Mad Chess Players

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“Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do.
Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom.
I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.”
(Gilbert Keith Chesterton – English writer, 1874 – 1936)

This was just a dream which happened over the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Roshan Ali, two chess-obsessed men, used to meet everyday to indulge in their passion of the game, then little by little they became totally indifferent to the turmoil that surrounds them.
One day the Rumi Darwaza, also known as the Turkish Gate in Lucknow, tore from the ground and flew in the air.
It became a spectacular vessel which started a long journey over the Kingdom of Avadh.
Dreams are not meant to be real, with no doubt this one must have been inspired by “Shatranj Ke Khiladi” (The Chess Players) by Satyajit Ray…

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Having New Eyes

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
(Marcel Proust – French Novelist and Author, 1871-1922)

Phileas Fogg’s balloon was now reaching the top of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
Everyone was happy up there knowing that the real voyage was only starting, they didn’t know yet which amazing landscapes they would see nor who would join them onboard.
So far Phileas Fogg and Passepartout invited Jules Verne, Marcel Proust, Tulsidas and the great Kabir to join them among the ship of dreams and this was of great promise…

Imagination at the Wind’s Will

“Imagination is like a lofty building reared to meet the sky – fancy is a balloon that soars at the wind’s will”
(Frank Gelett Burgess – American artist, poet and author, 1866 – 1951)

This is the 500 years old Durga Temple (मुगलसराय सिटी), located in Ramnagar on the opposite bank to Varanasi (Benaras).
We came by boat, it was a long trip then and we had to find a rickshaw in order to reach that place which was far away.
At the gate a pandit refused to let us go in because it was time for him to have a nap.
Hopefully Phileas Fogg offered to join him in his balloon in order to see that amazing temple from the sky above the clouds.

Mobilis in Mobile

“Mobilis in Mobile.”

(Jules Verne ,”Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” published in 1869)

This image is using Nemo’s motto “mobilis in mobile” which means “mobile in a mobile element” in order to link those pictures about gothicism which are becoming the site of many extraordinary voyages in a hot-air balloon filled with hydrogen.

This is a side view of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

Watch “Mobilis In Mobile” a video by L’Affaire Louis Trio, a popular french group:

Phileas Fogg’s Journey

“The panorama passed before their eyes like a flash, save when the steam concealed it fitfully from the view; the travellers could scarcely discern the fort of Chupenie, twenty miles south-westward from Benares, the ancient stronghold of the rajahs of Behar; or Ghazipur and its famous rose-water factories; or the tomb of Lord Cornwallis, rising on the left bank of the Ganges; the fortified town of Buxar, or Patna, a large manufacturing and trading-place, where is held the principal opium market of India; or Monghir, a more than European town, for it is as English as Manchester or Birmingham, with its iron foundries, edgetool factories, and high chimneys puffing clouds of black smoke heavenward.”
(Around the World in Eighty Days (Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in 1873.)

This picture was also shot at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University which is an institution of higher learning in Sanskrit and other languages located in Varanasi (Benaras).
It is a quiet place nearby the house where I am living and I like to come there in order to daydream among this amazing Gothic style architecture which is quite unexepected in this city.

Infinity Made Imaginable

“The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.”
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge – English lyrical Poet, Critic and Philosopher, 1772-1834)

This is a picture of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University which is an institution of higher learning in Sanskrit and other languages located in Varanasi (Benaras).
It is a quiet place nearby the house where I am living and I like to come there in order to daydream among this amazing Gothic style architecture which is quite unexepected in this city.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

“But ’tis the devil who rings the Angelus!”
“(“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” by Victor Hugo)

For a change I felt like showing a view of Paris from Notre Dame which is matching the new series of pictures on which I am working.”

The Art of Seeing

“When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door.”
(“The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”, a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831)

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo makes frequent reference to the architecture of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
The enormous popularity of the book in France spurred the nascent historical preservation movement in that country and strongly encouraged Gothic revival architecture.
Ultimately it led to major renovations at Notre-Dame in the 19th century led by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.
Much of the cathedral’s present appearance is a result of this renovation.

I don’t show many images of Paris in my photostream however there is a connection with a series of pictures about Gothicism in Varanasi (Benaras) on which I am working actuallyand that I’ll be uploading soon.

The Speech of Angels

“Music is well said to be the speech of angels.”
(Thomas Carlyle – Scottish writer & historian, 1795-1881)

In Varanasi (Benaras) there is a temple between Scindia ghat and Manikarnika ghat which is dedicated to Lord Shiva.
This temple doesn’t look like any other in the city because of its amazing sculptures with angels which are all around the shrine.
Those angels are musicians and they all play a different instrument.
Each time I come, there is no one, then I am alone in this dreamy atmosphere.
I know it is a kind of gate to after death as just nearby funeral pyres burn day and night at the cremation ghat which is underneath.
However this is not the reason why there are angels here.
Hinduism has many different types of spiritual beings who act in a similar capacity to Judeo-Christian-Islamic equivalent Angels, like devas, however they normally don’t have the same iconography.
The wings that virtually always adorn angels are not a necessary part of their anatomy.
Therefore I wonder why do I see those winged figures here and why do they also appear sometimes on the top of doors in the old Kashi.

Heaven’s Lieutenants

“The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants.”
(William Shakespeare – English poet and playwrighter ,1564 -1616)

This family lives in a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva nearby Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
This amazing place has a shrine sculpted with many musician angels, it is facing the holy waters of the Ganges and the atmosphere there is full of mystery.
I know them since a few years, at the beginning the father who is the priest there didn’t allow me to take any picture but things have changed now and they ask me a few shots of the whole family who enjoy to pose.
On this shot the parents are standing with their twin sons while the grandmother stays in the background.
That day I came to pick up a sandal paste that he prepared for me, he usually applies it on my forehead and I realized that it removes headaches very easily.