APRIL 2016 CAPTURE PUBLISHING LLP’s
PICTORIALLY SPEAKING ON SENSES
EDITOR’S NOTE “There is a rule in writing which says, ‘Show, don’t tell’. How does one describe experiences, objects, feelings or even sensory perceptions through writing? The art of creating sensory awareness through words is what is one of the driving purposes behind any good piece of literature. Language and Art were created to sway the senses. Creating work through which the reader can immerse himself/ herself in a particular sentiment is the truest sign of good writing and good art.”
THE TEAM TANOY BANERJI Managing Partner SAURAV ROY Founding Partner Director, Human Resources AMITOJ SINGH Executive Editor PRERNA MAHESHWARI Director, Writing & Editorial HARSHAL DUDDALWAR Director, Technical & Design SIDDHANT CHAWLA Director, Marketing & Sales ISHWARI DESHPANDE Assistant Director, Human Resources RADHIKA BHOLE Assistant Director, Marketing and Sales
WRITING AND EDITORIAL Ashwini Patankar Devika Dhumal Dhruv Singh Ojaswini Bakhshi Rohan Rao Sharanya Shivaraman Sneha Nanavati DESIGN Mehek Malhotra Pooja Chaudhary Sanika Deshpande Shailja Patel Swapnil Mache PHOTOGRAPHY Amar Chandole Manas Kshirsagar Shaantanu Kulkarni
ROHAN RAO Co-ordinator Technical & Design
Cover by Harshal Duddalwar
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CONTENTS
// 04 The Sublime Art of Betrayal Taste and trickery come together By Rohan Rao
// 08 How Magic Tricks Our Brain Your mind is the trick By Mehek Malhotra
// 12 Healing Through One's Senses Using rhythm to revive
By Sharanya Shivaraman
// 16 Beyond What We See Fingers can see too.
By Vatsala Misra Sharma
// 20 Nightmares : Illustrated Story I lost my senses
By Harshal Duddalwar
// 34 Mind-Sight
Beyond blindness: it’s not all black
// 46 Explaining the Unexplainable
Can you perceive without your senses? By Prerna Maheshwari
// 52 Portfolios
Design - Sanika Deshpande Photography - Amar Chandole
By Rohan Rao
// 40 8 Unique Experiences You Have to Treat Your Senses to Your bucket list for the most picturesque locations and wonderful sounds By Sharanya Shivaraman
// 44 Interactions With A Visually Impaired Man
Adapting to change - a fascinating challenge By Ishwari Deshpande
// 60 Reviews Book Review The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Prerna Maheshwari Movie Review Perfume : Story of a Murderer by Tanoy Banerji
THE SUBLIME ART OF BETRAYAL You’re sitting in a fancy restaurant,
and the waiter brings you dessert. However, what has been placed before you
looks like perfectly cooked, soft boiled egg.
You go ahead and take a bite, and you encounter no taste remotely close to that of an egg. What you taste is a balanced mix of Mango and Passionfruit, with a hint of Lemon grass.
Written by Rohan Rao Photographed by Rhea Rao
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Welcome to the World of Culinary deception. Food is an art form that stimulates more senses than any other art form. Sight, Smell, Touch, and Taste all play a role in the culinary experience. With so much to confuse the mind, the opportunities for playful deception are many. Molecular Gastronomy, or Modernist Cuisine is almost synonymous with trompe l’oeil cuisine (literally, to fool the eye). It studies the transformations that food goes through while it is cooked, bringing about a change in its chemical composition and physical appearance. It’s the food you get when you unleash mad scientists and eccentric chefs into the kitchen. In fact, one of its early pioneers, Nikolas Kurti was a Hungarian physicist. He is often quoted as saying, “I think it is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés.”
All this talk of chemicals and techniques makes it seem like the use of deception in cooking is a new addition to the kitchen. But history is replete with examples of dishes that showcase the innovative nature of their inventors, and the fact that food has never been just a necessity, but one of our artistic endeavours. Marzipan, made of sugar and almond meal, has been shaped to resemble fruits, plants and tiny creatures for centuries, and is still used in a similar manner today, with such sweets traditionally being prepared around Christmas. The Japanese have a long history of creating soy and tofu based dishes that resemble meat and fish, so as to honour Buddhist traditions of non-violence. This tradition of creating “vegetarian meat” is known as modoki. Economic constraints have also played a role, with recipes for “apple pie without apples” taking America by storm in the 1860s, when apples were quite expensive. The use of biscuit crackers The use of science in the kitchen has lead to instead of apples and familiar flavours like lemon emergence of a whole new dynamic to eating, as it and cinnamon created an inexpensive but tasty gives chefs the chance to create an illusion on the “apple” pie. plate. Take the mango-passionfruit-lemongrass egg. A technique called Spherification is used to India also has its own bit of culinary history that solidify the liquid base which is then arranged to fools the eye. Lucknow, a city steeped in history, look like an egg. Spherification uses substances like has its very own slice of food legend. Disguise was sodium alginate and calcium chloride. Maltodextrin a tactic the khansamas of the royal kitchens would is a sugar that can convert high fat liquids into use to surprise the nawabs at the dinner table. solids. Carbon dioxide is used to create foams, tiny Garlic slivers in kheer that would resemble almond flavour filled clouds on the plate. Liquid nitrogen is flakes and a dessert which turned out to be lamb used to flash freeze food, and create brittle versions are just some of the stories that make up the food of otherwise soft mouthfuls. Procedures like folklore of the city. emulsification, sous-vide and food dehydration are changing what we eat and the way we eat it. Pictorially Speaking // 05
Fast forward to the present, and molecular gastronomy has entered India’s kitchens. And it has changed the way we’re eating. Ice-cream isn’t just the run of the mill packaged bars and cups you get at the local grocery store. It has become a gourmet dessert, with new flavours and techniques being used. The recently opened Papacream in Mumbai serves savoury ice-creams like Pani Puri Sorbet, with puri baskets topped with potato mousse and served with a sorbet made with the green paani and
Ice-cream made to look like sushi (vanilla, wrapped in chocolate) served with a chocolate dipping sauce. The use of liquid nitrogen, with gloved servers behind the counter using equipment right out of a science lab, has managed to turn the humble icecream into an epicurean experience.
