Visions, Images and Reality

Recently I read of an artist who saw two planets in the two halves of an apple. He saw the entire cosmos in a Roti, the Indian bread. Some others saw constellations in other food articles. However this is an art of magnifying the object under the scrutiny of photographic frames.
We know of phenomena when the patterns on a bed of sand make different objects. These could be elongated arms and legs and weird faces with stretched eyes and elongated nose. We see white sponges of clouds on a moonlit sky moving swiftly in the wind taking different shapes of animals and trees.
In the 10th Chapter of the Bhagwadgita, the epitome of Hindu philosophy, Krishna tells Arjuna that he exists in everything. He is the centre of the cosmos. He is the God of all God’s. He is the embodiment of all knowledge. He is the pinnacle of the Himalaya. He goes on to explain his presence in the best of everything existing.
The artists visions of the cosmos and the phenomena of watching patterns in sand and the clouds are perceptions coming out of a foggy mind groping to see something. It could be just that the cosmos exists in a piece of bread or in the moirés of sand or in the formation of different images in a cloud. But what Krishna says is very clear. We need to have certain beliefs to start with. Then we can build on them and see the eternity of life.

Water

Every astronomer is thirsty. Yes! Thirsty of water. It is the most talked about word in the glass cubicles of astronomy theatres and in books written on astronomy. When deep penetrating telescopes, like the Hubble and the Spitzer, return with views from the skies astronomers look for clues relating to the existence of water on those objects. They are happy when they see ice on the moon, Mars, asteroids, comets and elsewhere in the cosmos. The presence of water vapour too increases the possibility of a habitable zone. Why they have affinity for water and vapour is that it raises the possibility of life. Life in any form from microbes to humanity or any other higher forms!
The water molecule has two components - hydrogen and oxygen. Both are very precious. Oxygen you can breathe with and other can be profusely used to create energy. When our Chandrayan confirmed ice on moon all Indian were proud about it. The euphoria generated by patterns of streams on Mars surface lasted a decade until it was confirmed that water did exist on Mars indeed albeit in the form of ice. And now European Space Agency’s Rosetta’s lander Philae has found water on Churyumov Gerasimenko the comet.
Besides Hydrogen and Oxygen, Carbon for the formation of fuel and Nitrogen are important. This will entail the formation of amino acids.
What is common to the solar system could be possible anywhere in the light years of the cosmos. However it is to be seen if life can exist without these basic elements. There is a possibility that what we consider as building blocks of life may then have more hues of combinations. May be some other life exists around us which our senses may not have the receptors to feel them!!

Mrinalini Sarabhai

What a way of paying homage to a departed soul. Dancing in its physical presence! That is what Mallika Sarabhai and her daughter Anahita along with Mrinalinis students did before taking her mortal remains for the last rites. Mrinalini Sarabhai aged 97 years practised and preached the art of dancing all her life-time. Almost 75 years of dancing in a lifetime. The only perfect way to pay homage was to dance for her.
Everybody is born to die. But what ensues in those years in between of birth and death, matters. It becomes more extraordinary when you know that it was in those times when dancing was taboo in good families and considered an art to lure the wealthy as courtesans.
Mrinalini Sarabhai never lived a life in the shadow of her late husband the doyen, the pioneer of Indian Space Explorations Vikram Sarabhai. She was as dedicated to her art as Vikram was dedicated to space. She set up the Darpan Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad and nurtured it and created a legend of Bharat Natyam dancers. You can only dance this long with creativity. She created her own masterpieces. Dance was the breath of her life.
She will remain in the minds and hearts of her followers.

The Art Of Kite Flying

Yesterday was 15th Jan and the day of winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. Generally the winter solstice is on the 14th Jan but since this is a leap year with 365 days and February a 29 day month it fell on the 15th.
It is also a season of harvesting in India and the sub-continent and the day is celebrated with a lot of gusto and passion under different festival names eg in Maharashtra it is Makar Sankranti and in the south of India it is Pongal and in the north east it is Bihu.
It is also a season of kite flying. The kites vary in sizes and shapes with a straight bamboo stick woven with a bow shaped stick perpendicular to it and made out of paper and Chinese plastic. A soft breeze flies them high into the skies and Oh! The colours are delightful. Horizontal stripes and vertical stripes of different colours made into national flags, religious emblems and famous film stars and sometimes with religious and philosophical and advertorial messages inscribed.
There is an art in tying the cord to the kite which makes all the balance possible and to manoeuvre the kite in the skies. The strand that connects you and the kite in the sky is the most important thread. As a boy I use to coat this thread with crushed glass mixed with glue and colour. This is the thread that is the combat weapon when taking on another kite in the sky. This is where the entire art of kite flying is exhibited. There is a definite methodology on taking on a foe. There is an art of diving over another kite to cut its stings. Another is to get deep under it and pull the string of your kite fast enough to create a friction and cut the others strings. There are various other ways like jerking, leaving the string of your kite over the others and releasing gradually. What follows a cut of another kite is a loud cry of exulting a win over another kite in the sky.
At the end of the day you have flown a lot of kites and the echoes of the surrounding sky fill your heart with joy and grief with the wins and losses and blood oozes out of the joints of your finger due to the cuts of the crushed glass coated strands.
And then you salute to the setting sun and darkness envelopes the skies. Here begins another joy of releasing sky lanterns as you light a candle inside the pink balloons which take off one after the other and fill the night sky with bright luminaries.