Review of an Ekphrastic beauty - Savour Art and Poetry meet

We all knew he illustrations of R K Laxman and their importance to R K Narayan and his stories. Always writing and images go in hand. Writer writes his imaginations which is used by painter to give it a virtual life. This is very common but creating a literary piece by taking inspiration from images is  difficult and this art is known as Ekphrastic art.

In India literary world it’s rare and such ekphrastic poems came from pen of Vijaya Gowrisankar.

 “Savour” is  Ekphrastic collection of poems. This collection consists of The book contains 58 paintings from 19 artists, including 5 Mouth and Foot Painting artists (artists who paint with their mouth and foot, due to some disability). 73 poems in 20 poetic forms have been written against 58 paintings.

Daigram 1-Shade of camels in light

Collection start with description of shades of sun in the desert describing beauty of nature and life.

Diagram -2- Mumbai Skyline

Suddenly the hue of beauty turn to civilization and describes beauty in civilized city. Description of envisions linked to nature is exclusive as the poetess call it a taste of success.

3) Flying bird

Poetess describes the bird at the top of the world with big dreams of great heights. The description of way a bird learns to fly and it’s comparison to make and break is exclusive.

4)Fearless

Description of a brave and blessed girl who compares herself to free bird is a literary beauty.

5)Camping site

When life seems distress poets searches for a calm place and it’s description is where image meets words.

6) Kathakali

Poem beautifully exaggerates the beauty of facial makeup and head dress of kathakali dancer and describes the wonder facial expressions.

7)Lavender fields

Poem describes the beauty of lavender field and it’s fragrance. This gives you a golden touch of nature’s essence.

8) Lakeside Acrylic painting

Description of lakeside view‘s healing power is depicted in poem.

9)Shaded of horse

Poetess compares it with the journey towards the the goal.

10) Krishna

Nothing to comment, it’s just fabulous to read description of little Krishna.

11) Big hand

Poem describes door of opportunities and misses.

12) Saxophone

Chords of saxophone will chord your inner behavior just like the lines in the poem does.

13)Heart connection

This poem describes how heart connections gives happiness in our life.

13) Drift

This poem describe how change in thought and feelings causes a drift between the two.

Below are the headings I have given to the remaining paintings.

14) I seek answers

15) Beautiful Blue Mountain

16) Cute Girl

17) Beautiful artist

18) Cuteness overloaded

19) Snow at its flow

20) Traditional dance

21) Beauty of Shadow

22) Flock of Monks

23) City’s flying babies

24)`Ardhanarishwara

25) Festival

26) Patrol

27) Kali parade

28) Lighting

29) Beauty hidden

30) Light in the darkness

31) Forest girl

32) Jump high

33) Fallen

34) Lake view

35) Cycle in the shade

36) Gathering

37) flower merchant

38) Sea Shore

39) Loving animals

40) Shut your mouth

50) Forest lane

51) Darkness below moon

52) Shade of green on tar

53) Who is masking whom?

54) Reality or camouflage

55) Draupadi saree

56) Utsav

57) Dance

58) Bhakti movement

59)one over the other

60) Statue in the lake

61) Waterfalls

62) Dream city

63) Ice Candy

Like this every paintings are mesmerizing, the poems showcases a new world. I feel this is one beautiful collection every book lovers will feel happy to buy.

 You can Buy this book @ https://www.amazon.in/Savour-Poetry-meet-Vijaya-Gowrisankar/dp/9385945963/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506186355&sr=8-1&keywords=Vijaya+Gowrisankar

Note: Headings are my my perceptions of the images.

Yes, We Changed Smart

In 10 years

Yes, We Changed Smart

Way back in 2008, I use to crank a joke on my friend who was having a touch screen mobile, and use it to find the routes while we go out during those golden years of graduation. We use to tease him as Ekalavya for using his thumb, the most to slither on his phone. 

It’s been 9 years and the time has reversed. We were the one who teased him during those years, and now we are so addicted to smart phones.

 We use GPS ; even to find the way the bus goes if we travel. We use Information Technology to check where we are in our journey. We check everything in mobile, Location and mobile are inseparable to us. 

For  few of my friends who are in Sales work, no need to mention. They may lose their jobs without location finder because without GEO locating their visits, they probably cannot work. More precisely they will lose their appraisal, because without GPS they can reach hardly few sites they are allotted to visit.

Yes, it’s mobile Application era, we can skip our breakfast to reach in time, but we cannot go to office if we forget to take our Smartphones.

They are not just assets for us; but, a part and partial of our life; say, a Second wife if you are married and Girlfriend if you are a bachelor. It has even gone to further where a firm can be opened just by keeping a App, travel agencies are sprouting like a green algae on a swamp. Everybody  use this mobility and the world is absolutely mobile (Locomotive).

Shanknaad of Ilkal guys to reduce Cracker burning

Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the finest festivals celebrated in India. It is a treat to watch the processions during the festival; especially during Ganesh Visarjan.

The procession always goes pomp. Music, dance, throwing colors, lights and burning crackers are very common during Ganesh Visrajan.

