Srivi Shares

When I was in Beijing for the first time recently, I sometimes felt I was living in the future. There was no apparent visible poverty, at least not in the touristy parts of Beijing. The Olympics area that we stayed in for a few days, with its colossal "Bird's Nest" and giant water cube stadium, seemed like from another world. It was like being in a "Planet of the Apes" movie, with its majestic skyscrapers, multi-lane highways, and high speed trains. In this world of the future, English has very little role to play. Since my Chinese vocabulary consists of exactly two words, nihao and xie xie, my attempted conversations with Beijing natives was quite entertaining, mostly comedic. My rudimentary acting talent and rusty drawing skills came in handy. You can only imagine my plight when I had to communicate my travelers' diarrhea situation to a pharmacist who did not understand a word of English. Thoughts in my mind, "what if the pharmacist misunderst...

Recently I made my first ever trip to China. There has been a lot of curiosity and interest amongst my friends and family to know what my experiences were like there. So I thought I would share some of my observations and insights in a few blog posts. There is much talk around the world about the idea of "Chindia" these days but the exchange of ideas, goods, and people across China and India has a very long history. Traveling scholars such as Hsuan Tsang, Fa Hein, and Boganathar served as cultural ambassadors and bridges across the two ancient revered civilizations. Of course, the silk road symbolizes this flow in a very visible, concrete manner. Buddhism serves as a spiritual connection between both lands that have coexisted peacefully across thousands of years. However, the influence of Hindu scholars such as Bhoga who laid the foundation for Zen meditation, taichi, the idea of yin-yang, and Shaolin martial arts traditions is also undeniable. By the early third c...

Concluding my series of entries about my lived experiences during my visit to Chennai, this blog entry focuses on ways of communicating that help us remember and honor the living and the dead. One of the sub-fields within Communication is Family Communication. Among other things, it analyzes the ways in which families share their stories with one another and how narratives play an important role in remembering family histories. In Western cultures, we have such things as genealogical research where archival documents and even DNA testing are conducted to find out our family history. Not so in families like mine. We remember our ancestors through an elaborate ceremony once a month. Every new moon day, my parents spend an entire morning remembering each and everyone in our immediate family who have now passed on. They started doing this ritual once my paternal grandparents died, by which time I was already in the U.S. It was only during this trip that I had the opportunity to sit ...

If you enjoyed my other posts in this series on my morning walk and on the Marina Beach , you are likely to also like this entry on food! Summer is mango season in Chennai. For a mango-lover like me, it is like visiting paradise. We are enjoying my mom’s mango milkshake, mango lassi, mango pickles, and mango moar-kuzhambu. Discussions about which variety is best (there are hundreds of them) are commonplace at the dinner table. One can never go wrong with the most popular banganapalli but sometimes the heart seeks an imaam pasand, alphonso, malgoa, rumaani, neelam or salem. But there is nothing to beat the joy of plucking the fruit straight from the rooftop terrace of one’s home.  My Monday dinners are typically fruit-meals. Being in Chennai on a Monday was a great time for me to experience some lesser known tropical fruits. The fragrant palaa pazham (jack fruit or durian), naaga pazham (deep purple wild berries), mangosteen and nongu. I also like guavas, litchis, and I...

This post is part of a series on my hometown Chennai. Check out my first blog entry of this series about my morning walk experiences in Chennai. Chennai is home to the second longest beach in the world. It is called the Marina Beach. It is a very wide beach with lots of sand and no rocks. It has a lovely promenade. My favorite activity at any beach is to watch the waves, especially at sunset or sunrise. When I look at the orange sun sink slowly into the horizon of the sea, I become one with nature. I lose consciousness of my body, my little pains, my small worries, my mundane existence, my everyday complaints. Perhaps you too have had this experience. Watching the waves- Prakrutilaya samaadhi (nature connectedness) Almost all of us have experienced this state while enjoying the awe and beauty of nature. There is an inner calmness and silence. This happens when we pour our complete awareness onto gentle ripples of a placid lake, the gushing glory of a gigantic water...

In this series of blog entries, I will share with you some of my observations and experiences during my visit to my hometown of Chennai . Chennai is the fourth or fifth largest city in India . By the Bay of Bengal , this large city is known for its temples, classical music and dance festivals, Marina beach , masaal dosais , and a more "traditional" lifestyle compared to some of the bigger metro cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi. It is also known as Madras, which is the name that I used to refer to it while growing up. As I get ready to accompany my dad on his morning walk, this city is already up and running. I am greeted by kuyil birds cuckooing sweetly, crows cawing away, pigeons buck-buck-bucking, and squirrels chattering loudly. In the distance are auto-rickshaws happily rushing on the wrong side of a one-way street and fairly empty public buses taking passengers to work. Chants of Om Namah Shivaya from our home's electronic "mantra" machine merge w...

