Chhavi Noticed This!

…the sense of humor to view all things around me with some equanimity…and to stay in the moment without spiraling out of control. Like when the idiots at the stop light outside my house think that honking will vaporize the idiot in front and miraculously clear a special path for them.
Anyway, this was taken months ago in Hong Kong and while it’s a modern sculpture, there was definitely a sense of serenity around it. I kept, however, wanting to speak into my communicator watch and say “Giant Buddha…into motion!”

This actually says “The myth of youth guardian angel” and then the rest of the text says “enhance body energy; revitalizing to the skin” – 60 capsules made from the placenta of sheep.

Err. Right, then. The damn thing says “myth” and people still buy it? The elixir of youth based on not even a half-claim. If I remember right, these cost something like USD 100! Holy cow! Or sheep. Or something.

I just watched “the Oh in Ohio” and was reminded that while I hadn’t gone inside this store, I did have this picture of the window display

And since a picture is worth a 1,000 words and there’s plenty of quirky objets d’art here to keep you busy, I’ll shut up.

graffiti in Amsterdam near Central Station.
It’s like Peter Gabriel’s Milgram’s 37 song, which, has the sum lyric of “We do what we’re told”. The lyric refers, of course, to Milgram’s experiment on how authority can make people torture other people (mob mentality for violence //nazis, religionist/casteist/racist/genderists). And this link taught me something I didn’t know: When he performed this in concert, Gabriel got the crowd chanting “We do what we’re told.” Since the song was not yet released and the crowd did not know its meaning, they were ironically aping the results of the experiment by doing just as Gabriel told them.

While I was in Germany and the Netherlands, I took a couple of walking tours and the English guides in both Amsterdam and Berlin made the same jokes about how creative the natives were when it came to naming things. The national monument is called “The National Monument,” the concert hall is “The Concert Hall,” etc. etc. etc. Well, we have our Mahatma Gandhi Margs and our Chhatrapati Shivaji everythings to counter it.
Still, some of it was amusing to me. Like this shop. Perfectly named, who could ask for more?

This one is tops in my list of unbelievable kitsch. What you see is a man selling hot coffee, tea, and cocoa from the back of a tempo with a chandelier in it Yes, look again, peer into that interior – it’s a full blown chandelier! I loved it!
This was taken at the Rijksmuseum as I waited in the freezing cold drizzle to buy a ticket around 5pm. I think our well decorated coffee vendor’s sell-rate was close to 100 percent. And which Amsterdammer or tourist wouldn’t want a hot cuppa from a man with such good taste in interior design and a fetchingly homey little ‘coffee shop’ even it’s really the back of a three-wheeler? The warm yellow glow, the aromas – he truly outdid himself, no?

Sometimes I really do think it’s a dog’s life. And then I see the strays shivering in the cold or dripping in the monsoon rain and feel bad for them. I guess Bombay is still kinder to them than other, less temperate parts of our country. This critter lives in the shadow of one of the largest temples in Bombay. But he has it made in the shade. Every time I see him, he’s found a new spot to beat the heat. We’ve never talked, but I suspect he’s a happy little fellow, based on his profoundly mellow expression. I know, first a flirty Batman, now anthropomorphism taken to a fresh height. It’s pathetic

and in Mumbai But not in Amsterdam, even if you’re Batman
This charming mime was on Damrak around the corner from Dam Square where Darth Vader, the Joker, a mummy, and a robot were all posing.
But Batman‘s always been my favorite and he bowed to me ever so courteously, I was charmed.
So I dropped a few cents into his bowl and then we blew kisses at each other. And I walked away smiling. Or not. Maybe that just happened in my head.

This gem from the old market in Siem Reap, Cambodia. If only I could sell MY rants, too. I have so many – from Delhi’s lack of civic sense to my uncle’s Islamophobia, to the state of our educational systems in India, not to mention the state of radio in India….
Anyway, these are handmade LADY rants Mine aren’t very ladylike, I’ll admit. So for those, you’ll really have to travel to Cambodia.

Behind Ta Prom in Angkor Thom, as my fellow travelers meditated on the incredible roots of the trees that have taken over the ancient temple, this fellow came along and perched on me.
I waited for a long time for him to get moving so I could capture how dazzling his iridescent his tiny blue/black wings were – but he flew too fast and in quick bursts which made all the motion pictures totally blurry.
He flew off and came back to perch on my finger three times in total – and I have no idea what made my finger so attractive. But there he was. And I wasn’t complaining about being so favored!