The memory of the Bazaar is often of a recollection of chaos and yet when I look back at the pictures taken at the crowded, chaotic, noisy Groundnut fair last november in Bangalore, I find that so many of the photographs have people immersed in thoughts and in silence. I look at one of my favourite books, Tagore's Fireflies and there are these lines...
The world is the ever-changing foam that floats on the surface of a sea of silence.
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I am reminded of Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein, the film by Shabnam Virmani and the words: "In 15th century north India, the mystic weaver Kabir spoke his poems in the market place, his spirituality firmly grounded in the public square"
The world is the ever-changing foam that floats on the surface of a sea of silence.
I am reminded of Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein, the film by Shabnam Virmani and the words: "In 15th century north India, the mystic weaver Kabir spoke his poems in the market place, his spirituality firmly grounded in the public square"
I saw a tender-coconut seller just this morning in the midst of activity. He was lost in thought, and I wondered how he could withdraw from the outside world. And what was going on in his troubled mind to be able to distance himself from the buzz around him.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful post.
ReplyDelete... his spirituality grounded in the public square is such a stirring thought.
And Tagore said it right. The humanity is indeed an ever-changing foam on the surface of a sea of silence.
And like you said, people in the bazaar are immersed in their thoughts, and their daily trials among other things.
Wow!.. So true
ReplyDeleteSimply beautifully captured shot...lovely!
ReplyDeleteHow true and so beautiful! This is the real beauty of my country and it's people :)
ReplyDeleteRadha: Maybe, there is so much that happens in front of their eyes every day. I was talking the other day to an old lady selling boiled groundnuts outside the Bull temple here in Bangalore. She said she had been there with her push-cart ever since she could remember. I wondered then what the street might mean to her and all the people who had walked in passed her and into the temple in so many years.
ReplyDeleteAnil: Thanks.
Meena: I guess it is only some times that a place seems quieter and different. Otherwise, life just goes on, doesn't it?
Kalyan: Thanks for dropping by.
Arti: And, it's as if we never know enough.
Loved this post. How true of India, finding silence, spirituality and peace in the midst of utter chaos. In countries where there is silence their is only loneliness and people are lost (On an average).
ReplyDelete