Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Cusp of Apocalypse


---------------
Charu wrote:
Beautiful.
Reminds me of "2001: A Space Odyssey" when obelisk on moon is communicating with jupiter.
------------------
Bhashwati wrote:


The twilight of consciousness

Where fire watches in awe
As ice refuses to thaw
Where double faced demons
Gift alibis to humans
Till consciousness succumbs
And the subconscious triumphs
Because a thin line divides
And ambiguity thrives
Within the ideals manufactured
To keep the facade unfractured
Of the glory of evolution
As we march to extinction

Monday, December 26, 2011

The Secret Life of Flowers


---------------

Utkarsh Majmudar wrote: ""Tis the secretive secret"
-------------------
Anonymous wrote:
yeh mehekti huyi ghazal maqdoomjaisey sehra mein raat phoolon ki
Maqdoom Mohiuddin
---------------

anonymous writes again of another secret:

Rung baatein karein aur baaton sey khushboo aaye
Dard phoolon ki tarah mehekey agar tu aaye.

Zia Jalandari.
---------------------


Charu wrote:


Bhai,

Secret, and you must unravel it.

Precocious or Pre-crocus(?)


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Cephalopod


Cephalopods, which are a variety of mollusc, are carnivores. The octopus is a cephalopod.

When I was drawn to this particular plant, even though it did not look menacing, I could not help wondering if the markings on the tentacle-like leaves were nature's way of ensuring its cardinal principle of survival of the fittest, by attracting, luring its food to come closer. Would it follow that those leaves would close in on an unsuspecting insect, or a flower, or a fruit, and then feast upon it.

In any case, the duration of my composing the picture and clicking the camera passed without any demonstration of aggression.

------------------------
Charu wrote:

I can alomst see tantacles worming.
They will seize me any minute. Sinister. And, effective.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Serendipity


Serendipity: a happy accident, a pleasant surprise.

In Sanskrit scriptures, Serendip was the name of what is currently called Sri Lanka ('dip' meaning an island). As the British could not pronounce the word, it became Ceylon.

Etymology Dictionary has this to say about serendipity:
1754 (but rare before 20c.), coined by Horace Walpole (1717-92) in a letter to Mann (dated Jan. 28); he said he formed it from the Persian fairy tale "The Three Princes of Serendip," whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of." The name is from Serendip, an old name for Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), from Arabic Sarandib, from Skt. Simhaladvipa "Dwelling-Place-of-Lions Island."
-----------------
Charu wrote:
Oh, that "SwarnaDweep", Golden Island in which you take a dip and get galvanized in gold foil, as in the picture. But oh, where is that place?

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Symphonic


A PATTERN IS
EVEN IF
ASSYMETRICAL
INTRINSICALLY
AN ORDER
IN CHAOS

LIKE VAGABOND
BREEZE
PLAYING UPON
THE RESPONSIVE
STRINGS OF A
CARESS-HUNGRY LEAF
TO EXPLODE
INTO RAPTUROUS FRAGMENTS OF AN
UNFORGETTABLE
SYMPHONY
-----------------------
Charu wrote:
Bhai,

These are the same accordion leaves that made music when breeze swayed them. Music wafted up through your drawing room windows. 

You wrote about it long before I heard it.

love charu

Sunday, October 09, 2011

koi le jaaye mujhe


chhoti si railgaadi mein parvaton ki baahon mein
baadalon ki chaaon mein
koi le jaaye mujhe

in a toy train
in the mountains' embrace
amid the shadows of clouds
take me there, someone, please take me there

------------
Update: Anonymous said...
Zaroor le jaayengey.
Aap rail gaadi mein to baitho chal key...


Bhupen said...
Lagata hai ke aap darjeeling ki baat kar rahain hai. Maine to sirf sapano me hi dekha hai.
Pravin said...
Wonderfully dreamy picture which speaks highly of the place as well as the dreamer as well as his skill.
Surprised at the lines in Hindi.
Remember the bollywood song of the 70's:
Gaadi bulaa rahee hai
sitee bajaa rahee hai
chalnaa hi jindagee hai
chaltee hi jaa rahee hai

why is the train a metaphor of "taking away" or as you say "ley jaayege" as in Dilwale Dulhaniya Ley Jaayege, ultimately in the finale the "ley jaayege" happens in a train

I too have a metaphor of the train and ley jaayegey watching the ageing of parents: see
http://pravingandhi.com/Poems/LongDistance.htm

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Gossamer

Click to enlarge



-----------------------
Nancy Gandhi wrote:

The petals are translucent; cloud-butterflies, alighting on a waiting leaf.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Light in Search of Illumination


-----------------------------
 Anonymous said...

