Amma in Fermynwoods

01062010

Morning at 5 am
First cigarette in Coventry
Very cold
Fish hiding
Chives
Thyme
Peppermint leaves
Broken step
Very cold
Loo
apple
Crunchy
Very fresh, juice running down my hands
Mithya
Diary notation
Very hungry
Photographs
Wondering whether to warm food
Return to room
Very silent
Sleep
Get up at 11:30 am
Spicy tea
Kitchen
Fish
Mackerel
Tea
Plantain
Night food
2 pieces
Lying the table
Water
Washing glasses and plates
Eating
aUbergine pickle
Tea
Water
Early morning report
Discussion for the day
Fetching wellington
Wellingtons
Fashion
Wellingtons of my size
Waterproofs
Orange
Packing
Loo
Brushing
Washing
Fash
Cream
No change
Soiled
Shoes
Removing yellow slippers
aNna
aNna
aNna
Gerard
Chilly morning
Pink warm stole, around my head
What m I doing here?
White car
Heater
Wide roads
Cold morning
Narrow rods
Wide rods
Maps
Motorway
Cold morning
Long drive
A43
Kettering
Fermynwoods
Thrapston
Dentist

Coffee
Water
spices
Discussions
Lush green
Lorries
Busy road
Reading directions
Going past
Returning
Parking
Looking
Opening the door
Yasmin
aGe
Size
Look
Black hair
Linen clothes
Paul
James
Big smile
Small smile
Meeting
Room
Coffee
Grants
Residency
Green
More green
Tulsi
Worship
My practice
People
No people
Plants
Trees
Stories
Mythology
Characters
Stencils
Invisible spaces
Cheese
Butter milk eggs bread oats muesli
Yoghurt
Cold afternoon
Road barrier
Cycle
Lock
Code
Danish shelter
Stingy nettle
The dog leaf
Leaves that stick to clothes
Cure for arthritis
Trial
Withdrawal
Ride
Unfinished house
Gun-powder
Breath of fresh cold air
Pebbles
Namaste
Ki haal chaal hain?
Fire place
Warm
Big bathroom
Big kitchen
Somebody to sty back
Walk in the woods
Determined to not just walk paths
Call from home
Yellow flowers on the field
Taking the first right turn
Talking of wolves
Cheese on toast
Tea
Tea
Two cups
Electric kettle
Learnt to light the fire by Gerard
Sample by Gerard
Gerard leaving
Me walking into the house
Knock
Kenny
First visit to co-op
First sight of thatched roofs
Raspberries
Roast potatoes
Mortar and pestle
Sea salt
Pepper crusher
Oven
Electric stove
Onions with a very strong fragrance
Chick peas in tomato curry
No bread with dinner
Food discussion
Dinner
Cleaning up
Sleeping
The Elephant Vanishes
Switching off the lights












Decide to sleep

Workshop: Story telling > character exchange > new narrative

Pleased by the piety of an Asura*, Shiva* offered him a boon. The Asura asked that any creature he touched would be reduced to ashes. No sooner did Shiva give this power than the Asura decided to try his power on Shiva himself.
Fearing for his life Shiva ran. The Asura pursued him. Desperate and frightened Shiva begged Vishnu* to help him.
Vishnu took the form of Mohini, ‘the enchantress’ and presented a female form of himself to the Asura. Enchanted by Mohini’s ravishing form, the Asura stopped chasing Shiva.

“Marry me”, he told Mohini.
“Only if you can dance the way I do”.
The Asura agreed.

He observed Mohini’s dance carefully and began imitating her movements. He moved his hands, feet, waist and face just the way Mohini did.
At one point Mohini touched her head. The Asura did the same and was reduced to ashes.

Asura: subterranean being who hoards wealth
Shiva: one of the three primary gods from the Hindu pantheon; God of destruction; very easy to please
Vishnu: One of the three primary gods from the Hindu pantheon; God of preservation; can take various forms

Story from Mithya, Dr. Devdutt Patnaik

Asura
Asuras are commonly defined as demons. They live under the earth in cities made of gold. They are generators and keepers of wealth

· Shiva
Since Shiva is not worldly, he lacks the dexterity to even protect himself.
Shiva smears himself with ash, wraps himself in animal skins, matts his hair and lets a serpent slither round his neck. He is associated with a virile yet untamed bull. He is associated with snow capped mountains, caves and cremation grounds. Shiva is surrounded by all things inauspicious and undesirable, such as ghosts and dogs. Shiva is the eternal outsider refusing to discriminate between gods and demons. Shiva is content with water, raw unboiled milk of flowers from poisonous plants.

· Vishnu
Vishnu bedecks himself with ornaments and silks and sandal paste and flowers. Vishnu is associated with domestic fertile cows. Vishnu is associated with the ocean of milk and is surrounded by symbols of power and prosperity. Vishnu is a member of the society distinguishing between appropriate and the inappropriate. For Vishnu devotees bring bright fragrant flowers, processed milk products like butter and sweet.

· Mohini
Mohini means the one who can enchant. Vishnu often takes the form of Mohini.


Text from Mithya, Dr. Devdutt Patnaik


-Select a story, fable that you are most familiar with (maybe a story from childhood)
Narrate the story or write it down.

-We will the pick out the characters from these stories accompanied by their characteristics.

-We will then draw out these characters and place them collectively like a pantheon of characters.

-Lets observe if we find similar characters or common characters

-Exchange the characters and try to create a new narrative by asking questions, being more curious, following the story after it finishes, creating new situations, bringing in contemporary behaviour patterns, events and spaces. It would also be a good idea to change the look (facial expression, body language, clothes, shoes, props) of these characters.
The behaviour, qualities, look can undergo changes or can remain the same. You may add props, places, situations, news update to build a new narrative.


