Thoughts inspired by Atheena Wilson's booty shaking anti-bachelorette tea party with wine. The journey of womankind from being ripe for the marriage market to become the goddess. All in Frida Kahlo style.
When Atheena Wilson invited me for her wedding, I was amused and thinking about her series of articles 79 IN TIME, where she asked her grandmother: “When will I wear a saree?”
Grandmother answered: “You wear a saree only when you become a woman.” Atheena have sarcastically commented on it: “It sounds like a sentimentally wise thing to say, but let me break it down to you. In other words, it also meant, “When you’re ripe enough for the marriage market.”
Here she is! God gave her imperfect irresistible beauty, which graduates every time you meet her. Plus, as she admitted, she had stolen from her grandmother’s shelf of knick-knacks a spoonful of pickle and some sweet and sour sarcasm to become a writer. Not only “ripe for marriage market”, but also ready to break the strict south Indian social rules and marry the man, she loves. Rolling with her big intense eyes, which could belong to kathakali actress, telling me, we are going to have a fun and her “anti-bachelorette tea party with wine” will be in Frida Kahlo style.
Invitation stated:
I accepted the challenge with the Frida’s words in my mind and slowly painted my own reality. I desperately needed to add some colours in my own life. All happened very fast and within few hours I was standing at URU art harbour in front of Anand Rakesh camera.
And yet, again, I remembered Athena’s words about the beauty, which she wrote about her grandmother:
“Growing up with someone brutally honest, I knew she always wanted to teach us beauty lay in how content we were with ourselves not the one that thrived in compliments. In the end, another person’s opinion of how you look never mattered if you don’t know how you look. So then I, with a naked face, began to look into the camera, unafraid.”
Next day in St. George Church, George and Atheena, invited us to be part of wondrous chapter of their life and have officially let the universe conspire and gift them the indelible story. The Gods of Small Things blessed them and watched how she wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes.
I spoke to no one, but this time I heard the royal words of Her Highness Princess Gouri Parvathi Bayi, which she told me almost one year ago: “But, Zuzana, female and male, they are complimentary. There is no life without the male and the female. We have a tendency to see it as sort of competition. It is not a competition. They have to melt, they have to go together to be of use to the society.”
And she continued: "There are a lot of talks about 'Woman Empowerment'. What exactly is this 'Woman Empowerment'? We are what we are! There is 'Shakti' in us. I do not think we need any extra empowerment. We have to be aware of the 'Shakti' that is within us. We should bring it out and use it in the sensible way."
“We, humans, we are not much evolved. In our scriptures, we say, that the power of God is everywhere. There is a saying: "The God exists in the pillar, in the piece of rust, in the stones, in the thorns and in me and in you." The God is only one and we were given the freedom to worship the power, which is God, in any form you like. So that freedom to choose, that the God has no gender."
Founder & Director of Ayurveda Trails, healing collection of (extra)ordinary people and their stories, whose experiences are transferred into various trails shared by travelers.
Run parallel, meet at intersections, skip a few lines, the line of thought has journeyed across a few latitudes and longitudes. To more miles before the big sleep. Cheers, Atheena
The Travancore Kingdom Royalty are considered the descendants of the Gods and ancient Cheras, Venad, Pandya and Chola dynasties, who brought the philosophy of ayurveda to the world.
He calls himself The Lone-traveller. In section about him is written: Don’t have a clue yet. He silently stalks Kochi Muziris Biennale artists and transform their visions into photographs.
While he is searching for the right frame, he believes, that art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. Perhaps he is lost in Pondicherry or found in Cochin.
The human spirit has the extraordinary capacity to find positivity during hardships. Some have found it in reading, others in cooking or gardening. Dear Future Me, is a virtual time capsule on social media that lets us look back and remember the good.
The human spirit has the extraordinary capacity to find positivity during hardships. Some have found it in reading, others in cooking or gardening. Dear Future Me, is a virtual time capsule on social media that lets us look back and remember the good.
DINACHARYA: How to plan a day according to ayurveda?
In order to maintain the mental and physical health in our body, Ayurveda lays emphasis on following a certain daily routine or regimen which acts as preventive maintenance for the body and tells us it is wise and essential for us all to follow it.
Ayurvedic guide for healthy eating habits
In CGH Earth Ayurveda is believed, that the kitchen can be a pharmacy. Food can be medicine. If you treat disease with the ideal drug, you can cure it. But, if you are eating a proper food, you don't need the medicine.
Ayurvedic guide for healthy eating habits
In CGH Earth Ayurveda is believed, that the kitchen can be a pharmacy. Food can be medicine. If you treat disease with the ideal drug, you can cure it. But, if you are eating a proper food, you don't need the medicine.
VISHU FESTIVAL
NEW YEAR IN KERALA
The Malayalam word kani literally means that which is seen first. The traditional belief is that one's future is a function of what one experiences, that the New Year will be better if one views auspicious joyful things as the first thing on Vishu.
Surya Namaskara, Salutations to the Sun, is complete Sadhana, spiritual practice, in itself. It includes asana, pranayama, mantra and meditation. It is an effective way of loosening up, stretching, massaging, toning all the joints, muscles and internal body organs.
The Mudras are used to affect the energy flow within the body. They appear to be merely physical gestures, but we can experience mudras as attitudes of energy flow intended to link the individual pranic force with the universal or cosmic force.
In SwaSwara you evolve along with the place. There's so much openness, that you yourself, start opening up and you see things in a new light. Slowly by slowly, you start opening up and you start loving yourself. That's what happens in SwaSwara.
Time of year when the city of Kochi transforms into a madhouse! The Cochin Carnival is the biggest gala of Fort Kochi and a great time for merrymaking and feasting along with hundreds and thousands of people before stepping into the New Year.
Breudher - The Story of a Dutch Bread
Tracing the culinary history of Breudher, a sweet bread which is a part of the Anglo-Indian cuisine of Kochi and also made by the Eurasian communities in Sri Lanka and South East Asia.
Lakshmikutty Amma is called Vanamuthassi, The Grandmother of the Jungle in Malayalam. Her mission is to preserve the healing traditions of Kaani tribe, settled in the deep forest of Kallar in Thiruvandrum district in Kerala.
The Kairali Ayurvedic Group was established in 1989, when we opened the first ayurveda center in Delhi. We pioneered in setting up the center, at a time when ayurveda was nearly fading away and people of India also was not aware of subject, what is ayurveda.
In Asian culture, people greet each other by joining their palms, termed as Namaste. When we greet one another with Namaste, it means, may our minds meet! The real meeting between people is the meeting of their minds!
The Kairali Ayurvedic Group was established in 1989, when we opened the first ayurveda center in Delhi. We pioneered in setting up the center, at a time when ayurveda was nearly fading away and people of India also was not aware of subject, what is ayurveda.
I hesitated for publishing this story quite late, but there’s a beauty in rewinding. Makes me appreciate how all those days have become of me. The clever fall of dominoes of life events that led me to still standing. A very happy new year to all!