This is awesome. Surreal and goose pimple inducing. What should i marvel at... that such a site exists / existed
OR that you captured it???

In another lifetime as a student i possessed a copy of Lawrence's Fantasia of the Unconscious. i am reminded of the cover illustration which i would sit and stare at for hours on end. Thank you for this incredible expression of the inexpressible anguish of this dark moment in time when light itself must set out in search of illumination.

Baby Coconut Suspended Before Falling on Someone's Head


-----------------------
Anonymous said...

or is it a sheershaasan in trishanku?

a most gladdening sight either way.

thank you

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Conjugal


-------------------------
Anonymous wrote:

The picture is many things. At the most simplistic level, it is very realistic. That's it. It's the positioning of the seats that gives your title incredible authenticity.

Then the trees that shut the world out. Is it a cover that protects or a wall that isolates? it must be my long-standing enquiry into romantic love and so called conjugal bliss that brings to my mind ominous thoughts.

Eloquent. Incomparable conjunction between the name and the image.

Monday, June 06, 2011

Photosynthesis


----------------------
Charu wrote:

Bhai,
I am developing breathing problem. Can you please stop taking such breathtaking pictures?!
Lovely.
Love charu

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Stacked


The samples of chairs which will be required in millions to attend the convocations of rival fasting camps for removing corruption. Ignore the amounts that changed hands in buying and selling these chairs and other amenities: there had to be a commission for such large-scale transactions.

-----------------------
Charu wrote:


Bhai,
How apropos!
Bribery on top of bribery, "stacked"
Love charu
----------------------
Vikash wrote:

Thats a very interesting point of you Sir. however dramatized all these anti- corruption agitations might appear, I still believe they are good in a way. its similar to T 20 , no matter in which direction the batsman swings watt matters is ( even if its a directionless way ) the ball crosses the boundary line....

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Slate



Charu wrote:


दरारे,

दीवारोकी अर्शोकी

सीनोकी या फर्शोकी



कभी मिलती है

कभी बिखरती है

नक़्शे-रगोकी तरह

खूबहसीनसी लगती है



छुपी है ताराजी

इस खुबसुरतिमे

लगी लड़ी बारिशकी

या तेजीसे टूटा दिल

अचानक चुने लगती है



चुना काम दोनोका

फर्क सिर्फ इतना है

एक चूती पानी है

दूजी लहू सिनोका



--चारू





Fissures

in walls roofs

hearts or floors



they converge

they diverge

they are beautiful

map of capillaries



destruction lurks

behind this beauty

A spate of rain

or a snap of heart

will start them seeping



both will seep

difference is

one seeps water

the other blood



---charu

Diamond-Decked Venus

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Corruption Corrupts


By its very inherent nature, corruption corrupts, and consequently is self-perpetuating...

I have apologized all my life for being incapable of bribing in any sphere. I have been victimised time and again because I was neither able to give bribes nor to take them.
Because of this inability, as a matter of principle (which I considered stupid because it was pointless; I did not achieve anything, while it cost me a lot), I resigned from every position or office of importance that I have held from my school-days. For the same reason, I sold an internationally renowned and award-winning industry.

Life would have been very comfortable had I just bribed.

There is anthropological evidence that all living are corruptible. Idealism exists only in human beings, and in most instances it is erroneous and aberrant. All the NGOs which have come out in support of Mr. Hazare are almost certainly corrupt, and the mass of people interviewed on TV news channels admitted to having given bribes or taken them, promising not to do that in future. With due respect to Anna Hazare, I guarantee that the Lok Pal bill which is being demanded will be another system of corruption, with its own empowerment.

Please do not misconstrue the above as my favouring any government: I have not voted in my life.

Monday, April 04, 2011

After the Apocalypse


Thinking about total annihilation inevitably brings the thought of whether life will re-invent itself and limpingly, uncertainly, arise again. Would that there be resurgence and continuum.

---------------------
Bhai,
Looks like Phoenix rising from ashes.
Beautiful.
love, charu
-----------------------
Kanan said...

and re invent the wheel...!
----------------------
Anonymous said:

i translated the image as: Whispered Requiem.

