Where the Sun God Dwells

Sunbeams out of the clouds
Faith out of all my doubt.~Terri Guillemets

Castles in the air

Lights

Demigodified

                To the external eye they are geniuses. They make ground breaking discoveries and create new ideas. Ideas that steer the course of huge industries. And thereby the life of all around them. Ideas that are revolutionary. Ideas that made it possible for the man earning daily wages in the factory to take a packet of bread home to his little girl. Ideas that made politicians talk endlessly about 'global warming' and led social activists to take up pluck cards painted elaborately with ''SAVE EARTH: Its the only blue planet." No one okay lets admit it, may be except for one or two know about the years of work that spiral into manifestos. But the fact remains that the majority didn't care to find out. Because they didn't concern themselves about the details.

The Wait

Again He came.  And again I was waiting. This wait never seemed to end. Every time he came, my mind filled with hope and anxiety. Something within me would hold on to the last branch never letting go, like the last leaf of autumn. Through all the hope, anxiety and pain my soul  would be dancing and prancing around like the gazelle in the Book of Songs. Springing around through an unseen  pasture happy to have found new freedom. There was this joy which I acknowledged and subdued yet which for the sheer intensity  of it seemed to scream out its presence.

In The Wild

In this post I take you through some of the animals and birds housed at the Trivandrum Zoo. Thiruvananthapuram has one of the oldest zoos spread over 55 acres of royalty bought land. It was Swathi Thirunaal Rama Varma who who first established the idea through a personalized collection for exhibiting his wild stock. Having more than 82 species the zoo makes an interesting walk through shaded cool parks and lakes, the only one of its kind to be found anywhere in the bustling city.

Here, I have shown just a couple of the animals and avian species of the many looked after on the premises. Rhinoceroses, Hippopotamuses, pelicans, a large herds of beautiful deer, the Gigantic Ostrich , wide variety of snakes, Parrots and Parakeets can all be seen here. It is just the place for an educational little afternoon stop over on your trip to Business trip to the economic hub of Kerala, Trivandrum.

The witch's tree

Wat' u looking at, huh?

Oh please no, I am just too shy :)

The Expanse

Looking Beyond Confines

Abstract

Freedom

Gestures

Memorials Past and Present 

Kanakakunnu Palace

Ormayile Oru Kottaram

Nishabdadakal Samsarikkumbol

Verodukal

Kaalathinde Kaalchovudukal

Neeyam Thanalil

Maanjupokumi Samskaram

Royalty Speaking

Standing tall-the tallest national flag in India

Unto thee

We all look up, what are we  really looking for?

The most amazing thing about being in a new city is obviously the new smell and new sights. After a routine to which we get accustomed our senses savor all the novel experiences with a primitive vigor that which we hadn't even realized existed in us. For the rural dweller the humdrum of the city bring welcome excitement and opens new avenues to learn the ways of the modern. For those who chose to escape the city a tranquil and silent get away is the most sought after. But whichever shoes you would like to adorn the place brings out a new you. 

    

 In one of my such renewing experiences I found a new side to my existence. My inner quest for peace. I come from a normal family where parents are devout Catholics. And as can be expected I am time and again grilled for my seeming disinterest in a prayerful life. No, I am not an atheist but neither do I believe that that power of creation would expect me to call upon him a hundred times a day to get me the new vintage collection up at that store in the middle of this new place. I pray, that is to say I thank that power that preserved me, the power which kept me from getting into bed at the end of the day sad and lost. But that's that. Any way the point is coming from such a family and more out of routine as soon as I reach a new place I look for the nearest church where I can 'keep my Sabbath Holy'.  Upon venturing out I found the nearest one to be as far as 7 Km. It took me by surprise as I come from a place where you can find one at every corner, literally. Well when I did find one I managed to find out the timings for the Holy mass as I am not the one to make hastily into one and find myself deprived of the satisfaction. Yes, I do find a sort of satisfaction after my Sabbath offering. A sort of belonging, a sense of preservation. But what I found that day was none of them who attended seemed to take in the full meaning of their act, if not in a religious manner at least in a manner that becomes the search for God or that inner peace . How could they? They were city dwellers. Rushing in  just in time for the Eucharist and even without a moment of thought let alone wait for the final blessings running out to get the bus home.! 

What I felt back then was how then could man not succumb to sin or crime (for that atheist in us) when he had neither time nor the will to pause and wonder about what he did right and what he could have made right. If not for the society at least for  himself. To be able to get into bed with a calm mind with the sense of contentment that we all look so much for. So many flock to places of religious worship yet why do they not find that peace when getting into bed at the end of the day. Why are 92% of the people unable to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for all that which went well.

The solution to all the madness that we face must perhaps lie in this little act, and more upon the will to get to it. No it wasn't the pursuit of happiness that made unhappy men but instead the lack of pursuit for the real inner self that made people unhappy. A moment to stay calm and to evaluate 'what I really wanted, what I got and what I could make of that which I got' could do the trick. This thought process instills a lot of positive energy and gives the much needed drive to enter the new day motivated and planned. And success is definitely the outcome of calm planning and steady work.

And all it takes is a moment of self evaluation.  Perhaps Pablo Neruda was really a genius. If only we took a moment for keeping quite.

People flock to worship, but do they?

Courting History

A new spring

Sun and Shade

City lights

The Sands of Time

Man and the sea

Spanish nostalgia

Shadows

Opened Heavens

Eternal Shadows

I fell. I staggered up.
But fell again.
I turned,
and there was this thing.
Looked closer and there it was.
My shadow.
I got up.Walked.
Then ran.

I turned back.
No shadow.
I fell.

Soothing, eternal darkness.