TrippinBox

17/03/2022

Review of "Dancing in the mosque" by Homeira Qaderi

https://trippinbox.wordpress.com/2022/03/17/dancing-in-the-mosque-homeira-qaderi/

In a nutshell, I found this memoir a page turner that shatters your heart into a million tears, raises the hair on your neck till it hurts, and saws fingernails right down to their beds, without le…

15/03/2022

Things fall Apart follows the story of Okonkwo, who belongs to the fictitious Umuofia clan, who's "fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan." The story is based on the Igbo people, from whom Achebe himself has descended, and is based in Nigeria. What is amazing is in a book as concise as this, you get an authentic peek into the lives and beliefs of people, in pre-colonial times and how things started to change with the onset of an utterly new system - administrative and religiously speaking....

https://trippinbox.wordpress.com/2022/03/15/things-fall-apart-chinua-achebe/

Things fall Apart follows the story of Okonkwo, who belongs to the fictitious Umuofia clan, who’s “fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan.” The story is based on the Igb…

06/01/2022

I've been to Honfleur umpteen times. Weekends, day trips, long trips, before baby, after baby. But, the focus had always been food. And rightly so. This time, however, I visited the Musée Eugène Boudin in the heart of Honfleur. And OH my goodness! I can't believe I waited this long!!! The museum boasts of a selective collection of pre-...

https://trippinbox.wordpress.com/2022/01/06/musee-eugene-boudin-a-gem-in-honfleur/

I’ve been to Honfleur umpteen times. Weekends, day trips, long trips, before baby, after baby. But, the focus had always been food. And rightly so. This time, however, I visited the Musée Eug…

04/01/2022

Musée Eugène Boudin – in pictures
https://trippinbox.wordpress.com/2022/01/04/musee-eugene-boudin-in-pictures/

Visit the post for more.

04/01/2022

Imagine getting a sneak peek into the life of a photographer, hired to candidly capture events, emotions, lives in a moment's CLICK! Add to that, a rollercoaster ride of surviving daily life that the photographer navigates thanks to her complicated Parisian vie. Nope, it's not all Emily in Paris. This book is more like S*x and the city. Different city of course....

https://trippinbox.wordpress.com/2022/01/04/paris-a-life-less-ordinary-book-review/

Imagine getting a sneak peek into the life of a photographer, hired to candidly capture events, emotions, lives in a moment’s CLICK! Add to that, a rollercoaster ride of surviving daily life …

31/12/2021

Was Eugene Boudin the father of Impressionism, the man who introduced Monet to landscape painting?

But first, let me introduce you to Le clocher Sainte Catherine (The bell tower of Saint Catherine) centrally located in the port city of Honfleur, Calvados, France. The bell tower is built across the street from it’s church (having the same name), indicating that the architecture might have some Italian influence.

A painting of the bell tower is displayed at the Eugene Boudin museum in Honfleur. Now, here’s the twist, until 2013, it was mistakenly thought to be painted by Claude Monet, but is actually the work of Eugene Boudin, a local Honfleurais.

Eugene was a landscape artist, who in 1958 met young Claude, then only 17, at a gallery where they were both showcasing their works- Eugene his landscapes and Claude with his caricatures. You read that right- not water lilies but caricatures.
Eugene convinced Claude to try his hand at landscape painting and influenced the use of “impressionist techniques” - sitting outdoors, en plein air, rather than in a studio, and capturing the effects of light on its’s surroundings, in real time.
In all honesty, I hadn’t retained the name Boudin in my memory, (I’m too ashamed to admit I didn’t know of him) even though Claude Monet is one of my all time favourite artists. And to me this visit to was such an astonishing discovery.

So! Was Eugene Boudin the father of Impressionism, the man who introduced Monet to landscape painting?

01/12/2021

On the 30th of November 2021, Josephine Baker became the sixth ever woman, the third black person and the first black woman, to enter the Panthéon Mausoleum 🏛of Paris, France.

The Gaité metro station on line 13 will be renamed as Josephine Baker. The station is the closest one to the Bobino theatre, where Baker, then 69 years old, performed her last show, narrating the events of her life. 2 days later she died.