Related thoughts:
Examining all that you have earlier said about beginnings, ends and continuum i deduced that if death is the end of conscious life then annihilation will mean the end of what our consciousness perceives as life.
In the absence of conscious life will there be any mode or means of assessing resurgence?
However going by your theory of contingency, from that annihilation must emanate a series of fresh contingencies which will ensure continuum but may be very dissimilar to life as we know it.

Thank you for the entry and thank you for causing a new thought.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Huddle


A huddle is by and large assurance of unity, sharing, counselling, affirmation of intimacy, concern, empathy and comfort. Not to forget, though, that a part of this unison, carrying at its core malice, can turn it into misguidance, false promise and vendetta.

Update: Please see another kind of huddle, by Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemantha_pamarthy/4401224871/in/set-72157623541286126

---------------------
street se gyan said...

Sir,
ur photographs and the deep meaning ur phrases contain.. needs volumes of books to explain actually the message contained in it...

and someone like me with little or no intelligence .... I am blessed that I get to meet u and hear the views direct....

:)
---------------------

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Totality of Death


On their deathbeds, most people presumably believe they have not lived enough or at all. They don't realise that after death  they will not be able to regret or rejoice, or, for that matter, know or feel anything about their lives. Death divests you of TOTAL consciousness.

---------------------
Anonymous wrote:
You nailed it again,
As i was repeating the last sentence in my head i muttered TOTALLY.
Death totally divests you of consciousness.

What a mercy it must seem to the fortunate few who grasp that truth as the last drop of consciousness escapes simultaneously with the last breath.

And what a colossal absolute irony that the mercy is bestowed when the subject can no longer receive. Correction when the subject ceases to be.
Thank you.
----------------------
Bhai,

I chastised myself before I finish thinking, what a pleasure to be devoid of consciousness......

There is no knowing or not knowing of pleasure to be had...let alone pleasure itself..

Love charu

Saturday, March 19, 2011

In the loop


All life is bound within a loop of certain fatality; only its time and manner are indeterminate.
------------------------

Anonymous said...
Bhai, A fatality that frightens most; like a snake does? Wow! Love charu

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Us, humans, our lofty ideals and far more abject contradictions

On Twitter, @offstumped wrote:

"Wikileaks to me is digital terror, a hit at the legitimate business of States by non state actors."

My reply:

Agreed; but then, human civilisation as it currently exists is rotten, immoral, decadent. Wikileaks therefore have a right to be part of that morass, like others who are in power, or in situations from which they can create power. They are not its cause: they are also a symptom of what we have preposterously defined as the lofty values of our civilisation, even as those values keep changing. I call this change degradation, because I am not in a position of power to create or prevent any change. Those who are powerful call it progress.

I have to say this because the definition of morality that I am talking about (that Wikileaks have a right to conform to the current state of human civilisation) does not seem to exist except as a notion in the minds of a few, like me: old-fashioned and obscure; and that again because they are powerless. If they were in power, either of wealth, buying and selling; or of waging war and causing destruction, devastation; or creating corruption in the process of buying, selling or politicking; or of sexual aberration, then their version of morality would be the one to prevail.

So, while I realise that I am not in possession of the language to define morality, by extension I also realise that no one is, because everyone is involved in the task of demolishing or creating new language, new idiom, new syntax for what they think should be considered moral, and causing the enhancement of civilisation.

Wikileaks is merely one of the billions of symptoms of increasingly worsening times in the annals of human capacity to save itself from perdition.

I, by the above exposition, am irrelevant, and so are my values. So is the writer of the tweet to which I am responding here.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Nocturnal


Tranquility within, a roar without. Or vice versa.

--------------------
Charu wrote:
Looks like a whole car is in process of being swallowed up by an extra terrestrial with glowing eyes and amber tongue ...

Definitely nocturnal and definitely a roar within....

Friday, February 25, 2011

Camouflage


Plants and animals alike have the genetic device which provides them with camouflage systems, which human beings have discovered as essential for survival. Mankind, however, camouflages for reasons of deceit, wickedness, avarice, and retribution, having assumed that we are already the fittest.
--------------------
Anonymous wrote:

What a perfect perch porch...
sun n shade dappled.

The text in comparison, a stark truth sans shade.

Thank you.
-------------------
Bhai,

Do I see a parrot...or is it a pigeon....wait, I think it is just a sparrow.....

