Care for our students!

Love in the clouds!

Walked alone to a shore...

 ...Found Love!

My blog has turned one year young. Cheers, my blog!!

The United Colors of Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad

Who is the fairest of them all?

Creative Flower Arrangements: Courtesy of my Daughter

Serenade

Morning today, the sunlight filtered through the thick curtains and ray-traced my arms and onto bed where I was sitting. The cool AC room added to the peace. I drifted to a boat-ride at Kumarakom. I had been looking forward to the ride eagerly.

The boat was beautiful and like all things natural which I immensely like, was  made of cane. Very comfortable chairs also of cane were placed strategically. The narrow stretch of lake was lined abundantly with trees and dense vegetation. Ducklings were swimming alongside. So many beautiful houseboats were awaiting their customers, but I liked my own boat the most, because it was pretty and most of all, it was open.
The thing of beauty is this:
The boatman was a very thin, jovial fellow, age about 35 and he had a dreamy countenence. Step one good going. Now the boat was pushed out of its place where it was lazying around, not wanting itself to be jolted out of stupor. Then, very slowly it was made to rest in one direction. After a minute or two, the boat was wide awake for action. Again slowly, languorously, it swam and I got the first freshest breath of freshest air in my life coming overmixed from the vegetation that lined the lake and the lake itself. The slow motion of the boat chided the air around to move. The air moved. Like a straight current in my face, at times like a whirlpool all over my body. I felt I was flying. The air, the breath of life, started to capture me by diffusing inside. Stupefied, I just sat where I was letting the air work its charm. I was thrilled. I didn't want it to end quickly. And sure it didn't. It stretched far and far. You know, the lake added to the coolness and crispiness. And I just sat there absorbing without even trying to.

The slow motion was continuing. Almost suddenly, there was wide expanse of water all around. Unexpected. And therefore slightly fearful I became. Water, water everywhere. The 5:00 p.m. setting sun shone on me bringing me face to face with it. The water sparkled. Its expansiveness made me feel I was lying flat on a silvery surface.

The boat delighted in being brought to a wide expanse from the narrow space. The boatman's cunningness came to fore when he too suddenly accelerated. What an experienced timing.  The good boat whirred, gathered speed and met full-on with the water. The water smiled and let the boat jump, hop, whirr and speed away. No matter how much the water was being shorn and sheared by the boat, it never lost patience once. I got frightened, if it loses patience then I am drowned for I do not know swimming. I drowned my fright by looking not at the water but the sun!

Far away, a jet boat was playing at full speed. My eyes again spread over the water and again the same fright but lesser than before. And wonder of the wondrous things, the boatman had one look and he immediately opened his magic box of tape recorder and a song came over to lull and soothe us all, the boat, the water, the lagoon trees, the sun and of course, me. Everything fell into place.

India: North-eastern Beauty

Dreamy-eyed, I asked a teacher from Manipur, whom I had just met at the University Guest House, "How is Manipur?".

Coming from Delhi and now at Hyderabad, my mind was wandering all over the yet-to-be-seen land, wondrous in imagination, capturing it in its idylllic form. Mountains, meadows, lush green earth, chirping birds, cows and yaks grazing about peacefully, big smiles on  faces of people. Picturing never-before-seen sceneries. Relishing new taste of delicious hot cuisines. Gathering experiences to tell.

The Orchids!! Of course.

"Just like this place", pat came the reply. I fell. Almost. From the highlands of the heaven to the lands of planet Earth.

I gathered courage, thought to prod along. "And food?", "Just like this"!

Where is the Indian diversity being told about from the school days and even experienced in fullness in childhood?

Where is that sumptuous richness of India?

Where have we forgotten our dreams? Our imaginations taking wings?

I had been musing all along, and then along came a girl from Nagaland. Visa! I saw her explaining the extracted DNA bands in the gel documentation software to her juniors. What energy! What self-confidence! Thank God. We talk every other day. Bit by bit, I will know about the mysteries of North-east land, leaving some mysteries to my own imagination...

Infinite Wisdom :-)

There's always a little truth behind every "just kidding"; a little information behind every "I don't know"; a little botheration behind every "I don't care"; and a little suffering behind every "it's okay!
                                                                                                                                        -Dr. Niyaz Ahmed

Lake View Guest House at the University of Hyderabad...

It is 6:00 a.m. The tranquil lake beyond the balcony at Lake View Guest House at the University of Hyderabad is basking lazily in the mist of the early morning and awaiting patiently the sun's first rays.The sun rises and the lake is tranquil still. It is silver.

When the sun starts its westward motion and reaches a crescendo in between sometime, the lake will display its shimmering bluish water flowing in a unidirectional pattern, a slow, gentle motion giving it a certain rhythm, I know. I look around the green of the earth, the tree branches hung up in the sky, beautiful criss crossing habitation of the peaceful co-existence of varieties. One of these is Gulmohur, tall, giant, its leaves fall down covering the balcony as if they like  decorating it. It is a like a meditation, a prayer watching even one of these leaves fall. They fall down happily, defiantly, for the bridal decoration of the earth. The lake bank invites me. I am greedy, but defer going to another time. The architecture of the guest house is in a meandering pattern, not seen ever, really, believe me. It is not the relatively straightforward way of buildings as is usual. Walking through the zig-zag corridors, the rooms are situated at the angles between these. The balcony offers complete privacy being separated in a zig zag way too, and the more wonderful thing is that beyond the balcony, no concrete, just the plain old woods and the lake lending a soft touch to the otherwise rough, wooden landscape. Even the room windows open outside to the lake and the first rays of sunlight come streaming and knocking inside to wake up and remind me of the lake calling. I admire and let the architect remain unknown. After all, this building itself makes him/her known.I quickly look for Howard Roark's Monadnock Valley in The Fountainhead.

It was the hills, this is the plain, though small hills are seen spread beyond the lake. Amazing how the plains now look transformed into hills, its architect in the form of Nature and a Human!!

Something to write! Hmmm!!

Well, roaming around in house at night is something one looks forward to from time to time. Not getting used to monotonosity, in the stillness of night when others are asleep, a yellow subdued light, a quiet corner, a comfortable position, an ambient room temperature and a laptop that speaks to you personally is what one looks certainly forward to. Piecing together thoughts. Watching the pure delights of words in front. A song and music running in the background.
Words do get limited, yes. But that is the beauty! An expressed thought enhances the joy of living. It is like a fast-flowing river, like Ganga at Haridwar. Flowing furiously, undulating, unidirectional. It cannot be chaotic. Without limits, yet having to keep within limits. Being given an ironical sustenance.  
An unexpressed thought! It is the real beauty. Because it has a mysterious element. Beauty is incomplete without mystery.  It is like the wind. Multidirectional, surviving the deserts and oceans alike in its path. Chaos is its leitmotif. And chaos is order in the context of an unexpressed thought.
Delving deep into the world of an unexpressed thought dancing in the stillness of night when the crescent-shaped moon is looking down at you and saying, Hi!