SAPIENS

When it comes to reading I am finicky and a turtle because it takes me through ages to travel till the end. I think my residence time with every new chapter is too high because my mind is too much analytical to let it go and grasp it without any argument. "Sapiens" is one such book. But this time I am taking long time since with its every new angle I get transported to the era it talks about. From a four legged animal to forager, from a nomad to a cultivator, from a farmer to modern man...well slowness is in our genes as he says.....it's not my fault but inheritance.....

Anyways, this book is a keeper. It just fires the hay of curiosity to let it burn till the figment of our imagination reaches its limit. Without much of a fictional drama, it has connected so many dots that validates our existence and lifestyle. It explains what must have happened back then that led to biological transformations in different periods of time with reasons behind our emotional and social behaviour, our cravings, our desires, our nature...

We are the evolute of a female ape that delivered two daughters one of which became the ancestor of Chimpanzees and the other is our grandmother ..... who became the first of first men to write down the history.....

Well these theories of evolution based upon the research and samples obtained from  the remains of history have tried to visualise something that happened millions of years ago...it's definitely beyond our power to believe and construe but the author and his depictions assist us in following...He talks about the co-existence of different genes of Homos at the same time in different parts of the world but see the travesty Homo Sapiens managed to survive these centuries in such a way that today no person of any different general code is available on this big planet. Now whether their survival was due to their resilience towards natural challenges or due to their cataclysmic instincts that erased the existence of all other kinds is still not proven......But somehow it explains the inherent snobbish behaviour of humans were they treat themselves to be at the top of the world ..the greatest creation of nature....despite the fact that when we started off....we were among the bottom zones of the food cycle.........We do not compromise...we do not adjust...we do not share....we stand alone.. try to be above all.....that led us to be away from our past...in the jungles of concrete land..but we are still unable to defeat our cravings to walk on the grass, touch a green leaf, be in the aegis of Savannah.........Now that doesn't sound weird now........

If I continue writing bout the topics and angles he has tried to put in his book, I would certainly fail.....I have so far enjoyed the company of SAPIENS..it helps me in teleporting...in connecting with the Realities of reality........

Feed me, she says

I am famished, says my literary soul and I have no idea how to feed her. I am truly clueless, completely under the control of external forces. 

The only thing to which my true spirit is connected is her and not me who is just a medium......to survive.

Every personality has its own light, however it easily gets shadowed....and intimidated in the company of other personalities and cloud of daily events. The moment one understands and discovers his subdued light, he outshines every other and that is where his penny is dropped....and he becomes unstoppable. My light is in the words I use to ink my feelings, in the strokes of my brush that I use to paint down my mind... Time and again, they need to be de-dusted .......to drill out the flair that is pushed everyday a little bit towards the rock bottom.....

Today is the last day of the week, Saturday...Sunday is gaping with lots of expectations from me to make it fulfilling and rejuvenate my inner me for enduring the next week...I hope it ends well...with a contented heart and a lighter soul.......

One seat

Train anxieties are intriguing. They discover some of the most mysterious sides of us which remain hidden in our daily chores. They are of  many kinds. Lets have a look on some of the most common feelings(I guess) everyone of us must have experienced while travelling in Indian trains which carry not only humans but stories......many interesting stories....

Suppose you board a train in your reserved compartment, eagerly searching for the allotted seat numbers and finally when you find it,you see,it is luxuriously being enjoyed by some stranger as if he was born on that seat. And you ask,

 " Excuse me where is your seat?" 

Sometimes they smile, sometimes they don't rather accuse you through their looks for encroaching their freedom of sleeping and basking. But usually they reply back with some unsaid or fumbled or entwined words leaving just a portion of our very own seat. Even in cases where the unwanted person tries to be friendly, genuinely, our instincts say it is for their interest to borrow some more time there. And many times they succeed in doing that because we fail to move them out. But until they get up because of any reason, my mini me keeps pestering me, 

" Is it okay to be generous and let him be for the sake of humanity? Or Should I rudely ask him to switch or get away because I am not interested in socializing? Should I be humble and polite or authoritative to get things done? " This small and trivial incident instigates my entire personality for what kind of person am I? In that short period, that one seat becomes my prized possession like a life time earned property on which I cannot bear any share. 

It all depends on the situation, the type of person he is and the type of person I want to play with him/her. It all comes spontaneously. But in every case, at the end, it proves one thing, we humans get attached to any thing very easily and for the sake of the attachment that makes us comfortable we often forget who we truly are...........One seat and all this fuss in mind...well this mind deserves better...

