Tears and sunshine: 3 years together

In the first, one expects an angel for a wife; in the last, he knows that she is like himself-perfect with imperfections. In our life we learn the mingled lessons of life: dolls are stuffed with sawdust, and yet are excellent playthings; that hope and love address themselves to a perfection never realized, and yet, firmly held, become the salt and staff of life.

It is true that rain  soaked our emotions but there were  glimpses of sunshine to encourage and console. Those are all the moments that makes tears glow in the sunshine of hope and faith.

Alles Nahe Werde Fern

I see him everyday in the bus. His name is Jack. I have always seen him smiling, talking and enjoying every little  pieces of life. He relies on his walking stick or some occasional generous help from someone. He can not see. World of colors does not convey any meaning to him. Shakespeare wrote: "Looking on darkness which the blind do see." But it is not entirely true when I turned into Jorge Luis Borges diary. These are the lines from his essay:

For me, blindness is a gift. I have exhausted you with gifts it has given me. It gave me Anglo-Saxon, it gave me some Scandinavian, it gave me a knowledge of a Medieval literature I had ignored, it gave me the writings of various books, good or bad but which justified the moment they were written. Moreover, blindness has made me feel surrounded by the kindness of others. People always feel good will toward the blind.

Goethe wrote Alles  nahe werde fern: everything near becomes distant. Goethe was referring to evening twilight. It is true at nightfall, things closest to us move away. So the visible world has moved away from Jack`s eyes, perhaps forever. But it does provide with one more instrument among the many--all of them so strange--that fate or chance provides.

In praise of creativity

"A great deal of light falls on everything." The obsession of capturing that embrace is a motivation for every photographer. Unfortunately nature does not unfurl that moment in a fixed schedule. Similarly, the task of being a poet is not completed at constant schedule. No one is a poet from eight to twelve and from two to six. Whoever is a poet is one always, and continually assaulted by poetry. I suppose a painter feels  that colors and shapes are besieging him. Or a musician feels  that the strange world of sounds--the strangest world of art--is always seeking him out, that there are melodies and dissonance always looking for him. Same applies for a true scientist who is constantly mauled by the joy of creativity and passion.

Such, such were the joys

I have been reminded again. Everything that happens, including humiliations  embarrassments, misfortunes, all has been given like clay, like material for one`s art. One must accept it. These things are given us to transform, so that we may transcend from the miserable circumstances of our lives that are eternal, or aspire to be so.

I believe in you

I'd like to think of God as love
He's down below 
He's up above
He's watchin' people everywhere
He knows who does and doesn't care
And I'm an ordinary man
Sometimes I wonder who I am.

But I believe in love
I believe in music
I believe in magic
And I believe in you.


Don Williams

Dreams of an evening angel

I want to live with himself,
I want to enjoy the good that I owe to heaven,
alone, without witnesses,
free of love, of jealousy,
of hate, of hope, of fear.

Fray Luis de Leon

Love from sandal

Sense of Contentment

I need nothing.
I feel nothing.
I desire nothing.

In praise of shadows

Moment with Innocence

“One withers, another grows.” 

Mitch Albom, Five people you meet in Heaven

Reincarnation

Hoyto ba haans hobo-kisoriri-gungur rohibe lal paye

saradin kete jabe kalmir gondho vora jole vese vese.

Perhaps I shall be a duck - 

     some young lass's, her crimson feet adorned with bells 
I shall spend the day floating upon duck-weed scented waters.


Jibanananda Das

Fearless

Take us beyond the deathless.

Confront between death and immortality

"Death is about confronting your own mortality, but I don't have this problem because my starting point is that I'm immortal."

Give me some rest!

Give me some rest.
Let me stroll
where the smell of the soil and affection of the trees
will accompany me
for a while.


Translation of Chitragada Chakrabarti poem "abosor".

Winter days are gone!

Los Alamos in winter.

Spring colors

Endure and prevail

Endure and prevail.

When the reaction goes

The kiss

A Happy Blossom

Merry merry sparrow!
Under leaves so green
A happy blossom
Sees you swift as arrow
Seek your cradle narrow
Near my bosom.

Pretty pretty robin!
Under leaves so green
A happy blossom
Hears you sobbing sobbing
Pretty pretty robin
Near my bosom.

William Blake

Death is a gift!

We spend our whole life trying to stop death. Eating, inventing, loving, praying, fighting, killing. But what do we really know about death? Just that nobody comes back. Just as this water drop will leave the tip of the ice sickles it knows it will never return.
Then there comes a point - a moment - in life when your mind outlives its desires, its obsessions, when your habits survive your dreams, and when your losses...
Maybe death is a gift. You wonder.


The Life of David Gale

Power of truth

Who's the judge?

The judge is God!

Why is he God?

Because he decides who wins or loses, not my opponent!

Who's your opponent?

He doesn't exist!

Why does he not exist?

Because he is merely a dissenting voice to the truth I speak!

From the movie the Great Debaters

Tiramisu

Another celestial delight from Shruti`s kitchen, homemade tiramisu.

Tres Leches

Heavenly treat from Shruti`s kitchen.  Eat, pray and love.

The power of disappearance

"this is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. GOOD-BYE."
As Bilbo stepped down  he slipped the magic ring on his finger and vanished.

The power of disappearance is always fascinating. Is n`t it? Like Bilbo, the hobbit, you slip a ring in your finger and disappear. Every mind, once in a while, desire to decamp from mundane, everyday world & satiate their unfulfilled dreams. We are enchanted by the power of disappearance, yet, we are distraught with the thought of death and separateness. We try to bring them back in our life. We call it memory.

Suddenly the power of disappearance is not so thrilling as it seems in the first appearance. You need to bring yourself back. It needs to be phoenixed by the power of  reappearance. Name it memory, resurrection or the prestige (the arduous  magic trick).

