Betsy has left and Harry has arrived. I have switched as they say here rather than moved to South Goa. I am being wholly looked after by the wonderful team of Norman and Carole in their fabulous old property Casa Susegad (https://casasusegad.com/). I feel so at home with the staff and the ability to carry on with my themes. We have rented a scooter to get to the beach and other places but otherwise are tucked away inland in the heat and humidity. More importantly there are three dogs here – Basil, Lisa and Missy as well as countless cats. Most favoured by me are the siblings Ginger and Garlic (fluffiest cat in India to be sure) and totally adoration for the ginger kitten Rory.
More later with his antics with the purple ball I made him.
Kali Works
I have already done an entry on Kali but couldn’t resist buying 10 double sided stickers of the Hindu god Kali at the Anjuna weekly flee market. I gave three to Betsy and kept the rest. One hit the trash bin and one was a practice.
I did manage to count there were a number of primes here. Kali has five heads to the left and five to the right. She has five left arms and five right arms. Each has one arm bracelet and five wrist bracelets. She has three gold necklaces. And then 13 extra arms that function as a skirt! And then five right and five left legs. In her arms she carries seven weapons of destruction including a bow and arrow, a conch, a mace, a pitchfork, a scythe, a sabre and a disk you throw to behead someone! She is certainly successful as she has a necklace of 24 heads and one large one in her hand. She carries a bowl to collect the blood of this latest beheaded victim. But with ten hands there is no problem!
Her husband Shiva is lying down to stop her in her tracks. He has a few snakes and cobras wound around him but the usual complement of two legs and two arms. He is looking rather peaceful and trying to tell her to calm down with all this killing (justified by Kali as they are all bad sorts) but she has got carried away. I mean….who ever gets carried away?
It has the desired effect and she desists from further killing – well maybe not so much killing. In all her heads she has her pointy red tongue on show.
Tatouage
I have always really liked tattoos. The temporary stick on variety and often use them as armbands. I also like brown henna – I have seen terrible allergic reactions with the black henna.
When I was planning my trip I found this book called Tatouage with loads of tattoos (102) many of flowers and lots in purple! So, it seemed like a dream come true. And although “stuff” I had been carrying around from the UK for so many months was beginning to weigh on me I knew this particular project would have to wait for Betsy to arrive to elegantly display the tattoos in Goa in January 2020.
She was game and we had a fun morning applying them to her abdomen.
Then we went swimming in the sea and I rather fancied putting the pink ones all over my arm to see what it might be like to have proper tattoos. I went a bit mad so much so that my other arm ached from applying them!
But they weren’t the best sort of tattoo for this very humid and muggy heat.
By the following morning they had become rather sticky – especially in skin creases and I had to scrub them off. Betsy had flown back home that night and they have lasted very well and still look glorious. Just all covered up in the London and Leeds weather!
Amdavad ni Gufa
Whilst I was in Bhuj (Kutch, Western Gujarat) staying at Bhuj House I met with the interim manager Shriraj who was an architect. He told me about some interesting modern architecture in Ahmadabad and suggested as I had a few days at the end of December that I visit it. On my way back from the The Lokayatan Folk Museum and The Kalpana Mangaldas Balayatan (toy)Museum, (http://www.shreyasfoundation.in/museums.html), and a coffee and too much cake at 7 Violette’s Café, I went past Amdavad ni Gufa.
My all-knowing auto-rickshaw taxi driver who was forever popping up to serve my needs told me that I could see the structure but that the gallery was open later on. This suited me best as I needed to get to packaging and shipping courier with my next load of stuff to send home.
Amdavad ni Gufa is an underground art gallery in Ahmedabad, India constructed in 1992. It was designed by the architect Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi.
The cave-like underground structure has a roof made of multiple interconnected domes, covered with a mosaic of tiles. It definitely reminded me of watching Doctor Who and the Daleks. Here are some you can buy that talk!
It was very pleasant walking around the structure and there was a neighbouring art gallery that was open and joy of joy – a load of puppies – they are going to be in their own blog!
Dressing up
During my time in India I have been obsessed with and watched the entire 66-part series of the Spanish Gran Hotel on Netflix. I only allowed myself one episode per day and as it was in Spanish there was no knitting or other craft activity as I needed to read the subtitles.
It does mean I am fully engaged because the evidence is that no-one really can multitask! (Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully. Research also shows that, in addition to slowing you down, multitasking lowers your IQ). As I thought and said.
The Gran Hotel series takes place in 1906–1907 in Spain, near a town called Cantaloa. The working-class hero Julio Olmedo arrives at the luxurious Grand Hotel to visit his sister Cristina, who works there as a maid and who has recently been promoted to floor manager. Julio is told by a waiter that Cristina was fired for theft a month before, a story Julio does not believe. He is convinced something happened to her at the hotel and there was a coverup. He takes a job there as a waiter under the name Julio Espinosa to investigate his sister’s disappearance. He soon finds an ally in Alicia Alarcón, one of the daughters of the hotel’s owner Doña Teresa. Alicia, who is being forced to marry hotel manager Diego Murquía, is also suspicious of things happening at the hotel. Together Julio and Alicia work to uncover the secrets of the Gran Hotel. They fall in love but keep their relationship secret (obvs!).
I really liked the character Maite Ribelles who is one of Alicia’s (heroine of the series) best friends. Elegant, distinguished and intelligent, she studied with Alicia in Madrid, where they met. Alicia returned to Cantaloa , but Maite continued her studies until she became one of the first lawyers in Spain.
I decided to do a take on Maite and found some purple trouser braces and a purple tie. I needed a white shirt and bought a second hand one in a market in Ahmadabad. I used the hat I had made (well decorated to be honest) for Chanukah in Ahmadabad. When Betsy arrived we decided we would do a photo shoot!
I am well ensconced in Goa now. I have slowed down to the heat and the pace. Going on the back of a scooter with Harry has meant we have been through some really utterly beautiful countryside and past the most amazingly colourful properties.
I am planning on introducing each of the seven Chakras in the next blog or so. Seems appropriate whilst I am in India for a further (almost) seven weeks!