Even the classic Maharashtrian dish, the wada pav hasn’t escaped the clutches of modern culinary techniques. At a visit to SpiceKlub in Mumbai, I ordered the deconstructed wada pav from their menu. When the dish came to our table, the plate before us had smaller versions of the pav, or bread you normally get and two bowls of chutney. That’s where the resemblance ended. The wada, was a bowl of yellow, goopy liquid. You could even call it wada mousse.
The spicy garlic chutney came in tiny plastic packets. What was amazing about it though, was that it was edible - plastic and all (the “plastic” in fact was actually made from potato starch). This concoction, was then arranged in between the bread. Needless to say, it did not look like wada pav. With yellow liquid dripping down, and suspiciously real looking plastic (potato starch) in between, I was convinced that this was not going to taste like Mumbai’s favourite street food. It might be similar,
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and the flavours might bear a passing resemblance, but this is not my beloved wada pav. All my doubts vanished when I took a single bite. All that was missing was the sound of sizzling oil and traffic. My senses had experienced a wonderful betrayal. Wada pav will never be the same again.
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Our brain is fascinated by charm and often we pay more attention to the hand gestures and the expressions of the magician more than to what he’s actually doing.
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In most tricks magicians use our weak cognition to treat us like the cup trick, the ball is never under the cup, it’s just that we don’t see it.
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Our brain has the tendency to complete everything, it refuses to believe that something is not complete, give it a curve and it’ll think of it as being a part of a circle.
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HEALING THROUGH ONE’S SENSES Written by Sharanya Sivaraman Illustrated by Shailja Patel
The human body has 5 senses which we utilise every day. Of these, the senses of touch, vision and hearing play a major role in a number of daily activities. There have been psychological studies gaining recognition and traction, that discuss the use of art forms such as music, fine art and performance art for therapy. Such modes of therapy utilise the aforementioned senses, and help a person suffering from disorders or ailments heal and recover. Music has been intricately woven into our culture and folklore since time immemorable. It is now an inseparable part of our lifestyle and traditions. Today, music possesses a new meaning with advancements and application in the fields of science and therapy and treatment as well. Music has now been recognised as a plausible means to curing many physical and psychological ailments. The scope for music to be used as an instrument for healing is based on the responsiveness of the human brain to a pattern of sounds both musical and otherwise. Children with learning disabilities who are made to undergo music therapy equip themselves with the ability to learn and express in the language of music. And this language is universal. It is simple and it embraces anyone within its reach. Not only is it true that music heals, it also possesses an undeniable ability to improve the quality of life. You may wonder at times, what is it that makes us clap or tap our feet to a particular beat, when one of our favourite songs starts playing somewhere? The answer Pictorially Speaking // 12
“The scope for music to be used as an instrument for healing is based on the responsiveness of the human brain to a pattern of sounds both musical and otherwise.”
– Rhythm and percussion are within all of us. It facilitates creativity and catharsis. Interestingly, Taal Inc. is an organisation that taps into the incredible power of channeling this creativity through drumming. Janak Vadgama, Executive Manager of Taal Inc. recounts how the company started. Varun Venkit, CEO of Taal Inc. and an exceptionally talented percussionist, started the company with “just a bag full of drums and a car.” His aim
The motto of Taal Inc is “Come. Drum. Be One.” Janak explains the motto to us briefly, “the motto aims to provide communities with a release, an expressive– recreational-music-making opportunity that we’ve gradually distanced ourselves from thanks to so much technology around us. It is not uncommon to find a folk drumming (music) culture, a folk dance culture in every state of our country. The difference between folk music and other forms of music today is that folk music was synonymous to life then. It was sung, not for money, but to tell a story (of tremendous hardship, of great love, of harvest, of marriage, of rebellion and so on). This made folk music quintessential for a sense of well-being. So it is truly amazing to conclude how something externally loud and vigorous can be internally very calming”.
to positively influence the areas of health and well-being through rhythm, music and the arts. Taal Inc. uses drum circle games and exercises involving drumming such as layering, soundscape sculpting, and semi-guided visualization exercises. All the activities conducted are directed Taal Inc has worked with alcohol at positively reducing stress and and drug addicts, children with improving relaxation, attention, behavioural, cognitive and learnconfidence, and motivation. ing issues, women in
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prostitution, visually and hearing impaired children. Drumming has become their way of expression and has helped bring positivity in their lives.
Nirmal Chaya Complex which is a shelter home for families of offenders or offenders with mental disorders. Working with the women in the Short Stay Homes, her experience was quite pecuNot only music, but also other liar. Recounting her art forms such as experience, Nishtha “Drumming has become their way of dance and visual says, “I noticed that art and design are the women who had expression and has helped bring gaining recognibeen staying there positivity in their lives.” tion as forms of for a long period of therapy and treattime had no scope ment. One such and increased awareness. for any physical activity. Due to institute that advocates and conthe confinement in small spaces, ducts workshops in alternative Nishtha has also worked exten- they were living in cramped and therapy is the Creative Movement sively with prisons. She worked highly unhygienic conditions.” Therapy Association of India. extensively with the Tihar Jail’s Nishtha Agarwal is the Director and Co-founder at Creative Movement Therapy Association of India, which is an organisation pioneering alternate therapy in the form of dance and performance based therapy. When asked about Dance therapy, Nishtha clarifies that dance therapy is not just about dance. It is also about free movement and bodily awareness. Creative Movement Therapy utilises the senses of touch and sight in order to help patients. For example, while dealing with visually impaired chil-
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dren, creative movement therapy helps them raise and enhance facial and bodily awareness. Such bodily awareness by enhancing one’s sense of touch is the beginning of a journey of self-healing
“From helping improve concentration to helping tackle complex conditions like ADHD, Creative Movement Therapy or dance therapy possesses tremendous benefits simply waiting to be explored.�
With a view to make their lifestyle more hygienic, she introduced routines that are a part of creative movement therapy to accustom them to simple movements. But the task was not so easy. Nishtha recounts that the women were unable to even open or close their fists due to complete lack of independent physical movement, and also had to tackle emotional breakdowns. However, soon after the routine started, they showed signs of improvement. The routine involved movements which allowed them to imagine going out or leaving the short stay. Nishtha says that these thoughts inspired the women to lead a more disciplined life.
therapy possesses tremendous benefits simply waiting to be explored. There is an undeniable proximity between performance based therapy and physical/mental well being of a human being.
