Category: India
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Nature in art
Nature in art The art works of Priya Ravish Mehra shown at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 speak of life. The fibres of paper and cloth, the colours used, they all come from nature. As do the twigs, roots, leaves and other elements that she has integrated in her sheets and hangings. Their collective, overall impression…
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Spare-ribs
Spare-ribs That’s what I thought they were. Relics of the skeleton of a gigantic prehistoric animal. Casually placed against a wall. Or are they remains of the skeletons of palm leaves? Plant and animal world (including us) are of the same nature after all. Photo of the week: Margao, Goa, India 2012
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I know where I’m going!
I know where I’m going! A deserted beach. A flag on a pole in the wind. A woman walks with unfaltering steps straight to the point. What point? Where? Why? “I know where I’m going!” says her body. For us who only have one image and not the whole film, it will remain a mystery.…
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Sand fish
Sand fish A small crab made a hole on the beach of Dona Paula. The sea came in to have a look, came in and retreated. The crab, the sand and the sea they played together. They made a lovely fish. What shall we eat today? Photo of the week: Beach at Dona Paula, Goa,…
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Foot-bath temple
Orange saris and green saris, red ones and blue ones (and purple ones, I could add), and gold upon their bodies, bracelets on their arms and combs in their hair. The women were lithe and walked just above the earth, so it seemed. Thus Robert James Waller continues his ode to the beauty of Indian…
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Worn down worshippers
Thousands, if not millions of feet must have stepped on the threshold of this place of worship, wearing down bit by bit the reliefs of worshippers sculpted on its surface. Touching signs of the passage of time. Photo of the week: Entrance of Vitthala temple complex, Hampi, Karnataka, India 2014
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Massive arcades
Such is the abundance of granite rock at Hampi that massive projects could easily be envisaged. Like constructing two lengthy arcades for the entranceway to a temple complex. Hundreds of massive pillars, heavy but simple, for a massive project indeed. In contrast, inside the complex, reliefs of love and tenderness that clearly betray how much…
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Stonecutters’ paradise
Elegant camels, mounted horsemen. and of course, as always, the graceful women … it’s as if we can appreciate these scenes from daily life even more when depicted in stone. Maybe it is because we can feel the pleasure the sculptors of Hampi must have had in cutting these reliefs. The non-sculptured walls are impressive…
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Giant boulders galore
“Better on it than under it”, the little bird must have thought when it landed on this massive piece of granite rock. This must be Hampi, yes indeed. It’s not just the old monuments of the historical capital city of the Vijayanagara Empire that enchant us, the boulder-strewn landscape in which they lie scattered is…
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Globed breasts adorned with pearls
Globed breasts adorned with pearls sandal-misted, wide curving hips with girdles strung with bells, precious anklets making music on their lotus feet, lit with happiness deep within women now enhance their beauty. In strophes like this Kālidāsa sings of the feminine ideal in his long poem Ṛtusaṃhāram (The Gathering of the Seasons, translation from the…
καιρός remembered 