Giri dances at School Fun Fair

Giri and his friends turn his school fun fair into a classy affair with their performance of a classical dance.

Hard at Work

Here's Geetha, Giri and Sangametra one evening, each busy writing, drawing, doodling, and then, raised their heads up for short while to catch their breath, enough for me to take a picture.

Chinese New Year 2007

Giri and Sangametra all set in their red Chinese New Year get up to get to the big party at Hoe Chye's in Puchong.


My favourite aunt, Koo Cheh, and Mum. Koo Cheh is always smiling. Here, she and Mum make a lovely pair.


Father, happy to have the house abuzz with so many kids, and older kids, especially Nik.


Here's the petite Sangametra in her chinese cheongsam. Petite but powerpacked with punch!!!

Giri is Seven

Giri turned seven on 28th January which fell on a Sunday. On Sunday mornings, we get together for prayers at the Temple of Fine Arts. So Giri got the chance to do the finale of the prayer session which is to wave burning camphor in front of the shrine. This is to remind ourselves constantly to seek the light of Divinity in all things.


Then, Giri got to hear the birthday song sung to him by everyone. Of course, Sangametra had to help her brother with the cake. After the song and cake cutting, Giri offered the cake to all the elders first, to get their blessings.


That evening, our good friend Shangita and her daughters, Nritta and Aditi, came on the monorail with us to Berjaya Times Square for a nice family dinner there. With the Chinese New Year coming, we found ourselves posing in front of a red gazebo.

Giri's Free Hand Drawings

Giri did this in one minute, without any erasing of the lines he had drawn. Notice that he is keen on creating outlines of the letters he writes. At first, I thought he drew an impression of me, but it turned out he thinks Hari is king!


He did this Ganesha smoothly and expertly. I don't know why he titled it "Amma is a Queen"!


This is a pix of Giri when he was four or five. It is one of my favourite pix of him...

Sunday Morning

After breakfast, and seeing that it was going to be a soft and cool day, we decided to park ourselves on the balcony to do some writing and drawing. Giri and Sangametra are of course excited about this.


Here is the avid writer and artist. She spends a lot of time writing her Tamil alphabet, and drawing flowers and things.


This is a painting Sangametra had done a month ago, all on her own.


This is the view from our balcony, eighteen floors up in the sky. You can see Petronas Twin Towers as well as the KL Tower.

First Day at School

It's the first day of school and Hari and Giri are in their school uniform. Hari is in Form Four this year, after getting rather good results for his PMR with 3 As and 4 Bs. He is a school prefect.
Giri goes to Standard One. He is quite excited about school and looks quite smart in his new uniform.


Below: Giri and Geetha get ready for school. One thing for sure, Giri loves the idea of being independent, doing things like buying snacks from the canteen and making friends straight away with some of his new classmates

Looking Back a Little

This is how Geetha looks like nowadays. She has been teaching Odissi dance all these years but recently she started performing again.

In July this year, we went to Coimbatore, India, to pay our respects at the shrine of our spiritual guru Swami Shantanand Saraswathi. He passed on last year in July. It is very peaceful at the shrine. The shiny black stone in the centre atop the white square marble block symbolises the resting place of our Swamiji who was interred right there in the ground last year. A bluish greenish grey egg-like stone on top of the black stone is the Shantalingam. This consecrated stone marks Swamiji's presence and essence. It is here that daily worship is performed, morning, noon, and night.

Giri and Sangametra always find occasion to pose for a photograph. Right now, they both enjoy painting and drawing. They have started going for Tamil classes. Geetha wants to learn Mandarin. We intend to get the kids and ourselves to learn as many languages as possible.

In Coimbatore, we visited with some close friends who live in the vicinity of the shrine. The shrine there is called Shivanjali. It is a small community in which all of our Temple of Fine Arts projects are located. In the background, dressed in orange robes are Swami Tyageshananda and Girija Ma. Their daughter Swarnalatha is with us as well.

The Colours and Light of Dance

HARI - A BUDDING CLASSICAL INDIAN DANCER
just a week ago, geetha presented her students of Odissi, the indian classical dance in a very well coordinated programme. hari performed a special piece among other dancers. giri did so too, in an item for very young students. this is what hari looks like in costume. hari also plays the violin, as well as being trained by me in drama.


giri performed too - in an extended display of footwork and choreographic patterning that showed the children's understanding of space and movement.


this is swathi, one of geetha's many promising students. her team presented the badya pallavi, an enchanting piece on the alluring musicians of odissi.


amulya is a member of the teja putri - a group young budding dancers with great promise. these young dancers had been presented early last year in a full programme entitled "TEJA PUTRA", conceived of and choreographed by geetha.

The House that Ket "built"

i have not seen so many of you for so long. some time back, it struck me that it would be nice for our children to see who their uncles, aunties, and cousins look like. now our family is stretching right across the world. from libya to malaysia to australia. i am posting some pix of my kids as a start so that you can see what they look like.


this is the front of our apartment on the 18th floor of palm court in brickfields. geetha named our house "akashvani" meaning "voice from the heavens". it is also a name for the goddess saraswathi who is the goddess of the arts and sciences.


hari, giri, and sangametra. hari has just finished his pmr, that is the major exam in the third form. tomorrow he goes to india on a pilgrimage of temples there with other youngsters, organised by the temple of fine arts. it will be a good experience for him. giri goes to school next year, and sangametra is eager to go to school too. she will join kindergarten. she has just turned four.


giri loves physical activities. i took him on a work trip - an equestrian club - and he got a chance to ride a horse.


we all live in a two room apartment in brickfields, right next to where geetha and i work. we had painted it in many colours.