Folklore is a study of traditional beliefs, stories, events and customs of common people. It is a never ending process, as this store of traditions from the past is still being added to today. For as time goes on what is normal part of life for us now will gradually change and be forgotten or become a distant memory.
Bringing it out here and sharing these stories from mythology and folklore will enable us to refresh the stories in our minds long with an addition of stories unheard.
The form of drawings adds interest value, ways of exploring the characters and makes them well registered in our memory.
The exercise of exchanging these characters and trying to build a new narrative on its basis could give rise to connections that are colourful, fanciful and create a new tradition. It is also an involvement where we acknowledge, accept and include the other into our weaving of stories that we will carry on from here.

(reference from Folklore of Northamptonshire, Peter Hill)

The Leaf Song

Two explorers Rebecca Lee and Vidha Saumya bring together a coincidence of place, situation, artistic inputs, childhood activities and a new identity to the the leaves.

An assimilation of childhood activities working towards a mini guide to leaf songs.

songs recorded

information organised

design in progress

drawings to be done

tunes to be made

We will present the guide between July 7 - July 10, 2010

Gliding over Rockingham Forest

Arrival at Fermynwoods

The day I had come it was raining. I could not see the sun, the source of light and life. When the sun came out the next morning, so did the opportunity to think its presence.
Here began a ritual. Rituals play a key role in our lives. They give structure. They shape our days, our months, and our years. They serve as milestones and help us go through life in an orderly way. Rituals make us believe that we are part of a plan, that life is not random, that all things have a meaning.
Unlike stories that need to be heard, and symbols that need to be seen, rituals are communications that need to be performed.

Haldi/turmeric, Kumkum and rice
Yellow, red and white
The first ritual done in all religious ceremonies
This would also be an idyllic way of welcoming a guest or long returned relative. It is primarily a greeting, a way of welcoming.
The process, Haldi is applied to the forehead of the guest on the spot of the third eye. It is followed by the application of Kumkum and finally rice grains. Haldi and Kumkum would be made into a paste ideally using water from the Ganges, water considered holy and pure.
…
Haldi/turmeric, Kumkum and rice are chosen for their symbolic meanings.
· Yellow (turmeric) is virile a colour, colour of the sun, spreading across the sky and reaching out to the earth. The sprinkling is to invoke the grace and power of what is being worshipped. Turmeric is an antiseptic, destroying the germs as gods destroy the demons.
· Red is the colour of potential energy. Virgin goddesses are draped in a red saree. Red invokes a sense of the fertile land before the rains holding the promise of crops.
· Rice being the food sustains life; the final output that rises out of the earth and is warmed by the sun.

· Turmeric first to remove any negative energy between us
· Kumkum, red to instigate potential energy
· Rice as an ode to the beginning of a dialogue
…
Sun, Earth and Food
Here the food for me the residency that had started a, space where there were going to be two cultures interacting, coming together and maybe co-existing.

This would be how a devotee connects with the deity and divine grace.
The selection of a leaf for me was representative of the space that I was going to inhabit and the dialogue that was going to take place.
…
Dialogue
Me<> trees, space, cottages, woods, the complete woods, the county
Stories from India <> stories from England/Northamptonshire
Rituals there<> rituals here
Words and their meaning<> words and their meaning

Since I was the one coming to an already existing space I should have the one getting smeared with Haldi/turmeric, Kumkum and rice. However the woods, the trees, the space were as new to me as I was to them and therefore I decided to initiate a dialogue. At this point of time I wasn’t aware of what tree this was. However it reminded me of many trees that have similar leaf structure and hence it felt most familiar. The smearing of the Indian red was my way of welcoming myself into the space of the woods. It was a record of the greeting.

Factual reference: www.devdutt.com

Banyan and Beech

There is a tree called banyan
Hermit of the trees
story of its name not too old to find
Banyan, a British appellation
saw the bania trading under the cool beneath
Wide and strong, the banayn
Hermit of the trees
Tree of life and life beyond
Immortal it is

Immortal who are become auspicious
Like the sea, the mountains, carbon and ash

evergreen and shady
refuge for all creatures unable to bear the vagaries of life
though Not a blade of grass flourishes underneath

The over-protective parent it is
Offers shade but no fruit

For childbirth and food it is not to trust
Dejects home, flesh and material
Very distant it is to ever lust
The Rights of passage, marriage and childbirth
Major shifts in life
The banyan stands stable
a Long life span
like the soul
undying un-renewed

wives thread around
To a count of seven
Wish for the same husband
In every janam
branches become the roots
House to betals and pisaches

It is the soul, never dying un-renewed
associated with yam, the god of death

now so it happened
that we all set to
see the beech tree
many centuries old
some paths were blocked
some minds too
they had no questions
accepted everything they listened to

to all who asked and those who kept mum
the beech tree offered
something they never dreamt
studded with all sorts of green
old new leaves and chewing gums for the pigs
12 people around its trunk
28 steps within from the first sight
Some hugged it, some wished for the naked dance

Whatever would make wishes come true
often blindly trust

The beech was not new to human intervention
Some to see it grow
Some for selfish gratification
The lover’s point
Since four centuries and ten years short
The roots spread to reach to the water to the limestone

While researcher didn’t speak much
aNd answered the Frenchman
I wondered if the banyan could find
its companion in beech
since Immortal they both stood

Would wives come here and tie the sacred thread?
Will they also wish for the same husband in seven lives?

Or will there be wishes for match teams, homes and Mercedes
Matches and companions
That should quickly come and go

In all this wishing
We often forget
What they stand for

They stand alone
Against time
Seeing things live and die
Like cctv cameras for centuries

Immortal they are
Wide and strong
Hermit of the trees
No sermons no speech
The banyan and the beech