Moments at Sunset

Our most valuable possession is life itself, for in its span we strive to add meaning and purpose to our existence, explore possibilities, realize potential, build relationships, foster creativity, enliven with hope, make memories and commit to evolve our being. 

But the most striking distinction of all is that we are given an opportunity to be part of a unique tapestry of infinite magnificence and incomprehensible riches. We must, therefore, be eternally grateful for this priceless gift and should endlessly cherish this wonderful marvel because only in doing so do we find true happiness!

Footnote:

Picture taken in Gorai, Mumbai on 28 January 2016

Perfect Symmetry

Footnotes:

Image Description: Tea gardens in Lovedale, outside Ooty

Wind and the Valley

oh you, to whom life bows in deference,
you, who is part of our every moment and existence,

mighty, fulfilling, absolute and faultless,
your colours and contours are timeless,

in you, i find comfort everlasting,
forgetful of time, age and all that is unwilling,

to you i was born, to you i shall return,
these moments apart are but a short sojourn.

Footnotes:

Image description - Taken from a look-out point at Matheran

The Times Literary Carnival 2012

It was chance that offered me to live a dream when fellow blogger and ace photographer Vikram Jeet Singh Parmar announced his intention to attend The 'Times of India Literary Carnival 2012.'

And so it began at the iconic Mehboob Studios with the ever lively Bachi Karkaria introducing the graceful Justice Leila Seth, who spoke about bringing up Vikram, her son who is today an internationally acclaimed author - most famously known for his creation - A Suitable Boy.

The Screensavers came alive next where Anusha Rizvi, Urmi Juvekar and Rajeev Masand debated storytelling in bollywood movies. And then there was the vibrantly eloquent Dr. Ramachandra Guha who spoke of his book, The Passionate Liberal, in a manner that was the epitome of passion. And my joy was limitless when i got to meet him, to come face to face with the man who had created a definite masterpiece of literature - India after Gandhi.

But delight knew no bounds when two critically acclaimed writers, Katherine Boo and Suketu Mehta, who work between India and the US compared notes about reporting across boundaries in an unequal, market-global age. It was a bigger sense of delight to have been able to meet Suketu Mehta, in person, in flesh and blood. Coincidentally, i am presently reading Suketu's classic, Maximum City, which is truly one of the best works that lucidly describes the finer and not so fine aspects of this megapolis, this metropolis, this wonder.

Day 1, for me, concluded with the master historian William Dalrymple launching his, yet another masterpiece - Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan 1839 - 42. His ability to tell a story in its vivid, accurate and descriptive form is simply remarkable and unparalleled. It was rather unfortunate that i couldn't attend Day 0, which happened to be on a Friday, thus being taken up by work!

Day 2 began with a more closer-to-home point in case; the fine art of losing! Sarnath Banerjee, Shiv Vishwanathan, Shaheen Mistri and author Manu Joseph moderated that the winner doesn't take it all. A question that came up very pertinently - Why don't we teach our children how to deal with failure?

And then there was The Eternal Manto - translated by Aastish Taseer, read to us by the legendary Javed Akhtar and the poet extraordinaire Gulzaar, steered by the ad man Prasoon Joshi.

A group of the finest story tellers from South Asia then came together in the forms of Daniyal Mueenuddin, Rana Dasgupta, Jeet Thayil, Anjali Joseph and Nilanjana Roy to discuss inspiration and the craft.

And finally, to talk of the challenges of adapting fiction to film, and about her latest film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, was the charming, confident and intelligent Mira Nair with the celebrated director Shyam Benegal.

But, it was not all of this alone that made it such a wonderful occasion. I ran into long time inspirations, free souls; DK and JJ - sailors, from another world, free and blissful, something that i can today only imagine.

Footnotes:

Image Courtesy - Vikram Jeet Singh Parmar

Image Description - With Suketu Mehta the author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

More pictures from the Literary Carnival 2012 - On my Flickr photostream

The Times of Ooty

Footnotes:

Picture taken during my snap vacation in Ooty during the last weekend. Changed a great deal, yet, this place is charming as ever and will forever remain closest to my heart wherever I go! 

Tri-States

1100 odd miles, 3 states, 9 days later and having met a 100 odd people, I write in awe of my trip of the tri-states as being among the most memorable journeys in life so far.

Taking a well-deserved break from regular life, and travelling through the vastness of nature's brilliance of epic proportions, there was a real sense of disconnect from the ordinary and a passage into the amazing.

A new-found sense of belonging enveloped within, reassuring me that I felt right and well there and not here, reiterating the fact that life is also about the choices we make.

Footnotes:

Picture taken by me en-route to Kerala. 

The Green Lungs of Chennai

There probably isn't another place within a bustling metropolis in India which is some three square kilometers and a national park! Guindy National Park in Chennai is a rare occurrence indeed, one which is a shining example of human-nature co-existence at its peaceful best.

I suspect wildlife of the future will be concentrated only within tiny pockets, such as these, which will beg to survive alongside human habitation. Given the enormous pressure commercialization and modernization seem to be exerting on natural biodiversity, it does not take an intelligent guess to estimate the future of these wonderful expanses of exquisitely rare beauty.

Having visited the adjoining areas of the park over the past weekend, I was compelled to draw a small parallel to the outskirts of Ooty.

Footnotes:

Once covering an area of 5 sq kms (1.93 sq mi) of one of the last remnants of tropical dry evergreen forest of the Coromandel Coast, Guindy Park was originally a game reserve. It was owned by a British citizen named Gilbert Rodericks from whom it was purchased by the government in 1821 for a sum of  Rs. 35,000. It was established as a Reserve Forest in 1910 - Sourced from Wikipedia.

Picture taken by me during the stroll. 

Sights and Sounds

We could have never loved the Earth so well if we had had no childhood in it. ~ George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, 1860

Footnotes:

Among the pictures taken while in Ooty this time around. This one was snapped during a night trek. Can't tell you in words how wonderful it felt to relive the experience of life in the mountains - absolutely soulful. 

A Sojourn Remembered

There is something mystical about Kerala, especially when one calls it his homeland! And to express that in words, let alone a post on a blog, is humanly impossible, sheerly due to being grossly incapable of capturing the vivid moments of ecstatic emotion that one experiences and can attribute to the endearing charm of this Godly land.

The day breaks with an assortment of enchanting wonders, with the hooting of sleepy nightjars announcing the arrival of dawn, while the faint chimes of a morning mantra usher into the mind an easy calm that is truly unequivocal. The carousal calls, in union, of a flock of birds adds cheer and the surrounding greenery, that has remain unchanged over decades, embalms the soul in a comforting warmth that one does not feel treated to during normal days of ragged bustle on the other side of life.

The animated chirruping of kinsfolk, untouched by time and age, makes one recall the yesteryear wonders of childhood etched deeply within many layers of memory, able to be revisited at ease. The mind is overwhelmed with a sense of emotion fostered as a result of togetherness which it has yearned for all time, and this coming together, after years of being separated by time and distances, brings out the child in oneself - just like the old times! In the mind, amidst the humdrum of activity, Pink Floyd's Shine on you crazy diamond plays aloud, perhaps as a tribute to life and how indebted one needs to feel as a result of being able to co-exist in harmony!

Late afternoons are always blissful. A sumptuous fare calls for a short siesta on the veranda, propped up on a antique recliner while being able to relish the caressing wind and the muted calls of the wandering cuckoo, all in an animated state of stillness that seem to deftly calm every living soul and create a serene setting for rejuvenation - much needed for us folks who are constantly caught up in withering ways and cacophonies of a fast paced city life.

