Hooked by the Yarn.....

My FB friend Suma Bhat from Delhi/Bangalore/Bengaluru has magic fingers. She weaves them along with a crochet hook through various colored yarns, and comes up with amazing things like flowers, owls, leaves, along with some lovely things that keep our hot chocolates, teas and coffees, hot.  As well as give a beautiful look to containers that hold useful things on our desks and kitchens.

Check out her page "The Little Yarn Owl" . You will be spoilt for choice and owls have never looked lovelier.

She lined up all her yarns recently ,  bringing them in from the very cold New Delhi winter, and clicked.

Then something clicked in my head. Here it is :

 (Photo by Little Yarn Owl/Suma Bhat)

So many yarn students,
rushing in from the
winter cold,
and lining up
nicely
for the school assembly,
crowding the
front row,
cheek by jowl,
kind of shoving and pushing.

Having left their
white primary school days behind,
now in brilliant colors,
they've learnt
the art of disentanglement,
kind of a
sthitapradnya life.

There's is to simply wait,
for a crochet rod
to hook them
into being more social.
 
Sometimes,
by themselves,
sometimes,
catching up with others in chains,
and sometimes,
in a brilliant outburst,
simply
creating a forest
of leaves,
and flowers
and owls,
all waiting
to wrap themselves
around lives.....

Whispers of beauty

My blogger and FB friend  Swathi Ram,  was so delighted with her purchase of these antique earrings, that she modeled wearing them, the makers of this jewellery posted the photo on FB, and were thrilled to see nineteen FB comments in twenty minutes, admiring either the earrings, and/or the model.

I look forward to another photograph of Swathi, possibly modeling an antique traditional nose ring .

In the meanwhile ,  I just found out something ......

(photo by Swathi's friend Ravi )

It sits,
quiet on the Lobula,
intense in design
nudging the green,
and tries
to blows a wisp of hair away
as it tries
to entangle in appreciation.

Then it waits
and realizes,
that the wisps
are actually saying something;
"hear, hear!
It has to be a special day
when
so many with
so many nice words
pour forth on FB....."

The beauty of it all .....

Long before fancy folks introduced the word "entrepreneur", some rural folks have been introducing us city folks to handmade implements with great use in kitchens and gardens.  One such lady in a roadside stall selling various types of knives and implements, on the periphery of Delhi, cheerfully roasting in the midmorning sun. The woman who sells the knives, iron tools, Kadhais, Mortar and pestles, wooden chaklas etc. at the weekly bazaar...

Clicked by my blogfriend, gardener, birder, and nutrition researcher Sangeeta Khanna , on one of her forays , possibly looking for handmade traditional implements for her house.

The lady in the picture, probably never learnt marketing, or  fancy talk with customers, but can possibly give a run for their money to those in a uniform, a badge around their neck, wandering in air conditioned halls.

The inconvenience, the Sun, the  missing "road" in the roadside, and the quiet effort to earn for her family. Making friends with Sangeeta an additional plus. 

And it all shows in this beautiful face....

Rawa***,
roasted brown and fragrant,
like the old rich
simple
and respectful;
perhaps
a mass of dalia****,
with a bit of
clove, cinnamon,
and nuts;
or perhaps,
a beautifully stirred payasam
smiling at you
as it thickens
enjoying
the almond eyes,
and pistcahios,
and raisins
amidst safrron streaks
in a morning Sun.

Beauty and practicality
meet
with great alacrity
as the fair white dupatta
rises up
to wipe a
shining wet face,
and in a
complete understatement says,
" I guess I should have known this....
Fair isnt Lovely any more....!"


***Rawa : Cream of wheat
****Dalia : Broken wheat,bulgur

Lunar questions...

My FB friend Amit Amembal, recently posted a wonderful capture , of what I think is a setting moon. Captured on his mobile phone. And posted it here.

The Monsoon sky in Mumbai, and possibly in the Sahyadri Ghats (which is where I suspect this was clicked) is always a very impressive visual with overpowering black clouds above, and a kind of clearing happening on the horizon, where the normal clouds enjoy moments of peace before the laden ones arrive.

I thought it would be fun for the Moon to be stuck between the two .  If you really want to know what the moon thinks, read on .

I first wrote verse in Marathi (the King's Language), then an effort followed in the Queen's language.  :-) 

Incidentally, I now know three Amembals who take amazing photographs . Just saying .

 (photograph by Amit Amembal)

कुणा एकाचा अवकाशातील फेरफटका ,
मंद प्रकाश ,
अस्तास जाणारा चन्द्र
अणि रस्त्याच्या दुतरफा,
काही शुभ्र फेअर अणि लव्हली ,
अणि काही गडद डार्क अणि लव्हली
मेघना दाटी दाटीने उभ्या .....

गडबडून गेलेला चन्द्र,
हताशपणे सुर्योदयाची वाट पहात
स्वताहाशीच म्हणतो ,
"हे सगळ फेअर अणि डार्क
ज़रा अतीच होतय आज काल,
कोणी सुर्यासारखे ,
साय अणि आंबे हळद लाउन
तेजाने झळकत नहीं हेच खर ....

