On 18th Nov 2018, I went to the newly opened Nordic Museum in Seattle along with Seattle urbansketchers after a long time. I was excited to meet the fellow urbansketchers after a long hiatus, but ... only until the previous night. The morning of the meetup though, was a different drama. I did not want to get out of bed. I just wanted to curl up inside my blanket, watch some random YouTube videos to numb down my mind, and snooze away. I was doing everything to sabotage my previous night's plan. Here is how my internal stubborn and procrastinating monologue went on.
8AM, hmm... it s a good time to getup, let's get ready and take the D line to the musuem.
Cool! It is so close by!
Aah,...let me sleep a little while.
9AM, you need to get up, eat breakfast, and go!
Naaah... I don't want to go, how about I skip it today?
No, but then you won't be able to go hang out for until another month!
OK, I guess I should go. It will be nice once I reach there, I guess...
Nooo, I want to sleeeep.
9.40AM, get up! go brush your teeth, pack your bag, eat something, take a cab!
And I jumped out, brushed my teeth, packed my bag, ate breakfast, got ready, and got a cab at 10AM.
As soon as I was out of my house, it felt different. Much more lighter and brighter. It was a sunny day. I had a cool Uber driver from South Africa who knew 10 different languages. Thank you dear driver, for giving me some nice moments and dropping me safely at my destination. I was obviously late, but was glad I got out of bed. It was crowded outside, people were lining up to buy ticket and go inside to enjoy the JuleFest or YuleFest.
Once I went inside, the mood was festive. People from all ages were strolling around the museum, and more people were coming in. Many were dressed in traditional costumes too. I met a few artists, busy finding spots for themselves amidst the crowd. I dodged around shops, exhibitions and people to find the boats at the end of the corridor on the ground floor.
The boats presented an interesting challenge of perspective. Having placed along a narrow corridor, it was difficult to catch them from an angular point of view. I was luckty to find a fancy wooden bench to sit comfortably while leaning against the wall. I did hesitate though for a moment wondering if it is on display and if I am not supposed to sit on it. As I settled down, I noticed some other artists already engaged in sketching the boats. Once I figured out the perspective, it was an easy work. A few visitors stopped by appreciating my sketch. I remembered, the time of 2011, the year I resumed sketching actively. I would find all these beautiful spots to sketch, but I would feel so shy and conscious of people watching me. Now moving forward to 2018, I am not only indifferent to crowd around me, I am also enjoying my interaction with them. It is a much simpler process now. Step1: I want to sketch this spot Step2: I sketch it. Nothing in between. I think it is a good amount of progress.
Once I finished sketching the boats, I noticed I still had significant amount of time, to create one more sketch. I moved towards the entrance hunting for another spot. The beautiful statues of birds hanging from the ceiling caught my attention. I stood leaning against a wall, and started sketching the birds. The morning sunlight was reflecting through the translucent bodies and was enhancing the beauty of the sculptures. They evoked a nice visual of boats floating away in the windy sea, and sea birds soaring on the cloudy sky. The birds were a bigger challenge in terms of perspective though. Top view, angular layout, and spanning wings kind of confused me. It appeared as if they would fit into portrait mode, but they did not. I had to erase the sketches twice before finally figuring out the right perspective.
While I was immersed in the birds, I heard a voice calling me out. I looked up and it was an old man looking at my sketch. I had a good 10 to 15 minutes of conversation with him (let's call him Uncle), and his wife (let's call her Aunty) who soon joined us. It was so beautiful, I regret not writing down about the conversation on the same day. Now, when I have sat down to write about it after so many days, I am afraid, I may not remember everything about the conversation. However, I will try my best to do justice to it.
So, here it goes.
I look up and say hello to him. He appreciates my sketch and says, "Do you know, they are ravens?" I did not know. I imagined that they might be some sea-birds. He said, "No, they are ravens. Look at their pointy tails. That's how you know they are ravens. They do look very similar to crows. But they are not. They are large in size, and their tails are pointy. On the other hand, crows are smaller and have round tails." Point noted.
Ravens have been an important part of Nordic folklore. To be honest, I know very little of Nordic culture. I ask to tell more. Uncle says, they are perceived to be intelligent and wise creatures connecting the people with the spirits. Vikings used ravens a lot during navigation to discover islands. They would train ravens, and carry them in the boats while exploring. When they wanted to know if there is an island nearby, they would release a raven. If the raven returns, it implies there is no island nearby. But if it does not, then it found an island. Noah had sent a raven to find an island when trying to escape the great flood. When it did not return, he sent a dove, which returned to him.
Then Aunty joined us. She said that ravens are very intelligent creatures and also very emotionally intelligent. The parent ravens spend a lot of time training their babies. In their backyard, a raven couple had created a nest. The baby raven fell down from the tree one day, and was trapped in a pit below the tree. Uncle decided to help it. He was worried if cats will eat it. So he shoved a broomstick into the pit, hoping that the crow would climb. Aunty was not so sure if it would help the raven. But the raven knew what to do with the stick. It climbed up with the help of the stick. Both of them rejoiced at the raven's rescue, and they continue to protect the birds whenever they nest.
I was fascinated by the importance of crows and ravens in Nordic folklore and wondered how important they are in Indian culture. I told them that although crows are not as revered in Hindu culture, in Odisha, it is believed that if a crow cries sitting on your rooftop
or backyard for a long time, it is an omen that guests are going to
visit your home today. They were excited to learn about it.
It was interesting for me to talk to them and learn about the stories. I was trying to retrieve all the information I had about crows and ravens in my memory while I was taking in all the new information I got. Crows being a very common place creatures in tropical India, I had taken for granted that they are bird of tropics. After I came to USA, I saw that crows were a common-place bird species too. But they prefer quiet unlike the crows in India who have adapted to urban life. I have also noticed that crows are depicted in Native American art pieces and in totem poles, although I have not researched into it. In the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series written by George RR Martin, which introduced me to medieval and ancient Europe, Sam is assigned the task to nurture and train the ravens. Ravens are heavily used to send letters across, similar to how pigeons were used in India. They were also able to say simple words (although I am not sure if it is fantasy or truth.)
On the other hand, in India, crows are associated with Shani (Saturn) as his vehicle. Saturn is considered a powerful god, who can ill-favor you. So, if you want to appease him, you should feed crows regularly. But otherwise, they are in general not given a lot of value, often looked down upon for their scavenging habits, and harsh voice.
Uncle was nice enough to click me while I was sketching. Here is me perched in a corner while sketching the sculptures.
As I said bye to the couple, I was excited to have finished a nice sketch as well as to have encountered such lovely people.
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