Friday, February 19, 2010

Earth Laughs in Flowers...

I know a Banyan Tree on which play, curve, twist and wind blossoms of Bougainvillea....





The sight was my imagination come to life in form and shape, real and available to touch, smell, sight and taste. Embodiment of what beauty means to me...

 

The hanging roots ever so gently cupped the papery petals...


 
Each time the breeze blew, the roots would sway and they seemed like swaying garlands of bougainvilleas......Each time the breeze blew, a few loose papery pink petals would drop and go round in circles before winding towards the earth.... falling at the foot of the Banyan Tree. 
 

The flowers shine like light bulbs.... the way only Bougainvilleas can....





The Earth laughs in flowers....










Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Shesh

I finished reading Chokher Bali. 


The reading was frantic towards the end.  The guy who served me coffee and cake was worried about the mosquitoes hovering around my feet. There were so many!  He was sweet enough to keep 3 fans whirring but it made me terribly cold!  I requested for only one! I didn't want to settle inside the cafe on one of their cushioned sofa chairs. The way the book was twisting out and the way I was feeling...the glassy, cushioned, air-conditioned interiors of the cafe seemed anomalous. I preferred the hardness of the chairs outside, the breeze, the traffic sounds, the glimpses of the busy intersection through leaves of potted plants and the mosquitoes. 
I was stooped much of the time over my book.  The guy at the cafe would approach hesitatingly, move a chair or two, create noise and I would look up! He did that twice to know if there was anything more I would need. Much to my delight he asked me which book I was so engrossed in and having gotten to know that I intended to finish it, he wished me a good read and promised to not disturb!  He didn't. No one did. No one!


And I finished Chokher Bali. 
Shesh hoye gaecche.
No one could have been different.
Nothing could have been done differently.
The way I see it, they were all liberated from their weaknesses and liberated through what was lost to them. 




Loss is liberating, the process of losing is what is tedious!


....Tagore regrets the ending and has said so himself.
Want to know more about that....