Dripping Vanilla

Amidst the mists & through the treacherous trails that lead you to the highest vantage points on earth, life goes on quite differently than ours.Fortunate enough not to be enslaved by our obsessive modernity, contentment is relatively simpler to find. The climates are harsh, but equally strong is the power of our adaptability. This shepherd whom I encountered a couple of years ago during a trek in the Himalayas has no interest in shifting to an ‘easier’ environment of the cities. He didn’t agree to a portrait initially, saying what’s the use of it – after a bit of talking, he agreed but only to humor me.

The ruined remains of what was once a bustling capital city almost a thousand years ago. As the time flies by, and so do the clouds above, there is an eerie stillness of being caught up in a time warp here. As if you are somewhere you ought not to be, somewhere outside of time itself, and perhaps, just perhaps, you are not really there.

The stories, before being forgotten, are often etched deep.

Even in an ancient capital city that ceased to exist almost a millennium ago, a boy sits till his family’s cattle graze. Amidst the tattered stones of the archaic structures grows wild grass – a luxury in the middle of a desert. Walking for miles in temperatures nearing fifty centigrade isn’t anything extraordinary for him – the cattle have to be fed.

Muted & Deafened by Life. Strengthened by the jolts of experiences.

Ever have that feeling?

Even this desolate universe must feel lonely, for it has nothing but it’s own beauty to entertain itself with.

Far removed from mobile phones; far removed from computers; far removed from electricity or roads, humans still thrive and enjoy life. People with their own smiles, their own joys, and their own unglamourous heroism in the face of survival. And then some.

When the ashes that had turned into ashes pined for consciousness, the cosmic winds unconsciously drew them together, and in that most primeval alchemy were sown the seeds of love.

To hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
~ William Blake ~