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......

Black Brilliance....

My timeline on FB today is studded with so many wonderful photographs, posted by folks from all over the world, (thanks to a family member obsessed by photography).

And then comes this very perceptive click , from my FB friend,  engineer and fellow collaborator on Madness Mandali's  Kavikala,  Satish Suggala  .

Amazing capture !    Then again,  not so amazing, because that's how things are around everywhere you look ......

(This brilliant photograph by Satish Suggala)

Such a perceptive click;

How the future looks
for the girl
hit with acid;

The state of mind
of the raped Noida girl
identified 
and unlawfully
named by the cops;

The blank eyes
of an Aji
whose free cataract operation
failed;

The way the
side road was at night
when the masked goons attacked;

How the textbook looked
to the 5th class boy
studying nights
when
the last candle gave out
during planned load shedding
in his village;

The color of the humor
when the planning commission
begs you
to enjoy and live
on Rs 26/32 a day;

And finally,
the color of the crores,
confiscated in UP elections,
stashed in Switzerland,
and
lining the deep pockets
of those
who wear power-white.

Prize winning photo indeed !

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...

Makeup : a bird's eye view in a global world...

My photo-blogger friend, Sylvia, from Tacoma, Washington, has so come "up" in the world, that she now gets amazing mountain views , and visits from worldly wise folks, on her window sill. Sometimes they even preen, pose, and maybe even crib. For a photo. Which she recently posted here.

I wasn't around there , but I do think this is what this bird said....


(photo by Sylvia Kirkwood)
Feeling a bit dull
in my old age,
I flew over
Paris,
Milan,
Cologne,
and even London
searching
for that perfect makeup....

And
I finally found it
in Mumbai,
where
they have
fairness creams.

In a moment
of
narcissistic madness,
I peered into
the Sky Mirror
and
slathered it on,
only
to have it
washed off
in a
thundering
Mumbai monsoon cloudburst.

Looks like nothing black
is turning fair,
and
everything
is supposed to be fair
only
if you are flying high.

As for me,
my full throated shouts
about the creme,
have rendered
my neck
arteries and veins visible,
and the
only thing
that has changed , are my eyebrows.

Black to white ?
Gosh,
the weight of people's expectations !
I can't even raise my eyebrows......

Seeking the grey...

The latest Camera Critters post from blogger friend Magiceye's Mumbai blog.

Green lifestyles yield harmony.

At the end of the day, despite differences, we all enjoy the same branch and same tree.

(photo by Deepak Amembal Magiceye)
While the
Bollywoodian
parrots, parakeets,
kingfishers, and orioles,
pretend,
to enjoy
a Page-3 world,
with a
haughty toss
of their hi-fi feathers,
the
very middle class
but gracefully simple
folks
of the
black-and-white-cinema days,
minding their own business,
realize,
that
their supporting branches
amidst
the peaceful green
are always
a
Mandelian grey....

Why we must take flight with color....

Black and white,
like our
unavoidable politicians,
behave in extremes,
drawing
bad folks
into their
individual corners....

Black,
the original empty vessel,
King of Nothing,
but greatly loved
by those with money to hide.
Hated as a complexion
by mothers of glaucomic bridegrooms,
though
fair beauties with
jet black knee
length hair
and shining black doe eyes
are acceptable, thank you !

White,
the original nouveau riche,
pure and blotless,
colonizing all the colors,
and brow beating them
into a white synthesis;
emotionless,
spiritless,
but shows up the dirt
of puffed up minds.

So much better
to be like the common man;

Where green,
is a jealous sick person,
but also a newcomer,
young and learning a skill....

where blue,
is someone missing someone,
but also
a child honestly
straining to explain,
that he did not
break the crystal vase,
preoccupied as he was
watching clouds
drifting in a blue sky......

where red,
is the danger sign,
and teacher's marks,
but also the
glimmer of a bride's
trousseau,
and the color of
the eyes at bidaaee....

where pink,
is the slow blush,
and a fresh rose,
and a child
coloring your face
in a drawing exam.....

where yellow,
is below-the-belt journalism,
and old waste papers,
but also
the brightness
of a summer day,
lashings of haldi,
hint of a ripening mango,
and the
perfumed color
of a champa flower.....

As for orange,
it's the threat of flames,
but mostly
the fruit and the juice,
and the color in our flag,
and the marigolds
adorning
the puja of the Gods...

White folks, black minds,
Black folks with white minds,
permute and combine that,
in a frenzy of ambition and power,.

And then wonder
how much nicer
it would be
to be
an ordinary citizen,
pink in innocence,
green in approach,
yellow in brightness,
blue as the sky
that gives cover to all,
red ,
as in
life giving haemoglobin,
and orange,
as in the fruit
he shares with all.....

I've always thought
ordinary folks
were so much
nicer than the
B and W politicians.

So why not ?
Take flight with color !


Submitted as an entry for the "Take Flight with Color" contest sponsored by HP LaserJet and Indiblogger.

Deep ruminations of a transparent mind…

Solilo posted this wonderful stuff on her blog.

Watch. Despair.

And then, if you are the bottle, you wonder.....

It’s so cold
but sweet
in the dark
of the ocean…..

Sunny memories of
being a courier of little gifts
green leaves, stems,
shells,
torn scarves;
and
indulgent
glances across oceans
between
the brown and white…….

I lie
rolling
across the ocean floor
watching,
pushing aside
a weed here,
a coral there,
having so
rolled
with the waves
like in another life.

And they fight
for land,
for color,
for power,
without realizing
that
in the end
the brown and the white
all dissolve into
a deep black
down here
in the depths of my mind….