I begin my blogging activity for this year with this fitting poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Diana Scharf had once said: “Goals are dreams with deadlines”. Here’s hoping that each one of us manages to gather enough wind in the sail of our dreams to reach the goal we’ve set out to achieve this year.
“One ship drives east and another drives west, With the self-same winds that blow, ’Tis the set of the sails And not the gales That tell them the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate, As we voyage along through life, ’Tis the set of the soul That decides its goal And not the calm or the strife.”
The last couple of days of the year are upon us, and what do we tend to do as we near the end of December? We evaluate how the year has treated us based on our own criteria. When I sit down for this task, among other memories I recall two big events that occurred this year: My wedding and the subsequent tour of Japan in October. This is not a blog post about “What is Japan”, but an account of some of the totally unique experiences me and my wife enjoyed among the people of the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’.
The Japanese geography test
Having researched and prepared for the tour for nearly 3 months, you would expect that you’ve left no stone unturned. Its the inherent nature of travel, though, that the unexpected can be definitely expected! We landed at the Narita International Airport near Tokyo late evening on a Thursday and took the train to Shinjuku where our hotel was located. The route to the hotel from the station had been chalked out on Google Maps and had been studied well during the tour preparation stage, so even though we failed to purchase a network data connection for my cellphone there wasn’t much reason for alarm. I’ve been good with geography all my life and people have lauded me sometimes for my sense of direction. Still, there comes a time in life when you’re rendered speechless even while holding a dictionary in your hand. My time had come!
It was about 8:00 PM when we alighted the train and walked up to the road, looked around and….. BLANK. We stood there under the Japanese Anime neon signs flashing all around us, with absolutely no idea which direction to take. We asked around, but when a couple of persons pointed to two opposite directions, it was time to get real serious. There was a Japanese police station, or ‘Koban’ as they are known locally, nearby. My wife’s knowledge of the Japanese language came in handy here. The cop inside got out his maps, fussed over the postal address we were spelling out to him, and later pointed to a street after giving some route instructions. We walked along the street, towing our baggages behind us, with elation in our hearts for being in Japan and trepidation in our minds for our present state of being ‘lost’. The maps along the road were terrific though, and the ‘You are here’ arrows brought down the levels of trepidation slowly.
Japanese Koban
After realizing that we might be walking around in circles, we again enquired with a young couple about the route. The lady brought out her iPhone and after confirming our fears about waking in circles, guided us towards what she thought would take us to the destination. Another round of “Arigatou Gozaimasu” (“Thank you very much”) with the customary bow ensued and we set out along the new route, with the lady saying “Genki de ne” (“Take care of yourselves”) as we left. We eventually reached the hotel at 10:00 PM. The walk which should have taken us 20 mins, took 2 hours! It wasn’t as if the hotel brand was less popular, it has a worldwide chain of studio-apartment hotels after all, but probably in a big city and a tourist hub like Tokyo not everyone knows every place by heart. Japanese people help a lot though, a fact of life that manifested itself many times during our stay there.
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The Shibuya road crossing
Its odd to include a simple road crossing in the list of must-see places in a city, but that’s just what Japan is about. Its astonishing. Nearly all the clips available in various TV documentaries about the Japanese people walking on the road (Tokyo being one of the most densely populated cities in the world) have been shot at this place in Shibuya. This video will tell you why (note the sheer amount of people crossing the streets at a time):
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Tales of the people, by the people
Being an Indian I am fairly used to westerners often mentioning about the welcoming nature of the people of my motherland. When you go to Japan and interact with the local populace for any amount of time, you know you’re dealing with a level. The warmth of the Japanese will floor you. Almost all the people we met knew about India and many had visited parts of the country, Taj Mahal in Agra, Qutb Minar in Delhi and other major tourist places in Mumbai and Rajasthan being the most popular.
Everywhere we went the Japanese themselves came forward to strike a conversation. Of the incidences I remember fondly is one where a young lady went out of her way to help us with a public telephone at the Utsunomiya train station, another one where a lady at a bus stop in Kyoto checked on us if everything was fine (“Daijoubu desu ka?”) when she saw us fidgeting with some coins for the bus fare, an elderly lady we met on an elevator at the Kyoto train station who after enquiring which country we originated from wished us good luck during our stay in Japan, and another one in a Hiroshima tram who chatted with us for a long time and even knocked on the window after she got down at her stop to wish us goodbye. Then there was this elderly lady at the Nijo Castle in Kyoto, whom we just cannot forget. After conversing with my wife for a while and finding out that she was an Indian, she was so pleased that she gave my wife a tight hug!
