Elephantine Fix

My FB friend Pandit Gaurang Kodical posted this amazing visual on FB.

An elder seriously perturbed elephant, sweating out his load of worries, kind of unmoved, by the beseeching of a junior elephant ,  who seems to have emerged with a lot of mud after messing around in the muck.

I wondered what advice the elder was giving the younger.  And I just remembered the IPL latest scam.

A hassled Jumbo,
listening and advising
a misled young Dumbo
now in much trouble.
Jumbo's difficult times,
his position threatened,
sweating out
the countrywide
derision
of his ambition
of profiteering
through Bat and Ball.

He stands,
firmly stuck in the slush
listening and advising
the careless Dumbo,
who ventured
greedily
out of the cement jungle...

"Dont come and whisper,
pretend that
you dont know me,
and you might get somewhere",
he said
"You know,
they say
We have excellent memory,
but some folks in Mumbai
apparently
remember even better..

An Elephantine Dussehra

 
My blogfriend Braja Sorenson is well acquainted with temples, processions and elephants,  since she lives in Mayapur , Paschim Banga in the vicinity of the Iskcon Temples.  She posted this photograph of an elephant getting into the spirit of the festival, so to speak.

I just thought this beats all those L'Oreal, Revlon and Lakme folks by miles .....

(photo by Braja Sorenson)

A childhood
spent wandering behind her mother
amidst jungle treks
and river baths
in Thekkady
or was it Periyar,
she doesn't remember.

Then an adolescence
on being shifted
to a park in Pune;
bearing a decorated seat,
taking these bipeds for a ride
waving with her trunk
acknowledging folks
like a model on a ramp;
being poked
as an instruction  to turn back.

Sometimes,
a trip somewhere
in a huge van
or a train enclosure,
unable to get her bearings,
and she was told it was God's work
at a temple procession in Mumbai.

And then all those walks
across the
terrible Mumbai roads,
noisy autos, racing bikes,
four wheeled colorful contraptions
with two legged colorless types inside;

Sedate in the Sun,
she paces across the potholes,
unmindful
of her burning soles.

She hears music,
folks in colorful mirrored garbs,
dancing away,
whirling to the beat
of some folks on a stage
trumpeting songs...
Evil looking chaps
(like the ones who
salivated at her tusks,)
set up for burning.

Finally,
something good triumphing over evil.

An inexplicable urge
to dance
and play garba
with her painted trunk,
her back
decorated with colorful seats,
and a tikka and crown
with beads on her immense forehead.

That is her dream.
Before she gets betrothed,
possibly to someone
in the latest elephant technology park
or some one's
grandson in the wilds of Thekkady...

Unlike the bipeds,
she follows rules 
of traffic, noise, and others
of the Mumbai Police,
who refuse her permission.....

And so  she pines for
and makes do
with some Alta streaks on her feet
Nail polish
on her sculpture Nails
and carries on.

The former,
because honestly,
it is good for her cracked heels,
and looks amazing;
the latter,
because
Hey ! it's in fashion !

It's festival time,
and
she needs to put
her good foot forward ...

Bathing beauties of Shimoga

My blogger and FB friend, Ganesh Balaraman, posted  this wonderful photograph of elephants emerging fresh from their baths, in the Gajanur Dam waters,  in Shimoga,  in the southern state of Karnataka.

It is customary to ask emerging bathing beauties ,  the secret of their beauty.

I just did.

And I hope Kareena Kapur, Aishwarya Rai et al , learn from them .....

(photo by Ganesh Balaraman)

What is the secret
of your beauty ?

Mass baths
with friends,
in a large Gajanur tub;
Clean water
unpolluted by
oil, trash, and sewage;
Personal loofah scrubbers
going flat out
on my back;
Snorting soap water
at inquisitive birds,
watched by
emerald beauties
in the mountains
and
doing a slow rise
from the
blue water depths,
a la Dimple Kapadia.

My "saundarya ka raaz"*** ?

Lux ?

No.

Just Lots and lots of Luck(s)....
:-))

*** saundarya ka raaz = secret of beauty

Loaded with Responsibility ?

This is probably one, of a pair of elephants, mounted as a pillar or "stambh" at the hill Temple in Kollur, in the south, 140 kilometres inland from Mangalore on the western coast. Many folks who live in Mumbai, have family deity temples in these areas.

My blogger friend Magiceye, clicked this on one of his trips. (While I generally download photos with the photographer's permission for this blog, I couldn't do so for this one , for technical/copyright reasons. I did mention it to Magiceye on a chat, and lo behold, I magically got the elephant in my email ! Thank you !)

While I have the utmost admiration for the tough workmanship in ancient times, one cant help feeling how relevant this graphic is, to the situation in many countries, particularly, India, today .....

(photo by Deepak Amembal Magiceye)

Wrapped in chains,
presumed
artistic and decorative,
as tax paying citizens,
they stand,
quietly to the side,
solid in
their ordinary minds,
slogging
to support
the weight
of the nation's problems,
in their own,
God fearing,
dedicated ways....

Not so ,
our elected navigators
and mahouts,
bending away from it all,
absolving themselves ,
yet
poking and urging us
to carry
a bit more;
taxes,
insecurities,
prices,
doubts....

The God
inside the temple,
alone,
knows the truth....