Nature Photography

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Capturing Imagination

“Daddy, that’s a loudspeaker!” exclaimed a younger me. I had drawn a huge triangular shape on a large A1 sheet. It was a 5 year old’s delineation of a rusty ‘Ahuja’ trumpet horn speaker. I found trumpet horn speakers fascinating. They are conical structures with a tapered frustum protruding from within them. These days you would only find them hanging atop railway platforms used to announce vital train stats. I wondered how they could produce such loud volume that reverberated through an entire field. Dad used to provide innumerous drawing sheets and color crayons so I could portray my imagination on the sheets. He used to say “This is real learning.” Time flew, I grew.

I developed the habit of painting in my early childhood. Though I wasn’t a good painter in any sense, but I was given a small area of freedom of expression. I was given the clean white sheet which was mine. I could draw anything on it, just anything. That could be a hat, a cat, a dog, a car or any whiskery person I found captivating on the road. So I tried mastering the art. Mum and Dad invigorated me to follow my intuition and draw just anything I liked. This is how it should always be. When I’ll become a father, I’ll make sure I fully equip my children with tools that they can use to express themselves. Times will change and the medium will change, but they will keep on innovating and inventing as they would not fear to tread the untrodden.

From the past few months, I had been researching quite a lot about DSLR cameras online. I watched YouTube clips where filmmakers sought to DSLRs to create some film sequences. I was glued to how they could take studio quality photos and documentary style movie. I have always had the creative soul inside me. Always wanted to create things with tools that I found enchanting. I had stopped painting long back, and was very idle since past few months. I didn’t write for the blog, didn’t research on anything new. I wanted a new passion that I could develop. So I had the urge to have one. I called dad and asked him. He assured me that he would get one for me during the Puja holidays. I was happy. I was finally getting a new tool.

By a certain turn of events, dad told me that he couldn’t get me the DSLR. I was gloomy. It felt like I was denied my freedom of expression. I requested him if he could reconsider my plea. He just asked for time. And I had none. If I have an urge, and I train my brain that I can’t have it, then my faith on the idea is prone to flinching and wavering. But something about this passion endured it. I was losing sanity at the thought that I really wouldn’t have it. I was looking too hard for a silver lining but could find none. Being a father is not easy. Dad somehow detected that I badly needed it.

So dad surprised me by gifting me a Canon EOS 700D. My first DSLR. Thank you dad. Thank you for keeping the flame of creativity alive inside me. On our way back home with the DSLR, dad enquired me, “Remember the time in your childhood you used to waste the outsized A1 sheet sketching huge triangular shapes and called them loudspeakers?” I blurted “Yes dad.” He said, “I used to provide you them so you could always keep on expressing yourself and I made sure you never ran out of sheets.” “This DSLR is just another such sheet. So go ahead and capture your imagination.” It was one of those exultant moments that I wouldn’t forget the rest of my life.

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Being Human!

Today I watched a poignant movie which deeply fascinated me. Any guesses which one it could be?

It wasn't any Bollywood melodrama piece or a Hollywood tale of romance. It was about us, Humans!

‘Human’ is an authentic movie, directed by an artist and filmmaker, Yann Arthus Bertrand; led by two nonprofit organizations: Bettencourt Schueller and Good Planet Foundation. Based on unique thoughts, this movie delicately portrays the in-numerous human lives and emotions: their tears, laughter and fears, etc… across the globe with a quest for the answer to an imperceptible question ‘what makes us human?’

For three years, he traveled to around sixty countries, meeting new people, comprehending their hopes and struggles and capturing those precious moments, making the whole process worthwhile.

The movie comprises of interviews of some eminent persons like Cameron Diaz who talks about her incredible career and shares her learning experiences since childhood. She also discloses her hardest times when she lost her father. Other than her, there were others like Jose Mujica, the former president of Uruguay who discusses about his struggles to bring a transformation in the society towards upliftment. He talks about his setbacks and the enduring fortitude to still strive for it. He meticulously describes that the true essence of happiness lies within and why in this consumer society, sobriety is essential.

