A Minute Part Of Reality

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“The photograph itself doesn’t interest me.
I want only to capture a minute part of reality.”
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographer, 1908–2004)

This is a view of Mansrowar Ghat in Varanasi (Benaras) shot from “The Lotus Lounge” where I enjoy to have breakfast after sunrise whenever I come along the Ganges early in the morning…

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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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In Your Light

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“In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest
Where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.”
(Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi – Poet and Sufi mystic, 1207-1273)

This red sari was drying under the sun along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).

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Light Of Lights

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“The sun does not shine there, nor do the moon and the stars, nor do lightnings shine and much less fire.
All the lights of the world cannot be compared even to a ray of the inner light of the Self.
Merge yourself in this light of lights and enjoy the supreme Deepavali.”
(from the writings of Swami Sivananda Saraswati – Hindu spiritual teacher, 1887–1963)

I WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY DIWALI AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR WITH LOVE, PEACE AND PROSPERITY…

This is a picture of Jain ghat in Varanasi (Benaras) shot during Dev Diwali.

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Life Welling Worth

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“I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths where your life wells forth.”
(From “Letters to a Young Poet (1934)” by Rainer Maria Rilke – Austro-German lyric poet, 1875-1926)

 

This is the Sheesh Gumbad shot from the Bara Gumbad in the Lodi Gardens in Delhi.
During summers walking in this huge park among the mosque and all the tombs of this Pashtun dynasty which ruled Northern India during the 16th century is always a moment of bliss, mostly when come the monsoon showers…
Then clouds of birds try to defeat the sudden winds in the red sky of fire and from every corner, life is welling forth…

 

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Working with Atmosphere

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“Technique undoubtedly helps make photography magical, but I prefer to work with atmosphere.
I think that the obsession with technique is a male thing.
Boy’s toys.
They love playing… but once you’ve perfected something you have to start searching for a new toy.
I would rather search for a new model or location.”
(Ellen von Unwerth – German photographer and director, b.1954)

This is a view of a side of Man Singh Palace, one of the most beautiful structures in the Gwalior Fort.
The fortress stands on an isolated rock, overlooking the Gwalior town, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Within its rich history Gwalior Fort occupies a unique place in the human civilization as the place which has the first ever recorded use of zero.

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The Beauty of the Morning

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“Earth hath not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!”
(“Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802″ by William Wordsworth, 1770-1850)

This view of Gwalior was shot from a window of the Karna Mahal, the palace next to Man Singh Palace, which stands on an isolated rock overlooking the city in Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

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Vanishing Moments

 

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“We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again.
We cannot develop and print a memory. “
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographe, 1908–2004)

In the end of summer afternoons people enjoy taking deeps in the Ganges in order to forget the heat.
Those young men were swimming in front of Manikarnika Ghat, the burning ghat before Alamgir Mosque which stands in the distance.

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Carrying You with my Blood

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“Extinguish my sight, and I can still see you;
plug up my ears, and I can still hear;
even without feet I can walk toward you,
and without mouth I can still implore.
Break off my arms, and I will hold you
with my heart as if it were a hand;
strangle my heart, and my brain will still throb;
and should you set fire to my brain,
I still can carry you with my blood.”
(From “The Book of Hours” by Rainer Maria Rilke)

This is a view of the Holy Ganges shot at dusk from Jatar ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
Those bamboo sticks carry baskets with candles lifted up in order to tell the spirits to welcome the people who recently departed from life…

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Into the Answer

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“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.
Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. 
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer. 
(From ” Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke)

This is a view of Scindia ghat shot from Anand’s boat at dusk along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
The Eternal city allows anyone to to live one’s way into the answer…

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