UNDER THE SUN!

"You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you. "

- Ken Kesey

WHERE BELLS OF SOUL TOLL!

"The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers."
- Matsuo Basho

BIRD SONG

"Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings. "
- Victor Hugo

SOLITARY REAPER!

"Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound."

by William Wordsworth

VISTA!

“Events are the ephemera of history; they pass across its stage like fireflies, hardly glimpsed before they settle back into darkness and as often as not into oblivion. Every event, however brief, has to be sure a contribution to make, lights up some dark corner or even some wide vista of history. Nor is it only political history which benefits most, for every historical landscape--political, economic, social, even geographical--is illumined by the intermittent flare of the event.”

-  Fernand Braudel

L. Aruna Dhir's ARCHIES Book Launch Interview - FEB 1999

SUNRISE!

"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever." - Horace Mann

STREET SWEET MAN - CHARMS OF OLD DELHI!

Seize the moment.  Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.  ~Erma Bombeck

PIT STOP FOR HORSES IN THE HILLS!

This is not the finish line. This is just the intermediate pit stop.

~ Tom Duxbury

PADAMPURI WATERFALL, MUKHTESHWAR - UTTARAKHAND, INDIA

“Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall.”  Fulton J. Sheen

AGE OF INNOCENCE!

"No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure." - Emma Goldman

Jim Corbett's Kettle at the Mukhteshwar PWD Resthouse

“Character, like a kettle, once mended, always requires repairs” - Anonymous

ROCK FACE!

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. " 

- Thomas Jefferson

A PLUM BLOSSOM!

"What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree? " - Logan P. Smith

BY THE GHATS OF GANGES, HARIDWAR!

“I am the shark among the fishes, and the Ganges among the rivers.” Bhagavad Gita

SHOE-SHINE MAN AT DARYA GANJ, OLD DELHI

"Jump into the middle of things, get your hands dirty, fall flat on your face, and then reach for the stars." - Ben Stein

MONSOON MADNESS!

"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow." - Jerry Chin

PLEASANTLY POIGNANT!

I peel a pomegranate and say to myself; Weren't it good if one could see,the seeds of people hearts ; Tears come when the juice splashes in my eyes

~ Sohrab Sepehri

POISED POMEGRANATES!

"What is this contradiction called a pomegranate? The pomegranate is sweet, but the pomegranate is tart. The pomegranate is tough and wrinkled, but when cut open it glistens with ruby-like seeds.In the Greek myth of Persephone, the pomegranate is called the fruit of the underworld, yet in the Muslim Qu'uran it is called the fruit of paradise." - Diana Viola

PASSIONATE PEARS!

"The pear is the grandfather of the apple, its poor relation, a fallen aristocrat, the man-at-arms of our domains, which once, in our humid land, lived lonely and lordly, preserving the memory of its prestige by its haughty comportment."
- Francois Pierre de la Varenne

CALMNESS AMIDST CHAOS!

Calmness is the cradle of power.
J. G. Holland

FlIGHT! Soaring High!

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.
Leonardo da Vinci

Road side Papaya Chaat in Old Delhi!

“When people wore hats and gloves, nobody would dream of eating on the street. Then white gloves went out of style and, suddenly, eating just about anything in the street became OK."

Jane Addison,quoted in the ‘Great Food Almanac’ by Irena Chalmers

SOME FOOTPRINTS THESE!

Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, 

leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

LONE RANGER!

I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
Henry David Thoreau

FAITH!

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.
Victor Hugo

Tomato Times!

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." - Lewis Grizzard

Corn-stuffed Tomato Cups!

"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins." - Laurie Colwin

The flower with an attitude!

Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals.  Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock.  ~Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers: A Discourse of Flowers

When flowers smile!

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.  ~Terri Guillemets

Glorious Gerberas!

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

HOPE!

“In all things it is better to hope than to despair” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

TEARS IN HEAVEN!

Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant; the only harmless great thing.
John Donne

Let sleeping dogs lie!

I talk to him when I'm lonesome like; and I'm sure he understands.  When he looks at me so attentively, and gently licks my hands; then he rubs his nose on my tailored clothes, but I never say naught thereat.  For the good Lord knows I can buy more clothes, but never a friend like that.  ~W. Dayton Wedgefarth

Gulab Jamuns - little balls of goodness!

A brief history - Gulab jamun originates from an Arabic dessert, Luqmat Al Qadi (Arabic for "the judge's bite"), that became popular in the Indian Subcontinent during the Mughal era. Rosewater syrup is often used; however saffron syrup and honey are also common. The dessert also became popular in Turkish-speaking areas, spreading to the Ottoman Empire.

PASSIONATE ABOUT THE PIE!

“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” Dr. Carl Sagan

PENSIVE! PONDERING! REFLECTING!!

“For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”
- William Wordsworth

A Penny for your Thoughts!

"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves," - Buddha

HAPPY HILLBILLIES!

"You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure before you can sing like a hillbilly," - Hank Williams

WALKING IN THE MOUNTAINS!

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

FOODOPHILE 2

(Batter-fried organically grown Greens in a Sunset Point Restaurant in Mukhteshwar, Uttarakhand, India)

"Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them."    — Samuel Butler (1835—1902).

FOODOPHILE 1

“Omelettes are not made without breaking eggs” Maximilien Francois Robespierre

BUTTERFLY ON YOUR BONNET!

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun
And find your shoulder to light on,
To bring you luck, happiness and riches
Today, tomorrow and beyond.
~Irish Blessing

AND THEN CLARE TURNED!

“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.” Margaret Thatcher

CLARE ENJOYS HER COFFEE & CAKE AT L'OPERA!

“I see a lilly on thy brow, / With anguish moist and fever dew; / And on thy cheek a fading rose / Fast withereth too. I met a lady in the meads / Full beautiful, a faery's child; / Her hair was long, her foot was light, / And her eyes were wild.” John Keats