Fireworks

Today there were fireworks in my city.
Not in the sky. But 8 explosions.
Yes, It didn't hurt. It could have been worse.
But it represents a drive that worries me.

I understand destruction.
With each drop of ink the space that was my canvas is broken.
with every syllable silence is dead.
But out of this death is born creation. the cycle continues.
(and on and on and on)
and there's so much love to give. there's so much love to give.
Here we are. Poets.painters.philosophers.politicians. desperately trying to grasp what we're born into. All the immensity. trying to imitate. trying to emulate.
'but art can never imitate. It can only inspire.'
We cannot play god. through bombs. through paint.
The approach should then not be to imitate. To have 'creation' at your fingertips.
but to thank.

I could spend years painting a mountain. It will never be the mountain itself.
trapped on paper. not so vivid.
in technicolour.
(It will never be the mountain.)
It only expresses love for that mountain.
It is not to make it mine. But to make it me.
Love is:
Anterior to life.
Posterior to death
Initial to creation
the exponent of breath.

शान्ति

After 56.5 long hours of intensive travel by air,train,bus and shared cabs we found ourselves in gangtok. The roads were long. Calcutta was beauty broken down.blackouts.reservation counters.Yellowtaxis.Kohl lined eyes. kali at every corner. The city of joy.
Calcutta was red.wasbrown. was smoke curling. was bodies burning. Summer sinks its teeth into our flesh. Lost. Alive.

16 long hours in a bus. I long for peace and it finds me. green as apple. green as the sea. Fields spread themselves like cordouroy. Blue skies. Leaving the dust of siliguri behind us. A shared cab. secretly smoked cigarettes. Through bengal into Sikkim. I've been looking for divinity and find it in flowers. The border approaches. A rainbow coloured checkpost. Prayer flags.peace. lotuses. Love. Coconut water. The river.. The River Teesta is white like bone and becomes the long spinal column of the land.
Free.
A cat once told me that pebbles near the river are souls in search of peace.
I now understand this silence.

we anticipate Desire
and dismiss it.
We cling to dreams
but give in and taste Desperation.
We decide that desire is desolate.
Dreaming is not.

And go back to waiting.
And fall asleep.

We awaken.
And see that it's not even a dream we wait for.

It's destiny.
(all turns to dust)


(Oh and there's so much love to give. there's so much love to give. there's so much love to give)

First photograph a part of a project where I used my body as a canvas.
second illustration for ING vysya foundation.

From a set of 22 Illustrations
for a Children's book of poetry in Hindi.

About a little girl. Starry eyes.
Braids in her hair.
Falls into dreams,
Sails to the Moon, Speaks too soon.
She climbs trees, makes wings and wonderlands.
Falls through rabbit holes into bluebacked skies.

Half Shiva Half Shakti

Half Shiva-Half Shakti.

Blue skin. Rivers flow from your hair.

Lotus. Love. Creation. Destruction

The end. A beginning.

Masculine. Feminine.

With the moon near your crown.
and a lotus on your skin.

Thank you.

Coonoor, Circles and Fish in the Sky

the earth laughs in flowers

your hands in black water

voices out of a cloud lotus feet

7 of us. broken silences. fish in the sky, insane colours, feeling like a serpent, fractals,

a dead butterfly and a million revelations in the garden of eden.

archetypes, starry nights of splendor,getting lost in the whispering woods and so much more.

you are the center of my universe.
Location: a house on a hill

October 2007

Band of Gypsies

Family Portraits. Ten years too late. But early enough.
my father is a magician.
my mother painted dreams.
Neil Diamond wrote a song for me.
they decided to name me after that song. and many years later. each word comes true.

"Young child with dreams
Dream every dream on your own
When children play,
Seems like you end up alone
Papa says he'd love to be with you
If he had the time
So you turn to the only friend you can find
There in your mind

Shilo when I was young,
I used to call your name
When no one else would come,
Shilo you always came and we'd play

Young girl with fire,Something said she understood
I wanted to fly
She made me feel like I could

Held my hand out, I let her take me
Blind as a child
All I saw was the way
That she made me smile
She made me smile"

"Another child is born
Another race is won
Another dream is shattered
Another day has begun

This world is still afloat
No not in Noah's boat
We've only lost the vision
Of the stars we're meant to be"