Life, and Eternal Darkness of Enlightenment

who knew, knows, such days would come to pass

who knows, knew, what life,

living and not living

with experiences experienced,

lost or escaped, would hold.

who knew, knows, 

that the screen of final darkness 

lurking here, there, everywhere

now, anytime, anywhere, will fall.

who can wonder

that when the forever darkness arrives,

if one has not lived through

the up and down of light and shadow, 

one would not have known the meaning of light

or the meaning of darkness,

let alone eternity before or after.

transient as we are, 

no one would have known that we are not

and are while we are,

that before or after, 

let alone the light, the spark, the so-called life

would not have been desired, aspired to,

yearned for,

nor its absence lamented.

I thank all those who thought of and remembered me, in whichever way recognising me and thus acknowledging me, humbling me with gratitude.

Jyoti Gandhi

Subhash Barot

Guddi Vijay Rao

Bhamini Shankar

Sonya Haritha

Vinod Gandhi

Asma Hakkim

Sk shanmuganathan

Nirav Gandhi

Sonal Ganatra

Reena Patel

Minu Sanghavi

Pem Dem

Rita Lal

Vivekanandan Vivi

Nimish Tolia

Ashoka Auro

Arvind Rathnam

Pradeep J Soni

Sachin Gandhi

Dr.Taralika Trivedi

Pixy Mukherjee

Sharmila Mehta

Nam Prasad Satsangi

Arul Damodaran

Kirit Sanghvi

Kiran Bhatt

Vikash Srivastav

Shyla Shanker

Siva Kumar

Payal Satish

Pradeep Bokaria

Anoop Rajan

Piyush Jain

Pravin Gandhi

Ajit Chitturi

Purvi Goradia

JS Sathishkumar

Ramanidharan Ramaswamy

Dananjay S Bhatt and Mamta

Dinesh Kumar Bhattarai

Sri Rajesh

Viji Srikanthan

Subhasis Bose

Utkarsh Majmudar

Devyani Gandhi

Sujaya Menon

Raj Kumar

Sohail Sarooshi

Ramesh Raman

Sudha Shivkumar

Nimish Tolia

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Ranjan Mistry Pratap

Sangeeta Thapa

Pradip Chakraborty

Rajani Sheth

Fathima Sharafath

Premalatha Seshadri

Kanan Mehta

Madhavan Nair

Vivek Sial

Hemant Manek

Shashibhai Bhatt

Surekha Kothari

Gayatri Sundarakandan

Kashmira Soni

Mukesh Soni

Shahzenan Parpia

Anant Maringanti

Siddharth Hande

Kavitha Prasad

and very good friends from

The Photographic Society of Madras

Classic Photos

The Chennai Photography Learners Club

Single Frame Photography 

the staffs of Taj and ITC groups of hotels

friends from foreign consulates and cultural centers,

IITs and premier colleges where I have been honored with invitations to judge debates or to lecture on subjects from films, philosophy, space, and metaphysics

Fraternity at Film Censor Boards, and Board to Select Films for International Film Festivals

and those who came home, or called me

short or long-distance

sms-ed or emailed

and those whose names have somehow been missed out