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Fishing boats look rather romantic from a distance

#fishing #boat #sea #rocks #caboderama #goa #trees

The view from Cabo de Rama fort is something else.

#caboderama #cola #canacona #fort #goa #travel #sea

Guy from Pakistan posts this on the day all of Pakistan was off grid.

I'm looking to connect with folks who have recently secured admission in an undergraduate course in design. Or parents whose children have joined a design program in college. Mostly looking at product design, but related fields like fashion design or fine arts should also be good, since the college admission process seems to be similar.

Also, if you know someone who is studying design as a subject in grades 11 and 12 at school, as part of IGCSE or any other board, then I'd love to speak to them.

Please spare some time and guide a teenager in building his career. Thanks.

Where you see the blue car parked is where I usually park when visiting Down The Road to enjoy live music.

The bridge still stands. The river underneath has turned a tad filthy though. But given that we now have a Mangrove boardwalk over parts of it, and birding is encouraged, I hope that CCP will look at making it cleaner.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7Ar4G7Ci11gpt6sfH9Cgz5

Can you listen to this song without the AIR FM Rainbow automagically playing in your head?

(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yuitkqrXaN0 for the uninitiated)

You ever think who's gonna sing us #rockandroll when all the older folks die? No, you only think about how boomers are ruining politics.

#arambol #goa #live #music #band

Is it just me, or is this band really really good?

The sounds of the forest and birds and the river.

#Forest #sounds from the #river

Early morning #murmuration of #birds over the #Tungabhadra

We look happy, but some of us are cold and sleepy

Lots and lots of birdies in a tree

#early #morning #boat #rides be like...

What do you call this? When it's early in the morning and the moon is setting. Is it a moonset?

Halp. My knuckles are white from climbing.

Climbing and falling and jumping. That's all they do all day.

When in Langur country, do as the langurs do. The boys got proper training in #bouldering. Cool stuff.

The day began with a very nice #coracle #boat ride that was ruined in the end by the boatman insisting on giving us a spin in spite of my protests.

Today was a day of many adventures. Here you can see Nilay taking my comment "go jump off a cliff" rather literally.

Why my child is like this?

F*&@ around (with the mountains) and find out.

The #moon rises from behind the #rocks that the boys went #bouldering on

I could take a million pictures, and they wouldn't do justice to the beauty of the place. People come and seek divinity in the temples here. But the real peace is in the nature - the rocks, fields, birds and animals.

Spot the #langur chilling out in the #paddy #fields, as the #sun sets over the #Tungabhadra in the background

A far away view of our #campsite in #Hampi

For the last two days, around Dandeli, we have paid ₹100 per head for lunch or dinner buffet. The most we have paid is ₹250, for a little more elaborate affair.

The kids are flabbergasted. How is that even possible in a tourist area? We paid ₹1500 for lunch while leaving Goa, something they've come to expect. How did the price fall so much?

Cheap, yet healthy and delicious meals are something that everyone just takes for granted in Karnataka, I guess. Uttara Kannada sets a good model for affordable nature tourism.

Edit: I'd also quipped something along the lines of "The people who go about setting up Udupi restaurants all over the world have ubiquitous cheap meals in their own state. Not surprising, no."

#सागवान के #जंगल के #जाले

#cobwebs in the #teak #tree #forest adjoining our #campsite

Barbequeing seems like such an inordinate amount of effort. And yet being out in the hills, under the open sky, with a chill in the air, it's all so therapeutic.

Smoked barbecue. Made by smoked children.

I really have no good answer for why we didn't go camping or caravaning for more than an year.

After what seems like an eternity, we are back at it again.

New year fireworks 🎇

The new Zuari bridge. From far, far away.

Our rooftop. 30th night. Some new friends, some old. An evening well done.

We got invited to a boat party on Christmas eve

We can keep repeating that reservation is about proportional representation not livelihood. And they will keep denying it. But this - this keeps happening with disturbing regularity.

Those of us who studied Chemistry in school know that plastics are a by-product of automotive fuel production. Naphtha, a key first step for the production of plastics, is produced when crude oil is refined.

(Naphtha can also be made from other sources such as coal. Plastics can also be made from the polymerisation of gas. But those sources are more expensive than the naphtha that is automatically produced when we refine crude to make petrol and kerosene.)

The price of naphtha literally defines the price of plastics. It consequently also determines the fate of plastic recycling.

