Recently in Movement Category

Until I get back into the full swing of things...I wanted to share photos from our trip to Portland, 4th of July weekend. I have always wanted to go and A did not need convincing since it is the home of Powells bookstore! We had a wonderful time. It was beautiful and sunny. And we went everywhere on public transit and walked A LOT

We walked throught the park blocks, saw all of Halprin's fountains. It was so great to see people come there--adults and kids alike, in their swimsuits, ready to splash around. The Keller was popular, the Lovejoy not so much. We didn't have time to also go the newly revitalized Pearl district. That will have to be another trip.

Looking on, originally uploaded by barnali.

We did go to the Saturday market, which was interesting. The weird thing though was that they had a performance stage there with a couple of kids performing--singing and dancing. And I thought, oh how nice, local programming for the market. Except, it turns out that it was sponsored by Disney radio and all the songs were from Disney movies and sung like Disney characters. It felt really commercial and cheap and exploitative. There was no escape from it and the sounds pervaded the whole atmosphere of the market.

But to end on a high note, one of the best things we did was meet up with one of A's friends who had just moved back to Portland. It's true the locals know the best places! My favorite was this wonderful street intersection he took us to. This was a thing I am sure you would appreciate even if you are not one of us landscape architects.

And there is more--see photos of this wonderful street instersection, the topography of a beaver, plants growing in a toaster, an old fashioned barbershop after hours, a Rumi bike rack.....

The last couple of weeks have been especially fraught with life altering transit experiences. Well, maybe not quite life altering but definitely worth sharing--if only to reduce the pain! And there will probably be more, thus the creation of a new category for the blog.

One night not too long ago Anirvan and I were on our way back after dinner at a friends house in Emeryville. Now taking bus or BART there is not a simple matter. The Emery-Go-Around works during shopping hours but stops at around 10.15 pm. After that Emeryville feels really far away from home.

So our journey starts:

10.00 pm Leave friends house. It was a fun meal. We start walking, linger and take pictures of cool "under the freeway" sculpture, admiring the shadows cast by them. Life is great!

10.15 pm We are on the street waiting for the #57 bus. We walk a couple of blocks looking for a bus stop but don't find one. In front of our eyes the bus passes us by, even as we wave madly (usually we jump to attract attention--I wonder if that might have worked!). We take the pedestrian overpass/ underpass at Powell and walk to San Pablo to catch the 72. It is quite a long walk. On the way we see this.

10.50 pm On reaching the bus stop we find out from a group of kids hanging out at the bus stop that we had just missed the bus. That means waiting for atleast 20 mins. We pass the Black Muslim bakery and a preacher trying to convert two black and apparently Muslim boys to Christianity in front of the doors of the bakery. We keep walking. We love walking but not so much when we have too many different bags to carry and that book that I am reading and the hardcover that we borrowed from my friend when we didn't know what was to follow that act.

11.15 pm: We wait at the first bus stop with a bench. 5 mins later we see the welcome glowing sign of the bus. We get off on Solano because my big plan is to take the 43 and get dropped off at our doorstep.

11.30 pm And so it happens that we are seated again on a bench waiting for the bus. The neighborhood is less intimidating than the last time sitting on the bench. It is colder now and we are both more tired.

11.45 pm Still waiting for the bus. We start to read the hardcover book I borrowed. That tides us over for a bit. It is getting colder and we are getting more impatient.

12 midnight Still waiting for the bus.

12.05 pm We call a taxi in desperation. I am not sure why we didn't earlier. Maybe it was because we wanted to be really hard core about using public transportation or maybe the cold had affected our brain cells. I think we really wanted to make it all the way using that system--especially after everything we had gone through in trying to use it.

12.15 pm Back at home. Warm and grateful and in disbelief that we had made it back that day--well, technically the next day!

Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman are working in partnership with Montana State University Architecture students and Architecture for Humanity to develop plans for the KWC school.

Hopefully the design will include community participation from the children and will acknowledge the special needs of the kids and cultural context.

While we were out......getting married
Savita and Pramod had a son, Mukundan.
Satya and Anil had a son, yet to be named.
Julie and Umit bought a house.
Pratibha and Raj are expecting in December.
Sofi and Zach are too, next year.
Gabe and Emily decided to get married.
Stefan and Julia were already on their way to the altar.

