Crystal Ships of Benaras

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“Before you slip into unconsciousness
I’d like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss

Oh tell me where your freedom lies
The streets are fields that never die
Deliver me from reasons why
You’d rather cry, I’d rather fly

The days are bright and filled with pain
Enclose me in your gentle rain
The time you ran was too insane
We’ll meet again, we’ll meet again

The crystal ship is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills
A million ways to spend your time
When we get back, I’ll drop a line”
(“Crystal ship” by The Doors)

This is a view of Bhonsala ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) where the words of Jim Morrison echo through the ages…

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Poetry in the city

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“I prowled the streets all day, feeling very strung up and ready to pounce, determined to ‘trap’ life – to preserve life in the act of living.
Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.”
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographe, 1908–2004)

This picture was shot in Kalkaji in the garden which is at the corner of the place where I stay whenever I am in Delhi.
By chance I saw this beautiful horse grazing the grass among the tropical plants and the benches and bringing poetry to the city…

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Treading on my Dreams

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“HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.”
(“He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven” by William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939)

This picture was shot in one of the oldest part of Varanasi (Benaras), the place where souls sometimes resides.
Those men were cleaning garbages in a narrow street…lights and shadows…Kashi…”being poor”…”only my dreams”…treading on my dreams…

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The Gardens of Eden

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“Hail, blessed space happier than the garden of Paradise
Hail lofty buildings higher than the divine throne
A paradise, the garden of which has thousands of Rizwans as servants
A garden of which has thousands of paradise for its land
The pen of the mason of the Divine Deeree has wrotten on its court
These are the gardens of Eden, enter them and Live Forever.”

This is a Persian poem on the third Mughal Emperor’s tomb complex’s entrance gate located in Sikandra in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh from where this picture was shot.
This visual metaphor is a reference to paradise.
It was designed and written on the north facade, the side facing the tomb, by Abd al-Haqq Shirazi who was later known as Amanat Khan when he became the designer of inscriptions on several major Mughal monuments including the Taj Mahal.

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Good Morning

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“Good morning,” said the little prince.
“Good morning,” said the merchant.
This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need of anything to drink.
“Why are you selling those?” asked the little prince.
“Because they save a tremendous amount of time,” said the merchant. “Computations have been made by experts. With these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week.”
“And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?”
“Anything you like…”
“As for me,” said the little prince to himself, “if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.”
(From “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – French writer and aviator, 1900-1944)

This happy little boy asked me to take a picture, he was standing at Lal Ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
He could be a perfect “Little Prince” if there was an Indian version of Saint-Exupéry’s most famous novella…

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Hope for Him

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“O friend! hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live, understand whilst you live: for in life deliverance abides.
If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of deliverance in death?
It is but an empty dream, that the soul shall have union with Him because it has passed from the body:
If He is found now, He is found then,
If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death.
If you have union now, you shall have it hereafter.
Bathe in the truth, know the true Guru, have faith in the true Name!
Kabîr says: “It is the Spirit of the quest which helps; I am the slave of this Spirit of the quest.”
(“Hope for Him”, a poem by Kabīr – mystic poet and saint of India, 1440-1518)

This man was preparing chai (tea) at Kedar ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
He seemed to be happy, away and free from those things which usually make ordinary people endure pain and distress…

 

The Matriarchs

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“Man, born of woman, has found it a hard thing to forgive her for giving him birth.
The patriarchal protest against the ancient matriarch has borne strange fruit through the years.”
(Lillian Smith – American Writer, 1897-1966)

Those ladies reminded me the four Matriarchs of the Bible as they were reaching the platform at Nepali ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
Each wrapped her saree towards the upper part of the body in order to keep it dry from the holy waters of the Ganges.
It allowed to see those petticoats with bright colours like flamenco dresses giving a Seville fairground’s touch to the riverbank for a few minutes.
Suddenly rose petals fell from the sky.
This is the kind of magic that often comes in front of my camera in the eternal city…

 

The Patriarchs

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“‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?”
(The Bible – Acts 7:49)

I met those saddhus this morning as I was walking along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
They always remind me The Patriarchs from the Bible and I wouldn’t be surprised to know that the oldest living city in the world managed to keep them frozen in time…

Heaven is White

 

This is another portrait of Christophe with the famous jazz trumpeter Erik Truffaz in the background.

My friend Erik invited Christophe with whom he often performed to sing “L’un dans l’autre” on his album “Arkhangelsk”.

The link of the video with English subtitles shows the recording of this beautiful and touching song.

Le paradis est blanc (Heaven is white) is a metaphor that we can listen among those words of poetry.

 

 

Voici un autre portrait de Christophe au côté du célèbre trompettiste de jazz Erik Truffaz.

Mon ami Erik a invité Christophe avec lequel il s’est souvent produit à chanter  “L’un dans l’autre” sur son album “Arkhangelsk”.

Le lien de la video montre l’enregistrement de cette chanson émouvante.

Le paradis est blanc (Heaven is white) est une métaphore que l’on peut entendre parmi ces mots de poésie.

“Reflets dans l’eau”

 

“Reflets dans l’eau” (reflections in water) is a musical description of rippling water. It appears on the album “Images” and was composed by Claude Debussy in 1904.

 

Claude Debussy (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918) was a French composer. He is considered one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. He established a new concept of tonality in European music.

 

I often have Debussy’s music in my mind when I come to ghats of Varanasi (Benaras). This picture shows the reflections of a boat on the holy waters of the Ganges. Apart from the frame there is no edition to this image.