Perhaps the best experience was that of an attendant at the main Tokyo train (JR) station. This was during our last final train journey there, from Tokyo to Narita International Airport. My wife purchased the tickets and we started making our way through the crowd towards the platform, when suddenly this attendant scampered towards us, again through some fairly heavy crowd, and caught us just in time. Panting heavily, she explained that she had made a mistake with the original tickets and exchanged them with the correct ones. The mistake, as it turned out, was a tiny one, and it would’ve in no way affected our journey to Narita Airport. However, to the Japanese it wasn’t the ‘right thing’ and this lady took all the trouble to run this 200m sprint to rectify her mistake. Both me and my wife were absolutely speechless and while she was apologizing by saying “Gomennasai” (“Sorry”) about a million times, we couldn’t thank her enough! It was the most sincere bow I had done while saying “Arigatou Gozaimasu” (“Thank You”) during the entire tour.
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Practicing English
Japanese people are a proud and hardworking lot, that’s what I had heard from childhood and can now personally attest to it. Their urge to learn English and be proficient in it is something that stands out. During a visit to the Kyoto train station we came across a few groups of school kids who had taken up speaking English to visiting foreigners as an assignment. Starting with questions like “What is your name?” and “What game do you like?”, the interaction would quickly switch to a round of ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors‘. The little paper cranes they used to give us at the end of the interview would feel like prizes!
School children at Kyoto JR station, practicing their English language skills
We encountered similarly enthusiastic individuals at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, where a volunteer explained us the entire history related to the place and the A-bomb dropped there during WWII with the passion to rival that of a fanatic and the knowledge to rival that of a National Geographic Channel documentary. On the sidelines, I must admit that the Japanese make wonderful museums.
With our volunteer-guide Akemi Kitagawa san at the A-Bomb Dome inside the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
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Train travel
Even though the people of Japan ensured that our tour remained unforgettable, the real highlight for me personally was their travel system, especially the network of trains, whether intra-city or inter-city. Home to the world-renowned ‘Shinkansen‘ (Bullet Train), their efficiency, punctuality, range, frequency and the sheer quantity of the trains will hold you in awe. They aren’t cheap, mind you, but the infrastructure is in place. It makes traveling to a city 200km away as easy as going to your local convenience store. The Japan Rail (JR) Pass proved to be one of the most important documents during the length of the tour.
Shinkansen (Bullet Train) at Tokyo station
Another little touch that I liked was the way the timers on the traffic signals for pedestrians were marked. There were two bars on the top of the ‘walking-man’ which got shorter and shorter as time progressed. In a country where computer and handheld gaming is a religion in itself, this might have symbolized the ‘life’ becoming lesser and lesser as the playtime goes on.
Pedestrian crossing timer bars on a traffic signal in Tokyo
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Learning to cook
Even a tepid traveler would acknowledge the variety and the uniqueness of the Japanese cuisine. Though there are other factors involved, its not for nothing that the Michelin Guide has awarded Japanese cities more Michelin stars than the rest of the world combined. Our fascination with it led us to do a cooking class in Kyoto with Taro Saeki san at his home in Kyoto. It was also an opportunity for us to see a traditional Japanese home from inside and converse with the family. Preparing the dishes was fun, and even today a simple mention of the cooking class reminds us of their delicious taste. Not surprisingly, Taro san with his wife, Yoshiko san and his sweet little daughter Haruko san were charming hosts. At the end of the class it felt as if I had made a permanent friend in Japan.
Cooking class in Kyoto with Taro san
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Dinner at Ginza
Pleasant encounters with locals didn’t end there. We also had a dinner at the Sony Building in Ginza (Tokyo) with Hiroko Miyata san, a former student of my wife during some of her French language classes. We were joined by another of my wife’s friends who is on a scholarship in Japan, and together we had a great time. The chocolate cookies that Hiroko had brought with her were toothsome to say the least.
Dinner at Ginza
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Shinto, Buddhism, Technology
If you say that Japan has only two main religions viz. Shinto and Buddhism, you would be doing a great injustice to the country, for it has another religion: Technology. Perhaps this third religion is one that transgresses the boundaries of the earlier two main traditional religions and unites everyone.
