The fish on the land ain't happy.

"...The fish on the land ain't happy
They sad 'cause they in their bowl
But fish in the bowl is lucky
They in for a worser fate
One day when the boss get hungry
Guess who's gon' be on the plate... Oh no!" ('Under the Sea'- The Little Mermaid)


I am a vegetarian. But I am also a big big foodie. I could watch the food shows on TLC or read recipe books all day. The thing is, I am left out of quite a big chunk of the food experience because I am a vegetarian. I can't even relate to the things they say.


I've tasted meat many times- chicken and fish. Mutton and beef once, but not much more than that. Oh, once I tasted quail and guinea fowl too. But the food that puzzled me the most was seafood. I don't mean ordinary fish, but the squid and oysters and lobsters and octopus and all those slimy, squirmy, tentacle-y things that still look that they are going to move on the plate. I could never imagine that one could enjoy the texture of them, let alone the taste. I totally agreed with Dave Barry who said, "The only kind of seafood I trust is the fish stick, a totally featureless fish that doesn't have eyeballs or fins." 


But, after countless recipes with seafood and friends raving about their delicate flavours did I decide that one day, someday I will try it.

Written in Stone

It's been quite a while since my last blog post. Sigh. Apparently I've been busy, but I can't exactly list out many positive results of being busy.

Oh well, aside from working on Transparence, thesis work *cough cough* and Brownie Points, I helped plan out and attended a five day camp for our church youth to the YMCA camp at Nilshi, Lonavala.

It was quite an experience, from seemingly endless train journeys, tents, campfires, mosquitoes and rock climbing, to singing, prayer, kayaking, snakes, swimming, and lots of fun and craziness in general. To top it off, the location was absolutely spectacular. The site was a peninsula into the Andhra Lake, which is definitely the cleanest, clearest, most beautiful lake I've seen in India, which had the backdrop of lush green rolling hills. Very picturesque surroundings with not even a trace of human civilization aside from the campsite. You know those pictures where you can't tell the difference between actual landscape and the refection in the water- this was one of those locations.

The point of this post is to actually try and describe to you the architecture of the place. 
Nestled in the midst of this natural abode, any man-made built form would seem a disruption. But in my opinion, Christopher Charles Benninger brought out a living space to co-habitate with the trees and the mountains, and I'm not talking about tree houses and dens made of sticks, leaves and mud. Unlike the usual rustic campsite, this was one of architectural significance.

Over the 3 days at the campsite, I'd keep discovering little bits of the design. It wasn't something that spoke to you loud and clear at one glance.You sort of had to become part of it. For example, I got lost during the first round treasure hunt and it wasn't easy to find my way by just looking ahead of me. The pathways and buildings were so well camouflaged that I needed to walk bit by bit through the foliage with sudden glimpses of the lake along contoured pathways to really figure out the route. 

So, in order to fully absorb every bit of it, I skipped group pictures on the last day and went on my own architectural walk. Let me take you through it. Enough of the long written explanations. The pictures should do the talking.