it pains...

It pains me…but my pain does’nt help her…saw her at the slums near the wai temple. When my camera saw this cute child it yearned to get her in frame…it is true that looking from the viewfinder I didn’t notice the wounds on her face…perhaps I was more engrossed to make a picture….I noticed them while post-processing….and I was sad….sad over my meaningless pain for her….just 20 bucks…I cud have bought a soframycin tube….which wud have helped reduce at least her physical pain….sitting at my computer I cud only wonder how this cute, delicate thing bore all this without a sign of it in her expressions…with a load half her weight on her lap….no sign of complain…. I really felt depressed about it…. There again I missed a chance to help myself….

(Wai is situated on the banks of river Krishna, which has some very picturesque and serene locations. It’s a historical town in satara district of maharashtra, around 90 km from pune. It is also a popular shooting location for hindi movies. Its has two main temple complexes and ghats. The Ganpati temple on the ghats and the menavali temple ghats, which is so serene….)

This cutie is perhaps a construction labourer’s child at wai….those bricks were her toys…she was engrossed playing with them when she suddenly saw me zooming at her….amused…she stood straight looking at me…with a question…..

This group was preparing for a pose at the wai temple…..perhaps listening to the instructions before the shoot….just when few of them saw my camera aiming at them….. and they forgot about the instructions and those lovely things just filled my frame with loads of expressions….thank you cuties…

there is nothing beyond you...

If life is a gamble, she is a clear winner……no doubts….anyone can make it from her face. The innocence, contentment, energy, smile and the blush on her face told that she was very much into life. Even the clothes she was wearing were synchronized to it… And that’s the thing which attracted me towards her. She was washing clothes at the banks of river indrayani at dehu near pune…we were on our way back from a shoot at bhandara when I asked my friend to turn towards indrayani ghat at dehu….in fact I was looking for some good portraits…it was a typical ghat scene, few people taking bath, some washing clothes and others just lazing around in sun….. I had a quick look around and finally my eyes zoomed in to this lady…..she was in her sixties….washing clothes at the river bank very meticulously…it had a method….her wrinkles were a testimony to her hard life… I watched her for some time but she spotted us only when she was finished with her work…..we asked her to pose for us…and she just blushed….then she smilingly agreed to it and adjusted her (saree) clothes so that she looks better….she was so cute in her sixties…. a very happy and content face and when I asked her to grant us a smile on camera….that was fabulous…. I could see in her eyes that she was in love with her life……I don’t know how many shots I took….but neither my camera nor I had enough….

She reminded of those so many people I knew in my life….who despite having all the comforts and goodies of life, were unreasonably unhappy with their lives…..who never enjoyed what they had but always looked at things they did not have…..ever yearning for more….the ‘more’… which was just not quantifiable by any mathematics of life……….

She also reminded me of those innumerable articles published, of how in recent times the senior citizens are ‘living a second life’ after retirement….how they are enjoying the overseas holidays, amusement parks, shopping malls and branded cloths and accessories….without knowing that what they are after is……just a state of mind….nothing is beyond you….

purest form of God...

Today is children’s day…..but for me every single day is theirs…..they are one of the purest forms of God….. talking and playing with them is as sacred as interacting with God…..they are the real stress busters in today’s world…..imagine a world without children…..at least I cannot imagine…

Many years back…it was a cold winter night of January ….my elder son was perhaps 5 or 6 then….after having dinner we were all talking in the cozy warmth of blankets…on the street, a lone vegetable vendor was trying to sell his vegetables ‘aloud’….naming all the veggies he had….on that calm and cold night his voice seemed too interrupting into the hearts….suddenly I saw tears rolling down my son’s cheeks…..what happened…!!! We could not comprehend his tears…..suddenly what has happened to him….we asked him…whats the matter…...with all those tears…he said….it is such a cold night…nobody is on the streets….in such weather who will buy his vegetables….and nobody will buy then he will not be able to earn…..then how will he live…..he said, can we buy some vegetables from him…???....only God could be so concerned…..today that small child is a student at IIM…..God bless children…..

come anyway.....i won't miss it...

Greatest pleasures are in the simplest things……. Proved…..at least to me….and what about you ??? Have you seen grass….one may exclaim…what a stupid question…and when I tell how beautiful the grass is…. one may become sure of my stupidity…and decide to avoid me next time…. There is a reason to it… many of us are so much wrapped in the ‘synthetics’ of life that they can hardly see those simple pleasures …they are more happy faking them-selves….but the grass is just one freeware among the n number of those free and simple pleasures….

Has one ever felt the smile on one’s child’s face (if you have one)….the happiness one derived out of that free to air smile…. I am sure one must have…...do they feel the same ecstasy on a street child’s smile…which is so similar to one’s own child’s smile and its equally free too…. I doubt, many of them not….probably they have zoomed in their world to a narrow tunnel…zoom out, I say, and savor the simple things scattered around….

Let me share a story ….

The other day I was loafing around the phoenix mill compound at lower parel in Mumbai with one of my friends….we shopped…some real, some window…it was hot, so we stopped at an ice cream vendor outside the mall…. As we were enjoying our ice cream, an apparently poor lady (she looked a labor) in her thirties stopped at the ice cream vending trolley…she had a few months old infant tucked to her lap and a five year old boy holding her hand….she bought an ice candy stick and handed it to her son and paid the vendor…the feelings on the boys face clearly expressed that the mother has made his day….she too perhaps wanted to savor the luxury…so they kept licking it turn by turn…the child seemed too generous to share it with her mother….the infant in her lap was watching her mother and brother curiously…the mother sensed it and got him the taste of his (perhaps) first ice candy…the infant was so happy licking her fingers….as it was shared by them, soon only the stick was left…the boy didn’t seem fully satisfied….and kept licking the stick….and perhaps not happy that his mother shared too much of it…by the time we too had finished our ice creams…at that point something struck my friend…and he asked me…shall I buy him an ice cream….oh…definitely…that will be the greatest thing of the day, I said…. He asked the child…do you want more, he smiled and nodded…his mother perhaps could’nt say anything….my friend bought him an ice cream….. the child was more than happy….his eyes thanked my friend….my friend was more happy than the child…I could see it…and we were off from there soon with all our shopping….but the boy’s ice cream weighed heavier than all those shopped bagfuls worth a few thousand rupees….

Its more than two years….I still cherish that evening….and try not to miss any chance to savor such simple pleasures ever….come anyway……

thats horrible...

That’s horrible….at least for me…just a few months from now I may not be able to enjoy such sunset from this place, my terrace, which is in fourth floor. After shooting the sunset, while post processing this picture I looked at the sun at 100% and was horrified to see the girders of a newly erected building piercing the fireball. Pune is such a lovely city….the people…the climate….the landscape…but how long it could be as lovely ….I know the city for over two years and watched its landscape worsen slowly.…I know its not pune alone which is facing the burnt of the development heat….its the cost of going higher we all are paying….but for that very better future, one cannot and should not watch the “movement” silently….these high rises could definitely be better planned so as to keep the landscape of the city least disturbed….few years from now I may or may not be here….but I will always be concerned for this beautiful city….the dozens of coming up concrete structures at the foothills may be a “heaven” on earth for a few….but why the entire city should pay for them….seriously start thinking…..and one need not necessarily be a nature lover for that ....
(click the picture for bigger view)