Come dusk, the stillness deepens, this time, more in the mind, posed as a reflection of the surroundings, soulfully imbibed into the self, thanks largely to the comforting feeling of the lack of a sense of time and the absence of an ominous calling for adherence to its passage. A visit to the Tharavattu Kavu (sanctuary of the deity of the family), cleanses the soul no end and the heightened sense of peace and fulfillment that prevails equals no other.

It it hard to forsake such a place and harder not to remember it with every passing moment of one's life. The sense of nostalgia that prevails can well equal and echo many lives lived, in togetherness, well over many millennia.

The shrill ship-horn tone of the train's call rudely shocks one from the comforting recollection of two days well spent - infinite in bliss, and being able to recall the wonderfully well spent times of childhood, togetherness and happiness. As the train departs and gathers pace making the characteristically monotonous din in motion, poised to plunge into time and eventually to a destination of want rather than need, there is a remembrance of yet another creation of Pink Floyd, aptly titled "Comfortably Numb" and deeply crafted with impassioned words, among others, that "I turned to look but it was gone, I cannot put my finger on it now, the child is grown, the dream is gone."

Really, there couldn't possibly be a sense of despair more woeful than the pain of growing up and growing apart!

Footnotes:

Image Description - Korajem, our ancestral tharavad (house) in Kannur, Kerala

Image Courtesy - Mithun Ratnakaran, The other brother

Happy Birthday Deepu

I've watched you grow. I've grown up with you. Now I will want to watch you grow up, bigger and better than me.

Love you lots, Deepu! Thank you for being such a wonderful person that you are. Thank you for being you.

30's Club

Feels elegant to be part of the 30's club and to still be young! Joyfully turning 31 today!

The Flowing Brook

Time, they say, is nature's way of making sure that events don't happen all at once! But, thinking retrospectively, now I feel that the years of growing up were one big episode of a multitude of related events. Maybe I'm right after all, and I know for certain that I miss those wonderful times of the past and will cherish them for all time to come, all the way up to the very end.

I have recounted to you stories of how I live in the present, but seldom about the way I did in the times before. Now that I feel I'm growing older, I feel a compelling urge to revisit those bygones in the attempt to rekindle a lost sense of warmth and time! Growing up was a journey much like a mission to discover and there was plenty to chance upon, both right and wrong! It was a time when the mind was asking questions about everything that was anew and fresh, that which was unseen and unfelt! Instances of new found love, emotion, desire and comfort were creeping into the mind like passengers on a journey into another world!

I had the world as an outback and it was strangely large and unexplored! There was a lot to do with possibilities being endless under the blue skies of freedom aided with a sense of undying quest. But there was also an urgency to grow up and get away from the routines of study and scores! It was a false belief that age would automatically yield the desired level of control over what one chose to do at one's whim and fancy without a conditional attribute!

Little was I to know that the best parts of life were being played out in the open, only never to be revisited in person once again, for learning soon dawned on me that time and tide waited for no man, or practically anything! Today, the memories last as if they were a movie that has left a lasting impression. But in essence, those times are gone into making me who I now am - with the ability to take full cognizance of the world around me, the people that live in it and the lives that are so distinct yet intricately woven together like well crafted tapestry!

We are all one in the sense of who we were! Maybe we've chosen different paths to fulfill the destiny that awaits us in the course of our journey! But to remember that we have behind us, a time as magnificent as childhood is perhaps among the most blissful of all occurrences one can chance upon in life!

Maybe thats why Pink Floyd sang High Hopes with the aptly famed verses of how "beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young, in a world of magnets and miracles, our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary."

Footnotes:

This post is part 2 of a series of those which remember and pay tribute to the wonderful times of childhood. It was called for by fellow blogger Vimmuuu's tag!

The first part of this series immediately precedes this post and is titled 'Idyll's dream.'

Idyll's Dream

For most of us, dreams come true only after they do not matter! Only in childhood do we ever have the chance of making dreams come true when they mean everything! 

