Different Childhoods

“Be careful! Where are you going?”
Well-dressed, sheltered kids curbed their naughtiness as they heeded the warnings let out by the elders. The polythene, trash strewn water could be deep. They wanted to have fun but not at the cost of their clothes or the anxious commands of their elders. As they climbed up and down the steps cheerfully and carefully under the watchful eyes of their parents, two other kids jumped down from the platform in the middle of the pond.

The new entrants playfully jumped through the shallow, dirty water towards the side of the pond. The sheltered kids watched spellbound with wonder and amazement at these kids gamboling through these dirty waters. Do not know what was going through their minds as they looked at the kids who freely frolicked in the waters. Different childhoods – sheltered versus unshackled!

As parents or elders, do we sometimes shelter our kids too much? Should we let them enjoy the simple things in life? Do we curb their natural, curious instinct, exploratory spirit in the process of sheltering them? I remember we used to sometimes float paper boats in the roadside puddles. Do not see that happening very often now a days. Are the kids today more mature, more worldly-wise albeit minus the playful, exploratory spirit?

I had seen street signs pointing to this church before; there are so many beautiful churches in Paris that I never thought about going there. Last year, as I sat chatting with a friend over dinner, he casually mentioned Sainte-Chapelle and its beautiful stained glass windows. I have been able to visit it a couple of times since then.

A little history here: Sainte-Chapelle was built between 1242 and 1248 to house the relics of Passion of Christ by the king, Louis IX (later beatified as Saint Louis). Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie, are the only visible remains of the oldest palace of kings of France.

The building houses two sanctuaries – the lower chapel, for the palace staff and the upper chapel, for the king and his close friends and family. The upper chapel is airy, monumental and exquisitely decorated with sculptures and thin lattice framework supporting the stained glass till the ceiling. In every home, there is usually a personal place of worship and/or meditation; Sainte-Chapelle was the royal palatine chapel for Louis IX.

I have tried to record the architecture details, the XIIIth century stained glass, and the beauty that I see in Sainte-Chapelle. Photos are slowly being added to be viewed as a slide show in my Sainte-Chapelle gallery. But, photographs do not always do justice.

Hopefully, when you visit Paris, you will able to experience Sainte-Chapelle for yourself. Happy travels!

I found this lamp post in the center of Paris on a misty night. A young romantic had painted the heartfelt emotions to be lit up every night. J’adore Paris!

I met Tony Riga on the banks of the Seine in Paris, France.

"My identity"

It was a beautiful evening in Paris and I was out walking along Seine with my camera when I saw a man with a fantastic painted mask posing for pictures with two friends. Introducing myself, I offered to take their picture. I spoke little french and they spoke little English.  After taking a couple of pictures, the friends of Tony left.

Language aside, we were able to communicate.  Here are a couple of portraits from the photo session with Tony who it later turned out is a multi-talented person with many interests.  Tony self-painted this beautiful Guyanese face mask as well.

"Holding my thoughts"

"Within reach"

I have many wonderful pictures from the session with Tony that I hope to share at a later time.

Thank you Tony for being there for my camera!

On the threshold of a new year
Reflections of a year past come by
to find a place on my memory shelf
My heart eagerly embraces the hope
the new dawns yet to come
Time paddles on
unmindful of many a
dawns and inevitable dusks
creating ripples that will jostle
for a place on my memory shelf
Another stroke of paddle
tells me to look around
enjoy the ride
‘cos it will be a memorable one.

Wishing you a happy, memorable New Year!

These photos are from a dance performance called “Tale of a Tree” performed by the talented dancers from Shiri Dance Company.  I love the theatrical lighting on the dancers. All these photos are shot handheld without flash.

(“Dilemma” featuring Kriti Achia of Shiri Dance Company)

(“Love Dance” featuring Preeti Sunderajan of Shiri Dance company)

Man Mandir has undergone a fantastic cleanup. The blackened walls in the inside chambers have been cleaned and very few bats remain. The dark stairways leading to even darker circular dungeons now have lights as well to guide the tourists. This is where the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad and had him executed. I took some long exposures of the dungeons and Jauhar kund.

After photographing the colorful tiles of Man Mandir Palace and visiting the chambers in Man Singh Palace, we went to see some older monuments in the Fort.

Some things never change: the desire of us mortals to leave our name etched in stone for generations to see. I have been to so many beautiful monuments and places that have inspired misguided lovers and mortals to etch their names on the walls thereby disfiguring those for others. Sometimes, all this reminds me of ‘Ozymandias’ by PB Shelley or even of that beautiful song by Kansas – ‘Dust in the wind’ (esp the lines – “all we are is dust in the wind”).

This particular graffiti looked fresh and brought to mind my surprise at seeing graffiti on Eiffel Tower in Paris. Now I really digress but I must tell you this; still cracks me up on my stupidity. Having heard so much about the graffiti and the messages for Jim Morrison on his grave, I had gone to Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise in Paris. It started raining and finally I saw a mausoleum with people around and graffiti on the walls proclaiming how Jim is loved and lives on etc. It easily seemed the most popular tomb around and I photographed it and the music lovers from all angles. I am about to head out when I see an American tourist taking a picture of his boys in front of a comparatively small grave behind the tomb. Wondering whose grave it was, I check out the tombstone. Lo and behold! It was Jim Morrison’s! Having gone all the way to the cemetery, I had almost missed out the grave that I wanted to see. You can imagine how foolish I must have felt.

Anyways, back to Gwalior Fort: I sought out some of my favorite views of Vikram Mandir, ShahJahan Mahal and Karan Mahal.

I keep returning, hoping to find better, more dramatic light. Still have not found what I am looking for but hope remains. I am sure I will be back again, to relive the moments I have spent with near and dear ones while walking, playing around the monuments in the Fort. The clock keeps ticking as this very moment passes us by. ‘Dust in the wind’, indeed!

Driving on the road, my brother and I saw this group of horses on the hill.
My brother says -”wow brother! this is cool. You should take a picture of this. ”
And I want to stop too. So I ask – “Well, may I?”
W are on our way somewhere and I feel bad stopping in the middle.

So, I stop, take a few pictures and start back on the road. I am stopped at the traffic light when I see the horses running. The camera and the lens is still handy and I quickly shot three frames before the light turned green. I really wished I was not in the middle lane stopping the traffic.

I remember a poster I saw way back when in college which said – “To get the most out of life, paddle slowly.” Most of the times, it is not the destination but the journey that matters, don’t you think?

So, I look forward to sharing photos with folks much quicker than I could before on my website. Here’s a detail of a church photographed two days back.