Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Nothing profound - really!

You are ethereal, fluid and true.
With the daft wind you flutter away.
In the shining sun, you glitter and sway!
When it pours, darkness seems true.
I am not, if not for you!

It was a pleasant day. I cannot recall when it began. I do remember it did at some point. I opened my eyes and saw the moon lurking - big. I slept some more, tried to dream even and finally woke up to a sunny morning. I have come to realize that I am fairly empty but light. I probably have not much to say that has not been said. It may just be easier to remain silent and absorb for a while.

On a side note, I wonder if we are all here by design or is this chaos?? Who cares, it has been a good week and no profound thoughts have made way.

Monday, March 12, 2012

London - Without a camera

Be it on the pretext of having friends around or just because the weather has been warm - I have ended up discovering a few things about London. Unfortunately, I have not carried a camera to click some of the most beautiful moments!

British Museum - A place one can spend days in. Walk down any tube station and you will be surrounded by a picture. I was almost seeing this image in my dream. Love the photograph. Trying to discover the photographer of the same.

However, the best part of the British museum (the only part I had time to explore) - was the theme of Living and Dying. This was a room describing experiences of suffering in everyones life and how as humans we find the innate ability to fight suffering and live. What I loved about this was the true stories and the realism that exists. I was surprised to find a piece of art by women in Gujrat who had embroidered on raw silk images about AIDS awareness. Pictures that depicted how it spreads, what people should avoid and really cute pictures of condoms being distributed in the mix.  There was also a master piece of a sheet that spread a few meters which had 14,000 medicines weaved into it (apparently the number of medicines an average Britisher would consume through the cycle of life). It then had small stories for each phase of life and real artefacts beneath like a masked story. Beautifully done.
On a side note, I was not that impressed by the Olympic medals which were displayed for the upcoming olympics:-d

Barclays Cycle Hire: Been wanting to use the Barclays cycle hire more. However ended up usually taking it for a casual ride to Regents park mostly. This time tried to pick it up and ride to Greenwich (17 miles ride). The scheme seems to be expensive at the outset especially if using for more than a few hours. Cycles are not maintained all that well. Its your best bet if you want to occasionally use it to get from point A to B. However if you do cycle extensively,  I would recommend buying a bicycle.
Cycling on a lovely sunny day: However the experience of cycling on a lovely sunny day was awesome. Riding through the lanes of London made me realize how much this city has to offer in every corner. The Savoy, Shaftesbury Avenue, Eataries along Noel Street and the Somerset house are places I will go back to. Makes me wonder - what is it about us humans that makes us so curious about stories of the past? Context probably is what makes everything worth it. Be it a piece of music, a piece of art or a ruin in the middle of the city. Loved Cutty Sark and would certainly want to go back for the thames riverside walk all the way down to the London Eye. I want to climb up the 316 steps of the monument and get the best view of London and go down to the Pudding Lane which was the origin of the fire in 1666! Just so much to take in and discover!

More next time with pictures hopefully.

Hope you are all having a lovely time exploring the stories around your places.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Strange Balances


It was just another day. They all woke up to get on with the mundane. He did not stop to notice how beautiful the locks of her hair looked when sunshine cast a spell. She started to straighten things back into years of togetherness shared in a home. Time ticked on, they shared their lives – a bed, a home, their meals sometimes. Years of their marriage were cast as trophies around the house in the form of collectibles.  It was hard to imagine where all of it began. The background music of a distant bark or cheer on the television broke the balance intermittently. There she was getting on dutifully – cooking, cleaning and being a good wife. He was aware of her existence and she was too. The door bell rang – cutting through the silence and there was a stranger who knocked at the wrong house. Their eyes met, they shared a glance. There she was struggling to carry a heavy piece of baggage while cleaning the room. The stranger walked up, held it for her while she continued to clean. They looked again, smiled and the stranger left. He continued to read the paper while she looked at the mirror, fixed her hair and smiled. The stranger left holding onto a fragrance and carrying the picture of a beautiful face which was etched forever in the heart. 

Life goes on and we all find our balances, its just a question of which balance do we settle for- Two empty scales or two full ones or perhaps something in between.

Buddha on a plane

Been flying, travelling and in transit for a while now. Took off early morning again to the cold land of Oslo. Watched the sun rise, saw the snow melt and just closed my eyes and stared at a blank. Few random thoughts came my way. Jotting them down.

Freedom

Strapped besides wings
Feels like a new flight to freedom
Where is it that I go? Who or what is it that I leave?
Is flying freedom? Or does it make me a captive to running away?
I can fly miles on end or stay put for years against the shores of an angry sea...
Freedom is when none of it matters
Freedom is when I am still in moving flights and transported when on the shore!

Silence

Can I be deaf to the noise around me?
Will I always need headphones to cut through it?
Will I need a song inside my soul to drift away?
Or will I truly be comfortable with silences?

Imagination

What I see with my eyes closed and mind open is inexplicably better than anything I have seen before.

Being

I am just a manifestation of my thoughts.

Love

Clear as ice, fluid like melting water, transient like vapour but without a state of nothing! Love eludes me!

Longing

I want you so bad! And yet I am willing to wait all my life in the hope that you will show up on your own. What if you are waiting too??