-- Anonymous

Mum would readily agree that Bill Waterson's inspiration to create Calvin and Hobbes was as a result of me! I was so much of a technical nightmare to folks in my formative days as a child! And imaginably, life has been hard on them as a result of my famed antics that come to be recalled amidst laughter even to this day! Sigh!

Such was childhood! Among the best times, undoubtedly when my tender self with an overtly imaginative mind frolicked in the expansive plains of inquisitiveness with surprising thirst and hunger! I'd readily put the phrase curiosity kills the cat to absolute shame owing to the way my mind functioned, an in many respects, still does! I simply needed to know everything, even if were to be how Mum's necklaces would sink down the water in the well, to how later hapless chicken would too! Perhaps, there was some kind of excessive gene in me that ensured that the carrier stayed silent never! But that remains unexplained medically and parentally until now - something which I surely need to be thankful of!

Leading the gang, or rather a crude bunch of thug children, I'd wander to seize upon the next victim - that could be anything from Aunt's cow being horrendously multi-coloured to lighting up a fire enough to consume a house in its blaze! Childhood was surely unrestricted and largely unsupervised! Being subject to discipline was not a deterrent in any way, but only served to up the ante in vengeful multi folds!

But there absolutely was something magical of those bygone times. They were blissfully sweet, with promises of strong bonds and unbreakable companionships. Even the sunlight seemed kindly mild in its disposition. There weren't deadlines to meet or people to satisfy! There was just us, a bunch of wily hooligans who were almost always given a long rope! And we did tie up the world in it!

Prized possessions ranged from those pocketfuls of Poppins, peppermints, phantom sweet cigarette sticks and so on, often traded for another one's best kept trophy, which was shamelessly called for and made one's own! Might certainly was right! One could endlessly argue over a board of strewn marbles or a pack of footballer cards that were a child's lifeline!

Where have those wonderful days gone to? Why do I never feel the wind bring me those scents now?

Footnotes:

This is the first of a multi-part series inspired and called for by fellow blogger Vimmuuu's tag on the same subject - Childhood and the nostalgia associated with those heavenly times!

Inside the home and mind of a Josephite

Following my earlier post on a visit to my alma mater - St. Joseph's school, in Coonoor, this is set of pictures, among the many, that I took on that day!

And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune, then the piper will lead us to reason!

-- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 8 November 1971

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young,  In a world of magnets and miracles,

Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary, the ringing of the division bell had begun! 

-- High Hopes, Pink Floyd, 10 October 1994

How I wish, how I wish you were here. 

We're just two lost souls, swimming in a fish bowl, Year after year, running over the same old ground. 

What have we found? The same old fears. Wish you were here.

-- Wish you were here, Pink Floyd, 12 September 1975

You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one 

-- Imagine, John Lennon, 11 October 1971

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition, there's a hunger still unsatisfied

Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon, though down this road we've been so many times

-- High Hopes, Pink Floyd, 10 October 1994

Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, with all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves

Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

-- Mr. Tambourine Man, Bob Dylan, 22 March 1965

I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone, I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone 

At night I could hear the blood in my veins, black and whispering as the rain!

-- Streets of Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen, December 1993

The grass was greener, the light was brighter, with friends surrounded!

-- High Hopes, Pink Floyd, 10 October 1994

And we'll bask in the shadow of yesterday's triumph, sail on the steel breeze! 

-- Shine on you crazy diamond, Pink Floyd, 15 September 1975

And a new day will dawn, For those who stand long, and the forests will echo with laughter! 

-- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 8 November 1971

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking, 

racing around to come up behind you again!

-- Time, Pink Floyd, 1973

Yes, there are two paths you can go by.

But in the long run, there's still time to change 

The road you're on! 

-- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 8 November 1971

How everything still turns to gold 

And if you listen very hard, the truth will come to you at last 

When all are one and one is all! 

-- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 8 November 1971

Happy Birthday Simbha

Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet!  

-- Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette

Of all the funny names I call you, from Scruff, Gouchi, Kat, Poochi, and a whole lot more, you know that I wouldn't have been without you - the wonderful you! It is indeed a blessed opportunity for all of us that you are a part of our lives, as a constant source of immense happiness and unconditional love! 

Now that doesn't mean you deny me those late evening 'home-return' huggys! 

Happy Birthday Girl, or should I say Lady now ;) 

For the moment, I'll be Shaggy and sing you "Girl you're my angel, your my darling angel......."

Happy Birthday Deepu

I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see. I sought my God, but my God eluded me. I sought my brother and I found all three.

-- Anonymous

Life has been a wonderful journey, with you by our side. Today, as you face a milestone, I want you to know how much you mean to us, and that your being the person that you are is truly a gift for all of us who are associated with you!

Wishing you a very happy birthday and a wonderful year and life ahead - one that shall see you attain those dizzy heights of that dreamed of world (as Pink Floyd sang in High Hopes)!

You will always be loved and respected for your calm disposition, cheerful attitude and most importantly for being grounded at all times!

You are the very best, Deepu! Love you lots!

Footnotes:

My brother turns 27 today!

This picture taken (supposedly) in 1983, remains among my most favourites. Deepu is seated on the left.

Homecoming

Blue skies & Blue hills

Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived -- Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Nothing else matters much, not wealth, nor learning, nor even health, without this gift: the spiritual capacity to keep zest in living. This is the creed of creeds, the final deposit and distillation of all important faiths: that you should be able to believe in life -- Harry Emerson Fosdick

Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired -- Erik H. Erikson

Mum's rooftop garden

April has put a spirit of youth in everything -- William Shakespeare

I will be the gladdest thing under the sun. I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one -- Edna St. Vincent Millay

There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter -- Rachel Carson

All seasons are beautiful for the person who carries happiness within -- Horace Friess

Simbha's morning routine - Warming up & Cooling down

The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch with, never saying a word, and walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you've had -- Anonymous

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom -- Marcel Proust

Ooty - Unlimited

My profession is to always find God in nature -- Henry David Thoreau

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished -- Lao Tzu

Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles -- Anne Frank

Be like the bird, who halting in his flight on limb too slight, feels it give way beneath him, yet sings knowing he hath wings -- Victor Hugo

From Heaven

And a new day will dawn, For those who stand long, And the forest will echo with laughter! (Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin)

Yes there are two paths you can go by, But in the long run, There's still time to change the road you're on, And it makes me wonder (Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin)

I have often told you stories, About the way, I lived the life of a drifter, Waiting for the day (Soldier of Fortune, Deep Purple)

Many times I've been a traveller, I looked for something new, In days of old, When nights were cold (Soldier of Fortune, Deep Purple)

So, so you think you can tell, Heaven from Hell? (Wish you were here, Pink Floyd)

Did they get you to trade, Your heroes for ghosts? (Wish you were here, Pink Floyd)

Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze? Cold comfort for change? (Wish you were here, Pink Floyd)

Did you exchange, A walk on part in the war, For a lead role in a cage? (Wish you were here, Pink Floyd)

When the promise of a brave new world, Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky? (Goodbye Blue Sky, Pink Floyd)

And, I will always love you, I will always love you (The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston)

You became the light on the dark side of me (Kiss from a Rose, Seal)

But did you know, That when it snows (shines), My eyes become large and, The light that you shine can be seen (Kiss from a Rose, Seal)

And now that your rose is is in bloom, A light hits the gloom on the grey! (Kiss from a Rose, Seal)

I could spend my life in this sweet surrender, I could stay lost in this moment forever, Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure (I don't want to miss a thing - Aerosmith)

Footnotes

This is Part I of the pictures I took during my vacation in Ooty earlier this month. I hope you enjoy it! I will be posting the remainder of this shortly.