New babies, houses, jobs, hopefully a new president?
Life goes on...

This weekend should be fun. My friends Krisztina and Bryant and their baby Miles are staying over this Friday night. They are in town for a wedding. Our first baby guest.

Saturday is durga pujo. Though I always looked forward to it, I never was very excited about actually going to pujo celebrations. I am not sure what it is but it might be that I was always a shy person or maybe homogenous crowds freak me out. This is the first time in at least 6 years that I am going to a durga pujo celebration. We'll see if anything has changed.

Also while we were out, Monina bought a condo! Her housewarming party is Sunday afternoon. I am excited to see her new place, eat her mom's home cooking and see her perform taiko.

In other news, this week's media consumption consisted of the movie "Mean Girls", the book, Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses by David Lodge, the third presidential debate and the Bill O'Reilly show.

Anirvan and I are really excited about sharing this day with our friends and family. We wouldn't really feel married if our friends weren't there to witness it. We hope that you will enjoy the evening that we have put together with the help of our friends and family. Planning our ceremony has involved many decisions; we hope this wedding FAQ sheds light on some of choices we made, and why.

One question you won't find is "why did A & B decide to get married?" For that you will have to come to the wedding!

Below is the official FAQ...by me with edits by Anirvan

What is the ceremony like?

Ironically both of us are from the same community but luckily, Anirvan and I are both agnostics -- him leaning towards atheism, me leaning the other way. We decided to create a ceremony that evoked Bengali culture, acknowledged the beauty of personal vows, and didn't require god to be present. The garland exchange and the sindoor (vermillion) daan are both traditions that hold emotional significance for us.

Why did we have a civil marriage in San Francisco beforehand?

We see marriage as a complex set of government-sanctioned rights and responsibilities, and commitment as being something uniting two people. We were delighted to be able to get married in a city that allows all people to get married, regardless of sexual orientation. We also wanted to exchange our vows of commitment in the presence of friends and family. It was important to us that we could do both.

Why the Sailboat House?

We wanted an urban setting that was pretty. A place that we could walk by and say "hey, that's where we got married." We wanted a place that would let us cater our own food. At too many catered places all we could afford on our budget was pasta salad! We wanted a place that could fit at least 120 of our closest friends. We wanted a place where the rental fees went to a reasonably good cause, rather than to the typical Wedding Industrial Complex love profiteers. (We figured the City of Oakland's general fund was worthy of our support.) Many thanks to Vikrant and Ian for helping us find Lake Merritt SailBoat House. The first time we saw it we knew that this was it.

Where is the food from?

Cafe Tibet...yum! Not only is the food really tasty but it is also the place that we had our first meal together (and no it wasn't a date, just dinner-with-a-friend). It is also completely vegetarian. Neither of us are hard core vegetarians but we liked the idea of having no animals sacrificed on our wedding day. Sorry Atkiners.

Who is Tensegrity Nine?

Anirvan and I have different tastes in music. Well, he is more into music than I am and therefore has arguably better taste. But we both really really liked T9 when we saw them. They're eclectic, and hard to describe. We think you'll like them as much as we did.

Why are the forks so small?

We would like to apologize in advance for our kid-sized forks, knives and spoons, but they were the only ones we could find that were not plastic. They look just like plastic but get this -- they're made from corn and potato starch. The utensils and glasses are biodegradable, agriculturally based, less toxic, animal friendly and reuseable. Plates are made from post-industrial waste from poly-coated milk carton production (defective cartons that never had milk in them).

What are those plates made of leaves?

The plates made of leaves were brought all the way from India by my parents (the poor things). I always liked the way they looked. In India, food was once traditionally served directly on plates made of leaves, either from the sal tree (Shorea robusta), a large evergreen, or from banana trees. The subtle tastes from the leaves are released when one's fingers rub against it, merging with the flavor of the food, and enhancing the culinary experience. In our ceremony, we're using the sal leaf plates more for aesthetic reasons than for culinary purposes.