While it was emotional to watch some fearless souls like Francine Christopher share her experience of the concentration camps, during the Hitler reign (It was deeply moving to see that old lady speak about their heart rending moments as they struggled to survive each day), there were others who expressed the true value of love and joy which resides in the simplest pleasures.

The pertinent questions regarding sorrow, happiness, frustration, a human undergoes everyday and their indubitable, gripping answers, portrayed in unforgettable ways will leave your soul engrossed to the core.

There were uncountable touching tales which couldn't be sufficed or restrained in a piece of paper but can only be understood and sensed through the eyes.

Click here to watch :https://humanthemovie.withgoogle.com/

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To Chaos

One of those days when you wake up to this eerie feeling of nothingness. And yet, you have a lot in your head. There’s your friend you’re thinking about, the assignments that the professor gave you the other day, the frenzied atmosphere in the club you’re in, the blog post you’ve left undone for so many days. There’s just a lot of noise in our lives. Not between your ears, but inside your brain. No matter where you go, the noise keeps chasing you. It’s a blurry distorted kind of noise. It’s the kind of noise that you see in old television sets when some channel goes off air for some time, when there’s a transitory rain or a thunderstorm. The channel gets back on air after a while, only the clouds in our life don’t disappear effortlessly. That noise is fondly called chaos.  

Were we really so complicated when we were kids? I guess not. We were busy watching our favorite cartoon shows on TV and were too occupied weaving the life in our dreams. We were real thinkers, and questioned a hell lot of things. We grew up when we found the answers to most of our questions. We started becoming complacent and indifferent towards ourselves and stopped questioning life. That’s when we experienced the noise for the first time. From then, it has become an inconsequential yet irritable part of our lives. While some choose to live with it, some deny having it, others find ways to get rid of it.

Who’s chasing whom? Is the noise chasing you? Or are you chasing the noise? There’s a small yet substantial line between the two. If something’s worrying you for the past few days and you haven’t been able to do a thing about it, then your case is the former. The noise chases you as you inch towards your deadline. You become too anxious about the outcome and give up to the noise to take over you.  Conversely, you are chasing the noise when you know something is impending, probably bad, but you become too unconcerned and keep on doing it anyway. That’s when you invite the noise to come and take over. 

Is there a solution?

Oh yes! In fact two simple steps.

Step 1: Acceptance. Most of us young adults lack this virtue. The first step to solving every problem is acceptance. Accepting that we have a problem makes it easier to find ways to solve it. We are so full of activity that we always stay in a state of denial. We feel what’s a little deviating from normal is nothing short of just mundane and to be dealt with casually. This is a way to complicate our lives further. I feel, sometimes it is better to freak out. Let your emotions take over you and your inner conscience scream on top of its voice. Listen to it, and not just hear it because when you heed to the pangs of your conscience, you’ll know yourself much better.

Step 2: Keeping busy. We can avoid pointless commotion by keeping busy in doing things we love. That would help in diverting ourselves to something productive. We could join a club, participate in events, play a sport or take up a project and develop our skill set by investing time in such ventures. This would also guarantee mental and emotional satisfaction and shield us from chaos. 

Have a chaos free day.

Happy Raksha Bandhan: A celebration of the devout bond between a brother and a sister. The brother commits to take care of his sister all his life and beyond, while the sister ties a knot of colorful thread on her brother’s wrist. The knot is a symbol of eternal love, respect, vigor and vitality. Shilpa and Siwalik wish you all a Happy Raksha Bandhan on behalf of Dreamscape.

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A soldier's Wife

Happy Independence day!
A tribute to all the soldiers and their families, who sacrifice their lives to protect our motherland and keep us safe!

