LIFE IS BUILD-UP OF MULTICOLOURED FACTORS

My reflections on life – in quotes (XXIX)   

“You need to be a spiritualist.

You need to be a materialist.

You need to practice renunciation.

You need to learn adaptation.

You need to follow integration.

Life is never unilaterally independent.

Life is build-up of multicoloured factors.

You need to choose the apt composition.

You need to find your shades thus.

You need to balance the other hues.

You need to master the balancing act.

You need to see the harmony prevails.”

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

WORLD AIDS DAY: APART FROM THE SCIENCES, WE SERIOUSLY NEED THE SOCIAL SCIENCES – THE CALL FOR THE ‘ZERO DISCRIMINATION’

Though there are many more silent killers than the HIV/AIDS, the social stigma attached with this viral epidemic makes it a killer in the real sense. Though not curable yet, the advances in the health science with more evolved antiretroviral therapy has made life easier for millions of the HIV-positive people across the world so much so that they can now maintain even the sexual contact with their partners with proper precautions.

“Getting to Zero: Zero new HIV infections. Zero deaths from AIDS-related illness. Zero discrimination” – is the theme of this World AIDS Day on December 1. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the goal to bring 15 million HIV-infected people under the treatment regime of the antiretroviral drugs by 2015, though a tough assignment, looks within reach now given the latest global statistics.

WHAT LIFE SHOULD MEAN FOR..

My reflections on life – in quotes (XXVIII)   

“Life is just not about existing. 

It goes beyond the echoes of existentialism. 

It calls for building on your own credentials. 

It calls for creating your own set of rules. 

It calls for fighting to win. 

And the winning should mean for conscience to prevail.” 

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

ANSWERS, LIFE SEEK..QUESTIONS, YOU POSE

A lonely journey, a standalone moment, a simple incident, can sometime tell you what you were always looking to know.

Life is just not about existing. It goes beyond the existentialism. It calls for building on your own credentials. It calls for fighting and fighting to win.

It calls for creating your own set of rules where you don’t lose questions and where you don’t act impulsively for answers.

Answers, sometimes, they are never there; sometimes, they cannot be.

THE CORRUPT POLICEMAN OF THAT RAILWAY STATION AND HIS VOICE OF CONSCIENCE

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (21)

He (or the complainant here) had a fresh cautionary advice on his activism yet again after the recent incident. While en-route to board the train, he came to know that the contractors of the parking space of the railway station (a satellite township near Varanasi) charge even the vehicles that just drop the people and leave the station campus. Now that was not the rule and legally unacceptable. The relative going to drop him had gone through it.

He told his relative not to pay anything this time. After they reached the railway station, he ensured that the parking guys were not paid anything as the relative left immediately though they approached and tried to stop the car.

Once the car had left the station premises, he looked for the railway police personnel to complain about it (now onwards, he is ‘the complainant’). Though the complainant was not very hopeful, what followed was utterly disgusting.

BANARAS: IT’S GOOD TO BE A BANARASI

You may have been living in a city for years but that may not be the reason enough to call it your city, a place you would like to be identified with.

You might have lived in a city for years before leaving it and now the existing contact with it is through your parental house, some friends and the regular visits to city, yet you feel you don’t need to find reasons to be identified with it.

You don’t feel you need reasons because reasons either don’t exist or they exist beyond their visible presence, subtly bonding the city with you where identities merge.

That happens when you happen to be from a place like Varanasi, a place that imbibes every shade of the human evolution in its fold, an evolutionary tree that transcends thousands of years, a history that is said to be older than history for a city said to be among the oldest continually inhabited places.

THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE (VI)

A BROKEN STONE ARTEFACT IN THE TEMPLE 

PHOTOGRAPHY

The Mundeshwari Devi Temple is on the Mundeshwari Hill of the Kaimur Range. Being on a hilltop, the journey en-route to the hill shrine is a memorable experience. The temple is a popular religious and ‘tantra sadhana’ destination in Bihar attracting thousands of pilgrims every year. The main deities worshipped here are ‘Shakti’ and ‘Lord Shiva’. 

