Places, People and Their Lives

Another one in my life series. I had to go to the Press Club today. There was this conference about Yakshagana performances during Navarathri festival. Apparently, there was also a little performance by the kids which I missed because I was stuck in traffic. We were out after a while when I saw this kid, all decked up in the traditional Yakshagana attire standing in a corner, looking all bored among the adults.

I had wanted to take the entire dress but unknowingly caught the child in a candid moment. Could not avaoid the white bit of someone's leg there.


I must write about Yakshagana sometime, it is the traditional art form of Karnataka.

After Igot my new phone, I seem to be posting more photos than writing.....

Byline

I have come to realise that for most people outside of the journalism community, the word byline does not mean much. Until a little over two years ago, I was not much concerned with it either, but today, after many many bylines, the word still thrills.

A byline is your name that gets published along with your article that is usually called a 'copy' in journo jargon. It is normally given for exclusives, special stories and columns. Over the last couple of years when I was studied journalism and in the last four months that I have been one, I have got quite a few bylines. (Immodestly, let me tell you that I have stopped counting.) But two bylines stand out in my mind.

One was my first state byline for a news copy that came out exactly one month after I had been interning. That was also the day the editor called me up to say that I had got the job there. It was not an extraordinary story but the timing is what I shall remember.
The next one is a byline I got today. It was for a travel piece (pretty much ilke the ones I write here) that was published on one whole page of the Sunday magazine section of the newspaper I work for. Now this page will be seen (I can't be sure of the readership!) by people in all of South India. The timing was near perfect too.

Just when I was a little down. I got up early this morning and rushed for the paper. The joy of seeing my name in print was just like the way I felt when I got a poem published in a local newspaper in Madikeri about 15 years ago. After many bylines, I had though it would not be a big deal. But no matter how many I get, the thrill never fades away. When you see your name on the page and think of the few others who will also see your name on it, all those long hours of slogging, those boring programmes, those rude people and those long hours of waiting fades away.

With the paper in your hand, you feel this sense of accomplishment, however small, a sense of having done it all. Right then, you feel like you have all the power in the world. Again and again, this feeling resurges, to give you the will to write, in spite of everything, to tell your story.

Another Poem

I am not going to write what lead me to write this poem. Simply read on.....

ENCOUNTERING THE PAST

People meet
Some stay on,
Most move away
Leaving an indelible mark
That may fade
But never washes away.
The mark slips deeper
And still deeper
Till you forget it is there.


But like lava
That brews beneath the surface
The volcano bursts
To leave a scar
Not on the top
But where the old mark was
Deep in the mind,
Deeper in the heart.


This is when
The past peeps out
Of a corner
When least expected
Merges with today
Bringing up memories
That were suppressed
Quite by force.


But the greatest gift
To the human mind
The gift of short memory
Will come to aid
The scar will fade,
Almost disappear
As the past dies
The future is ahead.


The past looks on
Let it do so
With a tinge of awe
And a bit of surprise
At the life that has
Moved ahead,
Quite far ahead.

Heaven is a Place on Earth

Another mobile picture. I wanted to post a write up today but the keyboard I am using is really bad (This is in another section of the office) and I can hardly type. The keys are so tight.

But I will post later, I want to, I have to.

This above pic is a view from the veranda at home. On a cold, still misty mid morning in my beautiful Madikeri, I know that no other place can be more beautiful for me. Heaven, I know, is a place on this beautiful Earth and it is in my exquisite Madikeri.

Until later, think beautiful.....

Places, People and Their Lives

Now that I have a jazzy phone with camera and all that, I manage to click some interesting pictures of people, places and life in general. I will be putting up some of them under the title `Places, People and Their Lives'.

This above picture is the first in the series. I took this at a handicraft bazaar I went to recently. There were some beautiful stuff there and I ended up blowing up a lot of money. These Rajastani snake charmers (?) were selling the pipes and entertaining the crowds with some haunting music. I always took a video which I shall upload once I figure out how to do that!

I love the light and shade effect in the picture.