Buddhism: Gate at the entrance of the Kiyomizu-dera Temple (Kyoto)
In one sweeping view you can capture a beautifully adorned Shinto shrine or a Buddhist pagoda made of wood as well as a spectacularly lit modern tower or a state-of-the-art railway station made from iron and steel.
Technology: Kyoto JR Station
Japan’s accomplishments in the realm of electronics are already phenomenal, and the effect can be seen in the hi-tech cellular phones in the hands almost every person walking on the street. The quality of the services offered on them has been miles ahead of the rest of the world for some time now. Places like ‘The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation’ (Miraikan) at Odaiba in Tokyo, housing Honda’s humanoid robot ASIMO, and areas like Akihabara and Ginza are a ‘must-visit’ for science and technology buffs.
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Kobe’s surprises
Being a port city, and a huge one at that, you would expect Kobe to have a good maritime infrastructure. It also has a huge open space in Meriken Park which looks spectacular at night. However, it was visiting the Earthquake Memorial Museum that was a one of a kind experience. The recreations of the Great Hanshin Earthquake on that horrific morning in January 1995, made using a light and sound show, were amazingly lifelike and quite scary. Practical explanations of why and how earthquakes occur were very informative. To top it all, they even had a 3-D theatre in there. It was easily the best 3-D movie viewing experience we’ve had till date.
Earthquake Museum in Kobe
Now, would common man-hole covers ever grab your attention? Probably not. But when they are adorned by designs depicting the city’s history and culture, they certainly would, won’t they?
Man-hole covers in Kobe
It must be said here that in the past Japan has been on the receiving end of many devastating earthquakes and resulting tidal waves along its long coastline. No wonder they are called ‘Tsunamis’, a Japanese name. Our trip was just seven months after the massive earthquake in March off the Tōhoku region and the deadly Tsunami which wiped out much of the city of Sendai and almost caused a nuclear fallout at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Still there was absolutely no amount of anxiety or fear amongst the Japanese people, probably because over the years they’ve perfected the art of starting from scratch and rebounding to the no. 1 spot among contemporaries in almost all sectors.
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Breathtaking beauty
Visiting at the start of the fall season meant that we were able to witness the changing color of the leaves, and the sights that greeted us at places like Hakone and Nikko were magnificent.
Tree leaves changing their color at Nikko
The sight of Mount Fuji (‘Fuji san’) was the icing on the cake as far as the Hakone trip went.
Lake Ashi with Mount Fuji in the background (Hakone, Japan)
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I think the best way to round of this article is a four minute video of some of the pictures captured during the tour. So here goes:
I have been wanting to write on this topic for a long time. How often have we heard people use terms like “back to the routine..” or “back to the grind..” only to realize that they are talking about rejoining their jobs or regular work after, say, a long vacation or a set of holidays. Not that its the best of feelings, but I have serious dislike for this usage of the word ‘routine’. Its a word that has had its meaning pushed into the domain of negativity due to its blatant overuse!
I’m of the strong opinion that there is no such a thing as an ‘ordinary day’. Its more of a mental attitude, I suppose, than a realistic one. Each day is different in its existence. It makes you go through different experiences, teaches you new stuff about yourself and throws some unique challenges at you. The intensity may vary according to your line of work (or social status), but its there alright. Its up to you whether you want to overcome these challenges or completely sidestep them, if at all you recognize them in the first place, and that’s where personality comes in. Some people, even some of the learned ones, don’t realize this fact of life, which I think is a real pity.
The word I’d like people to use instead is ‘rhythm’. It is a phenomenon that surrounds us, and the word seems inspiring and energetic from its very utterance.
The rhythm of our heart and our DNA
We live by the beats made by our heart following a certain rhythm and its ironic how, unlike the negativity many people seem to attribute to the repetitive nature of life, we actually want the heart to beat in a normal regular manner. We term that as a positive. In fact, any irregularity in this rhythm raises an alarm! Similar is the case of the strands of DNA and the human genome that describes our very structure. It has lots of repetition throughout the body, and people are fine with that.
Dance rhythm
Rhythm is easily identified with music and dance moves. The very mention of rhythm in this sense of the word exudes energy, though the idea of music and dance routines is to be repetitive, to an extent. This is where creativity comes in, a corollary to the unique challenge I talked about earlier in the article.
