First Thaw

It’s a great day. The book I am currently reading is so full of such beautiful imagery, it inspired me to do art inspired from its excerpts. Here is the first one – just off the opeing lines.

The cherry orchards smell good after the first thaw… the faint melancholy smell of cherry bark mingles with the vapid dampness…with the powerful and ancient odour of the earth just beginning to appear from under the snow and the dead leaves of the previous autumn.

(Stanza:1, Chapter:1, Book:1; Virgin Soil Upturned)
~ Mikhail Sholokov

A photo posted by Stories.In (@stories.in) on Sep 21, 2016 at 3:00am PDT

 

What Is Not, What Is

It is while reading Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore’s popular classic ‘The Medium Is The Massage’ that I stumbled upon this great aphorism by Laotze:

The use of clay in molding pitchers
Comes from the hollow of its absence;

Doors, windows, in a house,
Are used for their emptiness;

Thus we are helped by what is not,
To use what is.

Before We Go: Select Excerpts

Before We Go, a film by and starring Chris Evans might be along the lines of Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy in the basic framework (and title), nonetheless a good watch owing to some good conversations about relationships therein. Select excerpts of conversations from the recently watched film:

Nick and the old Fortune Teller:

Nick (talking about fortune teller and his dead wife): Wow! You guys seemed perfect.
Fortune Teller: Well Nick, there is no perfect. There will always be struggle. We just have to pick who we want to struggle with.

And So They Say

A conversation between Ganga and the King of the Lunar Dynasty of Hastinapur, Shantanu.
Courtesy ~ Adi Parva – Churning of the Ocean via Amruta Patil

He didn’t honour his words, obviously. And later went on to marry Yojangandha, who later became known as Sathyawati. (An episode from the epic Mahabharata.)