Alternate forms of therapy harness the ability of the mind to be stimulated by melodious tunes or energising and creative body movements. A simple melody can sometimes trigger a stream of memories. Dancing to your favourite rhythm can instantly help you destress and feel completely alive! Arts based therapy links this relationship between the body and mind. Most people who undergo such therapy find the miracle of both medicine and From helping improve concen- meditation in it. tration to helping tackle complex conditions like ADHD, Creative Movement Therapy or dance
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BEYOND WHAT WE SEE OVERCOMING BLINDNESS AND ACHIEVING ONE’S DREAMS
Written by Vatsala Misra Sharma Illustrated by Sanika Deshpande Photographed by Saisha Srivastava
How does one learn a new dance step? You watch someone else performing that particular step repeatedly and try to mirror their movements. You notice every single detail - their intricate gestures and styles and try to replicate it exactly. My over enthusiastic mother sent me to various classes during my childhood, whether I had the talent for it or not. Let’s talk about a few of them: Art class - I noticed how the teacher made a particular drawing and tried to mirror it. Every time I moved my pencil even 1mm ahead, I looked back and forth at least 5 times between the original and my attempt to make sure it matches completely. I tried various different paint colours to get the exact shades as what was used by my teacher. Dance - I have very vivid memories of my dance teacher’s voice yelling, “Can’t you see? Look at what I’m doing, look!” That’s how I learnt to dance, I watched my teacher’s feet, hands and the most minute of expressions and mimicked them to perform a piece. Guitar class - This was an entirely different ball game. Feeling the fret board with my fingers, hearing which notes sounded right from wrong, and watching how my teacher’s hand erratically strummed the strings, again all I did was mimic each and every action. People think that what is intrinsic to these is the ability the see. How else would you learn, repeat, practice and perfect? Without the sense of sight, it would be downright impossible to do any of these activities, wouldn’t it? Wrong. You need hands and feet to dance, hands to draw and hands to play and lose yourself in the ultimate ecstasy of all the arts. Above all, all you need is a willing mind. There’s a very basic concept in psychology, called functional fixedness. It is defined as, “a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used.” A very elementary Pictorially Speaking // 17
example of this would be if someone needs a paperweight, but they only have a hammer, they may not see how the hammer can be used as a paperweight. In my opinion, the only way to have true unbiased thinking is to beat functional fixedness. Utilising whatever senses you can muster towards achieving your goals. Saisha Srivastava, someone who has clearly won the fight against fixedness, is a 20 year old who started dance workshops at The Calcutta Blind School. I think sometimes we forget that the absence of one sense, is the absence of one sense only. Our body has strange natural ways for making up for the lost sense though. Saisha explains this by saying that her students see the world through sounds and touch. She quotes a song from the movie Black (2005) that says, “Haan maine chookar dekha hai” (“Yes, I have touched it and I have seen”)
hear, and fingers touch, to learn that fingers can see too. The human mind has its beautiful charms. The great Ludwig Van Beethoven, started to lose his hearing by the age of 26. He had a condition known as tinnitus which created a kind of peculiar ringing in his ears which made it hard for him to hear musical notes. Imagine composing even a line of pleasing music, timeless classics seems like an impossible dream. Yet it happened and history is filled with these examples of the power of the mind and the substitution of senses which occurs in the most natural way possible. It’s truly fascinating, isn’t it? Esref Armagan is a Turkish artist who creates artwork of oil paints. He has displayed his artwork at more than 20 exhibitions in Turkey, Italy, China, and even The Netherlands. A small fact, Esref Armagan was born without eyesight.
Saisha tells me how ‘sight’ works for the blind - The colour of rain is wet, or how the colour of an Indian bride’s wedding dress is prickly and so on. We need All these examples clearly prove to open our minds beyond the that sight and perception are two norms of what our eyes see, ears very different things that need not be merged. Saisha signs off by saying, “when you focus on what actually matters, structures will cease to be relevant”.
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NIGHT MARES
Have you ever had a nightmare which seemed so real that it could have been true? Have you ever woken up from a nightmare, glad that it was nothing but a dream? What if, your worst nightmare was not just a dream, but reality?
By Harshal Duddalwar Characters - Harshal Duddalwar, Vedant Benwar, Varun Madan, Abhidnya Kothavade Photographed by Swapnil Pai
Ruhan is a 20 year old college student. Like every other college student, he has a healthy and active social life. After a particularly wild night out, Ruhan and his friend are on their way back home. Neither of them is wearing a helmet. In the foggy night, Rahul, his friend, can’t see a thing. Suddenly, they encounter a slippery patch on the road and the bike skids. Miraculously, the locals spot them both and call for an ambulance immediately.
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While in the hospital, Ruhan slips into a coma. The injuries he sustained were quite severe. In this coma though, Ruhan has a dream. In this dream, Ruhan sees himself lying on a bed in the hospital. He wakes up from his coma, much to the delight of his friends and family. As the doctors begin treating him, he notices that he can’t hear them. He’s lost his sense of hearing!
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Ruhan begins to panic. The doctors believe his hearing-loss to be an effect of the injuries he sustained. The doctors however, are unable to treat this.
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This goes on for a long time. He seems to have become completely deaf!
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As Ruhan recovers in the hospital, he begins getting excited at the prospect of going home and eating food prepared by his mother again. The hospital food seemed absolutely bland. As if it had no taste at all. One day his brother sneaked in chilli fries, Ruhan’s favourite dish. He ate one, then another, and then yet another. WHERE WAS THE SPICE? He can’t taste it, he can’t taste anything! Ruhan realises that he has also lost his sense of taste.
