Tendrils of the Courageous Type

My FB friend Arvind Khanna posted this wonderful photograph; something he posted as a member of the Delhi Photography Club, and shared with us.

Nature they say , reflects our lives, and possibly vice-versa.  And so we have , occasionally, brave entities, facing all kinds of dark forebodings by gutless superficial folks, as they delve deep into troubled places, and try to work on their own, seeking a solution......finally turning around and back , possibly to a better world; who knows ?

(photo by Arvind Khanna)

Life is easy
when you rest
on the efforts of others,
facing into a blue sky and sun,
waving at the
birds,
some flying by
checking you out,
some alighting as a breather
in an actual journey somewhere else.
They skim the surface,
and perhaps
you know who I talk about.

But the toughest thing
is to look inwards,
amidst the dark forebodings,
little yellow glimmers
and a confused
dark populace,
deep in the recesses,
and say,
"I will go in,
investigate the situation,
try to improve it all,
and only then emerge back up."
These folks
are the tough brave ones.
They don't
make them like that anymore....

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.....

Tree and Empathy

My blogger and FB friend Varsha Tiwary who hails from Central India, is a bureaucrat, poet, and someone who loves to live in balance with the body, listening to what it has to say.

Have a look at her two blogs,   Wholesome Options  and Poetic Break  .

  She recently posted a lovely capture of what she poetically described as , "Weeping Willow curtains Off the Beauty; as Mountain lake and Sky Become One."....;  possibly a scene at the window of a lovely mountain cottage that enchanted her...

 As she says , "Nature heals where nothing else can : age loneliness and much else......."

I agree. 

 (photograph by Varsha Tiwary)

She remembers
the house
with the lovely garden
where
she sat at the window
of her room
as a child,
hair freshly washed,
drying,
and a gust of mountain wind
would tumble it
over her face,
tickling her eyes.

 

Today,
she sits alone
in an empty house,
with a smooth shiny pate
in the company
of
the Emperor of Maladies.

The old tree
with a great memory,
and even greater height,
bends over
with its branches at the window,
trying
to see the little girl
who once sat there
long long time ago....

Green means .....

My blogger friend, Shail Mohan, versatile poet,sensitive photographer, and chronicler of the life-and-times of Luci the dog (as she goes through a wild adolescence), often posts photographs that, in addition to being a visual delight, often make you think.

One such, "Shades of Green" was posted on her photoblog .

Made me think of  natural  colors, organized colors, and different meanings of the word "green " !


(photograph by Shail Mohan  on Sony Cybershot)

They lived,
played
and grew together,
in the corner
of a
garden
carefully landscaped
and
suffused with flowers
of every hue
and  shade.

Not for them
the obsession
with age and white
and lines,
and they mixed in wild abandon,
oblivious
to the perfectly manicured lawn
and some
hi-fi folks
in states of permanent youth.

And as the
landscape architect
walked around
pontificating
on the
shades of green,
organized
just so,
they nudged each other,
made way for a foraging squirrel,
forgave Luci
for running rough shod through them,
and backslapped each other saying,
" Green means
never having to worry about your color....
Does anyone understand ?......."

Bharatnatyam in the Forest

Blogger friend and versatile, prolific photographer  Joshi Daniel posted this wonderful photograph from Kallar, Kerala ( one of India's southern most states on the Western Coast).

The region is home to one of India's  several classical dance forms, BharatNatyam.

"The technique of Bharatnatyam consists of Natya, Nritta and Nritya. Natya is the dramatic art which is the language of gestures, poses and mimes. Nritta includes the rhythmic and repetitive elements. The Nritya is a combination of Nritta and Natya. 

The chief musical instruments used in Bharatnatyam are the Mridangam and a pair of Cymbals. The cymbals provide the timing and the Mridangam provides fractional measures of the broad beats. The dancer follows both. A tambura is also used to provide the scale for the refrain. The musical instruments used are Mridangam, Manjira, Vina, Violin, Kanjira, Surpeti, Venu and Tanpura.

Read more here. 
So  it was not terribly surprising to see this amazing tree  in Kallar, Kerala, standing in supreme majesty, in one such pose......

(photograph of tree by Joshi Daniel)

(other courtesy Google )

The Drama of the forest
The Rhythm of the Rain
and
The Dance of the Wind
as the
Sky trns dark,
and the leaves ,
battle a storm,
before floating away to the ground.


Amidst
the Cloud Mridangams
and the
Lightening Cymbals;

in step with
the lilting music
of flowing water,
An Invocation
to the Lord of the Skies,
praying
that
it will soon
be time
for Spring again.......

Green Dignity.....

Blogger friend, prolific travel writer, birder, and photographer, Lakshmi Sharath, recently visited Corbett National Park along with a like minded group , on a trip invitation from Club Mahindra.

She posted this amazing picture of a tree, standing bare and by itself, right in the midst of a profusion of green all around. Evocative, and more so in greys....

Sometimes, Nature has an uncanny way of reflecting life, as we prefer, not to see..... but are eventually forced to see. 

 (photograph by Lakshmi Sharath)

No green silk
rustling
amidst orange hues,
fruits long gone,
now admired
on others' hips,
and a wistful look
as the birds
bypass her
to ensconce themselves
elsewhere
in nests
lost amidst
the abundant
overpowering green.

No fat
just bones,
and barest of skin;
but she stands
as straight as she can,
in the evening of her life,
saying
her own Gayatri Mantra
to a rising Sun.

Tough,
single,
threadbare,
but proud in the woods,

The story
of so many seniors
standing tall
in the evening of life....