 The Moon,
after an
active night wandering,
sighing
at his impending departure,
is suddenly aware
of being
the point of interest
amidst
a bevy of cloudy
Fair and Lovelies,
and
Dark and Lovelies
crowding both sides
of the sky path,
threatening to cover him.

A bashful fellow,
he simply
gulps,
and decides to stand firm
waiting for sunrise,
saying,
" All this business
of Fair and Dark
is going too far these days;
How come
no one
displays the glow
of a Sun,
who looks like he applied
Ambehaldi with Fresh Cream
at the crack of dawn ?" 

Aishwaristic Attitudes

My FB and blogger friend Varsha Tiwary, is a bureaucrat, poet, photographer, blogger and food-as-medicine researcher, currently posted in the capital. 

She recently posted these wonderful captures of peacocks/peahens , and the exquisite beauty, the confidence, the slight plumpness, and the grace, simply brought to mind, a certain Bollywood actress, now a dedicated new mother, who has kept mostly within the family confines for privacy, and  is being criticised for not being size zero.  But who, to keep commitments, put in some efforts and made the mandatory appearance at the red carpet in Cannes, as a brand ambassador for a cosmetic company, who obviously thinks she is still very beautiful. 

Varsha herself  amazingly also thought of Cannes too, and had made her own wonderful poem , before I penned this one. Do read it here.

(All  photos by Varsha Tiwary)

 






A new life event
and a closing in of all around her,
she stands
thoughtful,
a bit puffed
but resplendent at the fence,
having known
what it is
to be at the top.

 


She stands
on a ledge
her reputation
trailing beauteously behind her
gracefully falling
on the gossipy
dried minds
spread all across the garden floor.

 
 



Practicing the red carpet walk
in amazing turquoise grace,
she bends and bows
to acknowledge
the cheers
as the dry gossipers
disperse around her
on the ground.

 
A final climb
on the podium,
puffed in pride
about her little one,
she stands
in exquisite balance
feet together,
surrounded by
so many greens
pushing each other
and up on their toes,
all wanting
to shake hands with her.

Yes, she has made up her mind.
She will
go to Cannes...

Beauties ,Doubts, and little boys

My blogger friend , Bikramjit Singh Mann, posted this amazing picture of the forest area behind the Sukhna lake near Chandigarh, in the state of Punjab, in North India, as part of the Wordless Wednesdays Series.

There is an eerie stillness about this scene. The bare trees, the tangled branches and statuesque tree frames, the clear amazingly reflective water, and the sky watching it all.

While some may hasten to photograph this, it occurred to me that somewhere, someplace, there was a little boy, just itching throw a disturbing pebble into the water, and watch in glee, as the perfect images helplessly mesh into each other.


(photo by Bikramjit Singh Mann)

Bare
anorexic model types,
posing with raised limbs,
or
firm, shapely maidens,
in intense effort
to project an “S”
or
some
older maa’ms
intricately ravaged by
the passing of time,
and
inter-offspring fights,
all
freshening up
in an effort to be
what they are not,
as they look down
with the sky,
at
the fluid mirror below.

A little boy,
throwing
a small pebble of a doubt,
and
the images dissolve
beauties into beasts,
and the sky,
with real ordinary features,
has the last laugh……

Desert Beauty

Blogger friend, wonderful travel writer, and a someone who simply loves travelling SOLO , and has done so across many countries, Nisha Jha , was someone I first met at a Mumbai blogger meet in November .  Since then , I have been a regular reader of her FaceBook page Le Monde-A poetic travail, and her website .

She has a sharp eye for beauty, and the one below was captured on film at the Annual Pushkar Camel Fair  in Rajasthan. And no, she didn't say what the camel said to her .

For other visuals of what actually happens there ,do read her account of it .  Lots of brown beauties, possibly dudes,  rural fresh food, and tattoos. All this happening as the desert moon slowly waxes to its full size in the Indian month of Kartik.

I guess you never see that at Miss World and Mr Muscle.......

(This poem  is scheduled to  appear as a guest post  on Nisha's Le Monde: A poetic Travail, on December 29, as she possibly makes her way through the rice fields in Cambodia.....)

(This amazing capture by Nisha Jha)

Not for nothing
do they call me
the Queen if the Desert.

The Pushkar fair
is when
us ladies
are at our best.

Heavily lidded
kajolled eyes,
lashes delicate
and floating;
eyebrows are not
in fashion
anymore,
but like your
society types,
with multipierced ears,
I had my nose
specially pierced,
to display
my gold heirloom noserings.

A regular regime
of
Fair and Lovely
and L'oreal Paris,
and I am ready
for
interacting
with Lovely folks
at the Fair.

Special neckwear,
brilliant nostrilwear,
a sand facial,
to get even fairer,
and I've been
practicing
the pout...

Did I just hear someone say,
"Angelina Jolie
Eat your heart out !..."

Beauty Problems....

Blogger friend, trained scientist, photographer and fun person Anuradha Khanna Pentapalli was in Rajasthan recently, and managed to capture this beauty and posted it here.   

All beauties are famous and  are always commented upon and written about.

Ask Madhuri Dikshit or Angelina Jolie. Who, incidentally, are not a patch on this one.