Happy new year!

Live, love and laugh.

Happy new year!

Lessons learnt from the desert plants

Walking out among them you might feel as though you are surrounded by people-Saguaro people. This mute display of life in this cacophonous world of humdrum and vanity teaches us several important lessons of life.

Lesson 1: Accommodate to the environment

In our modern life we are always very eager to come up with the laundry list of inconvenience in our daily life. We are impatient, we prefer quitting than adapting. On the other hand these desert giants perfected themselves in the hostile environments. The roots of a saguaro grow out from the plant in a radial fashion, several inches under the ground. During a heavy rain, a saguaro will absorb as much water as its root system allows. To accommodate this potentially large influx of water, the pleats expand like an accordion. Conversely, when the desert is dry, the saguaro uses its stored water and the pleats contract. Because the majority of a saguaro is made up of water, an adult plant may weigh 6 tons or more. This tremendous weight is supported by a circular skeleton of inter-connected, woody ribs. The number of ribs inside the plant correspond to the number of pleats on the outside of the plant. As the saguaro grows, the ribs will occasionally fork and the corresponding pleat will also fork at the same place.

Lesson 2: Practice austerity

Modern consumer society  seek their spiritual satisfaction and their ego satisfaction in consumption. "We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate" (Victor Lebow). We teach ourselves that enrichment of life comes through more spending. While these sage way of living reminds us the need of wise spending.

Lesson 3: Live and let live

In our everyday world where we find myriad new excuses to end our own life with others, these desert plants celebrate the gift of life in one of the worst possible conditions of low humidity, scorching heat and massive temperature difference in day and night. Not only they live their life for long years (up to 100-150 years) but also they extend their helping hand to others. Gila woodpeckers and miniature elf owls make their homes inside the Saguaro`s trunk. Long-nosed bats and fluttering doves drink the nectar from its snowy white flowers. People also play a role in the Saguaro`s story: each year Tohono O`odham Indians gather its sweet fruit in a centuries -old harvest festival. In drier areas of the Sonoran Desert, pack rats, jackrabbits, mule deer and bighorn sheep eat the saguaro’s flesh when other water sources are not available. Welcome to Saguaro Hotel.







Photos taken from Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix
Information obtained from www.nps.gov

Black and white

No one else like you

kotobar tor ayna bhenge churey ghurey takai
amar mawte tor moton keu nei
kotobar tor kacha aloy bhijey gaan shonai
amar mawte tor moton keu nei

I've broken your mirror so many times and turned back to look at you
In my impression, there's no one else like you.
I've imbued in your virgin light and sung my song blue
In my thought, there's no one else like you.

Song from Hemlock Society:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQm0wPgWDos

Rise from the ashes

First,
erase your name,
unravel your years,
destroy your surroundings,
uproot what you seem,
and who remains standing?
Then,
rewrite your name,
restore your age,
rebuild your house,
pursue your path,
and then,
endlessly,
start over, all over again.

Andree Chedid

Pearl drops

For those smiles stolen from innocent hearts.

Together over a sunset

Two of them sit before it, side by side.
With all their body and mind-eyes intent, words silenced, all agitation stilled-
they absorb the message of the sky.

Once they have started their journey together,-
their hearts aflutter with ineffable joy.
They take the mantra "we will never give up, we will overcome all the odds."

Now her shoulder is on his shoulder.
They become the part of the universe with a soul perfect, unhindered, unconflicting, free from doubts and fears.

They sit together silently gazing at the distant sky.
They do not know why their eyes well up with tears. Deep in their thought are lodged ideas beyond thought`s language.

 Have they begin to realize how few are the words that tell the depth of their love, in the great and mysterious epic of this vast world?


Painting by Goutam, Salt Lake City, Utah

Happiness is when

Happiness is when
you're reading along
aimlessly in a book
and come on someone exactly like yourself.

Happiness is when
sunset finds you in some country temple
or mountain village
and they say "Stay the night"

and you do.


Tachiban Akemi

To Kakababu

What can I give my absent man?
I have yet to find a man who will keep their promise.
Every man kissed their Neera, still hides truth.
Bindubasini walks through the eternal village of hatred and sorrow.
Not even "contorted truth"  shelters the daughter of seventh womb.
In the pure light, my tears fall: a poem.

Patina of happiness!

Eye retains the image
Till life evaporates into a smile
Simple and profound.

Happy Halloween

Like a bird

Fly away from all atrocities and suffering.
Fly away from castle of lies built by politicians.
Fly away from a sense of helplessness when  freedom of speech being smothered.
Fly away from remorse and guilt.

Yesterday once more.....

Every sha-la-la-la
Every wo-o-wo-o
Still shines
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they're startin' to sing's
So fine.

All my best memories
Come back clearly to me
Some can even make me cry.

Education

Education takes you higher, women leading the way.

Pujo

The gap

I cannot grasp all that I am.


Augustine

To a Flower!

Flowers never cease to amaze me.

Like a poet hidden

In the light of thought.

Like a lover waiting

With her calm presence.

Like a dancer

In the rhythms of breeze.

Like a scientist (or artist)

With a desire to decode patterns.

Like a mother

In her glory of offspring.

Like the angel

With Her petals to embrace light.

Eternal Charm

Calm as slumbering baby.
All beautiful in naked purity.

Immutably fulfilling Eternal Nature`s resplendence.

Morning Glory

Light smooths her face.
Breeze tingles her eye lids.
Love glows in her eyes.

Nature unfurls Herself with serenity.

Lady in the dusk

You are invulnerable, you have no Achilles’ heel.
You will go on, and when you have prevailed
You can say: at this point many a one has failed.

T.S. Eliot