A childhood wish

Often in my dreams

I see the shallow streams

And the women singing in the paddy fields

the monsoon rains that makes the fields flood

And the morning sunlight that blooms every bud

the frogs in the streams that croak melodiously

the meditative painted storks that move cautiously

With a streak of white in my hair

and visible wrinkles on my cheeks

A splash of colours on my canvas

and the weather all calm and serene

I live and paint this lively scene

I live and paint this lively scene

One time in my childhood my father was posted in a small cantonment called Hempur (Uttaranchal) located between Kashipur and Ramnagar. And everyday while going to school I use to relish the countryside and wished that sometime later in my life i comeback and live in this place again. I still hope that my childhood wish comes true.

Commemorating our passed ones

This time of the year a big lot among us commemorate our passed ones with a detailed list of rituals and ceremonies. I have witnessed the fanfare with which this is conducted, it almost becoming an occasion to be talked about and told to people around how much and what was done at the day of “shradh”. I think they do it out of awe and fear that something bad would befall if this is not done on a specific way and time and method. Our clever pundits have many such stories up their sleeves which they can instantly dish out about what happened when the family did not do the shradh of their parents. People who do not do these pujas are often criticised by the family and the relatives and blamed for any ills happening around them. I have also seen that these are the same people who probably ill-treated their folks when they were old and alive often blaming them for too much interference in their lives. And once they have passed away then all the love suddenly begins to bloom and show off. You can find that manifested in various forms – donations to the priests/temples in the name of their parents, building rooms, benches and whatever can be in the name of their parents.

Probably a simpler and a much easy form to remember your loved ones after they have passed away is to just think about them and be happy that you were able to do whatever was best possible to be done in those circumstances.
And the people who did nothing then now organize animated ceremonies and conduct elaborate rituals to demonstrate their love. It is like shutting the barn door after the horse has gone. Its pity to see our religious practices have fallen to this abysmal depth of illogical decay. And I hope people have the courage to see some sense.

Shankar Halwai in Mathura

Fond memories of yesterdays keep visiting you as you go along in life. That's what I realized when i stumbled upon a you tube video about Shankar halwai. I have visited this shop numerous times and it was almost second nature to eat at this place while visiting the Holi-gate, which is the heart of the city. This is one of the oldest shops in Mathura and offers you a complete pure vegetarian food at astonishingly modest prices that can be afforded by the most ordinary Aam adami. And all this doesn't make the food any less tastier, in fact this food can be one of the most mouth watering north Indian food that anybody can have or boast of. Another thing to note is that all their preparations are completely devoid of garlic and onions.

I could recognize in the video the friendly attendants who served the food lovingly and all the lovely sweets that are characteristic of the winter season. Though the shop is not very gung ho on ambiance and decor but this is typical of an old city crowded eating joint. The shop is visited by people from all classes of life, the very rich seths to the extreme poor, who sit along side by side enjoying eating together.

To say the least i started feeling home sick after watching this video.

Friendship and the bane of adulthood

I remember as a child i had a lot of friends and i didn't need any reason to make friends. And they remain friends in spite of any arguments,difference of opinion or even occasional fights. The sooner these differences appeared the sooner they vanished and the friendship remained without any scars or remnants of these differences. We were quick to appease and pacify an angry friend. There were no ego and personal pride involved in all this.

However things changed as i grew older. Probably all of us became more worldly wise, street smart and savvy. We begin to have personality clashes and yearned for more private space in our lives. The demands of our personal and professional life has taken over most of the available time and we have led small excuses come in the way of making more friends and sustaining the old ones.

I seriously lament all this around me and wish the things were the same as they were during my childhood days.

Wish you all a very happy friendship day.

Regality In Capture !!!

Beautiful Fur + Fearsome Reputation = Grim Outlook

The above pictures are from my visit to the local zoo. Apart from the striking beauty and the regality of this magnificent animal what was more striking was the restlessness that i saw it in. The tiger kept moving incessantly inside its enclosure which spoilt my numerous attempts to take its good picture. And though the enclosure was pretty big (half the size of a soccer field ) but it was evident from the behaviour of the tiger that it hated being kept in the captivity and the prying eyes and ever clicking cameras of its human visitors.

This was a disgraceful power equation at display. Just because the human being has power it has captured an otherwise very powerful animal and put it up for display and entertainment. Various thoughts begin to pass by my mind as i watched it. I was entertained and delightful to see 3-4 ft away the king of the jungle, an animal with a fearsome reputation. Each time it passed near by me something trembled inside me, at the same time i felt ashamed at being responsible for keeping an animal under captivity devoid of freedom and its natural habitat.

Its hard for me to conclude whether its good or bad to keep an animal in a zoo or whether the idea of a zoo is good or bad but these questions are difficult to answer and I'am sure they get raised in every person that comes close to this issue.

My first 3-D movie experience

Before this I have always seen animation movies on my laptop but this time i got persuaded by my friend to watch Ice Age-3 in a movie theatre. And for the first few minutes i could not believe what i experienced. As they begin to stream the pre- movie show there is a very distinct 3d effect that you can understand and feel. The falling rain being showed on the screen suddenly begins to have an effect that it has reached you. The thick and dense forest gives you a feeling as if you are walking into it. The river of molten lava begins to flow out of the screen. And the characters (Sid the dimwit sloth, Buck the dino hunting weasel and others ) seem to be floating and diving in the air all the time.
The kids and their parents in the theatre seem to enjoy a lot and shreaked and laughed all through the movie. Overall it is a great fun and I would recommend people watching this movie in a theater if they already haven't.

Do not stand at my grave and weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am in a thousand winds that blow,

I am the softly falling snow.

I am the gentle showers of rain,

I am the fields of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush,

I am in the graceful rush

Of beautiful birds in circling flight,

I am the starshine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom,

I am in a quiet room.

I am in the birds that sing,

I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there. I do not die.

~Mary Elizabeth Frye

Use & Throw

In the age of recyclable plastics, "Use & Throw" philosophy has permeated into our psyche. We are contemporary to the thousands of plastics that has been discovered in the last 30 years when most of us have been born and raised. The only way to deal with used plastic is to throw them away and we have most likely extended that philosophy into our life. We use and throw away our relationships, try to discover new ones and then throw them away and then try to discover again. We are the perpetrator as well as the victim in this game of use and throw. That's the bane of the age of plastics.

Happy living !!!

A Young Vine

A young green vine

In search of a support

Twines around the seemingly benign rose bush

Unaware of its duplicity

Gets stinged by the thorns

Then

Falls back on the ground

Pained and abused

| ---------To mark the plight of young children rampant all around us---------|