While we see the great enchantment in the processions of farewells of Street Ganesh idols. Individual house will not stay far behind. Every house bid adieu to their respective idols founded and worshiped in their house during the festival.

Individual house cannot afford orchestra, loud speakers. But most houses burn crackers to their financial capacity. They invite friends, relatives while leaving Ganesh.

Why reduce crackers

It’s  the burning of crackers, that has not just become an usual practice; but, the matter of pride for the individual families.

Burning crackers can be fun; but, if we think of the pollution, it is huge. When the number of people who burn crackers are huge, pollution will be automatically high. Though social workers and environmentalists spread a lot of lessons, but it’s of less use.

Apart from the awareness that environmentalists create, there are hardly any measures taken to reduce burning crackers.

Shanknaad

Shanknaad is not new; it is an age old tradition in India. Coonch, bells, anklets, small drums were the regular instruments in orchestra in any festival celebration in Hinduism.

The same old orchestra tradition was planned to bring to their residences by 5 environment caretakers in my town Ilkal. They collected 5 Coonch’s to initiate the process. They brought back this age old tradition to the town to reduce burning of crackers.

These guys took their Coonch’s  and address the people to stop burning cracker during Ganesh processions.  They blew these Coonch’s to produce good and loud ornamental voice in the Ganesh Visarjan procession in their house along with a few of friends and their neighbor’s houses.

Inspiration

5 friends went to trip to Ladakh few months before Ganesh festival. On their way back to home they visited Haridwar. In Haridwar, one among these five saw a big size Coonch in one of the shops and he got astonished to see its size.

He then inquired the shop owner about conch and got interested in buying it. The shop owner told him a rate of 5000 rupees; which, he thought, was too much for the Coonch. He blamed the shop owner for telling high rate, but the shop owner justified it’s rate and explained the guy about its quality, and offered him a pamphlet printed the announcement of rupees 1 lakh on proving his  Coonch’s duplicate.  

After giving pamphlet, shop owner blew the Coonch. It’s mesmerizing sound and loudness impressed the guy and he bought it. By watching this Shanknaad; the concept was incepted in another guy; and he explained the concept to his other friends. They were impressed and each of them bought a Coonch and stayed one day in Haridwar to learn blowing it from that shop owner.

Effect

Though the effect of this concept could not achieve huge success, but till now they have stopped cracker burning in 11 houses, which avoided burning at-least 15000 rupees of crackers accumulating those 11 houses.

Naga Panchami and new thoughts

Naga Panchami is a festival that is observed throughout India on the 5^th day of Shravana month. It has got its own significance in mythology, folklore and scientific basis.

It is a festival where, Snakes and serpents are worshiped by offering milk, flowers and sweets to the metaphors of serpents such as idols and images of snake god. Mythology says it is a day Lord Krishna got victory over snake king Kaliya to protect the people from poisonous cobra of the king.  Folk stories say farmers pray to snakes and offer devotion to snakes for not harming them and their families.

Scientifically; it is a metaphor of worshiping serpents and giving equal rights to snakes to live. This festival is celebrated in the monsoon season,during which snakes come out and, most of them will not be poisonous (not all though) and the festival means the innocent snakes are saved to balance ecosystem and to make sure the harmony of humans with other beings in the nature.

Fasting is observed a day before Naga Panchami; and, on the day of Naga Panchami, jaggery water or milk is offered to the idols or images of Snake god. In some places; people pour milk even to snake pits and they decorate pits with diyas and conduct activities such as Bhajans and firing crackers.

On this festival many sweets and other traditional snacks are prepared , which suits our digestive system during monsoon climate. Eating these sweets and snacks give good exercise to buccal cavity and helps teeth and the buccal cavity to be healthy.

New thoughts

It was in our school days, all children of our school are taken to Sri Vijay Mahantesh mutt located in my town Ilkal. Sri Vijay Mahantesh mutt is known for practicing the principles of Vachana literature. On this day mutt distributes milk to children as a metaphor the avoid wastage of milk (though people pour more jaggery water to idols in our place). The Mutt also encourages saving snakes and harmony with nature; except, for its opposition to wastage of milk. The step may seem extravagant to strong believers; but, it seems practical for me, despite being a believer in Hinduism.

Last year I was astonished by seeing a message from one of my friend who is working as a teacher in my school. He messaged me saying , he was happy for  he caught and made real snake to drink milk.

This rubbishes the purpose of the festival as snakes don’t drink milk ;and, even if they drink milk  milk will harm their life. Feeding milk to live snake will not serve the purpose of ecological harmony. Pouring milk , firing crackers near the snake pits will disturb the snake if they are present in the pit., they try to harm the pupil as part of its flight and fight mechanism.

It’s time to think new thoughts as much as possible;  let’s celebrate the festival scientifically to serve its purpose.

Happy Naga Panchami and Happy Shravana month.

Consistency is key

We all heard the story of rabbit and the tortoise, where rabbit start considerably on a high note, but still ends up in losing, whereas tortoise starts slowly but reaches the goal surpassing its pro-eminent competitor.

