Of People and Places

Roosters- Crowquill and coloured drawing inks  The mud houses of Dhar  have this familiar sight of a cosy charpai under the shade of a tree in front of the house. These roosters were having something of a conference, firmly ensconced on the Charpai, turning suspicious beady eyes at me and my friend as we went for a pleasant morning walk to Dai ka mahal ( There is a Dai ki chhoti behen ka mahal too! :) I wish I had an entire building built just for me ) Mandu has five groups of monuments, each worth at least a day's worth of your time. We walked to what is known as the 'Sagar Talao Group of monuments' because it was closest to the hotel we were staying at. We saw the Caravan Sarai, Dai ka Mahal, Malik Mughith's mosque in the morning, since they cluster around close to each other. We stopped at a wayside tea stall to have chai and saw this cosy scene. The lady of the house was lighting up firewood to make some breakfast.  We went in the Winter so  it was a differ...

On the way back from Nashik to Pune by bus, we stopped at a wayside dhaba for tea. It was around four in the evening and a very beautiful windy day outside. I saw this unforgettable landscape - A goatherd in a red turban surrounded by the beautiful green of the countryside and the goats happily grazing near the trees. As the bus moved away, they almost disappeared until  I could see only a bright red speck in the distance with black dots hovering around it. 

 This is a little child who comes to play in the park near my house. This is the sight that greets me whenever I see her. One pigtail escaping from the tightly made braid folded into a prim little plait with red ribbons. Pinafore slightly askew. Socks drooping, shoes dusty and her red checkered shirt doing nothing to hold the freedom of her movements as she gleefully shouts and plays on the swing.  Her loose hair with its red ribbon flying in the wind looks like a little act of rebellion, wresting from the day all the free time that she has lost, running from her home to school and back. It is such a luxury for kids to have this kind of time. The Time to do nothing. As Bill Watterson ( creator Of Calvin and Hobbes) puts it, "The biggest gift my parents gave me was a lot of time. There was never a sense that I should be doing something else. That kind of time is just indispensable. It's not a luxury, it's an absolute requirement. You've got to mess around - it...

On the road to Thirthahalli from Shimoga, the beautiful Tunga river meanders along, its green water rippling gently in the stillness. We stop a little way further from the Sakkarebayalu elephant camp to get a closer look at the trees that float in the calm waters.   On the other side are dark woods that tower over us – true children of the rainforests around Agumbe. There is a  path among these woods I want to explore, but we are short of time. It is dusk and all colors are merging into shades of violet, umber and grey.   There is a little light reflected in the small clearing at the end of the path and the dense trees that surround it make it look like a halo. And from this clearing comes a man in a bicycle. It is a charming picture and one I hope to be able to put down on paper some day. The tangle of roots from the swamp makes for interesting shapes. There is one that looks like it is raising its arms to the sky.   They may look spooky in the night. A...