This Article appeared in Speaking Tree on 24th June 2018 Listening to ‘Moko kahan dhoondhe re bande’ by Kabir in Bhupender’s voice on Vividh Bharti’s non-film song programme in childhood is one of my very fond memories. In the school curriculum too, the poetry of Kabir was easiest to memorise, one...
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An Art teacher I had once approached to learn Calligraphy advised me to “share only that which is from my own garden”. He even wanted me not to paint Sufi dancers; just focus on painting Hindu deities! It was like someone was denying me access to Rumi. Can the beauty of a mystic be denied to those...
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Is there another personification of peace as inspiring as the Buddha, wonders artist ANNU KALRA… Buddhism has often baffled me. Buddhists do not believe in the existence of any eternal soul, yet there are Jataka kathas about the previous lives of Gautama the Buddha, both in human as well as...
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When the weary body rests in deep sleep, the true self rises to merge with its source and rest for a while. Upon awakening the same body –mind feels recharged, rejuvenated. Ready again to face the trials and tribulations of the manifest world. While we may seek pleasurable experiences and seek to...
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Shani or Saturn is one of the most feared planets in the Horoscope. Typically most people in power are feared, but the ones who do not succumb to sycophancy are feared even more. Shani is one such entity. He creates extreme circumstances in people lives where they are tried incessantly and they...
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As a young kid watching mythological films and serials one thing that used to disturb me the most was the portrayal of Hanuman in Ramayan. I couldn’t understand what I thought was the servile attitude of the supposedly most powerful monkey man. This really powerful monkey man was shown singing...
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My very dear friend complained this morning about my lack of response on a post she had recently done about the lynching of the man in Dadri for allegedly eating beef, cow slaughter and the upheaval in all echelons of society, especially the targeting of a certain section of society based on their...
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Yes, Varanasi is the holy city, the oldest continuous city of the world, the city where every deity from every faith has representation, the city where people go to die, the city where there are crematoriums where the fire of the funeral pyre has not gotten extinguished in over a hundred years,...
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Yes, it sounds like an oxymoron. Cause typically surrender means to give up, especially in the face of circumstances where there is no strength or resources left to fight any more. Like a meek acceptance of recognition of lack of ability to go on. Like a last resort to salvage what one can of an...
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From the 17th of July 2015 begin the Ashadha Navratri, also known as Gupt Navratri and also as the Gayatri Navaratri. These are not the days when you will find special thali meals for those observing the fast at fast food chains. Neither are these days for delighting in dance and revelry in the...
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Sitting around Babaji, though unable to decipher the reason why, we were all feeling light and happy. In the contrasting setting of modern women clad in jeans and this starkly dressed Kapali Baba, the discussion of relevance of fasting in modern times ensued. While none of us had any issue with...
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Ten days back when my Ma was getting discharged from the hospital, the nurse was emptying the drawers in the table next to her bed, putting all the medicines she would need over the next few days in a bag and disposing off unnecessary stuff, empty bottles etc. There was this brand new lone syringe...
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