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


Comments

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

    ReplyDelete
  4. What comparisons!
    Good read with pics. :)

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 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
  6. Very nice observation. Nice to read. Yes environment do affects one's behaviour/character.

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Polarity is a human creation... contrasts belong to nature.

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

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

      Delete
  9. "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. 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

Shooting an Elephant

George Orwell [1903-1950] We had an anthology of classical essays as part of our undergrad English course. Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell was one of the essays. The horror of political hegemony is the core theme of the essay. Orwell was a subdivisional police officer of the British Empire in Burma (today Myanmar) when he was forced to shoot an elephant. The elephant had gone musth (an Urdu term for the temporary insanity of male elephants when they are in need of a female) and Orwell was asked to control the commotion created by the giant creature. By the time Orwell reached with his gun, the elephant had become normal. Yet Orwell shot it. The first bullet stunned the animal, the second made him waver, and Orwell had to empty the entire magazine into the elephant’s body in order to put an end to its mammoth suffering. “He was dying,” writes Orwell, “very slowly and in great agony, but in some world remote from me where not even a bullet could damage him further…. It seeme...

Urban Naxal

Fiction “We have to guard against the urban Naxals who are the biggest threat to the nation’s unity today,” the Prime Minister was saying on the TV. He was addressing an audience that stood a hundred metres away for security reasons. It was the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel which the Prime Minister had sanctified as National Unity Day. “In order to usurp the Sardar from the Congress,” Mathew said. The clarification was meant for Alice, his niece who had landed from London a couple of days back.    Mathew had retired a few months back as a lecturer in sociology from the University of Kerala. He was known for his radical leftist views. He would be what the PM calls an urban Naxal. Alice knew that. Her mother, Mathew’s sister, had told her all about her learned uncle’s “leftist perversions.” “Your uncle thinks that he is a Messiah of the masses,” Alice’s mother had warned her before she left for India on a short holiday. “Don’t let him infiltrate your brai...

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...

Egregious

·       Donald Trump terminated all trade negotiations with Canada “based on their egregious behaviour.” ·       Pakistan has an egregious record of assassinations among its leaders. ·       Benjamin Netanyahu’s egregious disregard for civilian suffering has drawn widespread international condemnation. Now, look at the following sentences. ·       Archias is an egregious and most excellent man. [Cicero’s speech in 62 BCE] ·       “An egregious captain and most valiant soldier.” [Roger Ascham in 1545] U p to about 16 th century, the word egregious had a positive meaning: excellent or outstanding . Cicero was defending Greek poet Aulus Licinius Archias’s request for Roman citizenship. Archias had left his country out of disgust for the corruption of its Seleucid rulers. Ascham was speaking about the qualities of valiant soldiers when he used the ...