A BROKEN STONE ARTEFACT IN THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE PREMISES

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE (V)

THE LORD GANESHA IDOL IN THE TEMPLE 

PHOTOGRAPHY

The Mundeshwari Devi Temple is on the Mundeshwari Hill of the Kaimur Range. Being on a hilltop, the journey en-route to the hill shrine is a memorable experience. The temple is a popular religious and ‘tantra sadhana’ destination in Bihar attracting thousands of pilgrims every year. The main deities worshipped here are ‘Shakti’ and ‘Lord Shiva’. 

LORD GANESHA IN THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE 

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE (IV)

THE NANDI IDOL IN THE TEMPLE 

PHOTOGRAPHY

The Mundeshwari Devi Temple is on the Mundeshwari Hill of the Kaimur Range. Being on a hilltop, the journey en-route to the hill shrine is a memorable experience. The temple is a popular religious and ‘tantra sadhana’ destination in Bihar attracting thousands of pilgrims every year. The main deities worshipped here are ‘Shakti’ and ‘Lord Shiva’. 

NANDI IN THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE 

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE (III)

THE LORD SHIVA IDOL IN THE TEMPLE 

PHOTOGRAPHY

The Mundeshwari Devi Temple is on the Mundeshwari Hill of the Kaimur Range. Being on a hilltop, the journey en-route to the hill shrine is a memorable experience. The temple is a popular religious and ‘tantra sadhana’ destination in Bihar attracting thousands of pilgrims every year. The main deities worshipped here are ‘Shakti’ and ‘Lord Shiva’. 

LORD SHIVA IN THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE 

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE (II)

PHOTOGRAPHY

The Mundeshwari Devi Temple is on the Mundeshwari Hill of the Kaimur Range. Being on a hilltop, the journey en-route to the hill shrine is a memorable experience. The temple is a popular religious and ‘tantra sadhana’ destination in Bihar attracting thousands of pilgrims every year. The main deities worshipped here are ‘Shakti’ and ‘Lord Shiva’. 

THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE 

(SIDE VIEW OF THE MAIN TEMPLE BUILDING)

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE (I)

PHOTOGRAPHY

One doesn’t find much written about the Mundeshwari Devi Temple, said to be the oldest functional Hindu temple. It is located in the Kaimur district of Bihar. One can read reports of this hill shrine to be developed on the line of the Vaishno Devi Hill Shrine but that remains a far-fetched idea given the Naxal threat and problems of bandits in the Kaimur district. In fact, not just the Kaimur disctrict, but a large area of the Kaimur range including other districts have been affected with the Naxal problem. One could easily see open land mines on many pitched roads.

This year, the Kaimur range has seen a culmination of a successful movement to oust the Naxals and thousands of villagers gathered this July to celebrate the victory but it will take some time before it could be said that the Naxals have really vacated the area. Any further development would hinge on that only.

Kaimur Range is the eastern extension of the Vindhya Range and many plateaux and waterfalls crisscross through it. Many hills of the Range have series of rock paintings with historical and evolutionary significance.

The Mundeshwari Devi Temple is on the Mundeshwari Hill of the Kaimur Range. Being on a hilltop, the journey en-route to the hill shrine is a memorable experience. The temple is a popular religious and ‘tantra sadhana’ destination in Bihar attracting thousands of pilgrims every year. The main deities worshipped here are ‘Shakti’ and ‘Lord Shiva’.

THE MUNDESHWARI DEVI HILL SHRINE 

(MAIN TEMPLE BUILDING)

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

INNOCENCE, THE ESSENTIAL HUMAN FACTOR THAT WE LOST

..or are losing fast..

The quest to lead (or be led) a life of the proportion you thought of and treading the chart blindly has inherent risk of ruining everything that was human in you.

You never knew when the blind race started sucking you squeezing out of you the ‘human you’.

