Author: Narayan Kaudinya

One Deep Journey to the Indian South : A Visual Study of Thiruvegappura Ambala Observing the Culture and Music of God’s Own Country

There is one advice I must give. Travel; at least once in your lifetime get yourself a one way ticket to any place that has ever called you. Solo is better, just like Fear of the unknown is good. I would say, rather pounce on it and do it all the way. And even do it, as you doubt your self; setting aside gloom, prepare yourself to become aware of every breath that is going to come to you. Travel. Ever since February and March graced me to undertake an odyssey to the Indian South, it opened grand doors to a time and space that weren’t only old but preserved for centuries the fragrance of its tradition, from corruption that we have become accustomed to. Ceremonies, rituals, chants and most importantly the discipline of the two magic hours; to become conscious of the rise and the setting of the sun, and it being celebrated like a reserved festival for the soul with utmost attention, precision while guiding oneself to flow in following the cycle of …

The Doors to Spring

I haven’t been walking enough since I came from South India. It was bereft of Spring and felt winter jumped to summer overnight but the northern part has been very kind in reaching out, in showing the colors. These images found me calling on two different days I decided to leave my desk, looking out from my window when clouds seemed to be carrying rivers. Sharing here just that bit of my April with you. : ँ : Thank you If today is the first time you have arrived on The Road to Nara, you are heartily welcome ~ Namaste : ँ : I will take this opportunity to introduce you to About me and importantly; As a co-traveller, will take you through the Ten Lessons I learnt from several years on the road, before you coarse on your own Road to Nara. Also read: 9 Most Read Stories from Road To Nara in 2022 : ँ : You might also like to know about My Little School Project.  If you wish to come over for a visit someday, that you must, you will be heartily …

The Phenomena Of Mind or Conquering The Internal Nature: Raja Yoga

Since the dawn of history, various extraordinary phenomena have ben recorded as happening amongst human beings. Witnesses are not wanting in modern times to attest to the fact of such events, even in societies living under the full blaze of modern science. The vast mass of such evidence is unreliable, as coming from ignorant, superstitious, or fraudulent persons. In many instances the so-called miracles are imitations. But what do they imitate? It is not the sign of a candid and scientific mind to throw overboard anything without proper investigation. Surface scientists, unable to explain the various extraordinary mental phenomena, strive to ignore their very existence. They are, therefore, more culpable than those who think that their prayers are answered by a being, or beings, above the clouds, or than those who believe that their petitions will make such being change the course of the universe. The latter have the excuse of ignorance, or at least a defective system of education, which has taught them dependence upon such beings, a dependence which has become a part …

Smile Professor Einstein : The story behind Einstein’s most iconic Photograph

Smile for the camera, Professor Einstein! When the photographer Arthur Sasse asked physicist and scientist Albert Einstein to smile for the camera on his 72nd birthday on 14 March 1951 – this is the image that was taken. Einstein was tired of smiling at all the photographers and instead decided to stick out his tongue. Einstein himself later used the image on greetings cards that he sent to friends. And became one of the most famous and iconic images ever taken of laureate Albert Einstein, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 30 years before the photograph was taken. You may appreciate this memorable portrait as much as the next fellow, but it’s still fair to wonder: “Did it really change history?” Rest assured, we think it did. While Einstein certainly changed history with his contributions to nuclear physics and quantum mechanics, this photo changed the way history looked at Einstein. By humanising a man known chiefly for his brilliance, this image is the reason Einstein’s name has become synonymous not only with “genius,” …

From ‘A Man Without a Country’ : An Excerpt From an Interview With Kurt Vonnegut

DAVID BRANCACCIO: There’s a little sweet moment, I’ve got to say, in a very intense book– your latest– in which you’re heading out the door and your wife says what are you doing? I think you say– I’m getting– I’m going to buy an envelope. KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah. DAVID BRANCACCIO: What happens then? KURT VONNEGUT: Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers …

The Language is a Poem and Malayalam is its Song

Listen! someone’s saying a prayer in MalayalamHe says there is no word for ‘despair’ in Malyalam. Sometimes at daybreak you sing a Gujrati GarbaAt night you open your hair in Malyalam To understand symmetry, understand Kerela,the longest palindrome is there in Malyalam. When you have been too long in the rooms of English,open your windows to the fresh air of Malyalam. Visitors are welcome in The school of lost tonguesSomeone’s endowed the high chair in Malyalam I greet you my ancestors, O scholars and linguists.My father who recites Baudlaire in Malyalam. Jeet, such drama with the scraps you know.Write a couplet, if you dare in Malyalam. : ँ : Thank you. If today is the first time you have arrived on The Road to Nara, you are heartily welcome ~ Namaste : ँ : I will take this opportunity to introduce you to About me and importantly; As a co-traveller, will take you through the Ten Lessons I learnt from several years on the road, before you coarse on your own Road to Nara. Also read: 9 Most Popular Essays of 2022 : ँ …

A Father’s Advice to His Son

As a young boy my mother made me learn a sentence. The magic aspect of that one line was that it did not end with a full stop rather it took a flight of fancy and inspiration even before it ended. And She must have said this sentence a thousand times by the time i was twelve as few other sentences had started arriving at her memory doorstep, but by then I had found the keys to the roots for reaching to the tree top. “If you want to be a happy adult Nara, she used to say, read the 3R’s. And those 3Rs were; Ruskin Bond, Roald Dahl and Rudyard Kipling. As I look back today, I couldn’t have asked for any other direction as a child from anyone. She set me up early in my life filling it with curiosity, travels and compassion towards all beings and nature. As I will be on the Road for next one month, I might not be able to write a lot about things I had thought …