Dreams Without Measure

“When you were a wandering desire in the mist, I too was there, a wandering desire.
Then we sought one another, and out of our eagerness dreams were born.
And dreams were time limitless, and dreams were space without measure.”
(Kahlil Gibran – Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer, 1883-1931)

The City Palace is a palace complex in Udaipur, the City of Lakes, in the Indian state Rajasthan.
It was built by the Maharana Udai Singh in 1559 in a flamboyant fusion of Rajasthani and Mughal architectural styles and stands on a hill top that gives a panoramic view of the city and the Lake Pichola.
This picture was shot in the Audience Room of the maharaja’s apartments and symbolizes what I always dreamt of India when I was younger.
Each time I have an opportunity to escape for a few days to Udaipur, I come back there and the dream is untouched, flawless and without measure…

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The Power Of Celebration

“People of our time are losing the power of celebration.
Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained.
Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation.
To be entertained is a passive state–it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle….
Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions.”
(From “The Wisdom of Heschel” by Abraham Joshua Heschel)

This was shot from the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) during the celebrations of Dev Diwali on the occasion of Kartik Poornima.
The festival of Lights is a mark of welcome to the Gods as it is believed that they descend on earth on that special day.
In the evening under the full moon reflecting in the holy waters each ghat is performing Ganga Aarti with vedic hymns chanted by priests in order to please and welcome the Gods.

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What Comes Out

“One thing that struck me very early is that you don’t put into a photograph what’s going to come out.
Or, vice versa, what comes out is not what you put in.”
(Diane Arbus – American photographer and writer, 1923–1971)

Jonathan is a French wannabe actor who wants to perform on theatre stage on the footsteps of his family.
He has Caribbean roots with a West Indian background from Guadeloupe and Indian ancestors from Pondicherry.
This picture was shot during his first modeling photo session as we were building up his portfolio and it was a promising beginning…

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Life Itself

“And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself ?”
(From “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera)

This picture was shot at Scindia ghat in Varanasi (Benaras) where a few young men were enjoying the freshness of dawn in the holy waters of the Ganges.

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Everlasting Beauty

“It`s not how old you are, it`s how you are old.”
(Jules Renard – French author, 1864–1910)

This lady came from South India in order to worship the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
After taking a bath in the holy waters, she was styling her long white hair under the sun.
The quintessence of femininity was visible through her graceful gestures…she was beautiful…

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A Shaft of Light

“Wake! For the Sun, who scatter’d into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav’n,
and strikes
The Sultan’s Turret with a Shaft of Light”
(Omar Khayyám – Persian polymath, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet, 1048-1131)

Varanasi taught me to wake up early in order to enjoy the sunrise on the Ganges.
These promises at dawn are an absolute treat for the senses and the Heaven’s connection…

This is a picture of the bank of the Ganges facing Varanasi (Benaras) at dawn.

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With A Sprinkle Of Golden Dreams

“Are you looking for gold, friend?
Look around you; anything useful to you is pure gold, pure silver!”
(Mehmet Murat ildan – Turkish author, b.1965)

This picture was shot at Scindia ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
Two friends were finishing their daily yoga exercises in the river.
It was at dawn when reality is still foggy with a sprinkle of dreams and allows the holy waters of the Ganges to become gold…

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The Free Soul

“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”
(From “Tales of Ordinary Madness” by Charles Bukowski)

This man was among a group of homeless people staying nearby Jama Masjid in Old Delhi.
Their faces could easily show that life was not easy for them but they were carrying a kind of grace and deep happiness…
It was nice to spend a moment with them, I was feeling “good…very good”, certainly because like this man they were free souls…

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The Traceless

“My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless ;
‘Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.
I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call. ”
(Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī known as Rumi – Persian poet and Sufi mystic, 1207-1273)

I met this man nearby Jama Masjid in Old Delhi.
He was homeless and his life seemed to be tough however there was an amazing happiness in his eyes as if he had reached what he was seeking for since a long time…

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Footprints of the Soul

“The Ganges front is the supreme showplace of Benares.
Its tall bluffs are solidly caked from water to summit, along a stretch of three miles, with a splendid jumble of massive and picturesque masonry, a bewildering and beautiful confusion of stone platforms, temples, stair flights, rich and stately palaces….soaring stairways, sculptured temples, majestic palaces, softening away into the distances; and there is movement, motion, human life everywhere, and brilliantly costumed – streaming in rainbows up and down the lofty stairways, and massed in metaphorical gardens on the mile of great platforms at the river’s edge.”
(Mark Twain – American Writer and Lecturer. 1835-1910)

This is a view of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) from Ahilyabai ghat to Mansrowar Ghat.
Some dreams can never be lost, they become footprints of the soul…
The Eternal city belongs to these kind of dreams…

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