On the surface, nothing seemed to change. You lived normally. Days passed. Every day was like the other day. You worked to set scales further higher. You worked even more.

Nothing wrong. All so good. Materially. Practically. All so worldly.

But not aesthetically. But not holistically. But not the human way.

SO NEAR YET SO FAR. SO FAR YET SO NEAR.

My reflections on life – in quotes (XXVII)     

"So near yet so far. So far yet so near. 

Some relations are better left undefined. 

The beauty of their existence 

lies in them being not together 

yet always, eternally bonded."

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

ALL SO EXTREME YET ENTICINGLY WILDER

Absolute thoughts of the grey in extreme wilds

Complete with exonerated guilts of nowhere

It was all so discrete and yet all so everyday

It happened to be one big anthem of nothingness

Shut up and closed down, pleading and waiting

Reading, taking notes of absence, writing nothing

The groovy slice and the curvaceous hollow

What that was there, what that wasn’t to be there

The theatre of the theatrics, beyond the insanity

In harmony with absurdity, romancing the ghetto

All said and done and yet all remained undone

The slight whisker and its magnanimous bartender

Rendered dates to the history, days remained empty

That strange love of the wilderness and its craziness

It was all so grey and extreme yet enticingly wilder

The absolute thoughts of the grey in the extreme wilds

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

A BOAT-RIDE ON THE MORNING WAVES OF THE GANGA

                                                                                                                                                                            PHOTOGRAPHY

Taking a boat-ride on the morning waves of the Ganga while it flows through the ghats of Varanasi brings one to an immediate aura of the pristine glory of the nature with the triad of the sun’s reflection, the Ganga’s vibration and the human psyche’s reverberation into full harmony with the lyrical elements of the momentary elevation.

Feel it. Live it. Assimilate it. It comes back to you. 

A BOAT-RIDE ON THE MORNING WAVES OF THE GANGA

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

THE GENTLER SUN IN THE GOLDEN RHAPSODY WITH THE MORNING GANGA

PHOTOGRAPHY

THE GENTLER SUN IN THE GOLDEN RHAPSODY WITH THE MORNING GANGA

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

THE MORNING DISCOURSE WITH GANGA

THE MORNING DISCOURSE WITH GANGA

CATEGORY:  PHOTOGRAPHY

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

WAIT FOR THAT HALF AWAKENING

WAIT FOR THAT HALF AWAKENING 

CATEGORY:  PHOTOGRAPHY

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

WHAT HAS BECOME OF ‘NEWS’..

What makes news or what makes a development newsy – the question lies in the realm defined by words like cliché, stupidity, absurd, vague, subjective and so on.

Like every other cliché but the basic elements of a society, this question, too, has not any direct answer. At best, we can say, it is decided more by the ‘discretion’ of individual decisionmakers than by the concerns of the journalistic ethics; it is decided more by the commercial interests than by the concern of giving voice to the silent victims; it is decided more by the interests that are increasingly vested in nature.

There is no clear guideline and there cannot be any. All these factors are at play when ‘newsy’ decisions are taken.

And newsy is everything that is sensational and something that is within reach without applying much intellectual capital.

IT WAS INDEED A GOOD MOMENT AFTER OVER TWO YEARS OF FIGHTING IT OUT IN THE COURT..

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (20)

It was indeed a good moment if not the complete victory when, at that very moment, he looked back to reflect on the fight that had begun almost 30 months ago. Like it happens in the final lag of any journey, the delay of the final moments had started testing his patience, his calm and his faith in his fight, but it came giving him some real moments of thoughtlessness midst his soul getting disappeared in the rush of the thoughts that prevailed at the moment.

It was the fifth day after his case was listed for the verdict when the final order came sentencing the accused to life imprisonment. As soon as the verdict came, he was ‘attacked’ by the people for their pie; we can use alternate present day terms - tip or gratitude or forced gesture that involves giving of what we call the convenience fee. Though you might have been harassed to the core, these stupid fellows ask for it as if it is their birthright.