Running rhythm
Sportsmen talk a lot about rhythm, be it in their training regimens or their performances on the field. Almost any sport you pick has an element of rhythm associated with it. Rarely would you come across a sportsperson calling his/her exercises as ‘routine’, even though the tasks might be repetitively same every single day and procedural in nature. Rhythm carries even more significance in the field of athletics, track and field events, and cycling. In the swimming arena, the strokes look beautiful when everything falls into place, when everything happens in unison every single time.
The same logic can be applied to our lives. Most of the examples mentioned here point to the concept of passion. Musicians and dancers are passionate about what they do. So are sportsmen. If ‘passion’ is too strong a word for you, replace it with ‘attention’ and the result won’t be very different. It would be quite unfortunate if we do not pick up on these signs and surrender ourselves to lethargy and the ‘routine’ of our daily chores.
Again, routine is something that exists, rhythm is something that we perceive. Rhythm is the co-ordination of action. As we go about our activities, this is the definition we should be identifying with, don’t you think?
God, as most preachers would have us believe, created the world we live in. Corollary: He also created the persons in it as well as the stage for them to showcase their skills and talents. So far so good.
Somewhere down the line, He must have started relishing His product, and would have had thoughts about acquiring some more share in His venture. We humans, the pompous and shrewd souls that we are, would have none of it. Result? Well, the aforementioned preachers would also have us believe that God always has the last laugh. In any case, He always had one ‘dead’ly trick up His sleeve.
Death itself.
Now, He must have thought of dropping the axe on one particular year itself. 2011. Any special reason? Personally, I feel He must have been very annoyed with the way we humans treated the 2012 Armageddon stuff. “Very cheeky”, He must have said. He would have wanted to start his own enterprise, so He must have shortlisted a few people to recruit from the various domains – Cinema, Music, Art, Technology, Sports etc. – across various countries in the world.
Quite to our horror, He did succeed.
God Writing
Well, now that He has, lets have a look at His prospects in each domain. If He plans to start a movie, He is in august company. He has evergreen actors like Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand and true glamor divas like Elizabeth Taylor. He would be able to rope in legendary musicians like Pt. Bhimsen Joshi and Shrinivas Khale. Good singing voices wouldn’t be hard to find either, with the likes of Jagjit Singh, Bhupendra Hazarika and Amy Winehouse roaming nearby.
An art gallery amongst the pantheon of the Gods would be most sought after. Surely now He can call upon M.F. Hussain to create one!
In the same pantheon, there will always be a few Gods who will be forward thinking and wanting to live at the cutting edge of technology. They will find pleasure in the company of Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie. The charisma, the intensity, the vision and the simplicity they would factor in is bound to gratify the Gods themselves. Perhaps now they would even have a heavenly version of Pixar and a movie named ‘Earth, Inc’.
Sports isn’t just for us humans, it is surely a thing of the Gods too. They can now bank upon some good advice from Mansoor Ali Khan ‘Tiger’ Pataudi for starting a sporting enterprise. With terrific gladiators like Joe Frazier, Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli around, thrill and entertainment is guaranteed.
This list obviously omits a lot of other names, who by themselves have it in them to give God a shot in the arm in His endeavor.
Would all this really happen? No one can be sure because no one has ever returned from up there. Perhaps the departed of 2011 will find God less critical and more encouraging than us Earthly humans. Perhaps the change of perspective will propel them to even greater deeds. Will that affect the world we live in, for good? Yes, but only if we take inspiration from their lives and work to “put a dent“ in God’s own universe!
The celebration of the common man has been, and will always be, an uncommon tale. Fortunately, one person amongst us men has captured this ethos very well over the years. Through his satirical cartoons, legendary artist R.K. Laxman has glorified the bewildering life around a regular working class man, a mere mortal in the vast land that is India. For about five decades, Indians have looked forward to his cartoon strip ‘You Said It‘ in the newspaper every morning only to find a sardonic portrayal of the current affairs, mostly related to the political domain, that can be easily identified with.
Wouldn’t a collection of such portrayals be a prized possession for anyone? Most definitely. However, you tend to value it more when you receive it, quite unexpectedly, as a birthday present!
