Arts...Travels...Writing

    In celebration of poetry month, sharing an annotation of my favourite poems. This is by no means exhaustive, but I thought I'd share it now, and perhaps update with my other favourites later: 1.  Banks of a Canal –Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney’s last poem starts simply—with a canal, a small and calm body of water, not as fierce as the wild rivers that run through rugged valleys nor as vast as the ocean. While it starts quietly,  the poem eventually morphs into something bigger and almost imperceptibly ends in a lofty place. Like the word canal , the water that flows through it tends to be quiet, but it nonetheless touches lives though perhaps not in the overt way that great rivers do; it does not provide a source of livelihood like epic rivers do, but touches the soul by “slowing time to a walking pace”. While this poem is based on an 1872 painting of Gustave Caillebotte of the same title, Seamus Heaney clearly does not duplicate th...

Yesterday, I joined a 3.8 Kilometre Walk along Labrador Park in support of a skills training centre in Singapore. It was my first time to visit Labrador Park, and was I surprised at how scenic the trail was. Fortunately, I was able to bring my small camera and so I was able to take a few snaps. Sharing below some of them: I started taking photos the minute I saw this blue vista, which was after the first kilometre of the walk. The first leg was along the swamp area and gave a forest feel. I was busy chatting with my friends then that I forgot to bring out my camera. It was around 9:00am when this was taken, and yet the heat was already scorching (as predicted, the first two weeks of April were supposed to be very warm). So I was glad for the leafy trees that provided much needed shade and made the walk bearable. This is a historic site in the area, supposedly the entry point of earlier Chinese traders who came to Singapore Sometimes the water was too still ...

Starting the year with an Art Week is always an excellent idea. And this year, I am so glad that I could attend Art Stage, which I feel is even more amazing than the last one I've seen. There seem to be more ingenious installations and art works, more interactivity and greater variety too with over 150 galleries from all over the globe including some from the Middle East, Tel Aviv, Bogota, etc. Because there is just so much to absorb though, one day, let alone one afternoon, is definitely not enough to cover all the great work on exhibit. While we (I went with an artist aunt) could not check out all the galleries, I'm already utterly impressed with what we've seen so far. Here are my top picks from those we have covered. It goes without saying that since art is for the most part subject to one's interpretation and personal experience, my pick is clearly subjective and reflects my own preferences:) Damien Hirst, known for his polka dots, has this shiny metal work on...

Sharing my photo "Bridge Over Calm Water", which BBC Travel has picked for its Instagram feed: Bridge leading to Punakha Dzong - one of the oldest and most majestic dzongs of Bhutan, and very panoramic too sitting at the confluence of two great rivers. https://instagram.com/p/9NZpuTxwby/?taken-by=bbc_travel #PunakhaDzong #Bhutan #BBCTravelInstagram

Last May, I went with a group of photographers on a travel photography trip to Bhutan, one of the most scenic places I've ever been to. The place is such that it has inspired our team to come up with a travel photography coffee table book that will benefit one of the village schools we have visited. Collectively, we have hundreds and possibly thousands of beautiful photos. Unfortunately we cannot include all these in the book, and so we have invited a panel of photography experts to do the selection objectively - the photos were pooled together by theme, and without any identifying mark to keep the selection process unbiased. We are now close to launching the book, targeted in early October. More details of this coming soon... One of my favourite photos from the trip, below, is selected for the book :-) Stairway To Zen And here are a few more photos from that wonderful trip: The snow capped Tibetan peaks on touchdown A bridge in Paro Tasiccho Dzong in T...