There are two Kavita's mentioned here.  The first one that appears in the poem, is a blogger friend and dentist who practices in Guwahati, Assam, and has a wonderful travel and photo blog.

The second "kavita" mentioned herein, is a Marathi/Hindi word that means poem :-)).....

(photograph by Anuradha Khanna Pentapalli)

Fresh from
an application of Vita Oils,
she emerges
from the
Desert Dove
Indiblogger Camelia Meet.

Golden Hair
at the ears,
and at a shapely neck
smooth as silk,
glistening after a wash;
Winter moisture lotions,
whitening the
star visage,
yet a nose
reddening in the cold,
and she
looks up and far
into the desert,
to see if the dentist has arrived....

The Miss India types
sponsored by Camel Times,
said an expert
from Guwahati
who went by the name
Kavita
would come fix the teeth;

Instead,
I find strange folks from Mumbai
making Kavita on me ?

Lady GaGa in the mountains

Two intrepid blogger friends, IHM and Sangeeta Khanna, recently participated in a Women's (actually, Girls') Himalayan MTB Cycle Expedition from Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, to Khardung La , 37 kms north of Leh, in the Ladakh region. Organized by the Youth Hostels Association of India.

Some brilliant photos here .

This is a view from what is called Rani Nala ( the Queen's Stream), on the way to Rohtang Pass. All of the broken white is hard ice, covered with dust. The visual had an unexplained "lip" formation, and with so many modern ladies cycling past smartly on their mountain bikes, some thoughts began buzzing in my mind.

A poem happened. Paththari bai (`Lady Stone') should really now be Barfani Bai (`The Ice Maiden')..... but I always tend to look below the ice for the mind of the Lady ...


(photo by Sangeeta Khanna)

Paththari Bai,
although a grand dowager,
having lived centuries,
still looks
like a mountain beauty
who does lifetime facials
with Beas Water***
smashed pebbles,
and mashed pears.

But some things have changed.

She's been trying
"Fair and Lovely" ****
and Lakme lipstick
that comes
in double tubes.

It doesn't agree,
and her face
has broken
into patches
of hard white,
around puffed lips.

She watches
civilization drifting
up and down
the roads.

And I think she
has been
listening
to some ladies talk....


***The river Beas
**** A fairness cream marketed by Unilever in India to benefit , not the women, but their own coffers, thanks to the national obsession with "fairness".

One Monsoon, Two Teas....

My blogger friend, and expert source on places of interest around Pune, Harekrishnaji, has been enjoying driving around the countryside west of Pune, and stopping at unusual places, to photograph nature, and sometimes, some other interesting folks, who strangely, end up enjoying the same things he does ! In a different way.

That makes you think .... and write verse....!

First thought of in Marathi, and then composed in English...


(photo by Harekrishnaji)
थंडगार वातानुकुलीत गाडीत
गियर बदलत
पावसाळी खड्यातून
बाहेर पडून
आसम्न्तातले धुके बघत
हिरवाइत बुडून
मैलोमइल हिंडून
ते चहाच्या शोधात असतात .....
आणि
रोजच
वातानुकुलीत डोंगरातून
लाल बस ने शाळेतून घरी येउन
एका पक्क्या घरामागे
म्हशीची धार काढून
टप टप गळणार्या झोपडीत
चुलीशी बसलेल्या आपल्या आईला
नेउन देउन
सगळ्यान बरोबर चहाची वाट बघणारी
हि दर्वाज्यातील चंद्रमुखी .....



Cool 21 degrees
draughts
wafting through the innards,
he changes gears
to navigate
through the
monsoon
potholed
mountain roads........

Dumbstruck
in a mist,
and overcome by the green,
they search for a place to stop
for a cuppa....

And
somewhere,
everyday,
she travels
back
from her distant school
in a red state bus,
breathing deeply
of the airconditioned mountains;

As she
now rushes,
to the side of her cottage
behind the main house
to milk the buffalo,
and deliver it
to her mother.

In the mud stove
of
a leaking kitchen,
a tea is happening
for the family,
and she
Chandramukhi,****
waits,
her turn,
smiling
at the door.

****Chandramukhi : a pretty woman with a face like that of the moon....

"Fair and Lovely" in the Sun.....

A beautiful bloom captured , possibly in a balcony garden, by a blogger friend Kalyani.

And somewhere, you realize, that regardless of fussy nurturing, visible brilliance, and flashes of color, what shows up in the light of a shining Sun, is a shadow, resting in the back, amidst ordinary surroundings. How you face the Sun, decides the depth of the shadow, and how seamlessly it fades into the surroundings.

(photo by Kalyani Wakkar)

Wet aromas
of mud,
potting,
eggshell powder
and concentric
channels in soil
holding water,
as the mud,
seeing
and knowing
a good thing ,
rushes to pile itself up
at the roots.

The obsession
with color,
and the
desperation
to emerge
beautifully bright.

Its
only when
the sun shines
on it,
that
it is clear,
that
despite
the charms of color,
whether
your mind
inside,
is black or white,
or even a grey,
depends
on how well
you mix with
a neutral society
around you.