POLITICAL PLUNDER LEAGUE

The present scenario has cemented and formalized the Plunder League to extend even greater ruin than the good run.

Politicians across the party-line are deep under corruption allegations. Many of the ruling coalition members including senior ministers have seen jails. Many of the non-ruling parties are facing serious allegations.

Many of the ruling coalition members facing serious corruption allegations audaciously deny any probe demands knowing they can easily manipulate the system they run.

Many of the non-ruling party members don’t face any probe in spite of the serious allegations owing to the Indian Political Code of Trust as elaborated in brief by Mr. Digvijay Singh.

This Indian Political Code of Trust is an important causal element of the strengthening Political Plunder League.

RELATIONS..IT’S ALL ON AN EXISTENTIAL CONTINUUM..

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (19)

Relations and their ways are strange. They represent the central theme of one’s existence continuum. They make you and they break you. They touch you and they tear into you. They make you dependent. They make you a liberated soul. The colours are simply overwhelming leaving you enlightened or leaving you shattered. I had a discussion with a friend today that randomly took some similar shades. Thought to share it and putting here some random parts from the conversation. (A1 is the friend; A2 is for me).

A1: Yeah..how are you?

A2: Fine, every day is a new day..you tell me..

A1: I am ok..tough..fragile, both at the same time..

A2: we all are..kabhi aisa (like this)..kabhi vaisa (like that)..

A1: Yes..in the name of karma sidhdhantha we die also..

A2: Yes..and it somehow tells us that at least we are true bosses somewhere if not anywhere..then on our own physical manifestations..

A1: We are bosses on neglecting our health..interesting..

A2: Yes, we do that all the time..

A1: We feel we can only dominate that..what we eat..etc..what we do with our body..

A2: Yes, at least perceptibly..

A1: Its dangerous in a way..kind of mania..

A2: Haha..so we all are maniacs too..

A1: Yes the way we succumb to every healthy and unhealthy addiction..is in a way mania only..but how does one explain that scientifically..like is the chemical reaction..so much that it makes you disown your own body and torture that..

A2: There are many things beyond explanations..and they only sustain life to move forward..to know more..to do more..the romance of the unknown..

QUESTIONS OF THE 'SELF' (DILEMMA OF THE 'BEING')

QUESTIONS OF THE 'SELF' 

(DILEMMA OF THE 'BEING')

A human emotions painting by Ragini 

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

THE CHILDHOOD AND ITS CAREFREE WAYS

THE CHILDHOOD AND ITS CAREFREE WAYS

CATEGORY:  PHOTOGRAPHY

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

FAITH'S ENTOURAGE

Devotees and pilgrims converging for the joie-de-vivre of an extended stay near a source of their faith-system.. 

FAITH'S ENTOURAGE

CATEGORY:  PHOTOGRAPHY

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

INVERTED CURIOSITY OF A DEPRIVED CHILDHOOD

INVERTED CURIOSITY OF A DEPRIVED CHILDHOOD

A mix-media human emotions painting by Ragini 

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

LIFE IS CERTAINLY BEAUTIFUL

THE ROMANCE THAT I ONCE FELT

Life is certainly beautiful

Free with possibilities,

Crude and naked, as I see it now

As I would see it in the yore

Brimming with raw emotions

The charm of the liberated rustic

The foreplay of the sane absurdity

And the interspersed elements

Inviting the romance that I once felt

The joy of creating the signature tune

When you’re rendered meaningless

Reigniting the love with that ‘me’

As I looked inside for the ‘self’,

That was so self-contained,

That it lived severally-alone

In romance with the elements

Yes, it’s soothing, when I find

I still feel the same for you

Though, I know I am now

Deep inside me, severally-alone,

With me, with you, and with all

SOMETIMES, DIFFERENCES CREATE A BRIDGE

Life is certainly beautiful

Off late, it has been generous enough

To let me be with the rediscovery

Knowing I am not going to listen to it again
.
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