46 years later, she is enshrined in the Pantheon, through the earth she grew, loved, lived and died on - from Saint Louis, Paris, Milandes and Monaco.

I wrote about Jo Baker in 2016, when awarded her the « Medal of the city » and wrote a wonderful article in the local magazine, which included an interview with her son, Aiko.
——> Link in bio

📸

24/09/2021

The title of “history’s most famous traveler” usually goes to Marco Polo, the great Venetian wayfarer who visited China in the 13th century. For sheer distance covered, however, Polo trails far behind the scholar Ibn Battuta. Though little is known, Battuta spent half his life tramping across vast swaths of the Eastern Hemisphere. Moving by sea, by camel caravan and on foot, he ventured into over 40 modern day nations, often putting himself in extreme danger just to satisfy his wanderlust. When he finally returned home after 29 years, he recorded his escapades in a hulking travelogue known as the Rihla. Though modern scholars often question the veracity of Battuta's writings—he may never have visited China, for example, and many of his accounts of foreign lands appear to have been plagiarized from other authors' works—the Rihla is a fascinating look into the world of a 14th-century vagabond.

Text from

05/09/2021

France is open, safe, vaccinated! But most of all, France is waiting for you!

With Thomas Cook India

02/04/2021

He waka eke noa
: [We are in this (canoe) together]

So beautifully apt at any time, more so now. This Maori proverb captures what we are all living through despite our differences. It highlights the same fabric of humanity that we’ve been weaved with. No matter how many times we try to raise walls and hide behind them, it is moments in hardships, such as we face today, that make us row our canoes out of troubled waters together, stronger.

To pick a few pictures was such a heavy task - from the fantasy of The Middle Earth, which I conveniently skipped, to the cuddlydoodie of the adorable Kiwi (bird not fruit), which I could plaster all over all my walls and feed!

I also spent hours looking at the Haka dance that was made popular to my generation by the All Blacks Rugby team. And then I found this video (swipe to see it) where at a ceremonial Canoe festival, the Waka Taua (canoe warriors) hum a chant so deep, so powerful that I wish I was there to witness it. Soon.

Featured in this post are:

The Silver Fern leaf
PC: newzealand

Video of the canoe warriors by on Waitangi Day

comes from the name of the boat that originally belonged to Kupe - a legendary figure credited to have discovered New Zealand. The boat you see here is a ceremonial canoe made with Northland kauri trees, and built by Northern Iwi and Waikato tribes, to mark 100 years of the Treaty of Waitangi. The treaty was signed between the British crown or Pākehā (white settlers) and over 500 Māori chiefs.
PC: ̄oriphotographer

Portrait of Mary Mahau, a Maori woman from Hawkes Bay district. I found her mesmerizingly powerful. Almost a beacon of strength and grace.
PC: National library nz

Niwi the , just before her sendoff into the Pukenui Forest near Whangārei. The Pukenui Western Hills Forest Trust works to protect kiwis in their natural habitat.
PC:

The Devil’s staircase or the most photographed spot in NZ
PC: .about.adventure

Book: Waiariki, by Patricia Grace
A quick, breezy, sunny, teary and funny read. My favourite little story was that of Huria’s rock.

18/03/2021

AUSTRALIA and a Waltzing Matilda way to see it…

How is just one country?

This Terra Australis is such a large platter of a multitude of experiences that spins your head, tickles your feet, tears your eyes with its sheer beauty and magnanimity.
My first virtual visit is to this massive land of brimming with species unique to the continent. From to , Emus, and Kookaburras. Right from the times of the ones who lived around the Lake and those who habited the Arnhem Land, from the peoples and the Strait Islanders, to our mates from Down under, this land is filled with culture waiting to soak your mind and heart.

The sea, the Great Barrier Reef, the , Mount Augustus, the grasslands and the plains, rainforest and the desert, so much to see. Which is why I picked the book, by Robyn Davidson, a woman’s journey across 1700 miles, solo. I can never do justice in a bazillion posts to all that Australia has to offer, but this is my way to honour her.