Yesterday when I opened my mailbox I found a copy the book ‘Laxman Rekhas’ with my name on top. It was a present sent to me by my cellular phone service provider, Idea Cellular. What a wonderful gesture! Now I recognize the fact that I wasn’t and won’t be the only person to receive this as a birthday gift, and it might even be a campaign by The Times of India and the cellular service provider to publicize the book as well as themselves, but who cares! I am loving it
A celebration of the common man, one of my prized birthday gifts this year
Needless to say, the book has some delectably hilarious sketches. On the last page is another sketch, this time that of a crow with a few words next to it, words which I think capture the character of the legendary cartoonist.
Crow
R.K Laxman’s fascination with the crow is well known. He has no patience with “stupid birds like the parrot”, but the crow, with its intelligence and quicksilver movement, has always captivated him. In his autobiography The Tunnel of Time, he wrote: “As I grew up I realized that crows had a temperament close to that of humans – clever, cunning and cautious!” Because the crow is so ubiquitous, found as it is on tree branches, near the garden tap, on the window sill, on top of statues and TV antennas, we tend, says the cartoonist, to take the bird for granted “like a full stop in a sentence”. One of the best compliments paid to him was when a child mistaking one of his framed core sketches for the real thing, flung a stone at it and cracked the glass.
I came across these lines last month while clearing up some old newspaper clippings from my room. They are part of an advertisement for the ‘Magarpatta City‘ township that appeared in The Times of India (Pune edition) on October 14, 2010.
These words struck a chord somewhere deep within me, and I thought it best to share them on this blog.
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Change is inspiring.
The best thing often starts as one simple thought.
Change is positive.
It brings an enduring transformation.
Change is progress.
The smallest decision can make the biggest difference.
There has been a lot of air about the fight between the Indian government and the civil society on the battlegrounds of the anti-corruption ‘Jan Lokpal Bill‘ (citizen’s ombudsman bill). The swords too are nicely named: ‘stability’ and ‘morality’, and as with all swords, they are double-edged!
With neither side backing down, nor moving substantially forward, behind-the-scenes meetings and under-the-cloak deals being carried out every minute, its the classic stalemate that has plagued the world ever since the Greeks coined the word ‘democracy’, a brilliant concept spoilt by an ego-centric populace. Well, its no point blaming the Greeks anymore if recent history is anything to go by, they are more than suffering from the consequences of dealings under the economic part of that ideology.
Standing on the sidelines, though, I have tried to understand its gravity. While watching an episode (‘The Whisky Priest‘) of the extremely popular 1980′s British comedy TV series ‘Yes Minister’, I came across a dialogue sequence which made things clearer. The scene is question is after the minister, Jim Hacker, receives information about underhand dealings between British arms suppliers and middlemen and Italian red terrorists. He wishes to raise the issue with the Prime Minister and in that vein mentions his desires to his permanent under-secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, a hard-core civil servant. Appleby advises him against opening ‘a can of worms’. This is what transpires after that advice, and it will give the reader a very good idea about the perpetual state of any government and civil service establishment on the Earth.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Government isn’t about morality.
Minister Jim Hacker: Oh I see, what is it about then?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Stability. Keeping things going. Preventing anarchy. Stopping society falling to bits. Still being here tomorrow.
Minister Jim Hacker: What for? What is the ultimate purpose of government, if it isn’t for doing good?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Minister, government isn’t about good and evil, it is only about order or chaos.
Minister Jim Hacker: And it is order for Italian terrorists to get British bombs, and you don’t care?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: [disdainfully] It is not my job to care, that’s what politicians are for. My job is to carry out government policy.
Minister Jim Hacker: Even if you think it is wrong?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Well, almost all government policy is wrong….. frightfully well carried out!
Minister Jim Hacker: Humphrey, have you ever known a civil servant to resign on a matter of principle?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: [surprised] I should think not! What an appalling suggestion!
Minister Jim Hacker: For the first time I fully understand that you are only committed to means, and not to ends.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Well, as far as I am concerned, minister, and all my colleagues, there is no difference between means and ends.
Minister Jim Hacker: If you believe that Humphrey, you will go to hell.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: [smiling] Minister, I had no idea that you had a theological bent.
Minister Jim Hacker: You are a moral vacuum, Humphrey.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: If you say so, minister!
As Stan Lee of the Marvel Comics fame would say, “nuff said!”
