Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Shaam Dhale...The Prelude

Surprised seeing some prose here? or is the right word, Alarmed?

Pray, do not be either, because this is just a forward to a particular series within this blog that I am about to start off over here - about the Sunsets.

One of the earliest memories of my childhood has me travelling in a Tonga with my grandmother on a rural-ish road somewhere near Kota, while the evening colours of a setting Sun provided a perfect sepia hue to the moment. Though there is some kind of a foot injury also associated with this, but kyunki hum filmi hain, this moment of flashback too somehow, also has a song associated to it somehow.

Despite my own doubts about the veracity of some parts of this memory, I think this is where my association and fascination with sunsets began.  To me somehow the sky, despite being so bright throughout the day, is never as attractive, dramatic and comfortable as it looks at twilight.  Over the years, at various stages of life, the sunset has always been a constant friend to me, a source of comfort in turbulent moments, a silent companion for my melancholy, adding colour to my romance and has always been there to shar my joyous moments.  

Over the last few years, with photography becoming a hobby & passion, the Sunset has always been one of the constant themes of my images. Be it a vacation with the family, a walk or just birding around, I have been striving to capture the various moods of a setting sun across all seasons. I think it is time for me to share this fascination of mine with all those who have been appreciating my love for nature & literature.

So I request your indulgence as I bring to you a regular montage, of moments, captured or yet to be captured by me, of twilight and sunsets- interspersed with some of the best verses, written over the centuries, by masters of words who, like me, were also enamored by the beauty of a Sunset – but with a difference – they could express it better! I am sure that the days to come, or rather evenings, will give me enough opportunities to bring to you more hues & shades that the nature is able to create as the Sun flows down the horizon.

Before bringing to you the first image, however, I would like to go back to the memory I wrote about – or rather specifically to the song that is somehow associated with that memory - a lovely composition with some wonderful poetry of Anand Bakshi from a movie - Pushpanjali:

Kabhi ruke kabhi chale Radha chori chori
Piya kahe aa, jiya kahe nahi gori
Sham dhale Jamuna kinare kinare
Aaja Radhe aaja tohe Shyam pukare


1 comment:

Bhushan said...

This piece actually took me to the place you vaguely describe here. The song itself took me to my own childhood (at age 10 this was my favourite song, I still like it a lot). Although a lot of words in one place tend to scare me off and I'm more a 'face-to-face' person , I read through as if I was listening to you narrating this feeling and it worked..! All the best, Ashish. Glad I could spend some time with you..