The story depicts the importance of being consistent throughout your journey towards goal.

People who are preparing for competitive exams definitely struggle to maintain consistency. They start with a great zealousness but, effort stumbles in between ; and,  it gets inflated again when the exam nears. These habits of studying certainly end up in a failure.

If we go through the videos of UPSC toppers they stress the importance of consistency.

Academic exams are like a sprint; in which most of us study seriously only for two to three days and obtain the certificate. Whereas the competitive exams are like a marathon. A marathon runner starts his mark and runs at a nearly same speed, maintains it and finishes the task. If he stops, he cannot finish the race. In the same way start the preparation confidently, never stop studying, be consistent and success will be on your hand.

Keep in mind

• Consistency helps you to attain mental stability

• Consistency helps to perform the exam in a very respectable way
• Consistency helps you in analyzing the situations and improves your decision making

• The revision will be much easier for those who studies consistently
• Consistency makes the study more interesting as you get more insights on the topic every time you study.

Significance of Last minute exam preparation

 एकं जीवनम्, एकः अवसरः                                                                                               यदाहं जीवामि , अहमाशंसे

One life one chance                                                                                                         while I live, I hope

They say “hope is always a good thing to have” but, the problem lies in giving up. Problem lies in the worry prevailing inside the mind.

History gives examples of the greatest warriors; who stayed away from the battle fields lacking final preparation.

There is a quote” If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done”

This quote rightly says it all.  A Scholar who lacks last minute preparation( generally called as) fails to deliver the results.

We can get as many as examples in cricket where one last ball has won the game for the team and same is true for the looser as well.

A predator exploits its last few seconds of its preparation to catch its prey.

Sakshi Malik fought really hard till the last minute and she created a history by winning an Olympic medal; whereas one final bad shot costs the medal to Atanu Das in Rio Olympics.

With examination that define Indian administration(UPSC) coming  way next week. Big aspirants should go smart and never miss a chance to polish your skills.

Every mark counts!

Keep in mind

•   Smart-work works and never think of hard work in the final moments. 
•  Just a glance will help before facing an exam.
•   Last minute preparation increases the confidence
•   It’s a kind of now or never situation , never neglect this precious time
• Techniques and technology help you to recall those already studied topics effectively.

Reprimand's of food wastage

The scorching sun rays burnt the green; but for the green, it is not difficult to bounce back in the garden city of India. The sprinkle of rain drops in the city made people get mesmerized in the cool breeze to put an end to fuming hot summer.

After end of summer;  one of my colleagues made an observation about increased food waste. The observation made me think, and I came to conclusion that it is confined to my working place. We used to put the remaining food in one rectangular tray; and, keep it outside our canteen on the terrace of the building.  The food in the tray was utilized by a herd of pigeons; which started using the food in the tray to fulfill their energy needs.

But, the rain made pigeons disappear from our office premises and the food we kept in a tray in the last week became wasted. For my personal interest I searched facts about food wastage; to find some astonishing facts which are listed below.

The food intended for human usage if discarded without consumption is called food wastage.

On an average, each human wastes 100kg of food each year.

In developed countries, most of the food is wasted at consumption stage.

The global wastage of food per year crosses 1.3 billion tonnes.

I find people leaving food in plates; especially, when they visit bigger restaurants. It’s really difficult to say the reason behind; but, one can suspect;  does it look prestigious for them to leave part of food in the plate. Is it the hotel to be blamed for not making food tasty or for giving more quantity; since, they charge more on food.

I recall one of my friends who was an employee in TCS. I never saw him wasting food from the day I saw him. I saw him eating food irrespective of the place, taste and sometimes even the quality; because his sole motto was not to waste the food.

 These facts made me to scribble a while to recall a few incidents I  experienced and heard of.

I was studying high school, getting scolded for not concentrating on studies was quite common for me. One day, I was pretty hungry; and filled plate full of rice and relish-able curry prepared by my mother. I switched on the television and changed the channel.  The rest was predictable, my mom scolded me which irked me a lot. I wash my hand in the plate full of rice and walked away. She called me and asked the reason for not eating food. I flung on her by saying “Not Hungry” and went away.

After fifteen minutes When I came back home, my father called me and showed me the plate full of rice in which I washed my hand. He rebuked me and made me eat the same rice. Then my parents explained me the importance of rice.

In India, Parents teach their children, sometimes by scaring. One thing that most parents say to their child is “Don’t waste food” and they scare them by saying they will tie the wasted food on the child’s head.

My old roommate used to weep whenever he eats lemon rice; especially if it is towards the fag end of the month. He used to praise his mother for preparing lemon rice for the breakfast form the previous night’s left over rice.

One of my acquaintances told that her mother used to give water mixed with chili powder and salt as combination with rice, idly, dosa, roti; instead of preparing tasty curry. She told it was the punishment if they waste the food.

In one or the other way our elders teach us the importance of food. But still food wastage is a never ending problem.