Questions in Black....

Well known photoblogger and my FB friend  Joshi Daniel recently completed an awesome 4 years of photoblogging with, hold your breath,  198 images, 884,308 views and 17,323 comments!!!

And then he went and clicked this amazing monsoon picture on an I-phone, in Trivandrum, Kerala.. 

The blackness spoke volumes.  As the states clamour for the monsoon to revive....

So many
gathered and crowded,
nudging,
sometimes each other
and sometimes the

pristine pure
white fluff.

Like one said to another,
"I wonder why "black"
has such
negative connotations...."

Black thoughts,
Black minds,
Black Money
Black tikka
Black Cat......

And now
despite us
being "loaded" in black,
suddenly
they want
all our goods
to to be off loaded
in their state......

Cloud Convention Chaos

Kerala, the state at the southernmost tip of India , is like the Gateway for the Southwestern Monsoon. Every year, the first monsoon rainfall in Kerala, is enthusiastically reported , and the advancing monsoon watched avidly, by farmers, meteorologists, and TV weathermen. This year , the monsoon is keeping folks in suspense. Clouds gather, mobilize to work together, but just like our legislative representatives, there is much coming together, thundering, and nothing happens, as protests, arguments and fights take over.

 My friend Shail Mohan, who clicked this in Trivandrum says :

 The hopes of Trivandrumites were dashed to the ground as no unanimous consensus could be reached in yesterday's Great Cloud Convention held over their skies as to when exactly rain-work should start. Rebel cloud groups staged walkouts on not being allowed to be the first to give of their bounty. Minor cloud groups could be seen dispersing in disarray as confusion prevailed over the Weatherman's report and the Cloud leader's orders. Meanwhile the hapless Trivandrumites were left to boil in their own juices as clouds big and small sulked in the different parts of their sky."

And then, one wondered, about the Madam Speaker, on the podium, with her marshalls, trying to keep a semblance of order, and finally adjourning the proceedings. 

(photo by Shail Mohan)

And the lady
on the podium
with curly hair
and a smile,
not to mention
a camera in hand,
with two special plantain trees
and a lady dog
standing guard in full uniform behind her,
said ,
"Please, please,
calm down,
let the cloud
have its say,
that is its atmospheric right...."

But the members didn't listen.
They just thundered
and walked away
with the opposition winds
blowing behind them.

As of now,
the sky stands adjourned
till further notice...

Fighting the mental black....

FB  and  Blog-friend  Ganesh  Balaraman  posted this amazing photograph of daybreak in Bangalore, possibly  during the recent havoc wrecked by the North East Monsoon .


The photo kind of brings to life the perennial situation for women in India : at the end of the day,  a lonely mental fight against all odds....

(photo bt Ganesh Balaraman) 

She stood
her mind overcast
with dread.

Alone,
facing an upward climb
in a once bright
and colorful happy world.

Brave and solitary,
apprehensive
of the
imminent black
surrounding her thoughts,
she looks up
at the cool breeze,
her only ally
in a clouded world.

"Lose not
your hope",
she heard,
"This too shall pass.
Nothing can hide
the warmth
and glow
that defines you..."

And with a powerful nudge
to the
goonda cloud,
the breeze,
went away,
to gossip with the leaves...

The Bird's mind view.....

Some folks think of great music when they see photographs like this .

Like my blog friend
Kalyani, who suddenly remembered Aarti Ankalikar from the film 'Sardari Begum' here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ_y6IhhGhY&feature=player_embedded...

And then there are folks, who, with the impending monsoon, and the amazing shapes in the photograph, think of more mundane, boring stuff, eg clogged storm drains, the scourge of Mumbai in the monsoons.

I guess you must learn to take the good with the bad......:-)


(photo by Kalyani)
लहानपणापासून
त्या झाडाला एक सवय होती;
सकाळची पाण्याची,
आजूबाजूची जागा स्वच्छ करण्याची
गडबड उरकली ,
कि एकदा
आकाश्याच्या आरश्यात बघायचं,
थोडी पानं इकडे तिकडे अड्जस्त करायची
फांद्या हलवून आळस द्यायचा ,
छप्रावरच्या पक्ष्या कडे बघून नाक मुरडायच....


एके दिवशी
आरश्यात स्वतः ऐवजी
भारदस्त काळे मेघ दिसले ,
गडगडले ,
आणि झाडाला काही कळायच्या आत
छप्रावरचा पक्षी हसला आणि म्हणाला ,
मुन्सिपालतीनि ह्या वर्षी गटार साफ नाही केली ,
आता बस पाण्यात ,
मी कसा ढगांवर जातो,
आणि तुझी मजा बघतो बघ !

Some habits
die hard.

Since childhood,
every morning,
post the hurry and flurry
of watering and cleaning,
Madame Tree,
freshly bathed,
would look into
the Sky mirror,
adjust her leaves just so,
and preen;
followed by
a langorous stretching
of branches
in a mild
movement of air,
designed to cook a snook
at the little bird on the roof,
watching all this avidly.

But one day,
when she looked,
the Sky mirror
showed,
instead of green,
black clouds,
imperiously rumbling;
and before
Madam Tree could figure out,
the bird on the roof
smirked, and said,
"The municipality
has not cleaned
the storm drains this year....
so sit and enjoy your time
in the floods,
while I soar
high ,
way up above the clouds,
watching all your fun....."