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The doctors are absolutely puzzled. As he is recovering, he is taught to signage and lip-read, in the hope that this may help him understand what others are saying to him. Discharged from the hospital, Ruhan returns home hoping that the worst is behind him.
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As he steps into the house, his brother remarks in wonder at the aroma of all the food his mother has prepared, all of Ruhan’s favourite dishes! Ruhan sniffs the air, hoping to catch the delectable aroma, but he cannot. He can’t smell a thing!
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Life goes on for Ruhan, who is learning to cope without his senses of hearing, smell and taste. He jokes with his friends that a positive point is that he can’t hear his mother yell at him for misbehaving. Sitting in his room, working on his assignments, Ruhan reaches out for some biscuits kept near him. He tries to pick one, but can’t.
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He thinks that he’s going crazy. Surely he couldn’t have lost his sense of touch as well? This was absurd! Ruhan picks up a pin and keeps pricking himself until his hand is all bloody. He cannot feel physical pain, just emotional.
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Traumatized, he checks into the hospital again. The doctors run every test they can to try and figure out what’s causing this loss of his senses, but they simply cannot figure out the problem. After spending a week in the hospital with no success, Ruhan returns home. He sits up late at night with his brother upon his return, reminiscing the good times they spent before his accident took place. He goes to sleep, sad and forlorn at his horrible fate.
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Ruhan wakes up in the morning to darkness. Everything around him is pitch-black. He tries closing and opening his eyelids again but to no avail. Ruhan cannot see a thing. He has lost his sense of vision. Ruhan falls back on his bed, unable to bear the trauma and screams out loud!
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As he screams out in his mind, he screams out in real life too, waking up from the coma that he has been in for 2 months since his accident took place. As the doctors rush to him, Ruhan is glad that whatever happened was only in his mind. It was just a dream. As the doctors speak to him, asking him to calm down. Asking him about what he remembers. Ruhan’s eyes widen in shock. He cannot hear them... ..
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Mind-Sight: Seeing And Visualising In The Absence Of Vision
Written by Rohan Rao Illustrated by Sanika Deshpande
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Sight is one of our most highly developed senses. Humans rely heavily on the ability to see, more so than on their ability to smell or hear. As one of the most social animals on Earth, our eyes have played an important role in helping us coordinate and work together. We often make assumptions about people’s intelligence, their dominant or submissive tendencies and about physical attraction by just looking at their eyes. The ability to follow the line of sight of another, and thus gauge what they’re looking at and what they need, has probably played a role in the development of man’s communal nature, and in moulding civilization as we see it today. So when Cicero said that the eyes are the window to the soul, he wasn’t too far off the mark. However, as a philosopher he could make such statements without care. Ask a scientist about the relation between the eyes and the soul and he’ll scratch his head in bemusement. Ask him about eyes and the brain and then you’ll see understanding dawn. As a fetus developing in the womb, your eyes and your brain developed from the same structure the neural tube. This common origin is the reason neurologists rely on the eye to diagnose disorders afflicting the brain, and is also the cause for some of the most bizarre ailments affecting mankind.
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SYNDROME
CHARLES BONNET
In 1760, a Swiss Naturalist called Charles Bonnet published a paper on hallucinations. They were based on a highly unreal set of images that his grandfather would see. Specks would turn into a flock of pigeons or a swarm of butterflies. Flamboyantly dressed men and women would enter an empty room. A blue patch, rather like a handkerchief, occupied specific areas in his visual field, while the rest remained a clear picture.
WHAT DIFFERENTIATED THESE FROM OTHER HALLUCINATIONS, WAS THAT THEY WERE SEEN BY A MAN WHO HAD LOST HIS ABILITY TO SEE. GRANDFATHER BONNET HAD CATARACTS IN BOTH EYES. HE WAS BLIND. Charles Bonnet syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by visual hallucinations in people suffering from partial or complete blindness. Named after the man who attempted to understand what many dismissed as an old man’s ramblings, it is rarely documented and is only just beginning to gain attention. The sense of sight is made up of two components. The retina - the neural layer of the eye, converts images in front of you into chemical signals. At this moment the words in front of you are activating cells inside your eye, and the chemical reactions are then converted into electrical signals that travel through nerves and reach the part of the brain that deals with sight, the occipital cortex. So the eye sees the image and converts it into signals while the brain converts these signals back to images to interpret. In people suffering from CBS, the neural pathway between the eye and the brain is interrupted. However, parts of the occipital cortex are alive and functioning. Scientists believe it is this lack of stimulus, the absence of external images that pushes the brain to come up with images of its own, from memory. This is also the reason why hallucinations in CBS are called Visual Release Hallucinations. Patients have been seen with problems arising in blood circulation to the occipital cortex, and they have reported seeing faint moving figures in an otherwise unspoilt visual field.
Charles Bonnet Syndrome is not a particularly debilitating disease. Some patients are troubled by the hallucinations, but most learn to live with them. Some even look forward to them, as pleasant diversions. The importance of this syndrome lies in its implications for neuroscience. The fact that the brain, devoid of external stimulus, produces a “theatre of the mind”, in what could be called an attempt to entertain a bored mind, could probably play a role in the future of science, and help us as we try to decipher biology’s crown jewel, the Brain.
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As medical students, our mornings are devoted to spending time in the hospital, observing patients as they receive treatment and care, and trying to pick up as much knowledge as possible from all the doctors around us. However, setting a group of wide eyed second year students loose in the medical wards causes a lot of consternation among the patients and sometimes irritation among the doctors as we stumble between beds, trying our best to learn. This is a part of our education we’re all grateful for, because this is what medicine is about. It is in the bustling environs of the hospital that we’ve come across cases that make one marvel at the sheer variety of diseases that plague mankind. One particular case involved a middle aged man who turned up at a hospital in Pune with a curious set of symptoms. Sometime after he woke up in the morning, he reported a spell of dizziness that lead to him losing balance and falling down, unconscious. However, he recovered within minutes and ignored the incident.
