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Showing posts with label featured. Show all posts
Showing posts with label featured. Show all posts

LOOKING WITHIN...



Where we come from is a mystery, except for the biological explanations that we have. The blood line, the human race, the evolution – all inconsiderate. Again, Biological explanations? Now, do you know where it comes from? It came from us humans. But wasn't that the question at the first place?

We come from a mystery within a mystery, an assumption within an assumption. We are not distinct in our shapes; internally we all are the spirals of our DNA, we are spherical, cubical and columnar. There are branches to us like there are to compounds. And considering the partial completeness of our interatomic spaces, do we even qualify to call ourselves solitary?

However, we involve in an untiring search for something that differentiates us from everyone else. That excels us from everyone else. Yes, excel would be the right word. Everything here is a competition. It has just been equipped that way. 
Developing an era where we even measure how swift an electron moves or how fast the light travels; how can we humans possibly let go the comparison and judgements for something as visible as ourselves?
Amid all these searches and findings, curiosity and verdicts, I too struggle to bloom and blossom. I, at times struggle to live because those are the times when I live the life that others want me to. Otherwise, having a life isn't that difficult a task. And we humans have always been fond of the easy ways.

Though I don't know where I came from, knowledge of where I will end is satiating. 
The place is the same where I will be able to communicate with the trees, the clouds, the water, the butterflies and the pandas. 
I hope the panda agrees to teach me kung-fu then. 

I know that we someday are going to dissolve into the same thing. One of my favourite writers calls it - the soul of the world. I call it arbitrariness. Because, everything looks so different yet all is one.

You are in me and I am in you. We are in her and she is in him. There has to be a mason somewhere with a capability to build various things out of the same raw material. An illustrator who knows to express one thing differently. 
And perhaps, someday, when I disrupt into the randomness, I shall be able to find the one. 
Till then, I fall in love with everything and everyone around me because that will take me closer to what I have been seeking for.
Till then, be known as the one who falls in love with every little thing!
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In a Bundle: My First Attempt at BLACK OUT POETRY

About a year back, my dad bought me a book titled ‘Mission Earth, Black Genesis’ by L.Ron Hubbard. I have a taste for sci-fi novels and it was thoughtful of him to pick a book for me but soon I found out that this book belonged to a series ‘Mission Earth Dekalogy’. Yeppp...DEKALOGY! 10 books! What I had in my hand was Vol 2. (Just!)
The following week I tried reading it. Few weeks after that, I was out in the market searching for it’s prequel ‘The Invader’s Plan’. I didn’t succeed in any so that book stayed in my bookshelf unread and discarded. UNTIL recently when I dusted it off and went through it’s pages, I realized how I could make this book mine. I found a way I could detour it from inter-space invasions to interpersonal alliance, through BLACK OUT POETRY!
If you are interested to know what Black-out Poetry is, then PLEASE visit my previous post: Shedding some light on BLACK-OUT POETRY

And here is In a Bundle: My First Attempt at Black Out Poetry. 
As aforementioned, your feedback is highly appreciated.


'You're a wonder. Yes, you.'
Remember that.

(This was reposted by an Instagram page dedicated to black out poetry @makeblackoutpoetry as poem of the day. You can also find me on Instagram as @sthaastha)


 Love was the first of everything.
The second was that dark secret
I couldn't understand why he drove me crazy.


He didn't seem to be in any rush
yet I was going too fast.
He could ruin me!


My finger was alive with electricity
I yelled, the doors are not locked.
We were tearing through space like madmen,
only a stupid mistake.
And all for nothing!


That's when I found everything beautiful
the people, the music, the dancing,
the fire that filled the skies.
Even our secret, in dreamlike color.


It was too late, too soon
and bad was dedicated to make it worse.


Maybe it was because I was still confused
or because all the wild sparks flying around got me rattled, 
but to add pain to injury, he didn;t turn around. 
He was half-lying in an easy chair.
He was idly playing a game called "Battle."


The effort had been too much.
She picked up her feet, gathered up 
and then put it all back in the cycle of withdrawal.
She was entering a restless, fitful sleep.

Thanks for going through. 
I am excited about my second bundle of black out prose and poems.
Do let me know if these words speak to you.
And if this interests you, grab a black pen or marker and a newspaper and start Blacking Out! :)
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Art and About : CHIRAG BANGDEL


"Being an artist is addictive, almost inescapable" says the articulate and multidimensional artiste Chirag Bangdel.

 On account of his demonstrative emotions, ingredients to an idea and substance to the soul that he offers through his art, we ourselves would not want to escape. Over a small coffee talk, I tried to get a flavor of his artistry and addiction to art.

HE ANSWERS

My First Question  I googled Chirag Bangdel and found various facades of your personality. An artist, a blogger, a musician, a teacher, a poet, a radio/TV show presenter. I would like to ask this question to no one else but you, who exactly is Chirag Bangdel?

An artist – Art, painting and art endeavors are my identity but the things I can do with music, I can rarely do it with anything else.Music for me is a fascination and one of the prime reasons I enjoy radio and collecting guitars. As a poet, I write every so often and also organize ‘South Asian Poetry Festival for Peace (www.southasianpoetry.com) an annual poetry festival.I have been an educator for almost 15 years now. As a blogger, I am not as frequent as I should be.

