Gravity

"Why is thought, being a secretion of the brain, is more wonderful than gravity, a property of the matter?—Charles Darwin
(Ref: "Phantoms in the Brain"—V S Ramachandran; pp. 227)
(Links to: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; Calvin and Hobbes Cartoon)

"But, is gravity a property of matter or a product of secretion of brain!?"—Ganesh Bagler

Lunar Eclipse Snap

This is a multiple exposure snap of lunar eclipse that Amit Adhikari and I took from the terrace of "Abhigyan" (graduate student residence of CCMB, Hyderabad, India) with Amit's camera. 9th November 2003.

I am deliberately posting digitally concocted image processed in GIMP; which shows the way we actually intended to expose the film. :)

Why play?

This note is based on newspaper cuts from an interview of Indian ace badminton player Aparna Popat. She expresses a basic doubt that could cross the mind of practitioner of any similar discipline. That includes workers in science, sports; or in general anyone who, even at times, feels is caught in a rut.

While the context here is that of badminton, the "place of being" from where Aparna asks following question is quite universal and could easily be connected to. "What do we do in this game? We just seem to be hitting the shuttle again and again for 10 or 15 years!" Essentially asking, Why play?

Almost as an answer to the question Aparna says, "No two strokes are ever the same; no two points are ever the same. You are constantly playing mind games with the opponent and that's the fun of it. Otherwise, it would be very boring."

Ganesh Bagler (20 January 2004; CCMB Diary Notes)

Ask me

Ask me not where all I've been,

Ask me where do I come from;

Ask me not what all I've seen,

Ask me what I hold within.

                                     —Ganesh Bagler 

पुछो ना हमसे हम आयें कहाँसे,
पुछो नज़ारे क्या देखे हैं हमने;
ना पुछो क्या-क्या गुजरी हैं हमपे,
ये पुछो क्या-कुछ समेटा है हमने,
हर इक कदम पे.

                     —गणेश बागलेर

shade of innocence

Carpe Diem

Poem: मेरा जहाँ (My World)

This one took a while to encapsulate my feelings. Starting from the scribblings while traveling in the U-bahn and buses (M48, 272) in Berlin, to all the way to Himalayas. That's the kind of journey it took me to bring it to its present form.

These lines reflect the inner turbulence, difficulty in coping with the external reality at times and the hope of conquering through all this, ultimately, reaching "my own world".

मेरा जहाँ

जीना हैं मुश्किल,
इस महफ़िल में दोस्त,
हैं सामने कोई मेरे,
ये कोई और तो नहीं?

खोया हूँ रात-दिन,
ख्वाबों कि दुनिया में,
मिलतें हैं लोग जो,
कहीं सच तो वो नहीं?

लड़ता हूँ तूफानोंको,
लिए अपने-आप में,
ढूँढता हूँ इक मंजिल,
वो है भी, या नहीं?

होगा इक जहाँ,
मेरा भी तो कहीं,
तुफानोंका मेरे,
होगा मकाँ वहीँ.

(Aug—Sept 2009, Berlin; May 2010, India; Ganesh Bagler)