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HE HAD SUFFERED FROM A STROKE THAT HAD DAMAGED HIS OCCIPITAL CORTEX, WHICH DEALS WITH SIGHT. HOWEVER HE CATEGORICALLY DENIED BEING BLIND, and would describe the
(non-existent) surroundings around him. This visual Anosognosia (the patient being unaware of the disease he suffers from) is known as Anton Babinski syndrome. Why patients aren’t aware of their blindness is unknown, and many hypotheses exist. The most commonly accepted one presumes that damage to the visual areas of the brain interrupts the pathway to the speech and language areas of the brain. The eyes see, and the brain is aware of the external stimuli but the visual areas of the brain cannot analyse this information. The connections are broken. Confused and refusing to accept his blindness, the patient describes objects and situations that don’t exist. The Anton Babinski syndrome shows just how interconnected the brain is - a hundred billion neurons organized into innumerable neural networks. We may have classified areas of the brain into functional zones, but the challenge ahead is to understand how they function as a whole. What both these syndromes signify is our complete dependence on the sense of sight. We need to be aware of our external environments, not just to survive, but to lead satisfactory lives. And in this endeavour, we depend most on ophthalmoception, the ability to see. The interesting, and rather peculiar mechanisms we use to cope with blindness, as we’ve seen above, only serve to emphasize this. It makes us realise that blindness need not just be an absence of sight, and that the body has amazing ways to cope with the loss, ways that we still don't completely know about.
ANTON-BABINSKI
BROUGHT TO THE HOSPITAL, EXAMINATIONS AND TESTS REVEALED HE WAS BLIND.
SYNDROME
It was his abnormal behaviour throughout the day that caught the attention of his family members. They said he bumped into furniture, fumbled a lot and tripped over objects continuously. It was during evening prayers, when he kept falling over while trying to perform Namaz, that they realized something was wrong. WHEN HE WAS
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UNIQUE EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE TO TREAT 3 YOUR SENSES TO
Written by Sharanya Sivaraman
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1. Dastangoi
2. Sekrenyi Festival
3. Thanjavur
The word is derived from Persian language. Dastan means tale and goi means to tell a tale. This Urdu storytelling and art form has been revived in India and stands as a true celebration of Urdu language, literature and poetry. Anyone who wishes to embark on a poetic retreat must attend a Dastangoi recital and be mesmerised by the magical stories laced with music and poetry.
Sekrenyi is the premier festival of the Angami tribe and is generally celebrated in the month of February with great pomp and gaiety. “Sekre” literally means “sanctification” while “nyi” stands for festival. Traditional songs and dances, feasting and other displays of cultural items are bound to find space in this rich and colourful festival.
This place was once the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and is famous for artistic Thanjavur brass plate and for the manufacture of the musical instrument, the Veena. Thanjavur is also the birthplace of Tanjore painting. Though a seemingly small district, Thanjavur can provide a great visual experience owing to its robust ancient architecture and beautiful paintings. This place has elegance unfolding in every corner and you don’t want to miss this!
4. International Flower Festival Sikkim is renowned for its rich flora. This festival is hosted in Gangtok and displays a wide range of flowers including some rare orchid varieties indigenous to Sikkim. This festival is a treat for one’s eyes and nose! So if you are ready to be enchanted by the blossoming of the rarest of Sikkim’s horticulture, pack your bags for Sikkim this summer.
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5. Daulat ki Chaat
6. Ruhaniyat
7. Rann Mahotsav
8. House of Kotwara
Commonly referred to as ‘God’s own Street Food’, Daulat ki Chaat is an exotic treat for anyone with a sweet tooth. On any cold winter night, sweet vendors in Chandni Chowk, whisk milk for hours together in order to serve a frothy dish topped with pistachios and mawa to serve their customers’ cravings. This one is a definite treat for all foodies out there!
Ruhaniyat is a Sufi Musical Festival. It is unlike any musical festival however, with artists hailing from countries across the globe to perform and play soulful music filled with messages from saints and mystics. Ruhaniyat is surely bound to leave you yearning for more. The 15th edition of this music festival saw artistic collaborations between performers from Bulgaria and gypsies from India, haunting ‘Kora sounds’ of Africa connecting with the echoes from the traditional folk performers of Rajasthan.
A lot has been said about the annual Rann Mahotsav. However, no amount of words can define the beauty and magnificence of this magical festival. Rann Utsav is cradled in the largest salt marsh of the world, “The Great Rann of Kutch”. It is a revival of local artisans, folk artists & musicians of Kutch, in a festival that goes on for three months. The colourful extravaganza is surely a treat to one’s senses and a musthave on the bucket list of all travel nuts.
Kotwara is an estate in Uttar Pradesh whose current rulers, Raja Muzaffar Ali and his wife Meera Ali, have worked hard to revive the traditional craft of the region of Awadh. After spending a day in this place, you will find yourself soaked in Awadh’s composite culture of music and poetry. The highlight however, is the recreation of the traditional delectable cuisine of Awadh. This place is truly an ode to one’s sensory organs!
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HOW MY INTERACTIONS WITH A PERSPECTIVE ON Written by Ishwari Deshpande Illustrated by Harshal Duddalwar The incident I’m about to tell you took place a couple of years ago. I was in college, and another student, one who I had never seen before, stood at the side of the pathway beside me. While I stood there and enjoyed the postrain greenery, I looked at him and realized he couldn’t see anything at all. For him there existed but one colour – black.
“That is how the body adapts, I thought – A door closes, and a number of others open.”
He seemed uneasy, shuffling from one foot to another with his white cane in one hand and a handkerchief in the other. As we stood there, three people passed by him. However, he didn’t ask them whatever it is he wanted to ask. I hesitantly approached him, wondering if it would be rude or polite to offer help in such a direct and obvious manner. Then, unexpectedly, he took a step forward and directly asked me if I could help him get to his class since he was running late. At first I was startled. I wondered how he knew that I was waiting to offer my help. I quickly gathered my senses and took his arm, guiding him in the right direction. He knew where the building his class was in Pictorially Speaking // 44
was, he knew the distance that he had to walk, he knew which friend passed him by. I assisted him on the staircase, gently and carefully. While we walked to his class, I learned a great deal about him. He was a student of Hindi language, and was passionate about what he did. He enjoyed every single aspect of his classes and college life with the rest of his friends and his teachers. His life was just as interesting to him, as mine was to me. I finally bade him goodbye as I left him at the door of his class.
