Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Paintings by Indian Translators

Translation is an art but who knew that Indian translators Deependra Pandey and Anuj Goswami and his wife, Nidhi, interpret more than words.

I was left speechless when I discovered their paintings on Srujak.

Deependra R. Pandey's abstract mode draws inspiration from
"some kind of subconscious state of mind where he spreads the wings of his imagination whereupon his conscious state of mind throws something into it".


Anuj Goswami's name may bring a smile to the lips as it is a Sanskrit word for younger brother, while he is , in fact, the eldest! It was his wife, an artist herself, who
"introduced him to the world of colors and imagination."




In the words of the artist himself:
As per SANATANA, Vedic or Yogic culture this body is made of 5 elements - Prthivi (Earth), Jal (Water), Agni (Fire), Vaayu (Air) and Aakaash (Sky or Space). The 4 horizontal bands represent the color of Water, Earth, Air and Sky respectively from bottom to top. At the top left corner is the SUN, the Fire (energy) element not only for humans but also for the whole universe.
The hand represents MAN with KARMA (duties), also correlated with the 5 elements of the human body. And the Sun being the ultimate source in the sky for these Karmas is on top of all.
Now when mother NATURE had given all sources of life in its purest form then I (human) have to decide the KARMA, keeping all these 5 elements in my mind (in purest form).
The painting was an effort to express this philosophy with help of Colors on Paper.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Global Warming

It's a hot topic and one which makes some of us very hot under the collar. While a lot of us are warming up to the issue, others are staying cool under the heat.

China and India are being made to feel the heat as are many other countries which already have enough woes on their plate but those who are wielding the “Global Warming” cudgel over our heads do not seem to have enough irons in the fire. And the more exposure this so-called Apocalypse prediction now gets, the more we are apt to swallow it hook, line and sinker.

So where do we draw the line, read between the lines or at least find the bottom line?

Musings on Media says
The implication of the story that is presented by the media is that the people who live in tropics are responsible for it. These people who live in hot climes are stinky and therefore use body sprays. They want to drink cold water and keep their food from rotting and therefore use refrigerators. They use air-conditioners to keep themselves cool. And in the process they liberate what the media fondly calls CFCs – Chlorofluorocarbons. It is these CFCs that are responsible for the ozone hole. In other words, these browns and blacks – they will ultimately take over the earth after killing off the white skinned people with skin cancer.


The Global Warming Myth? asks John Stossel and goes on to challenge the "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity".
MYTH No. 2: The Earth is warming because of us!
TRUTH: Maybe. The frantic media suggest it's all about us. But the IPCC only said it is likely that we have increased the warming.
Our climate has always undergone changes. Greenland was named Greenland because its coasts used to be very green. It's presumptuous to think humans' impact matters so much in comparison to the frightening geologic history of the earth. And who is to say that last year's temperature is the perfect optimum? Warmer may be better! More people die in cold waves than heat waves.


So, if we dig where media lays it on too thick we might do ourselves a greater favour than if we bury our heads like ostriches forced to watch a discovery travel and Living programme featuring Ostrich Pasta.

My take: Live simple- don’t let the media dictate your opinions nor your purchasing urges.

Most people in Asia, Africa and perhaps even the Middle East, have splendid road side markets where it is often the farmer himself or herself who sells the produce. So it is with many other goods and services in these parts of the world but some of us not only need to buy products that need to be flown to us from Denmark or France or God Knows Where but we need to step into the very skins of the people of those lands- we need to exclusively use “Whitening” cosmetics.

You can’t whitewash a falsehood for long and hopefully the consumers in Asia, Africa, and perhaps even the Middle East will let the scales fall from their eyes and awaken to the truth- All the doomsday predictions of what Global Warming will surely come to pass if all of us can only hope to live so long as we speak like Brad Pitt, or look like Angelina Jolie or drive cars and live in houses more suited to Germany or Italy than to our own regions.
Stay cool, dudes. The end of the world is not yet at hand and, for all you know, it will end in the words of Poet T.S. Eliot,
“Not with a bang but a whimper”