Processions

My bogger and FB friend Priyadarshan Kale (aka Harekrishnji and Rajabhau) has been driving and trekking in the hills on the outskirts of Pune, and his photographs and commentary on the rural scene, food, and people is something you shouldn't miss.

 So many of his photographs, feature the ordinary men and women, who never feature on TV and newspapers, but are the actual hardworking folks, roughing it out, so all of us can enjoy our lives with so many food and other conveniences.

This visual of the subserviently walking sheep, head down, followed by a helpless resourceless dog , simply accentuated a glaring contrast of life as we observe it today.

The Marathi version was inspired first;  the English happened later.

(photograph by Priyadarshan Kale)

गुळगुळीत संसदीय फरशी वरून,
जोडीने पुढे
विलंबित तालात चालणार्या
सभापतींची जोडी,
मागे लष्करी इत्माने कवायतीत चालणारा
लष्करी अधिकारी,
आणि
मागोमाग रेशमी भार्दस्तातेत
संथपणे पदन्यास करणार्या राष्ट्रपती ....

आणि
वैराण टेकड्यांवरून
वण वण फिरणारी
दगड धोंड्यांवारून ठेचकाळत
आयुष्याच्या उतारावर
एका कुत्र्याच्या मदतीने
शेळ्या हाकणारी ग्रामीण शेतकरीण.....

सांजवेळी ,
एक ,
शेळ्यांनी उडवलेल्या धुळीच्या कणात
आपले स्वप्नातले घर बघते ....
आणि दुसरी ,
एका सहीने, मान डोलावून
अधिकाराच्या धुंदीत
आपले भविष्यातले घर नक्की करून घेते.

काय म्हणालात, स्वातंत्र्य मिळवून किती वर्ष झाली ?

Slow stepping
in pairs
across the red sandstone,
House speakers in pairs
leading the procession,
followed
by an alert,
solitary,
marching,
military aide,
leading
the land's first citizen,
swathed in
heavy sycophantic silks
with a suggestion of gold.

And somewhere,
far away,
two willful wayward sheep
running wild,
followed by a
frustrated guard dog,
as the farmer's wife,
turned shepherdess,
stumbles
across rocky difficult
barely grassy terrains
looking for food
for her wards.

One,
Returning
to what she calls
a home,
amidst the evening dust
kicked up by the
unsatisfied sheep
 
And the other,
with a flick of a gilt edged
official pen,
and a satisfied nod,
signing away
to herself,
an official house,
of the people,
but not by the people,
or for the people.

Beg your pardon,
Did you just ask about when we gained independence ?

Pedalling Progress...

A typical scene in suburban Mumbai, captured by my blogger friend Magiceye. A young girl, possibly,  temporarily the head of a family, taking over the childcare, shopping and household work, lugging kerosene cans to the Ration shop, while her parents, are off to work, possibly at a new construction site.

Rampant construction in Mumbai has resulted in bringing in cheap labour from the rural areas, and entire families have moved. In the meanwhile, in rural areas near Satara, in Maharashtra, and some places in Bihar, young girls who were pressed for time attending rural schools miles away while doing their household duties, are being given free bicycles under some schemes and encouraged to attend school. 

You win some. You lose sum.  And some simply bypass a childhood, wistfully watching, what could have been .....

Life is

about choosing

between a fourth wall

and

a ceiling,

or

a crying baby sibling

and making chapati dough,

while your parents work overtime

at a posh

contsruction project.

Life is about

a childhood

accelerated into puberty,

as she stays home

to cook,

clean,

wash clothes,

queue up for kerosene,

ignore fights,

and look after

her brother,

the star member.

While her girlfriends

in her village

now get free cycles

to attend the school

5 kilometres away,

she trudges by,

school-less,

carrying the young brother

through the potholes of life

so one day,

he too can cycle by

like this,

in style....

Half-bare but unbowed.....

My blogger and FB friend Dipali Taneja from Kolkata, recently posted an amazing photo as her cover page on her FB timeline.

A photo , reminiscent of so many such trees,  who are supposed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and hence mercilessly mutilated;  only to gather their strengths together,  and now stand, bravely, trying to hark back to their old lives, when they didn't live by the diktat of the crackling powerful wires ....

Her photo inspired a tentative sketch, and a poem....

(photograph by Dipali Taneja)

Woe betide
the perils of
industrial progress....

Growing up
as a healthy kid
amidst verdant grounds
and hilly yards
favoured by birds and squirrels,
she thinks
she expected
too much from life.

A tough,
battling middle age later,
she stands
scarred by the fight
against
those that hanker for power.

Leaves and branches
that appear
to hinder
the carriers of power
summarily sent
to oblivion,
despite protests.

She stands,
beseeching,
in her handicapped glory,
begging
the birds and squirrels and monkeys
to return.

Whatever green she has now,
is theirs.....

One step up.....

My blogger friend Magiceye  recently posted this  photograph,  of a determined  cow  trying to figure out an access  :-) into a Jaisalmer (Rajasthan)  Haveli. While one admires the intricate latticework, jharokas, and typical Haveli architecture, one cannot but wonder at the very clumsy attempt at defining the steps leading to the door, like an afterthought.

I guess the cow is not really surprised.  She may not have a developed cerebral cortex like humans,  but her eyes and her opinions are as sharp as ever.  

Read on to see what she says....

(photo by Deepak Amembal Magiceye)

Big buildings,
fancy architecture,
bigger names to
adorn
all these places,
but we always
fall short
with the
connecting infrastructure.

My cousin in IIT Powai
mentioned
how
they can still walk up
to
department entrances,
and casually walk over
gates with
"cattle guards";
because
the guards
have an old design
and we
have bigger hooves;
and no one really
bothers
to check.

How can the
unpriviledged
and homeless
find stability,
unless
you give them
an infrastructure
to
help them climb?