By Girija Madhavan Images of Mount Fuji, cherry blossoms, bullet trains or electronic devices come to mind when thinking of Japan. Less familiar is another Japanese icon: the Geisha in a kimono, with traditional hairdo, white makeup, scarlet lipstick and an aura of mystery and allure. In Japanese, the word “Gei” stands for art and…
By Girija Madhavan An oil-painting of a pastoral scene in green and gold, catches a ray of the morning sun where it hangs on a wall in our home. The workers in the field seem to come alive, the foliage moves in the morning breeze in contrast to the static hay ricks in the background….
By Girija Madhavan Chanoyu,” or “The Way of Tea” is a Japanese tradition of serving tea, a ritual evolved over centuries. It is the ceremonial presentation of “Matcha” or powdered green tea by a Tea Master [man or woman] to a small group of guests, generally in specified tea houses. With Zen Buddhist origins, it…
By Girija Madhavan Mysuru is hosting Dasara, its most important festival. Elephants are brought from jungle camps to lend their caparisoned presence to the procession. Parks display pots of salvias, zinnias and dahlias; flower beds of cockscomb, cosmos and chrysanthemums. Traditional sports like “Kusti” [wrestling] are a feature of Dasara. Local wrestlers participate in matches,…
By Girija Madhavan August 15 marks the joyful anniversary of India’s Independence in 1947 and the tragic one of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima on 6th August 1945 that changed modern warfare and its possible outcome forever. In 1945, I was seven-years-old and lived in a spacious colonial bungalow of the Mysore State Railways allotted…
By Girija Madhavan High in the mountains above the Sea of Japan [the East Sea], amidst lofty cedars is the “Eihei-ji Monastery” or “Temple of Eternal Peace” in Japanese. It is in Fukui Prefecture. Under curving tiled roofs and in timbered halls, the “Soto” school of Zen Buddhism is practised by the monks who live…
By Girija Madhavan There was detailed coverage on TV channels recently of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. I could identify Priyanka Chopra in a pale pink hat and dress, Amal Clooney, George Clooney and Sir Elton John among the guests. The formal dress code for this…
By Girija Madhavan Star of Mysore recently carried two touching stories about pets. I recall an unusual one from my childhood. In the early 1940s, after an illness, I was kept at home. Our Railway bungalow had a large garden. A lonely child, I wanted a pet for company. Dogs were vetoed because the family…
By Girija Madhavan To some of us “Russia” evokes the memory of its great writers: Tolstoy, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, Chekov and others. Even in translation from the original Russian, they have an impact on their readers including some Indian thinkers. Later writers like Vladimir Nabokov and Boris Pasternak lived in the twentieth century. When…
By Girija Madhavan Spring in Mysuru brings jewel-like flowers to the leafless, stumpy branches of the Frangipani trees after the cold season. The flowers usually have five white petals around a heart of gold. Some blooms are pale yellow set off by a magenta centre, or white deepening to pink; all are lovely and delicately…
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