Finding the connect

On 7th Apr 20198th Apr 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, UncategorizedLeave a comment

We drive down this road many times. Long weekends, festivals or simply when we’re missing our home in the countryside is when a road trip begins to linger on our mind. We generally start much earlier than dawn break to avoid getting trapped in city traffic. Losing hours even before hitting the highway is the last thing when there’s a long way to go, especially during summers.
As we go slicing the dawn we aren’t surprised to find the busy city hasn’t slept a wink. I wonder whether time rushes man or man rushes time….
Sharing a few clicks of the quotidian sunrise etc. Either you succeed in taking good pictures or you live more in the moment. If you think you have done both then you have lost a bit of both, which is what I seem to have done.

whether it’s taking the road less traversed…

it’s all worth it while reaching for the stars!

And like every time I haven’t framed the elusive birds! So many young birds of rare colors and species tweeting away right in the front yard of the house, stirring the monotony of still flower shrubs on windless mornings. I couldn’t cajole a single one into a camera shot for my blog post. There’s a way to professionally take bird pictures. Better luck with them next time.

If we have the time to find something more than the eye can see, then pictures are quite philosophical by default. Isn’t it an irony some of us think philosophy and spirituality, and looking for deeper meanings in mundane things, is something that needs to wait till age catches up? Isn’t it equally fascinating and fulfilling to start early? It’s something we’re basically and naturally inclined to. It’s about making time for these things so we can practice and reap the benefits rather than keeping it away until the eve of our lives. If not, wouldn’t that be like lighting a candle after the darkest night has passed?

I believe what we see, touch, think and experience connects everything meaningfully in the end.

Shore

On 25th Mar 201925th Mar 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, Uncategorized3 Comments

Against the setting sun
sand in her palm
ember glow.
She locks or not, her fist
it’s a sure takeaway.
The howling wind?
…
…
Or is it the willing earth?
…
…
Hasty sand,
think thrice
before blinding an eye.

–db–

No worries

On 21st Mar 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, Uncategorized2 Comments

“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.”
― The Dalai Lama

We have all experienced it. If we have slept with a worry on our mind, it’s the first thing we remember on waking up. It’s easier said than done- ‘don’t worry the worry until the worry worries you’. There’s always something to worry about. Some people worry about things they don’t need to. But then, what’s the benchmark? What are the issues that have the potential of a ‘glorious’ worry?
If we think about it, everything is subjective and relative. One who is struggling to put a loaf of bread on the table worries about money, while on the other hand a person who seems to have everything under the sun going right for him may worry about an issue only he can come up with!

The above types are somewhat relatable. There are the truly worrisome types that worry about not having anything to worry. As soon as they wake up the first thing they do is dig for a reason to worry. If they are innovative enough there’s always a petty thing that strikes them like a streak of lightening, and they kick start the day with something to worry about, the same way as some of us kick start the day with a glass of warm honey-lemon water. Else, they go about doing their chores, constantly analyzing every other thing that crosses their day if it’s something to worry. If by the end of the day they haven’t yet found anything, they begin to doubt themselves and life. Has life been this kind today! They cannot accept the fact that they had nothing to worry the entire day. They have the ability to turn this stray joy into a worry. That is when we can say they are probably addicted to worrying.

The worst types are those that get cranky and miss worrying about things. Then the types that cross all limits are the ones that hold on to some sort of worry as if they found a straw in a storm. They devote all their energy to worrying as if it were a solution in itself.

I too indulge in this at times. Though I don’t dare call worrying an indulgence! I am just thinking aloud. Honestly I cannot judge for myself which type I belong to. How do we then get over this addiction? To begin with we can pause a moment before slipping into the worry whirlpool, and tell ourselves that worrying doesn’t change anything. Or maybe count one through twenty and wait for the worrisome thought to subside. Double the norm because counting through ten will drag us back quickly into the whirlpool.

If doing these small tricks itself is a worry then it simply means the problem is chronic. Now, that’s what we should be worried about! Or perhaps not!
Have a worry-free day everyday!

for the bougainvillea

On 19th Mar 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, UncategorizedLeave a comment

These fresh beauties deserved more than quick mobile clicks. But I can try and make it up by accessorizing them with a poem of mine. The poem ‘decode’ was first published in the journal ‘Strange Horizons’.

