Padmanabhapuram Palace

Known to be one of the oldest palaces in India, I was awed by its beauty of Kerala style architecture patterns. The palace is 20kms from Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, we were at.  Also known as Kalkulam palace, we were informed that the palace is built majorly in teak wood (including nails). The palace is retained as is since its construction from 1601 CE with maintenance and not influenced by modern culture or technological adaptations. There are people in almost every room who explain the significance of the palace parts.

I have visited forts in north and in south. I could witness the significant difference, upholding cultural values from respective parts. It takes almost two hours for the complete palace visit and if one is intrigued by the designs and patterns would take more. They hold and demonstrate our values and take us back to our roots. I had the most satisfying three and more hours during the visit.

A partial view of 6 acres palace

I was intrigued by the designs. I am sharing two pictures that in no way represent even the tiniest parts of what you witness inside. There is a bed made of 64 medicinal trees which the king used to sleep on. There are hundreds of flower patterns and each different from other. There is a dance studio.  There is foreign visitor’s room, plain and simple with just four walls and windows. There is lot more – everything now in my personal album.

The patterns up-top

I plan to use these as case studies for my course that I am going to teach in the coming semester. Of course, algorithms are derivations from real life.

Taj – I Wonder

Of the things that take you by surprise, visiting the Taj Mahal did it to me multi-fold. I am glad we decided to travel; it was worth all the trouble. It was not part of our plan. Well, nothing was part of the plan, and visiting Agra from Jaipur was definitely not on the list, especially after long travels. The whole visit made me re-live reading (or watching the movie) the book – ‘The Book Thief.’  

The Beauty Beyond

I could not stop myself from crying after I completed ‘The Book Thief.’ And then it happened many times in that week. The incidents flashed by, making me live in an alternate world altogether.

Well, so did Taj. After the entire visit, as I sat looking at this miracle, clueless and feeling nothingness (of-course of myself) admiring the beauty, it was everything more than what you see in the picture. Or in a video. Or listening to someone talk about it – like this. It’s more than a white architectural marvel. I am not sure if everyone would take away the same I did, but what I did, was for me and was only for me.

I wonder, 
For where I stand,
For what I am,
Because I know,
Truthfully, 
I am not-a-thing!

There is a center line, everything else is symmetry, and it’s fourfold. There is an optical illusion and a plan to make it come alive. There is purity that reflects on the banks of the river Yamuna. A dedication of more than many thousand who made it come alive. We live in a generation that is scared to commit a deliverable for months, which needs basic skills and minimal commitment. Everything falls apart to the ground, making us feel diminished for the devotion that was put for years into making this marvel what it is today (or once, ages ago). It needs more than love, more than anything, to make this come into live and up. More than anything, to admire, it needs one to be in a state of acceptance with an open mind of what we are today (honestly, I don’t think we are any) and what that once was. The whole lot has to be lived, being there, right at it, for all that I cannot pour in the right words. I am still looking at the photographs of the designs carved on it and looking ahead to research its meaning and sources.

I could not stop myself from imagining the completed Black Taj Mahal and not just the foundations and a sight where the shadow of both falling in the river Yamuna meeting the tip points in the waters.   

From the Research Diaries

Research is quite a long and tedious journey. One thing that keeps the journey exciting is the intermediate deliverable’s. I kind of opt to have them at regular intervals though they directly do not impact my work.

Here are two ebooks which i got completed and published recently which are indirect results of my research.

Ebook 01: Design of a Programmer

Ebook 02: Structures and C

They both are free download and helpful to anyone who is into programming. And happiness is sharing it here!