The hardest bit was to choose something that captured the essence of Australia.
or Boomerang
Kangaroos or Wombats
Tea tree oil or jewellery
This or that…

In my search I came across a beautiful concept of Tjukurrpa or the Dreaming, loosely translated as eternal, uncreated. It refers to origins and powers embodied in country, places, objects, songs and stories. It is a way of seeing and understanding the world and connects people to country and to each other through shared social and knowledge networks. Tjukurrpa is the past, but timeless. Tjukurrpa is the present.

This is exactly what I believe - whether really taken or experienced through , food, people and their - does, it us, creates a bridge, closes a gap. Makes us one.

Picture descriptions:
1. “Hello stranger” said the Kangaroo(s) -
2. Estelle Hogan - 1999 Minyma Tjuta Aboriginal art painting with an Aboriginal saying
3. Tracks book cover by Robyn Davidson. .the.world
4. A souvenir: Boomerang by www.murrawolka.com.au/

14/03/2021

It’s been a while since I’ve travelled. Been a while since I looked up places in a guide book, planned walks i wanted to take, trails I wanted to follow, cuisines I wanted to try... all thanks to an invisible virus called coronakarma.

But that hasn’t stopped me from dreaming and visiting these places vicariously.

Through online experiences, video chats with friends old and new, books, tv shows, I’ve been to places far and wide.

Sometimes it feels refreshing, but most times it feels short, very short of the real thing. I want to jump the bandwagon and help connect people to places and the other way round through my network of providers and seekers of culture.

But then I ask myself, will people be interested ?

Being in the « industry » of travel, I’ve realised a lot of us travel for ticking a box. For checking off a list.

Some of us stop on the way to smell the flowers, without plucking them.

Some soak in the sights without needing to physically bring home bits and bobs to remind them.

Even fewer, travel for the sheer journey of it.
They have no bags filled with memories just sounds and smells and stories to share. I imagine such a person to be a sort of a Prophet, one who has the wisdom to inspire others to come along on their path - to travel for the sake of travel.

At this time, instead of actually travelling far and wide and checking off a list at the cost of someone’s health or worse.. let’s promise to enrich ourselves, with connections, with ideas, books read, people spoken to, with stories heard and told. Let’s redefine travel.. let’s rebuild our checklists.
I’m starting my new journey (swipe the pictures to find my list). Hope you come along too.

Wishing you lots of love and adventures.

12/03/2021

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
~ Marcel Proust

Ready to get new eyes?
Stay tuned!!!

11/03/2021

The Kumbh meal is the largest religious gathering in the world. Over the course of 12 years, the celebrations take place in four different locations : at Haridwar on the river Ganga at Ujjain on the Shipra, at Nashik on the Godavari, and at Prayag (modern Prayagraj) at the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna.

Today, March 11, is the day where the naga babas and other believers take a “Shahi Snan” or a “Royal Bath” to attain salvation.

This year the celebrations are at Haridwar under strict sanitary protocols.

Today also happens to be another important festival for the Indian - Mahashivratri. Tonight is considered as the night when Shiva and Shakti become one, which in essence mean the masculine and feminine energies that balance the world balance each other. In Hindu culture, this is a solemn festival that marks the remembrance of 'overcoming darkness and ignorance in life'.

PC:

12/02/2021

Losar Tashi Delek!

This post is for the wonderful Tibetan and other friends I made and who welcomed me into their homes and hearts at a time when I wasn’t the most pleasant version of myself.


In 2011, there was a time when I needed guidance, someplace I could press reset, live for the of it and trust for the humanity of it. So I travelled. I taught. I learnt. I meditated and I fought.
To find a little part of me that was lost.

And this is what I found:

You are never lost, just on a road you’ve not taken yet.

Friendships like fine wine get better with age. But, only if you know how to preserve it.

Sometimes the tunnel you’re in is just longer than anticipated. Keep yourself busy and surrounded by people.

Keep moving forward.

Your mind needs as much exercise as your body

The Human heart is resilient, forgiving, and has a very good memory .

Sometimes people who matter are total strangers.

Most times, what matters is you have loved ones and that you are loved.

Understand other cultures. Immerse yourself in them.

Exchange with people around the world - through language, festivals, dance, food.

Travel. Always travel. Virtually, Really, through the eyes of friends and family. With strangers or a lover and for sure with friends.

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