the smile

“How I long to see
among dawn flowers,
the face of God.” ~ Bashō Matsuo,

Merry Christmas!

December breeze

Daisies are like sunshine to the ground.~ Drew Barrymore. 

Dedicated to the souls of children battered/bruised/killed every day....may that not happen, for any reason.

Yeah, Photographs by myself! The Blackberry camera - 
http://www.facebook.com/devika.jyothi.r 

deepening winter

Rustle of the bougainvillea

In tribute to the legendary sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, who passed way at 92 in San Diego, California

pitch dark

singing birds

On my desktop

'There should be more sincerity and heart in human relations, more silence and simplicity in our interactions. Be rude when you’re angry, laugh when something is funny, and answer when you’re asked.' ~ Anton Chekov

morning sky

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul. ~Victor Hugo

Morning lethargy

Photo courtesy: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna

fading bells

November rain

November chill

A poem floats

“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.” ~ Maya Angelou


Photo: Sushma Verma/ Rahul Krishna 

quiet of the night

“Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, Nor time unmake what poets know” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 


Photo: Hilal T. Ahamed http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hilal-Ahamed-Thankamangalam-Camera-Shutter-Flutters/106360746060101

Buteo Buteo

Photo: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna

elusive, joy

Photo: Hilal T. Ahamed http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hilal-Ahamed-Thankamangalam-Camera-Shutter-Flutters/106360746060101

this moment

“I think that the best kind of change, is the change that comes from the inside and begins its way out until it emerges on the outside; a change that is born underneath then continues and spreads until it has reached the surface. That's a true change. A powerful change. And I have found that while we are emerging, changing into something glorious; it is actually us becoming who we really are. A water lily is born underneath the water, inside the soil at the bottom of the river or lake. And the water lily has always been a water lily for that whole time that it was sprouting out of the wet soil, reaching up through the dark water towards the sunlight, stretching and grasping for the surface; where it then buds and blooms on the outside in the sunshine. It doesn't bud and bloom on the surface and then try to reach down below into the soil.” ~ C. JoyBell C.

Photo: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna

finding order

his words

for my father, who left us on November 13, 2003.

Happy Diwali all!

Have a nice one!

weather radio

Another day

Photo: Sushma Verma/ Rahul Krishna

harvest moon

timeless times

Unhurriedly

unhurriedly

the mountain clouds drift

stirring memories of youth

as youth passes by

hurriedly

Photo: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna 

Lackadaisical shores

breathing deep, the sea

the waves ~ the woes

the cries, the laughter, the joy

distilling along a lackadaisical

shoreline

Photo: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna 

Autumn dusk

filling an empty canvas 

with shimmery pastels ~

autumn dusk 

Photo: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna 

Autumn leaves

Waiting for the winter birds – soon a riot of colours at the bird sanctuary? But why is autumn not so colourful  in Delhi? 

autumn leaves

against a sunny sky ~ the birds

somewhere memorising

their songs,

the flowers- later, later  

Photo Hilal T. Ahamed : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hilal-Camera-Shutter-Flutters/106360746060101 

out of the sunset

out of the sunset 
canvas, the steady wing-beats
of an autumn bird



out of the sunset

canvas, the steady 
wing-beats

of an autumn bird,

homewards

Photo: Rahul Krishna

Immeasurable skies

emptying, setting free

the evanescent thoughts ~

immeasurable skies

“Art is long, and Time is fleeting” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 'Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult' ~ Hippocrates

signs of fall

signs of fall

a young sapota at the tip says

not now, not now!

Not all falls in Fall –  Sapota is a summer fruit.'
If someone asks, if it works - it doesn't. The photo is one time and place, the words another ...but the picture has an 'autumn feel'? or so i thought!

Photo: Sushma Verma/ Rahul Krishna

the river

the river streaming

down from the sky ~ the beauty

in life’s suffering

Inspiration - Photo: Sushma Verma/ Rahul Krishna 

The Buddha's -  'Life is suffering'

& Oscar Wilde's "To become a spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life.”  - 

November twilight

Nov-ember twilight

the sea turns and waves

as we return

 Photo by Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna - my colleagues. More - of their photos and my words - to come!