Today I learned that the more fossil fuel we consume, the more naphtha gets produced as a cheap by-product, and the more "virgin" plastics hit the shelves. The less we drive or fly, the more the world will depend on recycling plastics. Or better still, the price of plastics will go up to a point where alternatives (for packaging etc) become viable.

Be like me and stop ironing your clothes. Nobody cares any more.

Me: Ah, where'd you boys land these soft drinks?

Nilay: His dad is an invitee at the VIP section. So he got them.

Me, addressing the kid Nilay had befriended at the other festival (you must keep up and read all my posts): Oh nice. VIP. What does your father do?

Him (nonchalantly): He is a writer.

Me: What's his name. Perhaps I've read his work.

Him: Vivek Menezes.

Me: Oh wow. Oh really. I must assure you that I'm totally not a fan boy. I just read all his articles in The Scroll. Would you, perhaps, introduce me to him.

It was at this point that Nilay started walking me away.

Me: You must visit us at home. Now that you boys have Christmas holidays. Or perhaps Nilay can visit you.

Nilay: He is catholic, dad. He has Christmas things to do.

And then the boy's mother showed up and said something, which I'm sure was about not speaking to strangers.

Sigh.

And of course the evening had to finish with this song.

Looks like it is only here that the government is imposing the no-music-beyond-10pm rule. But we must all begin somewhere 🤷🏽‍♂️

Shubhaji visits Goa as part of the Serendipity Arts Festival.

Free event. ऐसा सब सिर्फ़ दिल्ली में ही नहीं होता है 😀

That's what big hearted artists do - promote upcoming artists in their shows.

One can only dream of a dwelling such as this.

Friend: You can't just self identify as a Tamilian. That's not even a thing.

Me: Why? People are choosing their pronouns and gender. I can't even choose my identity or community?

Friend: Will Tamilians accept you as a Tamil? You don't live there, or read and write Tamil.

Me: Then I suggest you read up about Shivaji Rao Gaikwad. A man born to a Maratha family in Bangalore, who attained great fame in Chennai.

(twist in the tale - thalaivar can read Tamil)

To understand politics it is important to understand the economics of each region and district.

So juvenile

I've been going to Pondicherry for 31 years. Every time I visit, I see a majestic elephant begging outside this temple. Supposedly giving people blessings while in captivity. 22 years I've seen this beast live a depressing life for the pleasure of humans.

This is not death. It is मुक्ति.

That's me kids. Sailing. A different kind of caravan.

भाई यह क्या हो रहा है? अब क्या PhD भी बिकेंगी?

आज गोवा में गोरे हिप्पियों का गाना सुनने का सौभाग्य प्राप्त हुआ

Hat tip @anuragminusverma

When friends show up to help you drown the Monday blues in dancing and drinking.

Modi: Launches Fit India, international yoga day, fitness videos.

Rahul: Goes for a walk. Ends up doing more to promote fitness than all of the government put together.

Moral of the story: Be born rich and powerful and upper caste/class. Then even you can stay jobless and work on your fitness, ignore that your ship is sinking and everyone defecting, and get famous for being a generally nice guy who went for a long brisk walk and received hugs on the way.

Holy redtape, Batman!

IFFI is screening amazeballs movies in Panjim. But you can't just pay and attend. Or waltz in for free. Or grab a pass at a coffee shop. None of those old fashioned ways of attending an event.

Nooooo. You register online. Send a Statement of Purpose on how you are a cinephile who should be allowed to attend. Then you wait for your application to be approved. Thennnnn you pay money and buy tickets and attend.

Does anyone know a way around this gross bureaucratic overreach? They can't just screen 2001 A Space Odyssey in my backyard and not let me attend!!!

"HAL, I won't argue with you any more! Open the doors!"
"Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose any more. Goodbye."
"Open the pod bay doors, HAL."

(It's fine if you don't get the cultural references. Not everyone is fascinated with murderous sentient mainframes.)

South Goa has cute little waterfalls sprinkled everywhere. Kesarval is conveniently off the national highway. Nice, nice.

Some tiny custard filled, sugar coated German delicacies were had. What the Americans might call donut holes - only slightly larger and much more delicious. Anybody know the name?

Sugar covered lips provided as evidence of too much happiness.

At some point the artists stopped playing their instruments and started making love to them. Reminded me of all the Spirit of Unity concerts I attended as a child.