As I walked away, I realized that his lack of vision had in no way stopped him from doing what he wanted. He was independent, and he could move around without much help. He probably knew the people around him just as well as I knew the people around me. He wouldn’t enjoy any less with his friends than I would with mine. He loved what he studied, he enjoyed an active social life and was in absolutely no way different from me or any other student in college. I also realized that the absence of one sense enhanced the action of the others in the body.
Is that how the body adapted to such conditions? At first I thought it might just be intuition, but one cannot possibly figure out almost everything around him based on intuition. When I met the boy again later that day, I cautiously asked him how he knew who was around him (not wanting to appear offensive), and what kind of people they were. He said that the tiniest changes around him – movement, wind, smell, a touch of a hand, the distance between him and a voice – helped him, and he just knew. It was this “sense” that I couldn’t perceive or understand. He was more sensitive to everything around him than individuals possessing sight.
They were deaf and mute, but they still laughed every time they shared a joke. They understood the waiters just as easily as we did; however, they did so by reading their lips. They were so accustomed to comprehending by seeing that they didn’t feel the need to hear people talk at all! Another incident that comes to mind is quite recent. I was at a restaurant waiting for a seat. I noticed a small group of women who were sitting outside, waiting just as I was, for a seat. As I watched them, I realized they were communicating in a sign language. I just sat there, bewitched with my mouth agape, watching as they rapidly “spoke” by hand movements.
“I hesitantly approached him, wondering if it would be rude or polite to offer help in such a direct and obvious manner.”
As I reflect upon these incidents, I realize the truth in the statement “You gain ten times of what you lose.” I suppose that is how it works, doesn’t it? When something is taken away from you, you’re strengthened in everything else you have. This entire phenomenon is astounding and brilliant! Those who lack a particular sense see and experience a different perspective from those who possess all senses. They may lack a sense, but they gain a completely new understanding of the world they live in. Pictorially Speaking // 45
Explaining The Unexplainable : Experiencing Extra Sensory Perception Written by Prerna Maheshwari Illustrated by Shailja Patel
Do you remember those times when you just know what your friend is thinking, even something out of the blue? Or the times when you have had a hunch about what is going to happen? That gut feeling. Those imaginary situations you’ve thought of which have come true later, giving you a sense of deja vu!
which is being able to receive information through distance; pre- or retro- cognition, which is an intuitive ability to sense an event in the future or past; and telekinesis, being This was where the exercises got strange. able to control matter using the mind by They asked them to project their projecting energy beawareness into metals! yond yourself.
These weird senses of ours are referred to as extra sensory perceptions (ESP). ESP is the ability to perceive information from outside of your five senses. There are mainly four types- telepathy, which is the art of sending and receiving messages with the mind; clairvoyance,
Parapsychologists, studying ESP, say it involves immeasurable forms of energy. There are training centres which help hone ourselves to be more receptive to this energy. I interacted with a person (who wishes to remain anonymous), who had joined such a course in order to build her sense of intuition. Let us call her X. X walked me through her experience at the course, saying that the trainers first asked all the attendees to relax and meditate. “With the guided relaxing, I felt less anxious and more aware. I was comfortable and peaceful. Now, they asked us to imagine our living room. We were told to just change the colour of the wall, or smell the newspaper on the table or taste the apples, all through our imagination. At this point, my mind had just quietened down.
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Then, the trainers guided the subjects into deeper stages of relaxation. This was where the exercises got strange. They asked them to project their awareness into metals! Then they were asked to imagine being a seed spurting out into a plant, a pet animal and finally, a loved one. After the meditation, the subjects were paired up with someone they didn’t know. First, they were given an object of their partner wrapped in a newspaper and vice versa. They were told to say every thought or feeling that came to their mind about the object. She says, “Somehow I knew what to say about the object and I turned out to be right! With more exercises, I just got better and better at it. It didn’t matter anymore whether it was just a guess or a coincidence.”
Our senses take in everything about the environment. What we do is limit our thinking, just restricting it to information gathered consciously.
How? We don’t think like that, do we? We can’t just know things like that. As strange as it sounds, it turns out that we actually can. Our senses take in everything about the environment. Literally every single minute expression and energy change. What we do is limit our thinking, just restricting it to information gathered consciously. And what happens to the rest of the information then? Sadly, because we do not pay attention to it, it just remains stored into our subconscious. All that enormous potential we have. That huge store of pure knowledge, waiting to be used. All we have to do is just tap into it! What guided meditation does is that it helps us access that enormous store. When we meditate, we stimulate the alpha and theta wave patterns of your brain. The alpha state is achieved when meditation begins. The brain waves are at a frequency of 7-14 cps. At this frequency, you process information faster and more effectively, increasing focus and performance to a peak. With deeper relaxation, the theta brain waves come into play. They are at a frequency of 4-7 cps. In this level, your memory increases, your imagination is just vivid and you have better problem solving skills. You know how some things you obsess about at night just seem simpler in the morning? It is because these alpha and theta waves are normally present when we go to sleep! Now, imagine being able to use these brain waves when we are awake, like she did! We can be so cre
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ers are trained to practice in this way. During their training, they practise meditation and imagining the human anatomy. The healers use their intuition to suggest diagnoses and tailor made solutions for each patient. He quoted one of his experiences: “I had met a patient with arthritis. I imagined his condition as having white powder on his bones and then thought of a brush brushing the powder away. I asked him to meditate with me and do the same. He got physically better with more imagery therapy and became more productive, overcoming his problem.” When asked how we can become more intuitive, he suggested that first we need to believe in it. Starting with taking some time out for ourselves ative with our lives! Imagine looking within, and every day and meditating. Observe, search ourcoming up with answers left, right and centre. selves and write down any gut feeling, adding what happened later. This will help us underNot only personally, developing intuition can affect stand what our feelings are trying to tell you. He others’ lives too, through what’s called Intuitive also added that learnHealing. An intuitive healer ex- He says, “As intuitive healers, we use our ing what our dreams plained how it works. mind, understand the emotions behind mean reinforces the connection between He said that our body a problem and guide patients to access the conscious and the is a continuous syssubconscious. tem of flow of enerthem.” gy. This flow happens through what are called the energy chakras. All physical symptoms have emotional counterparts. Our beliefs program your neurochemicals too and affect their levels in the body. For example: people get weaker with stress and have more physical ailments. He says, “As intuitive healers, we use our mind, understand the emotions behind a problem and guide patients to access them.” They help them heal themselves by restoring any energy that is disturbed and out of balance. This is complementary to medical care for physical ailments and achieves a holistic healing leading to better physical, mental and emotional health. The most important parts about this process are visualisation and focussed thinking. Intuitive heal-
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An exercise he said we could try with someone would be: Stand a few feet apart and face each other. Now close your eyes and relax. Visualise the other person as a ball of light. Continue seeing that ball of light and notice any words, images, colours, thoughts or sensations in your own body. After a few moments, tell it to each other and describe how the experience might fit in your lives at this time. The trick is to learn to recognise how your intuition works and this will come through practice. It is all just a deeper form of empathy and relaxation. “Once you open up, everything is more meaningful. You stop stressing. You look up to life in newfound awe and wonder. The mysteries of the universe are then just comfortably laid out, all for you to go and explore.�
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DESIGN PORTFOLIO: SANIKA DESHPANDE Sanika Deshpande is a sciencenerd turned designer/artist who loves building an air of secrecy around her work by putting pen to paper and not writing, but drawing out her thoughts and opinions. “It becomes something private which only you understand” says Sanika, telling me about her interests in design, and about her work.