One of my favorite places to visit is the meditation garden next to Swami's beach near Encinitas, CA. It is a hidden gem that I recommend to anyone visiting the San Diego area. It is a serene, peaceful, calming, beautiful garden. There are many spots to contemplate and meditate.  When you climb up a small hill with lush lawns on either sides, you get to see this breathtaking sight of the Pacific Ocean below you, lots of colorful flowers down the cliff side, and brown pelicans soaring above you.  The beach that you see below the cliff is Swami's beach , named after the author of the famous book "Autobiography of a Yogi" - Swami Paramahamsa Yogananda . The meditation garden houses this Swami's ashram (hermitage) and is maintained by the Self-realization fellowship founded by him.  The gardens are open to the public and the kids loved watching the fish by the calm ponds.  Here is a poem that was inspired by my visit to this garden. The Garden of Medit...

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By Srividya Ramasubramanian (published in the June issue of Asian Outlook magazine) Houston, TX, May 5, 2012 - What sets visionary musicologist and composer Kanniks Kannikeswaran apart is his ability to weave seemingly disparate cultural threads into a rich beautiful tapestry through the medium of music. He showcased this ability in his magnum opus presentation called “Shanti: A Journey of Peace” performed in Houston back in March 2010. Kanniks repeated his magic yet again with his latest collaborative creation. It was a unique, first-of-its-kind presentation titled “Meditative Moments: Guruguha - Dhruvapada” at the Stafford Center. The performance was a curated Dhrupad recital by world-renowned musicians Padmashri Gundecha brothers who honored the famous South Indian composer Muthuswamy Dikshitar (1775-1835). Drawing an imaginary line on the map of India South of the Tropic of Cancer, Kanniks pointed out that train travelers south of the line would hear “Kaapi! Kaapi!” o...

Dancing peacocks, spring wildflowers, little drizzle, warm lakes, acres of greenery --- beautiful Barsana Dhaam near Austin was a perfect place for us to spend our Easter weekend this year. But this was no regular vacation. We were there from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon for an immersive language learning family camp. From little kids to grandparents came from all over Texas came to soak themselves in the sweet nectar of one of the oldest languages of the world – Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the mother of several Indo-European languages and has flourished over several millennia contributing to the rich cultural tradition of India and elsewhere. In every field of life imaginable, be it medicine, mathematics, religion, music, sculpture, poetry, literature , yoga, or religion, there are myriads of Sanskrit texts, compositions, commentaries, and aphorisms created by great scholars. Sanskrit is appreciated by linguists as a complex, evolved and precise language. Did you know that NASA resea...

Last Friday, as we started our new semester, our department conducted a timely workshop on Pedagogy and Diversity. We invited a consultant from the Center for Teaching Excellence to lead the workshop. We had an interactive, lively discussion on power, privilege, authority and connectedness in a culturally diverse classroom. As can be expected of a successful workshop on difficult topics, there was quite a bit of empathetic listening, free sharing of anecdotes, and passionate venting of emotions. But this open exchange, safe space environment also left some people feeling awkward and uncomfortable for various reasons. Since I teach many courses on controversial or "hot topics" including but not limited to media's role in shaping racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, religious, and other forms of cultural identity, I could immediately see the parallels between my own classes and the diversity & pedagogy workshop that we attended. It made me understand that a safe classroom d...

We are in the midst of celebrating a four day festival called Pongal. We honor the Sun, the earth, farmers, and farm animals during this time. Naturally, it is a much bigger and more important festival in rural areas than urban ones. On the first day called Bhogi, the home is subject to deep cleaning. It is like "synchronized spring cleaning." In each street corner, a pile of old stuff is collected and this trash is burnt up in a community bonfire. The biggest celebration is on Day 2. New crop like rice, lentils, sugarcane, turmeric and ginger root from the fields are part of the communal cookout. At dawn, families will set up a large decorated pot out in the open sun singing "Pongalo pongal" to allow prosperity to overflow in our lives like the boiling pot of sweet rice dish. It marks the start of Thai, the month of optimism, hope and new beginnings. Farm animals are celebrated the next day, especially cows who are vital to the Indian food economy and culture. I th...

Boys don't dance, they say - They play games and sports They wrestle and tumble They wear blues and greys. Boys don't dance, they say - 'Coz they will be called a wuss A sissy, a wimp, a girlie boy Maybe even gay or worse. Boys don't dance, they say - Maybe taekwondo or judo Maybe hip hop, tap or jazz But never ballet or graceful Odissi. Boys don't dance, they say - Perhaps a fiery tandava The dance of virile Shiva But never sensual or delicate. Boys don't dance, they say - If they insist and they plead Then learn from a real male guru Careful not transgendered Narthaki. Boys don't dance, they say - If their mothers hadn't spoilt them Allowing such transgressions From a very young age. Boys don't dance, they say - If they absolutely certainly have to Then let them do so for a few years But never into adulthood, of course. Boys don't dance, they say - If they end up learning on thier own Let them dance in the closet or bedroom But never on stage o...