Just down the corner

But…somehow…like…TOTALLY around the bend.

The Indian Museum

We revisited the Indian Museum on Chowringhee, an amazing shrine to Civilisation, and passed these characters on our way down Sudder Street. The Indian Museum is one of the great museums of the world. A cathedral to culture and industry. Vast rooms, one upon another, each the size of ballrooms, pillared, plastered, soaring ceilings, doors […]

Délices d’Archtecture: Madurai

Even by the already interplanetary standards of India Madurai stands out as otherworldly, a bastion of spirituality reflected in buildings and people, the Meenskshi Temple, sacred to the Fish Eyed Goddess, seems to be a sacred portal into another world, pulsing with energy and spreading it’s love over this extraordinary place.

Sravanabalagola

A giant Jain Saint stands meditating on top of a holy hill, 2 hours from Mysore, concrete tendrils winding around his calves as he stands in blissful serenity gazing at the hazy plain below. We took a cab through miles of sugar cane and bananas. Some ladies were letting the traffic thresh their harvest. […]

Mysore Palace

Mysore has the Palace from central casting. Overwhelmingly beautiful, a melange of styles and colours that come together incredibly well. It’s a pastel wedding cake that perfectly captures the essence of India – a hodgepodge, a mishmash, a series of stratified layers and rings more numerous than any tree or rock, an avalanche of appropriations […]

Dislocated Recipes for Success: Delicious Syrian Catholic Fish Curry

Saint Thomas (he of the Doubts) is believed to have travelled to preach the gospel to Kerala in 50 AD (& later Tamil Nadu). Those converted and their descendants are known as Saint Thomas Christians, Mar Thomas Nazranis. (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church or Church of Syrian Catholics). Masses are held in Malayalam. Saint Thomas is often […]

The Temple of the Fish-Eyed Goddess

We’ve been intrigued by the Meenakshi Temple at Madurai since reading an essay on it by William Dalrymple in The Age of Kali. Meenakshi is a form of the goddess Parvati. She is the wombless issue of the Pandyan King Malayadhwaja and his wife Kanchanamala – a gift from Shiva. She is born with three breasts […]