On The Reason Behind Design Being Her Chosen Medium Of Expression There is no feeling more comfortable and natural for Sanika, than that of a pen in her hand and a sketchbook in her lap. Armed with these tools, she lets her imagination loose, documenting her thoughts in the process. Pictorially Speaking // 52
On How She Got Involved With Design Drawing came somewhat naturally to Sanika. Watching her father paint large canvases at home gave her added motivation to pursue her dreams. Design thus, was a natural if not an obvious choice. Not wanting to continue studying the sciences post her 12th grade, Sanika joined Srishti School of Design, Bangalore.
On Her Inspirations The famous works of Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Joan Miro and Wassily Kandinsky are just some of the pieces that inspire Sanika. She tell us more about her most important source of inspiration -her father. “My father is one of my most important inspirations. It feels great to work with him. Not only does he have a diverse feedback and opinion about my work, but also is extremely open to experimenting with techniques and styles, and trying out new things.”
On Her Work “This particular set is a series of human drawings,” says Sanika. The concept for these drawings came to her mind as she was cycling around Yelahanka, Bangalore where she lives. She noticed men on the road staring at her as she passed by, and their faces were etched into her memory even after she came home. “I immediately started drawing,” she says, finally completing this particular set in one sitting.
On Her Goals, And On Art “My immediate goal is to keep incorporating more faces into this set of drawings,” says Sanika. The biggest achievement of this series in her opinion, is that it creates a visual language. “Another achievement” says Sanika, “is that people who have seen these images tell me that the faces are familiar. The fact that people can identify and relate to these images makes me proud and happy.” Pictorially Speaking // 53
PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO: AMAR CHANDOLE Amar Chandole is a DSLR-toting, assignment-lugging engineering student from Pune who enjoys telling the stories that animals have to offer, through his passion for photography and storytelling (and because they make better subjects than humans, he convinces me). In conversation, he tells me more about his journey as a budding wildlife and nature photographer.
On The Reason Behind Photography Being His Chosen Medium Of Expression
“A feeling of absolute satisfaction, one that is out-ofthe-world,� says Amar, is why Photography is his chosen medium of expressing his thoughts and emotions. With every single click of the button, with every perfect frame captured he feels a thrill like no other.
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On How He Got Involved With Photography
ning that day, and more than I enjoyed taking photos of them, I enjoyed the manner in which they were interacting and playing with one another. This bond of love that I was witnessing in front of me was emotionally overwhelming,” says Amar.
Photography had no special meaning for Amar until the day his sister brought home a Canon Powershot SX110. “This particular camera had a 40x super-zoom which I took complete advantage of. I used to take pictures of birds on trees, insects in my garden, anything I could spot. I took to it like a child On His Goals, And On Photography takes to a toy.” “My main interests still lie in the field of engineering. I wouldn’t call photography just a hobby, no. It is more of a passion,” Amar says, as he wipes a On His Inspirations “The look of appreciation that I see on people’s fac- smudge off his camera lens. His main goals are to es, and my work in itself serve to inspire me.” Both explore the fields of Wildlife photography and take are not only a source of inspiration but also a driv- pictures which are not only tell stories on their own, but portray a larger, grander tale. ing force behind Amar’s passion for photography.
On His Work
From his entire portfolio, one image that is extremely special to Amar is the photograph of a female monkey and her child. It tells a story that is the same across all the species of animals populating this earth. “I was following this mom-son pair the whole eve-
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book review Written by Prerna Maheshwari Illustrated by Sanika Deshpande
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The Particluar Sadness of Lemon Cake
by Aimee Bender
Sometimes, you come across a book that tends to stay with you forever. It is a book wherein the writing not only grips you, it envelops you and leaves a lasting impression well after you’re done reading it. The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake is one such book.
Rose’s horror and helplessness is evident when she tries to confront her mother about it: She tells her that she’s so alone, hungry and sad in the cake. When her mother cheerfully asks, “What do you mean, baby? I’m fine!” Rose replies- “Not baby, No more baby. I TASTED YOU. GET OUT OF MY MOUTH!”
Rose Edelstein is a normal happy-in-a-bubble kid whose life takes a turn when she discovers her special ability. On the eve of her 9th birthday, her mom bakes her favourite lemon and chocolate cake. Excited, she pops in what she describes a “spongy, warm chunk of gold lathered in chocolate icing”, only to realise it tastes nothing like that. The chocolate and lemon all gone!
