Thursday, December 27, 2012

the smile




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

Friday, December 21, 2012

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

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 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Rustle of the bougainvillea



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



Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Saturday, December 8, 2012

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


Thursday, December 6, 2012

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



Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Morning lethargy





Photo courtesy: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Monday, November 26, 2012

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 

Sunday, November 25, 2012

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

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Buteo Buteo



Photo: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

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

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Friday, November 9, 2012

his words



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


Happy Diwali all!
Have a nice one!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Another day



Photo: Sushma Verma/ Rahul Krishna

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Unhurriedly


unhurriedly
the mountain clouds drift
stirring memories of youth
as youth passes by
hurriedly


Photo: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna 

Saturday, October 20, 2012

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 

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Autumn dusk




filling an empty canvas 
with shimmery pastels ~
autumn dusk 


Photo: Sushma Verma/Rahul Krishna 

Friday, October 12, 2012

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  




Thursday, October 11, 2012

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

Monday, October 8, 2012

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

Saturday, October 6, 2012

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.”  - 

Thursday, October 4, 2012

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!

Friday, September 28, 2012

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 - 


Tuesday, September 25, 2012

rush hour



rush hour ~
marring the indigo sky
a passing robin's whistle  

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

Friday, September 21, 2012

sunset sky


sunset sky...
the more I set the bird
free, the more
it holds tight
within 



Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tranquility




tranquility   
this moment, pleasure and pain
taste the same  



Thursday, September 13, 2012

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.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

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










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

Friday, August 31, 2012

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:

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

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/

Monday, August 13, 2012

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:

Saturday, August 4, 2012

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:

Saturday, July 21, 2012

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:

Sunday, June 10, 2012

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:

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

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: