my elements diary
The "Other Side", otherwise shredded and shrunk, just an other tree, an other river, an other being lost. The Energy used up to blank out the one-sided sheets we so thoughtlessly crush and toss....,is just knowledge blanked out.
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Elements diary
(a diary is something i have been wanting to keep for a long time, but my being absent minded and self-critical.....needed a good reason to finally get to it)
I decided to call it the "Elements diary" where the kids of the class would write down about the rains, the lizard on the wall and the insect half way through!, the roads, the sounds, water, etc. Trying to get in touch with the basics...
(i tried to introduce them to environment and civic awareness with the hope of getting them to be observant and sensitive to their immediate surroundings and to the 'now')
I made a diary with all the single side printed sheets that Pradeep and me had collected from our respective offices (all the mindless printing ! the worst - printouts of family photographs and alongside those screensavers... wow what do we do with so much love !). I bound them using some jute strings....and the printed sides of all sheets turned art !! here are some pics
The kids of the class were excited about it and the next class and a few more that followed, we all had our own 'elements diary' ! simple, rugged and unique. [strictly asked them not to use cheap glossy plasticy decorative stuff. The only other rule to making the diary is not to buy anything to make it.]
Some poems from my diary :
i walk the streets every morning with Namie (my dog) either leading or trailing, both of us equally amused. She at sniffing and overwriting another same dog's scent in her territory and me helplessly looking at people hosing down their cars (tyres included !) and the roads with as much cauvery water as possible to use before it stops..., the background score - "The Motors and overflowing buckets" (ever heard of the band ? its a rage, mass mania..)
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Elements diary
(a diary is something i have been wanting to keep for a long time, but my being absent minded and self-critical.....needed a good reason to finally get to it)
I decided to call it the "Elements diary" where the kids of the class would write down about the rains, the lizard on the wall and the insect half way through!, the roads, the sounds, water, etc. Trying to get in touch with the basics...
(i tried to introduce them to environment and civic awareness with the hope of getting them to be observant and sensitive to their immediate surroundings and to the 'now')
I made a diary with all the single side printed sheets that Pradeep and me had collected from our respective offices (all the mindless printing ! the worst - printouts of family photographs and alongside those screensavers... wow what do we do with so much love !). I bound them using some jute strings....and the printed sides of all sheets turned art !! here are some pics
The kids of the class were excited about it and the next class and a few more that followed, we all had our own 'elements diary' ! simple, rugged and unique. [strictly asked them not to use cheap glossy plasticy decorative stuff. The only other rule to making the diary is not to buy anything to make it.]
Some poems from my diary :
i walk the streets every morning with Namie (my dog) either leading or trailing, both of us equally amused. She at sniffing and overwriting another same dog's scent in her territory and me helplessly looking at people hosing down their cars (tyres included !) and the roads with as much cauvery water as possible to use before it stops..., the background score - "The Motors and overflowing buckets" (ever heard of the band ? its a rage, mass mania..)
If time were to flow
then this is how
If time were to be lost
then this is how
when water flows down the drain
to become forever stench and black
there's no turning back
its life and its time lost
there is no turning back
As i was talking to the class about the miracle called water, here is another....(some bitter fantasy...ofcourse not shared in the class)
Cool within a raindrop
I make my journey towards the earth
Open skies far beyond
Towards the Earth
hanging upside down
people within boxes, infront of boxes
their backs to me
missing something unknown
i see below me the sun afloat in a hole
brighter than ever on the black hard earth
now scattered and spilled over and
some words from within a moving box
the last i heard - "fuck.. this rain" ?
Then we moved on to the next obvious topic as the rains rained less and failed more., some organic gardening at the school campus. And as we discussed yet another miracle - the seed :
A beautiful secret it holds
who's to say whats to unfold
held like it should be held...like innocence, like play
small yet powerful in its heart the secret shall lay
shall burn, shall break, shall be eaten away
the wonder is held only as a whole
waiting to transform, waiting to unravel
waiting to be quenched, the thirst to open up
as the skies do (open up) to the earth
its time, its magic, the seed, the secret, the birth
the seed, the tree, the secret of life...
its magic what water does to earth
And then it was Diwali, sports day, exams and more noise and more trash ! Havent had the extra class with the kids since... The noise and trashy celebrations that started in the months of August with Ganesha, followed by Diwali, a whole lot of Devi (amma) processions with large ugly banners of politicians supporting and sponsoring them as they block roads, put up loud speakers and burst crackers till late in the night. They just never seem to end. Unable to bear it anymore i rushed to the nearest police station...
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