Skip to main content

Contrasts

Yellowing vs Greening
Winter gives way to summer in Delhi without an intervening spring.  That's, perhaps, why Nirad C Choudhuri wrote in The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian that life in the Indo-Gangetic plains saps vitality.  I took the following pictures this morning, vital Sunday for me, from my surroundings.  The changes in the environment in Delhi always fascinate me: they are as quick (pun intended) as the denizens of the place.  Does the environment affect people's character?


Fresh vs Stale
Vitality strives





I count myself fortunate to be living in such surroundings.  But I also know that surroundings are not always one's choice.  They may be a gift, an evanescent gift.


Top post on IndiBlogger.in, the community of Indian Bloggers


Labels:

Comments

  1. Sunil DeepakMarch 9, 2014 at 11:32 AM

    It is not true that Delhi does not have spring! January and early February are the days of spring and flowers. March is already hot :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 9, 2014 at 1:46 PM

    Divine intervention, luck are all terms that we can use but the point is that not everybody gets to be in such great surroundings. Sir you are lucky.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMarch 9, 2014 at 2:13 PM

    i liked fresh vs stale... maybe the word "stale" is a little out of place... how about new vs old ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ritesh AgarwalMarch 9, 2014 at 3:32 PM

    Some deep observations there

    ReplyDelete
  5. IndraniMarch 9, 2014 at 8:25 PM

    What comparisons!
    Good read with pics. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownMarch 9, 2014 at 8:27 PM

    These captures are great indeed. However, I would really wanna know someday, does the environment affect people's character?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 9, 2014 at 8:43 PM

      Of course, Namrata, the environment certainly influences one's character. Living in a place with a lot of space around you would be entirely different from living in a crowded place, for example.

      Delete
  7. UnknownMarch 10, 2014 at 10:30 AM

    Very nice observation. Nice to read. Yes environment do affects one's behaviour/character.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ManiparnaMarch 10, 2014 at 10:38 AM

    all the pictures really are revealing the contrast...our life is full of that..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 10, 2014 at 5:44 PM

      Polarity is a human creation... contrasts belong to nature.

      Delete
  9. UnknownMarch 11, 2014 at 11:30 AM

    I couldn't help but notice that in every pic, you had old dying tree and fresh green trees togehter :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 11, 2014 at 11:58 AM

      That's the contrast, Pankti. Nature is constantly dying and being reborn...

      Delete
  10. Jeena R. PapaadiMarch 12, 2014 at 9:10 AM

    "without an intervening spring" - same story out here in Bangalore, and I was reminded of the blog I posted last year: http://navy-blue-jeans.blogspot.in/2013/02/spring.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 12, 2014 at 8:17 PM

      Spring has to disappear from cities. Destiny. Of the planet. The planet belongs to ...

      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
47 comments
Read more

Two Nuns and two questions

The nuns kept in custody  Two Catholic nuns were arrested on 25 July 2025 at Durg railway station for allegedly trafficking tribal women from Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh to Agra in UP. Today’s newspapers in Kerala have expressed their contempt of the act more vehemently than I had expected. It seems secularism has hope yet in this country. For those who are not aware of the incident, two nuns were arrested because some criminals of a depraved organisation called Bajrang Dal in Chhattisgarh chose to conclude that the nuns were committing the crime of human-trafficking. Since that charge wouldn’t stick, because the women confessed that they were going voluntarily to take up jobs with the help of the nuns in order to raise their families from miserable poverty in a country that claims to be a $5-tillion-economy, another charge was fabricated that the nuns had indulged in religious conversion. Now let us look at certain facts. Though I keep questioning the Christian churches for...
8 comments
Read more

Missing Women of Dharmasthala

The entrance to the temple Dharmasthala:  The Shadows Behind the Sanctum Ananya Bhatt, a young medical student from Manipal, visited the Dharmasthala Temple and she never returned to her hostel. She vanished without a trace. That was in 2003. Her mother, Sujata Bhatt, a stenographer working with the CBI, rushed to the temple town in search of her daughter. Some residents told her that they had seen Ananya walking with the temple officials. The local police refused to help in any way. Soon Sujata was abducted by three men, assaulted, and rendered unconscious. She woke up months later in a hospital in Bangalore (Bengaluru). Now more than two decades later, she is back in the temple premises to find her daughter’s remains and perform her last rites. Because a former sanitation worker of the temple came to the local court a few days back with a human skeleton and the confession that he had buried countless schoolgirls in uniform and other young women in the temple premises. This ma...
22 comments
Read more

The Chhattisgarh Story

Deforestation in Chhattisgarh Kerala’s Catholic Church is teeming with rage these days because of the arrest of two nuns in Chhattisgarh on false charges. No one seems to understand the real politics behind the Modi government’s enmity towards Christian missionaries in Chhattisgarh as well as other backward states in its neighbourhood. Modi is selling the tribal areas and forestlands to the corporate sector part by part, his friend Adani being the chief benefactor. The Christian missionaries are a severe hindrance in that commerce. Let us get some facts right, at least. The Adivasi villagers allege that Gram Sabhas (local governing bodies) were forged or manipulated under pressure from Adani and the BJP government officials in order to take away their lands. In Hasdeo Aranya, minutes of the local body meetings were altered to show the villagers’ consent for land transfers. Also, the Chhattisgarh Scheduled Tribes Commission found that Panchayat secretaries were detained and coerc...
8 comments
Read more

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...
18 comments
Read more