What ruse....

Love charu

Monday, February 07, 2011

Craftsman


----------------------------------------------
Update: Anonymous said...

Actually two of them!!!
Another piece that qualifies for the OMG category.
Thank you g
----------------------------------------------

Bhai,
He is plying himself so intently, as opposed to intensely, his knuckles have turned white.
Long white beard kind of Tagorelike...
Love charu

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Journey's End


Everything ends in new beginnings


------------------------
Update: Bhashwati wrote:

i like black but that is only a backdrop to the composition.
i like the way light has fallen on some sections of the 'journey' but that too is only a part.
i like the title 'Journey's End' as much as i like the tagline, 'Everything ends in new beginnings' but those came after the composition.

So i asked myself what made me gasp, in this composition. 
i think it was these:

It is jagged but allows room for smoothness.
The precipice cradles the curve of a valley.
The level proceeds to an ascent and the ascent declines gently into an even path (both sides bridged by a buffer zone), depending on which part of her or his life journey the viewer is traversing at the point of viewing.
In some ways the composition is like a heteronym and a palindrome if such a thing is possible.
Go at it from any side, it is tough and it makes sense, as much sense that is as the randomness of life's journey will allow.
----------------------------
Nancy wrote:

The first thing that comes to mind is that the picture is Bergmanesque. If Bergman's films do not have this image, I have no doubt that he would have produced it at some time, if he had lived. This immediately recalled the end of The Seventh Seal, when all the characters climb laboriously up a distant slope, behind the black-robed figure of Death. That's a kind of new beginning too, I suppose.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Radiance


"Mera azm itna buland hai ke paraye shaulon ka dar nahin
Mujhe khauf aatish-e-gul se hai, ye kaheen chaman ko jala ne de"

[My resolve is so strong that I do not fear the flames from without
I fear only the radiance of the flowers, that it might burn my garden down]

— Shakeel Badayuni (via Cafe Pyala)

----------------
Update:

Bhai,

Beautiful! love the colors, the radiance, the fire, the angle...; I almost swooned...

love charu
---------------
Sir,

I kept looking at the picture for well over 5 minutes.

so very admirable

Vikash
--------------

Bhavna wrote: "Stunning, Mesmerizing, Beautiful!"

Reflections Over Tea


-------------------
Update: Anonymous wrote:

There must be a term to describe what you do to objects with your eyes, lens and light combo. Photography doesn't begin to describe it:)

Because of the title you have given i'm reminded of Kaifi's composition

Ek Lamha

zindagi naam hai kuch lamhon ka
aur un mein bhi wahi ek lamha
jis mein do bolti aankhein
chaai ki pyaali se jab uthein
to dil mein doobein
doob ke dil mein kahein
aaj tum kuch na kaho
aaj hum kuch na kahein
bas yun hi baithey rahein
haath mein haath liye
gham ki saugaat liye
garmi-e-jazbaat liye
kaun jaane ki isi lamhe mein
door parbat par kahin barf pighalne hi lagey

Desire



DESIRE
IN THE RAIN
UNDER A LARGE BANYAN TREE
NEAR THE RIVER BANK
ON THE WINDING OUTSKIRT
OF THE VILLAGE

A TOUCH OF MOIST SKIN
BURNING BODIES AND CLOTHES
FURTIVE GLANCES
FRIGHTENED BY HUNGER
TOWARDS THE PATHWAY
FEIGNING CAUTION AGAINST INTRUDERS
BEFORE THROWING IT AND SHAME
TO THE WINDS

TWO BODIES
CLUMSILY POISED
IN MUTUAL CONQUEST AND SURRENDER
AS RAIN SET THEM AFIRE
FELL ON THE MUD FOR GENTLE SUPPORT
TORE AT THE LAST STRINGS OF RESTRAINTS
MELTED AS ONE TO BECOME
A HEAVING MOUND OF ELEMENTAL EARTH

WHICH DISSOLVED
AS THE MOUNTAINS CRUMBLED
THE OCEANS OVERFLOWED
AND TIME STOOD STILL

IN THAT MOMENT
DID NOT EXIST
THE PATH NOR THE TREE
NOR THE RIVER
NOR THE RAIN

IN THAT MOMENT
EVEN LOVE DIED
TO DIE AGAIN A HUNDRED THOUSAND TIMES