It’s very important for artistic person to explore different mediums to avoid repetition and monotony. So, I reflect myself as a creative person and every facade that I project is undoubtedly a medium to express the art in me in one form or another.

I get Curious  Where does the soul of your art come from? Out of what do you derive inspiration?

I am a self-taught artist. The heart of my art is unadulterated with the technicality and guidelines of how a certain type of art piece should be. And partly it’s in our genes because that’s what we Bangdels can do best (laughs). My grandfather, a preeminent artist,Lain Singh Bangdel’sauspices have always inspirited the artist in me and I seek inspiration from everything I perceive – a life both spiritual and socio-cultural.

 Intrigued Recently (as in early 2015), there was an Art Installation titled ‘Life begins with Red’ exhibited by you at WaterAid WASH Expo, held at Nagarkot. What was the concept?

As my second art project for WaterAid, the subject undertaken was menstrual hygiene which sadly still is a taboo in parts and nooks of our country while it should be celebrated as a natural process even higher to ordinary because that’s how life continues. If people can overlook the simple fact that menstruation is an inseparable fragment of femininity, of womanhood and motherhood, we have the right to evoke the thought-process with a tangible form of art.

Getting the details The mediums you used were very selective. We observed objects like Chairs, Chains, Bowls, Rose Petals, and Sanitary Napkins etc. What did you want to convey with those?

More than conveying something, it was aimed at fetching a positive change in the perspective towards menstruation.

Installation art shouldn’t be very elaborative. However, it’s quite clear that the sanitary napkins represent the necessity of menstrual hygiene. On top of that, there were bowls with red liquid, the potion of life, rose petals and pomegranate seeds denoting the beauty of nature and a bud of existence respectively.

Another piece called Red Restriction showcased a Chained Metal Chair with a red spot standing atop a bed of Sanitary Napkins. This installation crusades for the ease of accessibility of sanitary pads to the girls in their periods and is a strong advocacy against the practice of restricting them from entering the kitchen to the worse - sleeping in cowsheds (miserably which happens still).




The real difficult question What's your (intended) masterpiece? Have you created it yet or are you on in progress?

At the verge of sounding obvious, it’s a truth that each of my work carries a portion of me. I think of my ‘Potrait of a Patriot’ or ‘The portrait of a Lady with the white shawl’ or installation arts like ‘building a nation’ and meanwhile imagine my upcoming works and conclude I cannot pick a single gem as all of them shine equally for me.
(Find his paintings in Chirag's blog here)

Nostalgia What is your first memory of splashing colors and finding out that this is what you are good at and passionate about?

I don’t exactly have a memory; I know I painted since always. However, I do remember when I was in school in Mirik, Darjeeling; I was so pleased with myself for painting a brown branch with a sunset background and I could all but control my glee at that.

Getting nosy? Was this what you always wanted to achieve? Or did you have something else planned in mind?

At a point in my life, I wanted to see myself as a ‘Rockstar’. Though that didn’t come accurate, I have materialized my wish to enjoy the process of my work and with my 20+ solo exhibitions in Nepal and across the world including Germany, Netherlands, Dubai and more, I believe in the goodness of occurrences and surprises life holds for us. Additionally, I consider myself the typical ‘jack of all trades’.

The essential question What next can we expect from you? Tell us a bit about the work you are undertaking currently.

My second collection of Short stories, successor of ‘Mist around the Stupa’ is coming out soon.
The thing with art is that it’s growing day by day and so are themes. Currently, I am waiting for my next muse to stumble upon me so I can captivate the canvas with my congenital colors.

           What if not an artist
    A musician, for sure.

           Have you ever dedicated any piece of your art to an individual from your family or friend?
    I have written poems dedicated to my father.

          A specific inspiration you have always mused to take on.
    Spirituality

          One piece of art by yourself or others, you would like to recreate.
    Blue Period Paintings by Picasso.

           Favorite Poem
    Daffodils by William Wordsworth

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    Photo Source (LIFE BEGINS WITH RED) : WaterAid Facebook Page, (ARTIST PICTURE) Chirag Bangdel's Facebook Profile.
    (Published: ESSENCE Magazine, Vol 04, April, 2015)
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    Our Personal Narnia - A short trek to Poonhill!


    It was a trip of a lifetime.
    When you sit down to write a travelogue, I read somewhere to never use these words as a narrative beginning. Because it said, you will be overselling your experience. But there is no room for taking cautions as you know the ones showing an interest in your travel journal are as much as wander lusty as you are, maybe even more. The next thing I am sure of that compelled me to use the sentence above is that every place you observe at a certain point of time had never been that way and will never ever be the same, until of course the concept of parallel universes holds true.
    Else, everyplace you visit, every trip you take, it's truly once in a lifetime.

    I use these 131 words before starting an account of 6 days long, better put as 6 days short, trek to a stunning hill station concealed in the hazy mist on the lap of snow roofed Himalayas which my country has been blessed with. Christened as Poonhill (Poon being one of the family names in Nepal), this hill stands tall at an altitude of 3210 meters, pretty easy to remember if you recite numerical from 0 to 3 from opposite.
    Getting there is quite easy too. Kathmandu to Pokhara is not a new highway to any of us. Allow me to impart the details of my journey here onward.




    (Published: ESSENCE Magazine, Year 4, Vol. 01, January 2015, Unleash.)
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