The writer's story

falling back

to sleep, the city, at even-tide

this night

i must stay awake 

to write its stories 

Life is giving me the chance to see, to learn and to know the stories of lives, i must write -i think i'm loving it! by the way, how did this 'think' come in between - 

rush hour

rush hour ~ marring the indigo sky

a passing robin's whistle  

Photography - i think, i am learning...way to go, may be.

sunset sky

sunset sky...

the more I set the bird

free, the more

it holds tight

within 

Tranquility

tranquility   

this moment, pleasure and pain

taste the same  

Slices of Life -II

seeing their dreams

through my eyes ~

expanding horizons

emerald dreams ~

a harvest song 
sifting through

In the remote villages of Chattisgarh, studying the lives and livelihood of farmers and the rural community....A refreshing experience.....And for once my own pictures.

The River - A Myth?

The source, identity and the fate of the sacred river Saraswati, Sindhu and perhaps several others, which flowed from the mountains to the oceans–.... Some recent research says River Saraswati is a myth...Could it be?

does the mountains

or the oceans know

the truth of the vanishing rivers ~

the rumble of their waters

in the silence of this moment “ The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.” ~  Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

Read more: http://www.stephen-knapp.com/recent_research_on_the_sarasvati_river.htm

http://www.gsbkerala.com/saraswati.htm

Photo courtesy: A dry river near Darcha in India. Ankit Solanki, Flickr Creative Commons  as per original copyright at:

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/14/are-we-running-out-of-water/

Blue Moon

steel grey sky

the second full moon

not all that blue

blue moon

the deep blue sky sheds

its veil of sadness

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/857371/

Ariyan Path

almost full

this Onam’s opal moon  

memories zeroing in on the

sounds of laughter

from an Onam long past

after the downpour

everything so refreshed

this night quiet shines

the moon upon the tender flowers

and the Path

Also, wish you a Happy Onam!

Photo courtesy: BenSpark as per original copyright at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abennett96/3888867102/

august scenes

seeds floating in the wind,

the opalescent sky

slowly gaining grey 

way to work ~

the heron perched on a stump

over the mossy pond

silvery dusk

as stars begin to emerge

silence spreads within

~ Whenever I have found myself stuck in the ways I relate to things, I return to nature. It is my principal teacher, and I try to open my whole being to what it has to say. ~   Wynn Bullock

Photo courtesy: manaskap as per original copyright at:

http://manaskap.deviantart.com/art/Grey-Sky-114977127

Slices of Life - I

Back to the routine of a full-time job... the old roads, the buses, the buildings, the people...the morning rush, the evening hustle - life screams from all sides. It requires you to break the shells of safety and comfort that you build around yourself. Then it goes about its way...Life does seem to have its own way, images flip and flap before one makes any true sense of it ~ 

These ‘in the moment’ scribbles/haiku that may connect to the larger plots of the stories one may tell, or may not:

empty bus ~

out of the blue the conductor

hums an old song

summer breeze~

the heady scent of perfume

as they pass

walking alone ~

sharing the loneliness

of the road

~As firmly cemented clam-shells
Fall apart in autumn,
So I must take to the road again,
Farewell, my friends.

~ Matsuo Basho

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://chestofbooks.com/gardening-horticulture/Trees-Shrubs-Vines-Herbaceous-Perennials/images/Roadside-Vine-Effects.jpg

The river and flowers by the river

estuary’s calm

reflecting its path

the river, clear

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it~ Norman Maclean

morning glories

 the god who hides  

now and then

"How I long to see

among dawn flowers,

the face of God."

~  Matsuo Basho

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Estuary

frozen plums

morning heat ~

the sweet temptation

of frozen plums

frozen plums – so irresistible as  William Carlos Williams says in ‘This is just to say’ – A poem I love so much...And it has often been a subject of analysis among us, so is any other imagist poem by WCW. I don't know, a poet friend of mine said, above all it speaks of the poet's selfishness....but i think it presents human nature in a good-humoured way. And more over it is the image, the poetic feel of words, the simple, crisp and clear language and the complex emotions that it brings forth, is what draws me to poem ~ oh well, no dissecting anymore. 

‘This is just to say’

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

~ William Carlos Williams 

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://freeflowerpictures.net/image/flowers/plum-flowers/plum-blossom_4.jpg

Blackbirds

the song

that comes and goes ~ 

blackbirds

‘I do not know which to prefer, 

The beauty of inflections, 

Or the beauty of innuendoes, 

The blackbird whistling, Or just after’

 ~ Wallace Stevens

‘And let them pass, as they will too soon,

With the bean-flowers' boon,

And the blackbird's tune,

And May, and June!’ 

~ Robert Browning

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.scenicreflections.com/files/GREEN_PATHWAY_Wallpaper_wlyi9.jpg