My Stash

I have this desire to learn something new every day, experiment with different media and create something new. Though I am a working person juggling between my home and work is really something, like walking on the rope-a balance act. However, at the end of the day before  I go to bed, there are two things I have to do. One read at least a page-I just love books and two at least go through one of my craft books and plan some creation. But actually creating some thing new is something altogether different. I don't have time. So at week ends and holidays I do try to attempt  my craft projects. But again I have so many unfinished ones lying with me.

Oh, when ever I visit the Bazaar, I just go through the craft shops and try to find out the latest craze. I also interact with the ladies who visit these shops and min you many a time I learned so many new crafts of techniques that way.

But every time I visit these craft shops, I am tempted to buy something. Now, I have ended up buying these things, thinking that I will use them sometime to create something beautiful and boy I have so much stash that storing them has become a real headache. My family teases me by saying that you have more stock than those shops. So now that I am a bit free I will pull out all these and experiment and also finish of at least some of my pending projects abandoned at various stages. Of course I will share all of them with you...

These are the silk threads in such beautiful colours, I just could not resist picking up whole lot of them and that too at reasonable prices since it was a whole sale selling point.Wouldn't you be tempted?

These are the beautiful blues...

The bight yellows and oranges...

Peaches and pinks...

After that I just could not resist purples, lavenders, greens and of course turquoise, and then whites, creams, black and browns....So I have this whole lot of lovely shades of silk threads...Well  I promised you some tutorials /posts on Indian Embroidery techniques...See how I use them...

These are of course tatting threads. At one time I did not know how to do tatting. In my teens I was fascinated by this art. One my friends knew it, but in spite of  a lot of begging she refused to teach me; knowledge is power. But that made me more determined to learn it. In those days Internet was not so very popular or reachable. So, I had to struggle to get the right reading materials, which is difficult In India, and then to read and understand the basics.

But then, hard work always pays off. I am self taught and today can do any motif or lace. But its a bit time consuming, so don't indulge in it much except when someone asks me for some motifs or laces. I will share with you some of my tatting .

These are kundans, all shiny like the real stones and gems and are the latest fad now...

Here are some more threads....

These are the pearl cotton threads, in single an double shades. I had to move heaven and earth for just finding where they were being sold. These days no one is using them here. But I wanted them for learning Brazilian embroidery, as we dont get Rayon threads here. But at last I found a shop where they were selling these and ended up buying most of the colours. You can see my BE sampler shortly....

These below are known as kora,  a type of hollow long springs which are used in Zardosi embroidery. I have many colours including the standard gold or silver and many varieties also. I will  write on them, where I will discuss in depth.

These are the knitting threads. One day I was just browsing through our old market and in a very small dusty shop I just enquired about pearl threads though not hopefully. The shop owner did not know what they were and placed before me some boxes containing these threads as well as pearl threads. Since the colours were so beautiful,I bought some just to practice my stitches and see how they work out with different weights of threads.

So keep watching my blog to know about my experiments...the count down starts now...

The Mahatma

Some great souls are born in this world, to resurrect humanity, fighting against all odds, society, selfishness and setting the role model, showing us the path. These men are the ones who rekindle hope in the most despaired by making us believe that  kindness and  compassion  still  exist in this world. These men are revered by one and all and are remembered for ever. One such great soul is The Mahatma (meaning great soul).

Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi (M K Gandhi), known as Mahatma, Gandhi, Bapu (father), or Mahatma Gandhi. He lead India to fight for its freedom. Today if we Indians are free and living happily, it is the selfless struggle of many known and unknown freedom fighters lead by Gandhiji.

Gandhiji was born to Karamchand Gandhi (father) and Putli Bai (mother) in Porbandar a coastal town in Gujrath state. Putli Bai was a devout Hindu and observed all the traditions of a Vashnavite. Gandhiji was greatly influenced by his mother. Vegetarianism, fasting for self purification, kindness, compassion towards the weak and helpless, tolerance, simple living, believing in truth and so many other such qualities were instilled from a very young age. Epics, other classic Indian stories  and mythological heroes like Sravana Kumar, Raja Harischandra and most of all Lord Rama had great impact on the young mind of Gandhiji.

At the age of 13, he was married to Kasturbai. He went to London (1888), became a barrister, and after returning (1891) to India, he struggled for his career in law. In 1983, he went to the Colony of Natal in South Africa, on a contract with an Indian firm.

Here he was a victim of the racial discrimination. Many such incidents made Gandhiji think about social injustice and sowed the seeds for his fight against all such social injustices and atrocities against the week and down trodden. It was here he started the famous, Satyagraha (devotion to truth) through non violence, mass civil disobedience, protesting in a peaceful manner.

In 1916, he returned to India, and was exposed to various, social and political ills plaguing India and the hardships faced by the Indians. He traveled across India saw the plight of the poor, learned about their miserable lives and prevalent social evils,. He took to wearing Khadi (home spun)- a dhoti and an upper cloth. He was ridiculed as half naked fakir by some. However, his promotion of khadi and indigenous products had a high impact on Indians, who took to home spinning and using indigenous clothes, articles and simple way of life by shunning  foreign goods.

