The leaves are now blowing so must faster around her… the wind blew her hair about… she tried to stay huddled and close to herself… afraid she’d want to drift away with them… afraid of where it may take her this time… it was so inviting… the cool air and the scent of crispness… this sense of carpe diem that was in the air… no no… it can take her nowhere good… oh… but just for a little longer… just take me there…
She stood her ground… and her mind took her to all the places she had experienced… the people she had walked away from… the memories that drifted in and out of her mind… she searched her mind for a constant… there were none… she followed a leaf… and loved the way its rich brown and red fell close to her… the beautiful twist its body had… its pronounced veins… so delicate to the touch… and it crumbled right in her hands…
That’s the thing she hated about memories… they could crumble so gently but never could you blow them away…the little pieces had a way of spreading deeper and then developed the annoying habit of emerging to the surface at the most inappropriate times….

Meet my children...

Art for Akanksha
presents the
x’mas exhibition….

3 months
10 kids
ideas and ideas
sketches
colour selection
heartache
jubilation
stories
chats
tea
kachoris
late nights
music
singing
laughing
kidding around
targets
packing
labeling

its been an incredible time… its been an experience that I will always hold close to my heart… its been about me letting me be me around them… its been me letting go of a lot of my rigid ideas… its been me letting them creep into my heart and sit tight… its been an incredible time… the exhibition now seems secondary … it’s the kids who take centre stage…
Vaishali... Sunita...Sali...Reshma...Naaz
and the boys (who never let me photograph them)...Raju & Shirajul...

Sunshine....

The chill in the air… reaches out to me suddenly as I stepped out of my door… and it grabbed and rushed at me through the auto ride to the train station… and slowly I got used to it… and the usually harsh hot sun now seemed so inviting… and I inched closer to the window in the train… and shut my eyes… hmmm… it’s the same feeling you get when you feel a warm hand on your cheek and you look up to see smiling eyes… that sense of belonging… longing even… that someone you feel you can snuggle up against… that delicious warmth… the sun at my window did it all… yummy sunshine…
And then of course I stepped off and the air was so cold… I wrapped myself closer to me… hair falling on my face… hiding me… shielding me… and I swear I felt like I was walking into a very lonely painting… but what a stunning one : )
Crisp leaves strewn carelessly… a dull yellow tinge… rough brush strokes in blues and greens… one figure down an endlessly stretched out narrow road… a little blue figure… face hidden… leaves falling mid air… the sky dull and bored… but there’s something in the way the figure is walking… it’s a defiance to defeat… you see the glimmer of a strong chin, looking straight ahead… it’s a head looking straight ahead… it’s the eyes that prefer to remain unseen… blue jeans… blue tshirt… and a little shawl hiding her outlines… hair tangled within it… and the leaves just kept falling… and with every step she took, another one was crushed to bits… another moment that was better left forgotten… this was the season to bare… bring every leaf down… enjoy the sight and then walk away from each of them…
Another chapter closes… and it feels good to leave… leave the leaves lying there… some try to fall on me… but its done and over with… I make my peace…

a day…

ever got up knowing that it was just another day…. But gosh what potential it had to be an incredible day…the day that could change your life… the day that could give you that clarity you’ve been looking for… the day that will stand out like a milestone, a marker in some way…
oh the morning chill in the air, said exactly that and it made me shiver… quiver with excitement on the journey I was about to embark upon… the journey of a day…

What defines each of us?... was asked that a while ago and really I did not have an answer for it… thought about it lots…and I think I’ve arrived at an answer that satisfies me…

Each of us can only be defined by how we love…

The little Savior…

Was not such a good day for me… just one of those days when I felt extremely ‘by myself’… felt unloved… and uncared for… ignored even.. and I know in my heart that none of these feelings were justified…
but what do you do with feelings you feel? I hoped that something would happen today that would change this…

Had a session with 5th standard kids in Green Lawns School to find out about their lotus promise… and I was looking forward to it cos I had done the intro session and I think somewhere they got it and they accepted it and were kicked about it… we’ve tied up our centres with school classes and together they work on way that they can change in order to change the things they don’t like about the world… they had each made one promise that was difficult for them to keep…

So I went to class and started asking them a whole bunch of questions about their promise… they remembered every word I had told them… they were jumping up and down to get me to pick their hand… the ‘missmissmissmissmiss’ reached a real high…and I could not help but stop and laugh out loud and tell them that it was real tough to pick hands to answer… they had worked hard on their promise and some of the promises were hard…

and then this one tiny hand I picked, stood up and started to speak.. and the whole class murmured and waited for him…
Tiny little boy… tinier than the others… looked at me and slowly measuring each word began to speak… he was slow and we all waited for him without rushing him…

’miss I fed leaves to a cow’…
so I asked him why that was difficult for him to do?
And he looks at me like I’m mad… ‘cos the cow is so big miss and I was so scared…’
sure that made complete sense I told him…
and just as I was about to move to the next hand, his partner and others say, ‘there’s more miss’…
ok… tell me…
he continues…‘miss, on diwali… there were some boys playing with crackers miss and they lit a charka miss… and they kept it near 3 ants miss… (complete silence in class… little boy all serious)
‘and I thought they would die so I kicked the charka and saved their lives…’

I looked around, taken aback… could this be true… and the entire class was beaming with pride…No one laughed or ridiculed him as i would have expected... instead, another girl spoke up…’and he got hurt when he kicked the charka but he saved three ants…’

Wow… really sometimes it takes someone little to realize the plight of someone littler… I left the class feeling so good… who would have thought of saving 3 ants…

Little boy saved more than 3 ants… kinda saved someone feeling like a big ant as well… : )