Chettinadu isn't just about the food

Chettinad cuisine is famous throughout India. I personally have dabbled with making Chettinad chicken curry many a time. Of course, I am still not confident enough to make my masterpiece available to others. Anyway, when I visited India recently, I made special note of something else: architecture. To that end, I had posted some photos in an earlier post. But here are some photos I came across on TrekEarth over the weekend. These are photographs of several houses/mansions sporting Chettinad style architecture.


A classic exterior.


A paved open space in front of the house. Would this be where Deepavali fire crackers are lit, where Pallanguli is played under a setting sun and where kids hop, skip and jump (probably not good for the lower back, huh)?


Interior with an open courtyard. The afore-mentioned activities could happen here too.


Similar interior but with a closed ceiling. Well, maybe not the fire crackers then, huh?


A walkway for late night ponderings. A lightness or heaviness of heart would have been evident in anyone who habitually walked here eons ago.


Hide and seek on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Anyone?


The closest I have come to seeing something like this would be in the home of my friend, Vijayabaskar, in Madurai (my hometown). It was a long house and the doors were situated along a single line. You can view the wall at the back of his house from the door at the front entrance. But his house did not have any open courtyards that is evident in this picture.

These mansions are from Karaikudi and Madurai (according to TrekEarth).

Glänzend!!

Of course, the following clip takes the cake...

Gymservations

Last night I made a few (mostly positive) observations at the gym. Here they are in no particular order:

1. All three (3) squats racks were being used for...(drumroll)...squatting! Two guys were doing back squats while I did front squats (225 for reps, I should say). And one of the guys actually squatted ass to the grass!


But my fellow squatters were all male. So unfair!

2. I spotted an Indian guy. Would you believe that?! An Indian guy at the gym!! He looked dweeby, which really is a perfect reason to get into a gym. But...I am overjoyed just to have seen a (dweeby) looking Indian guy in the gym! Yay! The fact that he did a 180 and started walking the other way as soon as he saw me didn't matter (FOB Indians are like that). I was just too elated to care!!


I heard Kal Penn was pretty good in The Namesake.

3. I was wearing a green football (that's soccer to you, gringos) t-shirt with the word "Ronaldinho" emblazoned on it. I wonder how many Patriots fans thought I was trying to send them a message ("Try switching to soccer, you monkey!") in the eve of the Patriots' upset at the superbowl :)



4. A blonde cutie was actually doing the Ab Pulldown. And with her low cut top, an area of 10 square feet around her became a dangerous place to be in for a while there. Incidentally, the Ab Pulldown is my only dynamic movement (notice I didn't say "exercise") for directly training the abdominal wall. This movement also immediately relieves lower back ache that can occur as a result of doing Squats and all bending movements (Deadlifts, Goodmornings, etc.). Since the abs are also trained isometrically during Squats and all heavy bending work, I don't bother with crunches, side bends, planks and assorted sh*t that everybody else seems paranoid about.


I think the chap in the video is Dave Tate, a world-class Powerlifter :)

The United States of Europe (A brief book review)

This book is a few years old. I picked it up in a Boston Logan airport bookstore last month and finished reading it by the time I landed in Paris. At first I had pegged it as a book on business. But the author does not write about negotiation secrets or anything. What he does do is present an outstanding narrative on describing the powerhouse that is the European Union. First he sets about laying out how Americans have not been taking the EU seriously. He uses the example of a typical American couple that goes on a road trip and buys/uses what it thinks are "very American" products. And I felt a little embarrassed because he could have just as well been describing me. My concentration in college, as part of my Political Science major, was in International Relations and so I felt a bit miffed at myself for learning about the significance of the EU through this book. But I guess that is more or less how Jack Welch, whose head-on conflict with Mario Monti (the EU Competition Commissioner) has been described with glee through a whole chapter by the author, must have felt on a particular day back in 2001.

The author also describes his family's personal experience with the EU's universal healthcare system, which I found very enlightening (and now I know why that lamb dinner I had in Reykjavik last year cost me a pretty penny). Other topics such as how the lack of a stronger military presence (when compared to the military of the US) in the EU isn't necessarily a bad thing for the Europeans and the benefits of having implemented a much simpler cellular phone format over there are also discussed about in concise detail.

The best thing about this book is the organization and its prose. I actually read some of its chapters in no order and did not feel confused at all. The author's writing is clear and very easy to understand. I could have been chatting with him in a quiet bar in downtown Boston.

India Trip 2008

My previous two visits to India (in 2000 and 2004) were three week affairs. This month, however, I stayed over for only two weeks. A reduction of friends in my hometown and the realization that Boston has after all been my home for the past 13 years justified a shorter trip.

Chennai seems to have gotten worse with each of my visits. I am talking, of course, about traffic and air pollution. There were just so many new buildings, both commerical and residential. In terms of quality of life, I won't be surprised if something goes horribly wrong there in about a decade or two. I met up with my friends Santosh and Ganesh and their families in Chennai. I had a lively, practical conversation with my Periappa and Periamma (the latter being my Mom's elder sister). I enjoyed that and was pleasantly surprised to learn that my Periappa was an atheist just like I. When I left Chennai, I wished I had had more time to have spent with them all.

I visited my Chithappa and cousins in Vizag, a relatively clean town. My time with them was extremely pleasant. We did a bit of shopping and visited some local spots. Again I felt I could have spent more time with them.


A new park has been established with assorted stuff like these huge sculptures on top of a hill outside Vizag. Possibly the park is an effort to make the town marketable.

