Elevation

In Varanasi (Benaras) there is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva between Scindia ghat and Manikarnika ghat which doesn’t look like any other in the city because of its amazing sculptures with angels which are all around the shrine playing different music instruments.
This place is a kind of gate to after death as the cremation ghat is underneath with funeral pyres burning day and night.
It is not easy to climb the high and narrow staircase plunged in total darkness.
However each stair allows to ascend towards the light and to take the time to elevate oneself…

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Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat

“…Is jagaa hum mile phool dil mein khile
Kya khabar, kya pataa hum mein tum mein ho kya
Baaton baaton mein kabhi, aankhon aakhon mein kabhi…”
(…We meet in this place and flowers bloom in my heart
Who knows what there is in you and me
Sometimes in words, sometimes in eyes…)
(From the song “Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat”)

This picture was shot in the Lodi Gardens in Delhi where I saw this couple in love enjoying a moment of cool breeze before sunset…

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The Closed Door

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
(Helen Keller – American author and political activist, 1880–968)

This is one of the doors of the main building of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi (Benaras).
The architecture of this place is an amazing blend of Western Gothic style with Sanskrit elements.
There are doors everywhere, most of them are closed but when one opens it is always a moment of happiness as it is like stepping in a daydream with an extraordinary set lost in time.
Somehow it looks Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and you wouldn’t be surprised to see Harry Potter in one of those classrooms…

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The Door Of Knowledge

“In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand.
Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.
(Jiddu Krishnamurti – Indian Theosophist Philosopher,1895-1986)

This is a door of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi (Benaras) which is specialized in the study of Sanskrit and related fields.
The main building was constructed in 1791 through the efforts of people of different religions and its architecture is an amazing blend of Western Gothic style with Sanskrit elements.
Ancient and rare manuscripts are kept there making this place a wealth of knowledge.
There is an old saying that goes, “Questioning is the door of knowledge”…

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The Door is Ajar

“Life is a journey.
Time is a river.
The door is ajar”
(From “Dead Beat” (The Dresden Files, #7) by Jim Butcher)

This door was slightly opened in a narrow street of the oldest part of Varanasi (Benaras)
at a few meters from the Ganges.
There was no one around, it was lunch time and the heat of June was becoming unbearable.
The paintings decorating the walls meant that a young couple was living there, their wedding probably hapened a few months earlier.
The colors were still bright, time didn’t affect them as if everything was frozen for a while in order to let the people there enjoy a moment in their life and forget that all this is only a journey, not a destination…

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The Lip of Insanity 1923

“I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door.
It opens.
I’ve been knocking from the inside.”
(Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi) – Persian poet and Sufi mystic, 1207-1273)

We are always in the grace of God but sometimes we seek answers away from ourselves and we are not listening to the voice within our own hearts.
Why searchig everywhere what is simply there and thatt we often don’t want to see.
The Gospel according to Luke mentions that “the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), Rumi’s words are echoing this message on every door of the oldest living city in the world…
This picture was shot at Ramakant Nagar close to where I live in Varanasi (Benaras).

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The Unlocked Door

“I’ve got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.”
(From “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott, 1832–1888)

This is one of the four painted doorways representing the seasons in Pritam Chowk (the Court of the Beloved) inside the City Palace of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan.

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Never Opened Door

“Footfalls echo in the memory, down the passage we did not take, towards the door we never opened, into the rose garden.”
( T.S. Eliot – American/British Author, 1888-1965)

This door is in one of the yards of the City Palace of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan.

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A Door Will Open

“Learn the alchemy true human beings know.
The moment you accept what troubles you’ve been given, the door will open.
Welcome difficulty as a familiar comrade.
Joke with torment brought by the friend.
Sorrows are the rags of old clothes and jackets that serve to cover, then are taken off.
That undressing and the beautiful naked body underneath is the sweetness that comes after grief.
The hurt you embrace becomes joy.
Call it to you where it can change.
A silk worm eating leaves makes a cocoon.
Each of us weaves a chamber of leaves and sticks. Silk worms begin to truly exist as they disappear inside that room.
Without legs we fly.
When I stop speaking, this poem will close and open its silent wings.”
(Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi) – Persian poet and Sufi mystic, 1207-1273)

This is the door of a house which is nearby the Ganges in the oldest part of timeless varanasi (Benaras).

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Surfaces, Lines and Values

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“This recognition, in real life, of a rhythm of surfaces, lines, and values is for me the essence of photography; composition should be a constant of preoccupation, being a simultaneous coalition – an organic coordination of visual elements. “
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographe, 1908–2004)

This is the entrance of the Bara Imambara (also called the Asafi Imambara) complex in Lucknow, the mythical city of Nawabs.
It was shot from a window in the corridor which is on the level of the ceiling of the domed chamber leading to the Bhulbhulaiya, a three-dimensional labyrinth with passages interconnecting with each other through 489 identical doorways…

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