He awakened the Indians to fight for their freedom and lead the Indian Freedom struggle though , Satyagraha, non violence, non cooperation, civil disobedience and other such peaceful ways of protesting.  He became a role model across the world for peaceful protests against injustice. Many men and women, irrespective of caste, creed, education, rich or poor joined him. Motivated by him many women urged their menfolk to join him. My own grandmother also participated though not on the forefront, but motivating others, singing songs of freedom, helping with cash and kind, educating women and children and supporting the struggle in general.
He succeeded  in freeing India in 1947 through this non violent struggle much to the amazement of the world. He was assassinated on 30th January 1948. It was a shock to the nation and world and Indians observed the mourning period, as if they lost a member in their family.

His birthday today is being celebrated as Gandhi Jayanthi by us and across the world as International Day of Non Violence. The title of honor Mahatma was bestowed upon him by the famous poet  laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Gandhiji is our role model as, he practiced, vegetarianism, non-violence, tolerance towards all religions, simplicity, wearing home spun, uplifting of down trodden, fighting against all social evils and many more. Is it any wonder he is called The Father Of Nation by us Indians?

His autobiography-An Autobiography of My experiments with Truth is one of my most favorites. I read it time and and again. Please read it at least once and I promise you that you will be hooked to it forever. It beautifully portrays the lives of Indians at that time, his beliefs, struggle, feelings and inspires those who read it.

He was fond of some Bhajans devotional songs like Vaishnava janatho, Raghupathy Raghava Raja Ram, and Hymns like Wondrous Cross, Rock of Ages and many more. One of the Hymns, Abide with me was also very much liked by him. Vaishnava jantho and Abide with me are one of my favorites too.
My gran used to remember those days of freedom struggle and we used to listen her all the hardships they faced. She used to sing us the songs of freedom struggle, which are still popular today.

With Salutations, to the Mahatma, I leave you with his picture and some quotes;

Chandragiri Fort

Chandragiri Fort is near Tirupati. It is a very famous monument and has lot of historical importance. This fort is said to have been built around 11th century. For nearly three centuries Chandragiri was ruled by Yadavarayas -a dynasty. Later on around 1367,this was brought into control by the famous Vijayanagara emperors, who were famous for their architecture, renovation/construction of temples, literature, music and other arts. They made Chandragiri as their fourth capital and shifted here when Penukonda (their capital) was attacked by the Golconda sultans. Later on however, Golconda sultans sized the fort and subsequently the fort was taken over by the Mysore rulers. After 1790 this fort lost its importance and sort of went into oblivion.

The fort when built was fortified with bastions and a steep moat all around. Later on around 16th century many other structures like the temples etc were added by the then rulers. The entire fort consists of Raja's Mahal (King's Palace), Rani's Mahal (Queen's Palace), eight temples some dedicated to Shiva and some to Vishnu, and a Bath.

Raja's Mahal is a beautiful example of Indo-Saracenic architechture, for which the Vijayanagar emperors were famous for. It is an imposing three storyed structure, constructed with stone, bricks and lime-mortar as was the then tradition. No timber was used in the construction.
The crowning towers represent the Hindu architectural elements. The central tower is huge, raising through two stories covers the Durbar Hall, where the Emperors conducted their stately business. The magnificent and massive pillars support the three storyed structure.

One can see the fine finishing on the walls using plaster and decorated with stucco. It is said that here in the Durbar Hall, Sri Rangaraya donated the site for construction of St. George Fort to the British in 1640.This palace now houses a museum.

Rani's Mahal is similar to that of the Raja's Mahal in design and structure, but much smaller. Interestingly the ground floor is pillared open space, the first floor contains quarters with a beautiful well adorned tower.


Though this was popularly know as queen's palace, the records available in the fort show that this was commander's quarters. May be that explains the stable like structure in the ground floor.



The temples and other structures along with a Bath are very beautiful. The Bath is connected to the Rani Mahal through an underground tunnel.

This is the wall surrounding the Fort and other structures. This was a very long and sturdy one and still as strong as it was earlier.

We could only visit this around five in the evening. we were really spell bound by the huge and lengthy wall running around the entire fort and its gardens and other structures, beautiful palaces, temples, the architecture, and their beauty the can be seen even today. We marveled at the expertise and skill of the then artisans. There was a sense of peace and tranquility. I could imagine the Kings, Queens and royalty enjoying the various arts and music. It is said that many a literary gems were written here.

But as the Sun began to set, we had to leave with a heavy heart, for our rest rooms leaving back the beautiful Fort thinking of all the royalty and the festivities, their grandeur in good old days, as Vijayanagar Empire was famous for the sale of heaps of gems and many precious stones on the main street of its bazars like one would sell the vegetables or fruits.