The last few days I haven't been able to write. I found it incredibly difficult to focus on any particular topic. Things were moving so fast. So much was happening. My mind was also distressed from watching the movie "House of Sand and Fog". I have always prided myself on being able to withstand a lot of despair but some parts of this movie were just too close for comfort in the issues it adressed. It left me shocked and sad. Anirvan's objective analysis of the movie did make me step back a little and not be so emotional about it. If you have the power to withstand pain the movie is worth seeing also for the way it captures the almost ethereal beauty of San Francisco as it peeks out from behind the fog. But I still find it difficult to accept the gun violence in the movie. Why would people want to carry such deadly objects? Why do cops shoot to kill even when they don't have to? I still have to process a lot of what I saw. Maybe I should stop seeing such movies. Easier said than done.

Because last Friday, Anirvan, Mukul, Akhila and I went with Jane & Tom and their friends to the opening night showing of "Farenheit 911". It was a great feeling as I stood there in front of the Grand Lake theater, whose marquee said that they would not be enforcing the 'R' rating on the movie. Oh! What joy and hope to be surrounded by so many left-minded people. The joy didn't last that long. I had expected the documentary to be mostly funny and ironic. But the scene in which members of the black caucus step forward one after the other to protest the election process in Florida is the one that stayed in my mind. They were all silenced by the fact that they didn't have the signature of atleast one senator that was required to make the protest official. I am not sure what the thought process of the Democratic party was, who I have heard discouraged senators from signing the protest. Maybe they didn't think that Bush was that bad. But seeing the scenes in the documentary of people- all kinds of people- Iraqis, Americans, soldiers and civilians dying for an unecessary war made you wish that someone had signed the protest, that someone had tried harder to keep the villainous Bush coterie out of power.

To top it off,the next day we also watched "The Weather Underground" - a fascinating documentary about the militant faction of the "Students for a Democratic Society" that was active during the protests against the Vietnam war. Their motto- "Bring the war home". One of the things they did was plant bombs in public places to remind people that their country was still at war and they could not just go on with their normal lives while innocent people were being killed in Vietnam. It's a cliche- but history does repeat itself. Will Iraq become another Vietnam? Help?!

The only light moment in my visual journey of the last 2 weeks was watching "21 Dog Years" performed by Mike Daisey at the Berkeley Rep. It was funny and ironic and performed with panache. Wonder what Amazon has to say about it?

I hope that not all my posts will be depressing. You can help me there too by not mourning with me but organizing.Vote this November. If you can't vote make sure you talk to all your friends who can. Not seeing, not hearing and not doing anything about evil is the worst thing one can do. Join the move(on)ment.

I discovered Odissi when I saw it performed at Vasanth Habba- a dusk to dawn dance and music festival held annually in Nrityagram on the outskirts of Bangalore. Surupa Sen and Bijyani Sathpathy performed two Odissi pieces. I was completely captivated. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wanted to learn more about it and maybe even learn it. That was in February of '99. But I found my teacher, Asako Takami, 2 years later in Berkeley. My friends Brinda and Akanksha had both started learning with her and had really good things to say. By then my love for Odissi had overcome all my fears of learning a dance that people usually start learning when they are 10 or 12 years old, at a ripe old age of 28. I always joke about how a then 28 year old woman had to come all the way from India to Berkeley to learn Odissi from a Japanese teacher. Only in Berkeley!

Learning Odissi is one of the best things that has happened to me.

One of the biggest things was probably the discovery of my feminine side. Though with time I have discovered that its basic forms -- the chauka and tribhangi have helped me invoke both the male and the female energies in me.

I also don't feel guilty about not working out health club style. The bland, sweaty aggressive atmosphere never did it for me. A sun filled studio, lyrical music and beautiful movement is more my style. The movement is also intense and requires building strength especially in the legs. It works out your body (even your eyes!) and your mind.

It's the best way to spend a Sunday morning. Before I started Odissi classes I would sometimes spend the whole day lying in bed watching bad television. Now I get out of the house, ride my bike to class, dance for at least an hour and a half and then ruin everything by eating at Viks!

Learning Odissi also found me Anirvan. I met him through Chaitee who I met at dance class.

In April one of the most influential figures of Odissi, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, passed away. I regret that I never saw him perform but I am thankful that I had the chance to meet him on my last trip to India.

In April I also had my first performance with our newly formed dance group, the Pallavi Dance Group. But that is not the culmination of my learning as anyone who practises any art form would know. It is only one little step towards Moksha.