad or good on grounds of selection of their names. Other things tend to be more difficult to gain consensus on. But the ground of wrong or right, if such a thing exists, must find its feet beyond human judgment. And what about this craze of selecting the brand name? Any close reference to the brand name sends our antenna up. If we cannot afford to buy ‘Sony’ brand, then we will buy Sunny or Sonny….so closely are we attached to the brand names. And finally we have Ekta kappor who Kares not for Korrect spelling and starts all her serials konnected with names strictly with ‘K’ I don't even care whether she's right. I just don't like the idea that someone with so little integrity and such narrow thoughts could hold so much sway. If consciousness does have an independent evolutionary trajectory, we can only hope that this world will one day be no more than fossils in the museum of intellectual history.

Visiting Buena Vista

I have been under self imposed curfew for the simple reason that I want to take no risk in hurting myself with one more fall. It ain´´t easy scrambling about, trying to do all jobs with just one left hand, you know. I am spending most of my time watching Canarian news on TV which is quite interesting, but sometimes my brother does take me for long drives through the city. Like the other day he drove me up to Buena Vista, which is about 30 minutes up north of my house in Buen Paso. It is located in the extreme northeast of Tenerife, next to the Teno Mountain range (natural area protected within the category of rural park). This place is visited mainly by tourist who enjoy Golf and by locals who enjoy fishing. This area has mild climate all year round. We drove via Icod de los Vinos driving through Garchico, up Los silos, passing though banana plantations and reached the beautiful spot at Beuna Vista. The golf park occupied a vast area and is mostly visited by German tourist who have vacation houses nearby. I envied those three women friends who had come to fish with buckets and fishing rods. They had prohably spend a long day at the sea, sitting on the rock, sharing gossip and waiting for the fish. they looked quite pleased with many fishes in their bucket and I wished if i could befriend them and enjoy the dinner of fish and chips. There was a nice, flowers hedged path leading towards the beach, with breeze so strong that it is impossible to walk alone. The lovely Canarian restuarant, at the foot of the beach, was quite empty, eagerly awaiting for busy week-ends....