I travelled to Madurai, my hometown, from Chennai on the Guruvayur Express. It seems that anytime I travelled to a location in India, there is always a family or two with a bawling kid in the mode of transportation I used. Again, I couldn't quite shake off the feeling that with the population there growing at an alarming rate, something had to give somewhere...sometime. On a positive note, the highlight of the trip was a dusky beauty that got on board with her Mom at Trichi. She ignored me until it was time for me to disembark in Madurai, where as I got up with my luggage, I felt her eyes checking me out. I left the train feeling a little wistful.

Madurai has not changed since my last visit there in 2004. I met up with my friends Suresh, Sahayaraj and Vijayabaskar briefly. Plus I made a short visit to my high school English teacher's house. She quipped that she didn't want to see me the next time unless I showed up with a wife. She, of course, didn't realize that such comments only strengthened my resolve to not bow to certain aspects of tradition.

My Dad's neighbors (of his new house), whom I met for the first time, were very friendly and helpful. His sisters and their families had all convened to celebrate the kumbabishekham of a temple he had helped build in Koodal Nagar. It seems like there is a temple on every street corner in India. Personally I think that such a task as building a temple will feel unnecessary when one is comfortable in one's skin. But reason usually fails before conventional thought :) Anyway I wasn't there to preach. It was a unique experience and I made use of it in my own way.


A lot of the locals showed up for the Kumbabishekam.

Before I left Madurai, I made an early morning visit to the Meenakshi Amman temple, took some photos and relived memories of weekly visits to the temple with friends back when I was in high school.


The Golden Lotus tank.


They have been standing patiently for centuries...


The thousand pillar hall. Outstanding!


From these hallowed outer corridors, several centuries of history looked at me.


A day trip to Rameswaram proved interesting.

I flew Air France for the first time. Their service was not in the same class as Lufthansa's but it wasn't too bad either.


Calorie-rich airline food. I skipped dessert and any juices provided with the food.

Locally, I flew Kingfisher Airlines from Chennai to Vizag and back. Kingfisher is the cleanest airline I have flown. Plus I have never seen so many slender Indian women as I did in the local airports. I am talking, of course, about the flight attendants of the various airlines that have popped up in the last few years.

Did I have a good time in India? I think so. It was nice seeing those friends who were still there, some new neighbors and, of course, my extended family. There were also some unpleasant moments. But all of that happens when one travels. So I am not going to fret over it. All in all, a good trip!

Time to facsia it

Let's face it. People make resolutions every time a "new" year is around the corner. I have never understood this. Personally if I decide change is needed in some aspect of my life, I would set about making the change right away. Why wait for a "new" year to "start"? Anyway, I guess making new year resolutions is as sacred to some people as certain celebrities' tendencies to be in a constant state of waste.

Well, I have got something that you might want to take an interest in in this "new" year: your body's soft, connective tissue or the fascia. Fascia hold almost everything (muscles, organs, etc.) inside your body together and can be found from head to toe.


The red area is the fascia.

People spend so much time attempting to "tone" their muscles that they ignore this very important component of the human body. I spent quite a bit of time in the last few months attempting to better the quality of my soft tissue and I expect I will continue to do it for a long time to come. I have a strong feeling that quality fascia also contribute to maintaining a firm skin tone. Rather than talking more about fascia, I will simply refer you to the following two outstanding articles:

1. The Fascia and Muscle Link by Chad Waterbury: This article has a very simple, brief and articulate explanation of the fascial system.

2. Feel Better for 10 Bucks, Self-myofascial release: no doctor required! by Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson: This article illustrates, with plenty of photos, how a cheap foam roller could be used to properly maintain your fascia at home!

This will likely be my last post until the end of January after I return from a two week trip to India.

Without faith

I was reading (on Livescience.com) some interesting findings on how Americans feel about the use of Creationism, Intelligent Design and Evolution in classrooms in the US. Being Atheist, I have always been bemused by religious systems. I mean, it always amazes me that people who are otherwise intelligent and educated would continue to believe in stuff that continues to cause the three Cs around our planet: concern, consternation and carnage. On a positive note, I can understand someone using a particular belief system as a form of meditation. Hey, whatever to improve the quality of your life, right? But...I believe that religion is an effective tool only when used to attain personal well-being. It easily has the potential to become a monster when imposed on others. Because doing so seems to evoke the same emotions that come pouring out when one attempts to impose one's taste in movies, humor or music onto others.

Despite all my misgivings on this very sensitive topic, I go to extreme lengths to avoid discussing it (guess I am contradicting myself with this post). I feel that it is more important to prevent inflammation of any sort than trying to prevent my ego from getting bruised. We have enough problems on this planet related to this subject and I believe that it is our responsibility to avoid further escalation of such problems.

A while ago a close friend of mine, who is a devout Christian, asked me if he could take a few minutes and talk to me about Jesus Christ. It made me uncomfortable immediately. It is not that listening to him would have made me lose 15 lbs of hard earned muscle. I just would rather not talk about certain things. But its hard to say no to a friend for fear of upsetting him over what was essentially a subject of importance for him. But to his credit, he didn't pursue it once he realized that I wasn't being very receptive. He did, however, ask me if I did anything to take care of my soul (the same way I take care of my physique) and what I would do if I ever felt confused or lost. A valid question. People think that stress is only negative. But stress can also come from positive happenings. Anyway, I gave him an answer that I have presented as a graphic below.



I should add though that, having successfully shed the shadowy influence of any religion or my own Indian culture (it's impractical traits, at least), I have evolved a thought process that is very minimal in its implementation. I wanted to use the word "primal" instead of "minimal" but can a primal nature and rational mind go hand-in-hand in civilization?

As the years roll by, I am finding out that, given my background, it has indeed been worthwhile to have taken...the road not taken!