The same sun

 

A corner cabinet where a chipped vase resides

and the afternoon sunlight hits the crystal such

that it explodes into a small rainbow of light

and flowers bloom on the wall, the plain paint is touched

with colour, drab erased – metaphors as disguised

concrete. Often the broken edges are the ones

that make the more intricate, interesting blossoms.

 

Yet you often look away, wandering outside

in an instant – your attention span isn’t much –

you search for broader, deeper, more meaningful, bright,

a different sort – combined sunlight and dark mud

growing steadily in a pavement crack despite

the trudge of endless feet, casual cruel, tiresome.

As if the one inside isn’t made by the sun.

~~~

As November closes, the stocktaking does too. It's been a challenging year but a good  birthmonth. Strange but true.

November has been kind, lots of catch ups - a close friend from our Bahrain days, now settled in Canada, flew in and made time to come home. So did another dear one from Cairo, now in Dhaka - she came met us with her family. Much fun and laughter and reminiscing ensued. 

The Exposition of the Gita at Kurukshetra. Lord Krishna explains the principles
of the Gita to Arjun before the battle, to motivate him to take up arms in a 
righteous war against his own kinsmen. Ivory. Rajasthan. 18th century CE. 

Since I last posted, I've managed to finally go visit our local museum - the Indian Museum, something which I'd been planning since I came back in 2023. It has an absolutely jaw-dropping collection of prehistoric, ancient and medieval artifacts. A coin of Alex the Great, an Egyptian mummy 4000 years old, an illuminated Persian folio from Shirin Farhad dating from the 15th century, are among the many things I oohed and aahed over. There are fossils dated to some 3200 million years back, a tree trunk 250 million years old, but history moves me more than natural history, so... I saw a lot of Buddhist and Vedic/early Hindu stuff which dovetailed neatly with what I saw in Nepal. 

Makara, a mythological aquatic beast - a combination of boar, elephant,
crocodile and/or serpent. 11th century, basalt. Makaras are often
depicted as guardians of temple gates. Also carved into
waterspouts. Saw many of these in Nepal too. 

The building itself has a history of its own - it was completed in 1875. Very impressive, humongous colonial style architecture.   The Museum was set up much earlier by the Asiatic Society in 1814, the oldest and still the largest multipurpose museum in Asia in terms of the number of collections. It doesn't get millions of footfalls or make any waves anywhere but is totally worth visiting if you happen to be in the vicinity. 

However, the flipside of being the oldest is that the displays are stuck in that age too, labels with the object, material, period and location, that's it. No elaboration on context, no story telling, no interactive audio-visual exhibits, minimal viewer engagement. I had visited last with kiddo when he was quite tiny - quite a few years back, things haven't changed much since then, that aspect's a bit saddening. Indians have always been, and remain, super casual about their own heritage, I can't fathom why...

Anyhoo I had a great time nosing around, especially in the textile gallery, which for some baffling reason is tucked away out of sight in an obscure corner behind the aquatic animals gallery. Yes I know, makes zero sense but 'we are like this only' and 'it happens only in India.'  Seek and ye shall find. The whole place is a life lesson in persistence and problem solving.

Once one manages to track it down though, it has 18th and 19th century handmade real gold zari-work Benarasi brocades and Bengal jamdanis and Balucharis and Kashmiri pashminas with work so intricate that it defies belief. And this gallery opens into another somewhat larger one where 'decorative art' objects are housed, some breathtaking miniature sculpting skills showcased there in wood, ivory and stone there as well. The paintings gallery is equally impressive. All in all a very satisfactory visit. 

The Wish-fulfilling Tree. Red sandstone sculpture from 2nd-3rd
century BCE. At the entrance of the Museum. 

That tree has done a superlative job for me this month. Hoping it's done the same for you too.