 Decode
  
 Flowers don’t lie, he tells me one morning
 weaving his words carefully around the kernel.
 My question ‘why flowers of all things’
 doesn’t make a headway through the shell.
 His hands were always mud, birthing buds
 from all plants that flowered. 
 His doctrines germinated from little saplings
 in big to medium to small earthen pots.
 The blooms took all the gravity of his conclusions.
 In the backdrop of his enlightenment
 the plants, the rooted disciples were too discoursed
 to shake a leaf to his sermons 
 and touching the gaze of a longing breeze, too much to ask.
 -
 I remember one face from my childhood,
 -
 he said, trimming off a bold shoot
 -
 a peeve among the crusties
 an un bastardized element among the alloys
 took to flower love all of a sudden.
 If he had looked into the mirror now and then 
 he would know there was sunshine beyond the baldachin
 he would know the onset of his drift.
 -
 I touch the flower faces and wonder
 how much of a lesson there is
 to learn outside a flower life
 how much of sunlight must have cheated him
 and caressed the cheeks of his virgin blooms. 
 I follow him, studying the niches of bare feet on wet earth
 some mornings are about understanding the totems. 


- Daya Bhat

Ponder

On 18th Mar 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, Uncategorized3 Comments

The proverbial weathercock unfailingly blames the fickle wind!
A little more than a fleeting thought
A little less than a quote... — photo-thought

# ponder

On 15th Mar 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, UncategorizedLeave a comment

# ponder

On 14th Mar 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, Uncategorized5 Comments

ponder

On 13th Mar 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Poetry

On 1st Mar 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, UncategorizedLeave a comment

 
Hegemony

Hyperboles are iced cakes in virtual markets. 
Well-manicured monopoly
     only hate in finger nails...no blood trails
     only the lust for omnipresence in a wart-sized world.
Sell what sells best
     names look good in bold italics.
     You know the worth of your name.
     Here your fingers burn a night lamp
     and there a door opens to the wolves. 
You have nothing to lose
     you never belonged to any of these rooms.
     But when you have to answer that eye
     locked in fear to the rosewood door 
     look away...walk away.
What free tongue 
     that can’t simply liberate itself from its own dark alleys
     that has no vision beyond its own leaning.
Leeways of an eclipsed moon
     growls of the sorry moorland
     strands of silk lost in the ruffian bronze.

You must know
     the house you live in is not yours alone.
     How many suns more we need to see together.
     How many crops of bajra we need to reap together. 
Here we are. You and I.
     I’m pinching my eye for a horseshoe
     and you burn the last straw.
Here we are. You and I
     one soil 
     one allegiance.
No crannies 
     no room for split talk.
Belong 
     to earn the ground beneath your feet
     and then it doesn’t take long to love.
Well 
     how far stretched can a war be with oneself.


(published in "New Asian Writing" and "Indiana Voice Journal")





Identity

I wouldn’t call you a nymph of the Orkney folklore
     or a mermaid of the mythical sea.
     Nothing fancy about losing both worlds! 
Living on the periphery does strange things to you
     a line of fiction
     a horizon
     a fringe
          time, nothing but a pretty satin ribbon in your fingers
          dress the falcon’s wings
          the Pegasus cloud and your own ashen feet.
     an empty epoch
          ravaged sinful torn sullied.
     a grey fable
          and a glow-worm city turns into forest fire.

The devils dance on your brows
     the calm
     the frolic
          an illusion of the yaksha.
     Back in the yard
          drum beats
          sweat beads 
               and rivers turn crimson.

I wouldn’t call you a genie of the lamp
     nothing fairy about a wanton wish
          a rub of the thumb
     nothing fairy about turning a kingdom into a sepia map
          a scroll of lost identity
     nothing fairy about letting the moths eat the borders.

(published in Indiana Voice Journal)

Images- Uttara Kannada

On 26th Feb 201927th Feb 2019 By Daya BhatIn Potpourri, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Blessed are those who wake up to sunrises as these! Tucked away from the urban chaos and pollution is a picturesque village Navilgone, in the Uttara Kannada district along the west coastal plains (konkan) of the state of Karnataka. It’s a privilege to walk along the winding streets dotted with quaint homes on either side- seasoned, tiled-roofs, and surrounded typically by areca nut, coconut and banana plantations. An endearing sight we love to return to anytime.

As far as a few minutes’ walk from the habitation, is a stretch of open space. Walking along the earthy trail, dewy grass grazing our feet is something more than a dream. The icing on the cake is when the Sun makes an appearance and steals the show.