"me no big chief …

A blogging friend of mine
BendtheRulz is
a bohemian,
a nomad by nature
a free spirit who loves the Himalayas.

She has posted photographs of
Himalayan flowers on her blogspage.
And (lucky her 🙂 ) will be visiting the
“Valley of Flowers” again! and very soon.

I tried to find photos of my visit from decades ago.
Most of my slides, I now remember, were borrowed
by friends and true to the norm, were never returned,
of the few that are left, most have faded, like all flowers do,
except these, of a flower known to us as Brahma Kamal

Brahma Kamal

Botanical name: Saussurea obvallata Family: Asteraceae

The Brahma Kamal: the state flower of Uttarkhand, India.

A flower of the Himalayas,
that blooms in the alpine habitats
at the upper reaches of the mountain ranges between (approx) 11,000 to 17,000 feet.

The flowers bloom in mid monsoons (July – August)
amongst the rocks and grass of the hillsides in places
like The Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Lake at Sapta Shringa.

The flowerheads are purple,
but are hidden from view in layers of yellowish green, papery bracts
which provides the necessary protection from cold mountain environment.

These flowers looks gorgeous, but they smell awful,
perhaps that explains why we do not bring them home, but
have been offering them with devotion in the hill temples at Kedarnath and Badrinath.

[Photographs: © 2007: little indian
Top: at Hemkund,
Middle: Valley of Flowers National Park
Agfa Silette II ! on Kodachrome 64;
September 1981, Uttaranchal, India]

Himalayasflowersbrahma kamalValley of Flowerstravelsmemories

City of Calcutta
has received around 20% of an entire season’s
monsoon rain that it normally gets in over just the last three days.

“Calcutta gets 1600 to 1700mm of rain every monsoon but the city has received more than 300mm of rain since late on Monday night”
the city weather office said.

The hand-pulled rickshaws were ferrying stranded residents.
Very few trains ran, few taxis and buses on the roads.
Barren market stalls and no shops are open.
Attendance in offices were low,
colleges have been shut
and no schools… 😀

“No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks”

The weather office predicts more rain until Friday.
More rain,
more flooding,
few buses, hand pulled rickshaws,
people wading through knee deep water,

no, no, no, this photo is from over fifty years ago,
it is just to show, a few things in life, never changes.

[Elliot Road: in Monsoon Calcutta ≈ 1950,
Photograph by Bernard Ellis, Superintendent, Baptist Mission Press]

lifenewsmonsoonKolkatamemories

Thomas Jefferson 1776, in Declaration of Independence:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1848, the Declaration of Sentiments:

Abraham Lincoln 1863 in Gettysburg Address:

Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 I Have a Dream speech:

Sadly,
Seven scores and four years since Lincoln reminded America,
declarations have remained only as documents
the ink gradually fading on the paper,
addresses have long become silent
so has the speeches, dreams
have turned to nightmares,
nothing has changed.

[Picture from: http://www.aiacetorino.it/]

For America believes they are “more equal” than others.

historyAmericaAnimal Farmhuman rightsequality

The new series of Doctor Who will star
David Tennant as the Doctor and Catherine Tate as his companion.

I became a fan of the Doctor only recently.

Having been a fan of science fiction since school days,
spending hours (and hours) with books by
HG Wells, Jules Verne, James Blish,
Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov
and watching Star Trek when we had TV.

So Doctor Who was for me was never enough the hard sci-fi.
The early series for me were ridiculously funny stories of
funnily dressed men, with always a cute sidekick,
fighting tin cans to save earth and the universe.
Easy stuff.

It all changed with the 9th Doctor,
played by Christopher Eccleston co-starred by a brilliant Billy Piper.

The Doctor, for me, had transformed into a being with a purpose.
And his companion was no longer just a sidekick overshadowed by the Doctor.
I was hooked. (no, not ‘Dr Hook’-ed?)

And then came the 10th Doctor,
played by David Tennant, co-starring with another brilliant actor, Freema Agyeman.

Which leaves me with this question.
Why has all the incarnations of the Doctor been only men?

The Doctor now visits a world that is fast changing,
a world that believes in equal opportunities
its only a matter of regenerating
a wee bit different.

BBC, if you are reading, this really bovvers me.

human valuesscience fictionDoctor Whohuman rightsopinion

Dogs
were once free, in the spirits
of the wolves, roaming and hunting.

Domesticated
around the 10,000s BC.
by our hunter-gatherer ancestors
with whom they shared their habitat
and may have hunted the same prey for food.

Was it the promise of food
that first made them let a man
to put a collar around their necks?
The eternal symbol of bondage and slavery?

When they strain at their leash,
do they resent or regret their lost freedom?

Ruff,
my blogging companion,
when he sits on my chest,
with his paws on either side of my neck,
hugging, and licking my face in a friendly earnest
I cannot but help recognise him as my friend, then I am no master.

Everynight, when he goes to sleep,
safe inside the house, I will take his collar off.
At least, I know, in his sleep, in his dreams, he will be free.

Last night, I was late,
when I went to check him
he was fast asleep on the sofa.
Didn’t move a whisker when I sat next to him, or gave him a pat.

I slipped his collar off,
in his deep sleep did he feel his freedom?
For as I took off the collar, without moving in his sleep,
his tail gently thumped on the sofa, twice and then a once
and then he was asleep again, dreaming of running free and wild again,…perhaps.

Does he put a cost to his freedom? Must be priceless.

dogspetsfreedom lifeRuff