(P.S. Follow the link to understand what the term whisky priest means.)
Today I lumber out of my 6 month blogging hiatus with an article in the domain of linguistics. As the title suggests, its about the meaning and the origins of the word ‘companion’, and it was brought to my notice by my fiancé. Aptly so, don’t you think?
Right then. Why did the origins of that one word strike me as interesting? Here’s why.
‘Companion’ has its origins in the French word ‘compaignon’, which literally means ‘one who breaks bread with another’, based on the Latin ‘com’ – ‘together with’ and ‘panis’ – ‘bread’. This, I think, is brilliantly logical. In a way it means that a companion is a person with whom you share something you’ve toiled for – your bread, or to be more generic, your food. Its the most basic of the necessities that you share with someone, and therefore has the most value, which in turn means that you should really value the person whom you share it with. That person may be your partner (husband or wife), friend, colleague, neighbor (I know, that’s pushing it!).
The New Oxford American Dictionary too puts the meaning as:
“a person or animal with whom one spends a lot of time or with whom one travels”
which generally corroborates the original meaning of the word and applies a modern connotation to it. A companion now would also mean a compatriot, a comrade, a person with whom you share your most inner thoughts and experiences, a confidant, or as the Spanish would put it, an ‘amigo’.
How much of all this still holds true, is a matter of debate in today’s world of treacherous alliances, cut-throat competition and a race for ever expanding profits.
Case in the point: The word ‘company’ is naturally derived from ‘companion’. Considering its usage as meaning a firm, corporation, enterprise or consortium, there you are in the company of like-minded individuals, or at least should be. Various job descriptions e.g. ‘company secretary’ have in turn been derived from ‘company’. Its the contemporary usage of the word in some cases that amazes me. We take the word for granted without thinking about its depth.
The very fact that you are amidst like-minded people pursuing a common goal should mean attributes such as trust and loyalty are obvious. The spirit of teamwork and notions such as watching each other’s back and sharing information honestly should come naturally. Its not always the case though, because some of us treat the ‘company’ like a building made of stone and cement, where you only work, or command work from others. A place for personal gains, attempts to claim personal laurels, set selfish goals, convene water-cooler talks and gossip meetings, conduct rat-races, and eventually malign the origins of the word like hauling down the statue of a great old forgotten and misquoted leader by pulling in different directions. A by-product of ‘growing big’ and inter-departmental rivalries, you might say, but isn’t everyone (at least theoretically) supposed to collectively propel the ship of the ‘company’ forward?
This is a picture of a sunset I managed to capture through my camera lens while returning from work last Thursday.
Sunset
Admittedly, its neither the best picture of a sunset you’ll ever come across, nor do I plan to write about how it symbolizes natural beauty or how it gives us the hope to face the dark night and wait for the pleasant dawn. We’ve read all that before, haven’t we? Instead, I want to put into perspective a few thoughts that crossed my mind and certain observations which I made in those 5-10 minutes.
I saw this scene while on a steep incline on the road. Capturing natural scenery is all about the right timing, and by the time I parked my vehicle to the side of the road and managed to click the picture, the Sun had started dropping behind the hills. This drew my mind to the notion of the time we spend between spotting an occasion / opportunity and taking efforts to capitalize on it. I’m not saying that its good to be foolhardy or jump in without thinking or planning, but many a deal, both in our professional and private lives, is lost due to this one fact. The people who we term as ‘successful’ have the uncanny ability to minimize this time interval to as low a value as possible, not hesitate, think logically, take calculated risks and come out on the brighter side.
Somewhat similar was my next observation. I started back after clicking this picture and had traveled just a few meters when I saw that there was a small valley between two adjacent hills. Obviously the Sun was still visible through this space, and the sight of the setting Sun locked between two hills was spectacular to say the least. Then why didn’t I click a picture of this panorama? Some distance in the foreground was a small garbage dump and lots of white smoke billowing from it. The smoke had risen to such a height that it had ruined any chance of a shot being clicked without depicting it. As you’ll see, when I clicked the above picture, the opportunity that was in store for me in the perceived future was a whole lot better, potentially, but I could not have guessed the actual ground conditions beforehand. In the wait of a ‘better opportunity’, I would have forfeited my ‘best chance’!
Isn’t it amazing how such little things coupled with some out-of-the-box thinking tell us so much about the life we lead!
