Silence

Listen to the wind,  it talks.
Listen to the green,  it speaks.

Speak only when your words are more beautiful than the silence...
The Earth has music for those who hear.

Courtesy : Fall season in Matthiessen State park, IL. Picture courtesy Nikon owner. 

Picture This / January 2015

In this year 2015, Move closer towards your destination , but do not miss to enjoy the ride.

Life is made up of the moments in the ride.

Picture this / July 2014

Celebrating Germany's victory in football, this month's pictures are from Berlin.

Here's the splendour of the Brandenburg Gate against the night sky:

One of the many other landmarks  in Berlin also include the Sony Center.

 

The Sony Center is  JAHN designed Sony sponsored building complex located at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany. It opened in 2000 and houses Sony's European headquarters.

This area, originally part of the No mans land of the Berlin wall, became the focus of attention after the fall of the Berlin wall.

 

Sony Center

Enormous dome structure of the Sony center

 

 

 

 

Eat Pray Eat

The caption for the post doesn't have a typo. It's intended "eat" second time and in that order.

In the places of worship, distribution of food is usually done regularly. Sometimes as customary and mostly commercial to "cater" to the visitors needs.

Different regions all over the world are becoming home away from home for Indians.
Needless to say,  places of worship such as temples are cropping up in many such places and becoming a common meeting and greeting place for families, neighbors, colleagues and friends.
So a quick talk over dosa and coffee or lunch of pulav and raitha would be perfect. What better place than a few feet away from the altar.
Not surprisingly,   the food court is usually as crowded as the area near the altar!

If on a weekend, one ends up little late and just at the closing time of the foodie's altar, then the almighty would understand that the devote is in fact in a puja right now...the "pet Puja".

:)

Bon Apetit

Glossary 
 "Pet" : Hindi word meaning Stomach
 "Puja" : Meaning prayer
 "Raitha" : Salad with cucumber as an accompaniment for pulav.


Image courtesy : www

   

Picture This /June 2014

MURAL

Any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. 

Mural at Pontiac, Illinois

Mural at Quebec, Montreal

A distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.

There are many different styles and techniques. Best-known is probably fresco, the technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid lime plaster. This technique uses water soluble paints and the word  is derived from the Italian Adjective fresco meaning “fresh”.

In contrast to Fresco is a secco wall painting which is done on dry plaster (secco is "dry" in Italian).

Tempera painting is one of the oldest known methods in mural painting. In tempera, the pigments are bound in an albuminous medium such as egg yolk or egg white diluted in water.

Marouflage wall paintings are painted on large canvases, which are then attached to the wall.

Information collated from  : Wikipedia

66...Going on 66.

Travelogue of a weekend of cars, highway and history through the historic Route 66.

Seeing the numerous links for the annual celebration of the old US highway I66, him and her blocked the weekend of May 3 and May 4.

Visit to the I66 Happened on Sunday due to other unplanned activities. 

However a one day of the trip along the old highway should be enough if you are going on a quick hop of each county fair. 

Starting from the twin city of BLONO(Bloomington and Normal), the drive was pleasant for the afternoon. Starting in the afternoon after a heavy brunch, Towanda was the first stopover about 30 min away. 

Stopped by on seeing a board which read " flea market". It was mentioned in some articles that they recreate the days when the highway I66 was in use. True. 

The stalls were set up on a small ground with a live band strumming out songs at one end. 

Stopped by a stall at the entrance where an elderly citizen was selling wooden shapes of birds and animals. 

Next stall had some hand crafted bracelets and curios. There were wood painted crafts which looked cute. 

The visit to this stall did not end with just a window shopping. Purchases included a couple of bracelets for the little nieces back home.

Another interesting stop was by a stall that sold hand knit shawls for little children. The ladies had a story to tell about the stuff in the shelf. Like the muffler that a retired kindergarten teacher used to knit. She used to give it to the children annually. And now that she has retired she decided to knit some for the flea market this year. 

If all this seems like the place full of things only for "her", here are a few stalls that were purely for "him"..... Complete set of John Deere automobiles in metal. Prototypes that were quite close to the actual sizes I felt!

Another interesting place and story was that of the silver dime circulated during the civil war.. Those were on sale and interestingly the ones during the war cost more while the coins just printed (coined) a year later cost a little less. Here the purchase included a 50 cent coin bought for 8dollars .

.

The music band played on with three musicians on the guitar and another dude on the drums.

While some of the visitors relaxed under the trees with a lemonade, some grooved to the songs.

Every town along the route 66 has carnivals set up to welcome the summer.

We drove then on the peaceful two way highway to the next pit stop only to see that that they were winding up on the dot.The drive was lined with  some vintage car displays along the route.

One of the notable stops is Pontiac. As the name suggests, a must see here is the Oakland Pontiac Museum. Maintained by a group of enthusiasts, the place has a wide range of the brand of automobile with a history to tell. There is no entry fee and one can walk into the well maintained museum which also has some interesting souvenirs.  Photography is allowed inside the museum. For HIM- Lots of clicks possible here.

A few murals also line the walls of this town, which is very quiet on Sundays. Here's one of the murals overlooking the empty Sunday street.

The mural depicting Route 66 is an apt background for a good picture to sum up the road trip.

Head further towards Chicago unless one wants to camp or pull over at one of the many such pit stops along the Route 66.

Routing through Route 66

U.S. Route 66 (US 66 or Route 66), also known as the Will Rogers Highway and colloquially known as the Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System.

Established in1926, the highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before ending at Santa Monica, California, covering a total of about  3,940 km.

 It was recognized in popular culture by the song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.
While reading up on the Route 66 I found the mention of the song in almost all articles on Route 66:

The song by Bobby Troup goes:

If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66!
......


Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, and it was officially removed from the United States Highway System in 1985, after it had been replaced in its entirety by the Interstate Highway System.

Route 66 doesn't appear on the maps these days. The stretch between St. Louis  and Chicago is still usable for a certain extent. The section of I-55 between Chicago and St. Louis was built as an alternate route for U.S. Highway 66.

One of the remnants of Route 66 is the highway now known as Veterans Parkway, east and south of Normal, Illinois, and Bloomington, Illinois.

During its days, Route 66 served as a major path for those who migrated west, and it supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive.

The annual celebration of the Old Route 66 happens with displays and flea markets in some of the communities along the route.
For more on some of the celebrations in a few communities between Bloomington and Chicago, watch this space .

( Information collated from the information over the www)