Palette

It has been again very long.As a usual trait of procrastination, filled with gluttonous matter to write about, let me quickly post some of the recent paintings as an elixir to the weight of my head....

Krishna

peacock on the railing

3 little angels

Recent colors

Before I display the diorama of my newly developed garden and the decor of my home let me first fill the backlogs of my recent paintings that this space has missed. Oil paint that calls for an exaggerated patience has been kept aside after I painted Buddha and a lady going to temple. Acrylic gives quick results and hence has been the medium for all the recent paintings I have completed in last few months. I am getting better at the mingle effects with practice with acrylics. Initially they seemed stiff and adamant to get diluted leaving marks of strokes. But gradually I am getting into techniques I guess. let us have a tour of these colorful portrayals which are already hung on the walls of my home.....

 This one is the latest creation. I have always been fascinated towards such kind of mythological, story telling, captivating paintings that contain a serenity in the expressions of the characters and a surreal landscape. Depicting the selfless bond of love between Krishna and Radha that involves her demands and his pampers, where there is a contentment in their sharing and a sense of peace in each facet of their friendship.

An abstract of Radha-Krishna with dry brush strokes depicting all kind of emotions: Love, compassion, anger, friendship, devotion and reverence....

A gift to my brother on his engagement. A peep into the past, taken from the alleys of childhood where we are unknown to the fact what we would grow into. Where we don't even bother of the future and wear a carefree mood of fun and laughter always. Those days seem bygone.....

Another trial of Buddha midst of the noise of outer world seeking silence and peace.......

The whisperer

Friends

Glamour of royalty

Amer Fort

The personal corner of the house that entertains in ma 'me' time.. 

The sultry look-She might be coming from an Arabic land with a strength in her eyes and an unbeatable compassion in bewitching looks...

While traversing the nature at times, it is least intervened when it comes out in its purest form..... The faith and devotion offered in these moments strike the deepest core of the soul and silence brings serenity..

Back with a pen

What else could be the best time to revisit my own blog after a long break in the beginning of a new year with an undeclared but self proclaimed resolution that I will re-vitalize my writing to keep me breathing with sighs of contentment. Actually this time due to non-availability of network and of course absence of me most of the times left this blog with no posts since months. Internet and connectivity with the outer world has become the topmost priority for everyone today making us feel alive among our friends and family. The moment I reach my office I log on to my network and become available for all those who also might be sitting somewhere with their screens on. The moment I come back home, I get to my phone for any text messages or updates on social sites. All these trends of the day alias distractions have made me an impostor who is stealing away the true self. And the tragedies with books is the greatest. Recently I heard Gulzar, the famous enchanted Indian lyricist reading some of his lines on how we have distanced our tiny little happiness that we used to receive every now and then after technology took over. About how books plea from behind the dusty glasses of the cupboard for being read. About how we have forgotten the charm of finding out an old letter or a note or some shrivelled flower that always spoke of some old story close to the heart. It is really painful to find ourselves in the ocean of digressions where we we find no harmony in what we think and what we do, in what we speak and what we seek.

About being away from the true self, I guess there may be many reasons. Many times we feel that there is a mystic silence in the mind, where we strive to think something but still no sign of any thought is revealed. And sometimes a whole cobweb of thoughts each fighting for their revelations come up making the brain to explode. In both the cases, I get the realization that I need to clear my head from the dust that flies from outside over the days. And this can only be done by either penning them down here or putting them on canvas. A light, fresh and new breeze follows keeping every thing back in place which few time back seemed scattered and tangled.

So as of now this post has washed off a bit of my load that I was carrying. Tomorrow is Weekend and I guess I will get plenty of stuff to stuff here. Signing off with a quote before I fall in slumber," There is lot unknown, lot undiscovered, lot un-realized, so keep looking for adventures in life, keep beading your experiences to make a strong trail of beliefs, keep adding radiance to your soul, keep improving!!!"

Learning Oil

Oil Paints are really testing me out. It is tough to be patient knowing that its effect can be marvelous. I always wanted to paint Buddha who seems to be a source of calmness, peace, knowledge and eternal light. Though it is not as I thought. Painting shall get better with more strokes I guess. The only thing that bothers is that the oil being used for the purpose empties out from the bottle very frequently. Buddhism is an interesting legacy that I would like to read. Inspired from my own painting I wish to paint many more Buddhas..........