बस यूँही……..

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With the Sun rising early these days, I am frequently greeted by a golden sunrise on the way to the hospital. The nearest star to our home planet spreads cheer and exhorts us to  action, to shed inertia , move our butts and get going.
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I remembered the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge written nearly 200 years ago.
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Work without Hope
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(Composed 21st February 1825)
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All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair—
The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing—
And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
And I the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.
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Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow,
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.
Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,
For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!
With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll:
And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live.
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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A resonance of Karmayog from the Bhagavadgita…
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#Motivation
#Sunrise_Photography
#Inspiration
#Different_Perspective

तग-ओ-दौ: efforts, struggle, toil

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बस यूँही…….

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The big cat is the pride of India’s conservation effort. One Governmental effort that started exactly 50 years ago and is a success story today.
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Human stupidity, cruelty and the resultant wanton killing of Tigers had brought the numbers down to around 1165. When the conservation effort started in earnest, numbers have thankfully steadily risen to more than 3150 now.
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Just as we are celebrating 75 years of Independence, 75% of the global tiger population is in India. The expanse of tiger reserves across the country has also spread over 75,000 sq km besides witnessing a 75% increase in their population over the last 50 years
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The most regal and powerful of the big cats, one sighting in its natural habitat is enough to fill one with awe and its majestic power is only too apparent..
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#Project_Tiger
#Golden_Jubilee
#Magical_Nature
#Majestic_Animal
#Regal_Feline
#Pure_Joy

बस यूँही…..

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The mountain ridge stood silently, the peaks standing in unison , looking down at me somewhat bemused by my visiting them yet again. Like us, Choco loves being outdoors too.
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A sense of freedom, of peace, of soaking in the silence, barring the rustling of the leaves, the chirping of the birds, the whistling of the breeze….
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Aah! That’s Nirvana….. You’re one with the Supreme being without having to shed your body to do it.
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#Nonverbal_Communication
#Nature_Photography
#Serenity
#Silence
#Inspiration
#Introspection

मस्तूर: छुपी हुई, veiled

बस यूँही…..

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Bereft of the polluted air and the urban haze, celestial bodies appear brighter and happier in the mountains. The moon shines with a greater, pristine glow as she literally lights up the skies.
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I have always been a great admirer of Selene and find something new in her every single time I look at her beatific silver façade.
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Last night, while admiring her divine, enchanting, addicting beauty, I was reminded of the shortest poem Robert Louis Stevenson has written.
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Robert Louis Stevenson called it ‘Happy Thought’. This poem from Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885) is only two lines long, so it is worth quoting in full here:
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The world is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.
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#Romancing_the_Moon
#Celestial_Bodies
#Different_Perspective
#Divine_Creation
#Happiness
#Satisfaction.

Taken with my go-to DSLR, Nikon D 850. 500 mm lens. Handheld, fully manual. F 6.3, ISO 80, 1/50 seconds

बस यूँही……

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The summer heat is well and truly on and the various varieties of fragrant flowers are in full bloom. Stepping out into the corner of the garden where these are located is a heady, intoxicating, recurrent pleasurable experience we are fortunate to experience.
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We have multiple types of Jasmine in our garden at home, each with its distinct, light fragrance. These are some that were plucked yesterday as an offering for the daily Pooja. The majority are मदनबाण but a few flowers in the left lower corner are मोगरा. The European botanists didn’t realize there were more than 200 distinct varieties when they clubbed all of them under an umbrella term, “Jasmine”
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#Flowers_In_our_Garden
#Fresh_Start
#Frail_But_Beautiful
#Fragrant_Nature
#Nature
#A_Divine_Offering

बस यूँही….

A quiet evening and plenty of solitude. Nature was wordless, serene, the Sun had retreated to its nocturnal abode bidding me goodnight and exhorting me to look into the Inner Universe. I made use of the opportunity to good effect. I was reminded of this lovely poem I must have read maybe 50 years ago.

Ode on Solitude
BY ALEXANDER POPE

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.

Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease,
Together mixed; sweet recreation;
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

A refreshing dive within helped me re-emerge recharged.

बस यूँही……

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The beginning of a new day is
an opportunity to jettison the negativity of the past and clear the baggage,
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And start anew with renewed hopes and energy.
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That’s the message that nature gives me every single day.
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I am grateful God gave me an opportunity to admire the inspiring beauty (albeit evanescent) of a new morning.
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#Sunrise_Photography
#New_Goals
#New_Beginnings
#Inspiration
#Renewal_Of_Faith

बस यूँही……

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The Da Vinci glow was publicized so much yesterday by the ubiquitous and all pervading social media that by the time moonrise was expected, at least 15 messages from well meaning friends exhorted me to get up and go do some moongazing. Choco, our beagle was in a post meal stupor and didn’t insist on accompanying me. The sliver looked to have a distinct yellowish hue and it’s faithful companion, Venus was seen close to it. The pollution in the city air did come in the way of a good clear picture, though. How I wish I had travelled out of the city….
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The much hyped Da Vinci glow was not very impressive though.
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#Nightscapes
#Romancing_the_Moon
#Astrophotography
#Serenity

फरेफ़्ता: मोहित, मुग्ध, प्रेमी, आशिक

बस यूँही…..

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The hornbill turned up on its favourite perch, the branch of the Gulmohar next to us. It stared at me as if to tell me something. Fortunately it wasn’t camera shy today and allowed some photographs. Some days it takes off at the glint of the lens.
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The Indian Grey Hornbill is a common bird in India, mainly arboreal and is often seen in pairs. It has grey feathers all over the body with a light grey or dull white belly. The horn is black or dark grey with a casque extending to the point of curvature of the horn. It is one of the few hornbill species found in urban areas in many cities where they are able to make use of large trees in avenues.
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The upper parts are greyish brown and there is a slight trace of a pale supercilium. The ear coverts are darker. The flight feathers of the wing are dark brown with a whitish tip. The tail has a white tip and a dark subterminal band.
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They have a red iris and the eyelids have eyelashes. The casque is short and pointed.
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The male has a larger casque on a dark bill, and the culmen and lower mandible are yellowish.
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The bare skin around the eye is dark in the male, but sometimes pale reddish in females. The female has a more yellowish bill with black on the basal half and on the casque.
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The juveniles lack the casque, and the bare skin around the eye is dull orange.
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I was reminded of a poem I’d read a few days ago.

“Look at you”

By Megan Booysen

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Look at you
Looking at me too
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Look at you
Love,
Beautiful and true
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Look at you
with love
Radiant and pure
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Look at you
in love
Begging for the cure
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Look at you
broken
Look at you
bent 
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The key to love is not in breaking,
But in how we look again.
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#Birds_in_our_backyard
#Nature_Photography

#The_Look
#Nonverbal_Communication

बस यूँही….

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Nature is infinitely more beautiful than any artist’s or photographer’s imagination or depiction.
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I feel whatever glimpses we are fortunate to get or renditions we do give through our images show but a fraction of reality.
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I’ve been extremely blessed to have friends like Shrinivas Khedkar (who sent this amazing image which is clearly a human artist at work trying to show what the Supreme one can- & does- create vistas of indescribable beauty).
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#Nature
#The_Celestial_Painter
#Captivating_Beauty
#Inspiration
#Beauty_All_Around