The Laughing Heart : By Charles Bukowski

Your life is your life

Don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.

Be on the watch.

There are ways out.

There is a light somewhere.

It may not be much light but

It beats the darkness.

Be on the watch.

The gods will offer you chances.

Know them.

Take them.

You can’t beat death but

You can beat death in life, sometimes.

And the more often you learn to do it,

The more light there will be.

Your life is your life.

Know it while you have it.

You are marvelous

The gods wait to delight

In you.

....................

 

On writing : Orhan Pamuk

When I speak of writing, what comes first to my mind is not a novel, a poem, or literary tradition, it is a person who shuts himself up in a room, sits down at a table, and alone, turns inward; amid its shadows, he builds a new world with words. This man or this woman-may use a typewriter, profit from the ease of a computer or write with a pen on paper, as I have done for 30 years. As he writes, he can drink tea or coffee, or smoke cigarettes. From time to time he may rise from his table to look out through the window at the children playing in the street, and, if he is lucky, at trees and a view, or he can gaze out at a black wall. He can write poems, plays or novels, as I do. All these differences come after the crucial task of sitting down at the table and patiently turning inwards. To write is to turn this inward gaze into words, to study the world into which that person passes when he retires into himself, and to do so with patience, obstinacy and joy.

(In the Nobel Prize Lecture)

आना / केदारनाथ सिंह

जब समय मिले
जब समय न मिले
तब भी आना

आना
जैसे हाथों में
आता है जांगर*

जैसे धमनियों में
आता है रक्त

जैसे चूल्हों में
धीरे-धीरे आती है आँच

आना

आना जैसे बारिश के बाद
बबूल में आ जाते हैं
नए-नए काँटे

दिनों को
चीरते-फाड़ते
और वादों की धज्जियाँ उड़ाते हुए
आना

आना जैसे मंगल के बाद
चला आता है बुध
आना

...............

*जांगर : Energy, power, strength 

By Anwar Husain

 

झिरमिरते स्वप्न - प्राजक्ता वेदपाठक

 

तो ओठांवरती माझ्या ओठांनी लिहितो गाणी

मग चंद्र उतरतो देही, अलवार साखरीवेळी

आसक्त मनाला येते मंतरली मोहक हाळी

गात्रातुन माझ्या सजते स्पर्शाची चांदणखेळी

व्याकुळले स्पंद बिलगती मौनाची भाषा कळता

देहाचे छंद विहरती श्वासांचा झोका झुलता

बंधाची लाज विखुरते सैलावत धागा तुटतो

तृष्णेच्या काठावरती प्रणयाला येते जाग

बेधुंद सुरातुन खुलतो तृप्तीचा आतुर राग

गंधाळुन उमलत जाते केशरी दिठीचे फूल

उत्कट मोहाला पडते निःशब्द सुखाची भूल

धुंदीचे उधळत जातो तो ठसे बिलोरी कायी

भासांना ठेउन जातो हळुवार क्षणांच्या ठायी

घेऊन उशाला आठव आश्वस्त होउनी निजते

ओघळत्या डोळ्यांमधुनी झिरमिरते स्वप्न उतरते

How beautiful can the seeds look :) - Illustration by Sefi George

 

A Note from Sefi George, the illustrator 

For the Indian Women Scientists' Association book 'Creating Learning Gardens and Living Museums', I illustrated a spread showing a variety of seeds and seed pods. Some may feel familiar because we use them in our kitchens, while others come from trees and plants we pass by every day.

Each seed holds clues about how a plant travels and survives. Some are shaped to ride the wind, some are enclosed in pods that fall to the ground, and others move through the landscape with the help of birds and animals that eat them.

All the illustrations were hand drawn in pencil on paper and coloured digitally. 

Working on them meant slowing down and paying close attention to each element, noticing its texture, form, and structure. What might first seem like a small, ordinary object begins to reveal remarkable design when you spend time observing it closely.

.................

Castle on the Rhine - Mario Miranda