Skip to main content

Desolation


Some gates thrust upon us an impression of desolation. They may be left open, but they don't invite; rather, they repulse.  It's not the Nature with her trees and plants or even its aridity that repulses; it's the gate in such a place; a gate that looks out of place; a gate that doesn't look like a gate!


Take a look around and you realise that you are not alone.  There is another creature that looks forlorn too.  Its company is no consolation.


Nor does it seem interested in your company.  Maybe, it's looking for something to eat.  A little water to drink.  A shelter from the heat of the summer sun in Delhi.  Is it wondering, like you, what we have done to the planet?  Why did we make such a hell out of it?  Why couldn't we get along together like the passengers on a train... knowing that the journey will end anyway?


No, it's not interested in your company.  "Good bye."


PS. All the pictures were taken this afternoon from one of the rear windows of my residence.

Comments

  1. nice clicks and stronger depiction !! :) lucky u .. still have so much greenery and wild life(should i say.. coz i dont see them that often in my part of the country :) ) around your house :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, in a way I'm lucky. Very few people in Delhi can afford the luxury of so much greenery in their backyard.

      Delete
  2. It's so poetic.Like the lovely pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Some gates thrust upon us an impression of desolation. They may be left open, but they don't invite; rather, they repulse. - This speaks to me on so many levels. Thank you for the wonderful post today.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A beautiful poetic-prose, Matheikal. Yes, human beings are most likely the biggest threat to many animals, so they have reasons to react/ think that way. Nice blog.
    Brilliant pics.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Without the humans around, the planet would have been a far better place. But planets too have tragedies to narrate!

      Delete
  5. Humans should have stayed the way they were! as Monkeys! nice pictures!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right Jayant. The evolution was not so good for the planet!

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. Thanks, Namrota. Hope to see you here more frequently.

      Delete
  7. My takeaway is "Monkey see, monkey not do!"

    I do not believe this is a stand-alone post; I think you took the photographs with the post in mind. Perhaps a series in the offing? Many more photographs where these came from? I am curious.

    I am not exactly sure I agree with sentiments about human beings despoiling nature etc. as espoused in some of the comments. But, that is for a different time and space.

    RE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The post was not at all meant to be about human beings ravaging the nature. You are absolutely right, Raghuram, about that. The very opening sentence of the post sets the theme... and, yes, I have much, much more to say about it. I can (and most probably will) write a book about it...

      Delete
  8. Peaceful coexistence doesn't exist. We have made a hell out of this beautiful planet and each day we are getting worse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. People don't want any peaceful coexistence, Saru. Strife is an entertainment!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

The Vegetarian

Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...

The RSS does not exist

An organisation that has 80,000 branches in India does not exist legally in any document. This is the cover story of The Caravan this month. By the way, The Caravan is one of the very few publications that still continues to exist in spite of being overtly critical of Narendra Modi and his Sangh Parivar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is not registered as an organisation under any of the usual Indian registration laws such as the Societies Registration Act or as a trust or company. It functions as an unregistered voluntary organisation, though it is arguably the largest public organisation in the country. This situation makes the organisation absolutely unaccountable to anyone, argues The Caravan . The RSS is not legally required to file annual returns to the Tax department or disclose its financial details publicly though it deals with thousands of crores of rupees every year especially after Modi became the Prime Minister of the country. The membership of the organisat...

No Problems Only Opportunities

You’ve probably heard this joke. A young man walked into his office one morning and found a beautiful young lady sitting in his chair. He called the MD and said, “Sir, I have a problem.” The MD replied, “Don’t you know our company’s motto, young man? No Problems, Only Opportunities .” When Suchita of The Blogchatter sent me a mail with the topic of this week’s blog hop –  - the first thing that came to my mind was the above joke. I know many people – too many, in fact – who went through terrible problems. My own life was a series of problems in none of which was there the consolation of any beautiful woman. One essential lesson I learnt from life is that life is a series of problems. You solve one and then arises the next one. Now I have reached an age when problems are no more problems: they are life itself. If you ask me what was the biggest problem I ever dealt with, it was my last years in Shillong. I was a lecturer in a college drawing a fat salary stipulated by the U...