Suddenly, meals are a pain. Rose tries all that she can, even wash her mouth from the school fountain to get rid of the taste, which is now in her peanut butter sandwich every day. She even ends up in the hospital emergency, hysterically wanting to detach her mouth. It is very unnerving to everyone why she has so many reactions to eating when ‘everything is fine’. It is then she realises that her ability is here to stay and containment is her solution.
“...it seemed that my mouth was filling with the taste of smallness, the sensation of shrinking, of upset, tasting a distance I somehow knew was connected to my mother, tasting a crowded sense of her thinking, a spiral, like I could almost even taste the grit in her jaw that had created the headache that meant she had to take as many aspirins as were necessary, a white dotted line of them in a row on the nightstand like an ellipsis to her comment: I’m just going to lie down…”
In this book, Aimee Bender beautifully explores the dynamics of a family through magical realism. Rose’s perpetually hobby-switching mother who is dissatisfied with her marriage. Her kind-of-eccentric isolated brother Joseph, in whose toast she tastes emptiness and loneliness. Her dependable, emotionally closed off father, who is more than what meets the eye.
Relief comes in the form of her brother’s friend Food now tastes of feelings, including buried feelings George, whom she admires. George believes her in the mind of the cook, complete with cries of “help and even experiments, taking her to the nearby me, save me!” Knowing how people feel, she now restaurant. There, she bites into a cookie, which she connects the dots with their actions. “I could see feels is so angry, tight and rushed like she has to eat her clench her fists from overflow sometimes when it fast or it would eat her. To his amazement, George I came home from school, and when she would hug finds out that the cook is a person who is always in me hello I could feel how inadequate the hug was a hurry. He then declares Rose to be a food psychic! for how much she wanted to give.” Pictorially Speaking // 61
Bender has a knack of letting the reader know the characters at their own pace. You follow these characters and how they co-exist. You age with Rose as she grows with these relationships and becomes an observer. She realises when her mom is having an affair which she tastes as thick waves of guilt and romance in the meat and cream. You read as she copes with her awareness, with the pain of loving someone she knows too much about. She finds solace in machinery made bags of chips, and friends whose parents provide less-traumaticallyscented food to be traded for. It is like a struggle for survival, pointed in a good direction. She learns to accept people and connects with them too. She can also now discern layers and layers of food, right down to feeling the farmers hand reaching out for the tomato used in her sauce, even knowing which area the food is from. Bender conjures up such strong emotions that you can literally feel Rose’s relief with one particular onion soup she has. It stands out because it tastes like just that- onion soup. She can tell how the cook’s greatest desire when making it was to make the perfect onion soup. When she eats it, the food is telling her what it is, how much it wants to be what it is and how glad it is to be what it is. Disregarding the mystical elements, the book is
fantastically real. Bender’s language is poetic. The book is also a foodie-emotional nirvana at times. With gorgeous descriptions of food and cooking, it tingles your taste buds and wrings your heart. In a delicious spinach gratin, Rose tastes: “how delighted the chef had clearly been over the balance of spinach and cheese, like she was conducting a meeting of spinach and cheese, like a matchmaker who knew that they would shortly fall in love. So connected with her food, that the air around her was filled with purpose.” The story goes on with a twist towards the end. The book finishes off rather oddly and loosely, leaving you a bit unsettled and wanting for more. It seems like Bender has left you to deal with comprehending the way she left Rose, at age 9. Simply put, it is a brilliant reading experience. It resonates with you on different levels, exploring people and relationships with all its metaphors of magical abilities, food and even furniture! A book which ignites your mind with the simple words and tastes given to emotions, it is exciting, mysterious, odd and at the same time just heart-warmingly real. Definitely worth your time!
movie review Written by Tanoy Banerji
Perfume Story of a Murderer
IMDb Rating - 7.5/10 Picspeak Rating - 4.0/5
Perfume: Story of a Murderer definitely makes it to the list of the top 5 weirdest films I have ever watched. Why so? Simply because the entire plot revolves about the one sense that you cannot experience while watching a movie - your sense of smell. How does one go about making a movie in which one attempts to portray the protagonist’s sense of smell to the audience merely through the art of acting and good direction? Writers Andy Berkin, and Bernd Eichinger, along with director Tom Tykwer successfully manage to do so through such a dark and exquisitely shot film. The film, set in 18th century France, follows the life of one JeanBaptiste Grenouille (Ben Wishaw), born with a superior olfactory sense as he sets off to make the world’s finest perfume. Using simply his nose, he learns the art of perfumemaking as he talks his way into the apprenticeship of aging perfumer Baldini (Dustin Hoffman). This is where he learns of the legend of a scent from the Egyptian Era that can seize complete power over any man. However his chase for that elusive scent takes a dark turn when he finds that elusive scent in female virgins. It’s frightening how this movie, which seems to be about an odd boy with superior olfactory senses, quickly develops into a movie which gives a glimpse into the mind of a serial killer. With a supernatural aura over the entire story, this movie mesmerises you and keeps you hooked with some fantastic acting, crisp narration, intensely amazing cinematography and a deep and dark sense of dread.
Ben Wishaw plays the role of the eccentric and monstrous JeanBaptiste quite well, convincing the audience of his life’s purpose, his anguish and his emotions. Above all, he makes the audience smell what he smells through his acting. It is no wonder that he is considered one of the rising stars of British cinema. Dustin Hoffman as the aging perfumer, gives a detailed and a quirky performance lending a humorous contrast to Wishaw’s Jean Baptiste. The late and beloved Alan Rickman plays the part of Antoine Richis. His performance as the intelligent nobleman and protective father carries the entire second half of the film. His determined acting convinces the audience that he will go to the ends of the earth to keep his daughter safe from the murderer. This movie reminds us as to why he was such a treasure in the world of cinema. The movie never drags at any point of time. The direction is flawless, you realise that in the scene when the protagonist unleashes his perfume. The one drawback to the movie is the exact purpose as to why he becomes a killer is made apparent only towards the very end of the movie, which left me a little confused during its course. An enchanting movie that starts at a noisy & dirty fish market in Paris comes a full circle in a beautiful way helped by some good narration that guides us throughout the film. A definite watch, though it requires a mature mind to truly appreciate it.
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