they have smelled nothing, felt everything

A town with no cloud cover in the night

The breeze blowing in streets perpendicular to the sea

Sweeping ladies with their Jhadus making swishes

accompanying the barking of dogs

An old man finds himself being looked at

by me as he raises his dhoti to do ablutions

Among cobbled stones as I walk past a French boulevard

I feel the color of crayon yellow on the buildings, I smell urine

I look at a couple seated on a bench,

sitting, it seems for a long time

All by themselves,

shadow of her fingers on his forehead

touching the Vibhuti, my imagination

eclipsed by her withered jasmine caressed plait

they have smelled nothing, felt everything

taking stock

a guilty walk-through of some books read in the last four months or so, assuming time as space

Characters invariably confer, and ask existential questions

Lem’s science fiction writing as also Huxley’s, is essentially a novel of ideas. To create an imagined futuristic situation of an extreme kind, and then let characters introspect. Having come to see the whole world and outside, the characters search themselves within themselves. Characters invariably confer, and ask existential questions (with others and within themselves). Sometimes these questions strike as moral questions thrown at events propelled by desired freedoms. But different science fictions become popular too if not survive which appeal to those popular myths of outsider, nationalism, anticipated fears….

Truffaut character in Kanchipuram and education

Francois Truffaut gave his vote of interest for ‘people behind ideas’ rather than ‘ideas in themselves’.

People matter more than ideas. The debate could go on and on, rankling few, obsessing others.

Ordinary people matter – they do, they do not do?? Another ‘point of no consequence’ debate but delights from an observation by ordinary people could be extraordinary.

One keeps coming across them and falling back on the last part of the statement, somewhat an aphorism now.

SA. came across this flower-seller in Kanchipuram. She addressed him in Tamil inquiring about whether he would be having some flowers.
SA. said “Tamil Ille”.
She started speaking in broken but sound English about her aspirations for her two children – one needs to go on to be IPS , the other should become an IAS.
Ostensibly intrigued, SA. probed further to find she was a 12th standard pass and had been married for a long time. She regretted not having studied further and therefore wanted her sons to have the very best of education.
When she asked SA. “What about you, married or not?”
He replied rather coyly ‘No girl for me so far’.

She chuckled and said “Human Beings are married to the world”. A Truffaut fan would like to have a character like her in his future films. The other striking factor is the value of education and service cutting across economic disparities in an Indian individual’s mind. Maybe, one gets pointers about interrogating the questions of status and service also.

P.S.: Picture and story courtesy SA., who btw is an aesthetically intuitive photographer. Do contemplate his silent musical compositions on http://www.flickr.com/photos/visio.