Monday, July 21, 2014

Endangered Gender


only  human beings
perniciously inflict 
gender persecution

what a horrible price 
and what a self-glorified moniker 
humanism



Friday, July 18, 2014

Up to the Neck


beauty
if there be
beholder


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Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps because of the pink hue and the layered folds it seems like an unfolding blossom on a bosom.  
Often i marvel at the sheer aesthetics of a sari, the uncomplicated elegance, the grace with which it enwraps and the effortlessness with which it curves and falls and holds is something else. The other day i was looking at a grandmother walking past my window and i was mesmerised by the way her foot fall would splay the pleats and then collapse again and i realised all over again that the sari is one of the most intelligent things to cover the female form with. It enhances and it enables. But that is an ode to the sari. My ode to the photograph is that with a little bit of light tapered to a shadow, you have captured the beholder's fancy.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Flamenco


1972

I took this picture at a performance presented by a Spanish cultural ensemble whose name I do not recollect, at the Museum Theatre in Chennai. The performances were so liked and applauded that an encore of all items was presented at Music Academy the next day

I did not have much photographic equipment. My Minolta SLR had a telephoto 60-150 zoom lens, to keep which steady I inserted it with the camera body between two seats. The probable exposure was f1/16 at 1 second. I held my breath, expecting nothing, but somehow got two-three pictures which I bandied around in exhibitions in and outside the country. Like me, of course, the photograph has aged much.


Many people associate flamenco with the opera Carmen, although the opera was written by a Frenchman, Georges Bizet. The story of Carmen was based on a novella by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed in 1875. The subject matter was daring and controversial for the time: 

A soldier, who is upright and unworldly, is seduced by a Gypsy cigarette girl – a worker in a cigarette factory, Carmen. He is so besotted with her that he abandons his sweetheart and disgraces himself by deserting from the army. After he has lost everything, Carmen mocks him, and leaves him for a toreador, Escamillo. Finally the soldier, José, is in such a state of rage and despair that he stabs Carmen to death.

Bizet used Spanish musical themes for Carmen, including flamenco tunes. One of the most famous scenes in the opera is the Habanera:




As an aside, for those who are familiar with the music and the universality of the theme of unrequited love leading to the tragedy of murder, not only in Spain but in France and in Hollywood, and definitely in India and elsewhere, Carmen has taken many incarnations in theatre as well as in the form of cinema. Among the best known and award-winning ones are Carmen Jones, with a black American cast including Harry Belafonte; and Carmen in flamenco style, made by Carlos Saura. Those who have been patient with me thus far would find the rest.

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

Hope is the Thing With Feathers



hope is the feather
that helps the wings fly,
shelter, protect,
from sun, rain

but only while held by the owner

fallen, it becomes inanimate
lifeless

decorates or perishes
in objects or as waste

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

In the Eye of Darkness


Light and darkness.

Consider the almost unalterable time in human hours that earth takes in its rotational and revolutionary, magnetic, gravitational forces essentially emanating from the sun, not to count the minutiae of the movements of all solar systems and galaxies, which separate for the living on the planet, in theory equally, light from darkness. 

There are lurking lights like man-made electric and other beams and spreads.

There are also darknesses not naturally endowed or cast, which apparently, in the human mind, far outclass the light by the vindictive malice of their machinations.

Just by chance, is the picture also a human face? See the forehead on top, eyebrows, and dark sockets for eyes, and nose engulfed in flame. Is there an unintended meaning here? The darkness behind the light.

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Anonymous wrote:

Baar baar dekhtey huey achaanak samajh aaya what i found disturbing about that photo. It is like beheaded heads sunk in congealed blood and because blood is not something that you are good with, i was disoriented, i find the composition striking and frightening. Because it is a globe kind of curve it looks like the human world is expressing horror at its capacity to self destruct. And the sole purpose of the light seems to be to illuminate the horror rather than driving out the dark. Dont tell anyone but i see more than one face.

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Jaunty


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Anonymous wrote:

What a skip what a trot what a jaunt.
Tripping over itself in its impulse to spread cheer.

The blurring of the background makes it look like a happy falling star.