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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Last Sunday

Well, what a lazy bundle of bones I am!
Last Sunday was extraordinary - a mix of Physics, Art, and Biology.
Professor Asokamani's lectures on basic Physics has become a routine - sort of a Sunday mass - for I never miss that nowadays.
Once it was over, Saravanan, my friend, took me to the museum.
It was a fittingly older building - living to its promises of antiquity - as if some medieval traveler has dropped a treasure as he passed by - only to the beholder to judge the elegance - with dropped jaws.



One thing I can never forget is the magnificent view of the portraits of the Governor Generals of pre-independent days.


Portrait of Stanley, after whom the Stanley Government Hospital has been named.
Then there were the so realistically and emotionally seducing paintings by the famous Raja Ravi Varma. I had never imagined that I'll be viewing them from a touching distance. Masterpieces!

'Lady with the Mirror' by Raja Ravi Varma


You ought to fall in love -either with the art, or with the artist.

There were a number of sculptures, some strangely missing their head, or arms - was it the looters' mark, or mishandling while transportation, or negligence - I wondered.

The Zoology section had lot in store - the sharks, the whales, the crabs, the turtles, the giant eagles, the elephant - all displaying their skeletons - and I guess most of them will be reserved to be found in museums, rather than their natural habitat, or the zoo.

And you shouldn't visit a museum empty-stomached. Result: You are likely to end your quest for specimen in a restaurant. We started our search, and with the circuitous traffic arrangements, we decided we have lunch at home. Well, the day is worth writing about. But I still missed the Connemara library (Picture below).

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