She stood silently

Watching him go

All he could do was ignore

All the tears that flew

From their eyes

But he had to walk away

From her side

Because he could no more be her guide

Even though the pain was crushing him from inside

Clenching his throbbing heart, bleeding

He walked till the other side of the road

An inexplicable helplessness vanquishing him that couldn’t be cured.

He didn't turn back even once.

Because he knew if he did even once

He won’t be able to part his ways

He felt too weak to bear the excruciating pain

He knew how she must be looking at his back

Sobbing silently as the time pass

But his mother was calling him

His duty, the only way to repay the debt

He knew, though devastated, she will never object.

Because she loved him way too much

As innocent as white lily was her love

Fresh like a morning dew, her presence gleamed

He blissfully aware how lucky she made him feel

She deserved more, his heart sighed

But all she got was a bunch of painful moments

And a fake promise of togetherness

When he came and went like a wind

Leaving her alone on her own

 A creeping guilt engulfed his conscience

This time he might not even return alive

His heart ached

A brutal truth left unsaid

But he had to go for her mother’s sake

He wished to rewind those moments

He wished to turn back once to gaze at her beautiful wife’s face

A tear escaped from his eyes

As he know it’s too late now to rewind

Now he is left with only memories

All he could hope that

Without him, she will learn to survive

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The Guest

The moments of despondency

Mystifying her soul

Whirled its course

Leaving the print of its hushed trails

For him to supervene

Overlooking the scars

The wind blew fading them away

As the years passed like a cupid’s arrow

The abysmal wait for the familiar guest

Continued like an infinite string of memories

Borne out of grief

 Making her young feet tad old

Her fingers, rosy white to pale yellow

She still ardently waited for the knock at her door

Her prudence and composure grew more and more

Hoping for the guest to arrive soon

But time is wild like an untamable fire

Unstoppable, endless like human desires

Time flew like a nonchalant bird

Testing her endurance

As she craved for her twin soul

 But one winter day, she peeped out of the window

Watching the snowflakes dancing in a insouciant way

She had put a hackneyed cassette in the stereo

As she rested on the old rickety arm chair

 Listening to their favourite songs

Reminiscing over the veteran thoughts

Flipping them one by one carefully

Like the pages of an archaic diary

The cold wind rushed through the window

Making the curtains swirl in a monotonous tune

Touching her sagging face

As her soaring hair broke the silence into roars

Oouch it hurt!

Her restless heart complained

“A century passed, still whom are you waiting for?”

Her silver locks glistened in the lamp light

Portraying a surreal resemblance

With the white cloud hung in the sky

A smile escaped through her lips

Chuckling at her heart’s stupidity

She gazed at the sky once again

As her eyes twinkled

Radiating a heavenly radiance

“My death sweet heart! And today my wait will be over.

My beloved soul is waiting beyond this overcast-ted sky”

And she closed her eyes

Drowning every essence of her existence

Into the infinite love she had bore

Her frowning heart got respite

As solemn festivity descended over it

Chuckling all its way

 Beyond the stars !

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The Chest

Trodding the untrodden

Into the darkness of the woods

Into the blues of the skies

I see forests, birds squeaking

As the north wind chills the spine

And across comes the ravine

The road’s hostile, the path futile

As I fall into the gorge

My hope crushed

My spine quashed

Will I survive this fall?

I gather my grit, I show some nerve

I scrape and grind through the stones

I sweat, I cry, I bleed, I wry

Carving the way out, but in vain

What hath god wrought?

That I earned such pain

Will such disparity always reign?

I lose everything but my life

Clinging on like an evil memory

Haunting me as I await the fairy

Far I have come, far shall I go

For I know the end is a glow

I get up, stand up, and find a hovel

Dig through it and forth I trail

A shiny stone maybe

Odds and ends, just worthless scrap

Tons of gilt inside a wrap,

For the world I carved

the treasure chest,

Casting the grave, for me

To rest.

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