A colourful encounter @Mcleodganj

A short friendship

I and this kid would have never shared that stint of bonding had it not been for these pictures. None of us understood each other's language but when I walked up to him to show some of his pictures that I clicked, I could immediately sense his interest and acceptance of me. For the next fifteen minutes that we spent on that sidewalk bench, he would work as a co-creator to help me click some of his awesome portraits.

His dad would ask him multiple times to thank me for these pictures, but he wont. A child's psyche is that they get extra conscious in doing things that are reinforced on them. Our short friendship would have gone speechless had he not looked back at me when leaving and said a sweet bye to me waving his hands. 

Random thoughts from Rishikesh...

What I see as system, my mind interprets as chaos

When I see stillness, my mind compels me to move

How I see, is determined by my mind

Where is my natural vision?

Intimate Solitude @Rishikesh

“If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

 It takes a trip to figure out the difference between being alone and being lonely. And it takes a trip to Rishikesh to dump both these terms and walk out with something larger, Solitude.

Can I have it?

@Sarojini Market .. Delhi

Connection

Unhide: The 'Beatles Ashram' in Rishikesh

Years later, John said, "There is no guru. You have to believe in yourself. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate."

quoted from The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopaedia 

Most often we travel to seek visual pleasure. We visit beautiful beaches, stunning architecture, mountains etc. A class above is the journey which we make not exactly for visual but for emotional pleasure, where the focus is not just to see and but also to feel and then enjoy.

In my 'feel' category, I will definitely put the 'Beatles Ashram' in Rishikesh on the top.

No visit to Rishikesh is complete without stopping by at the decaying 'Beatles Ashram'. Yet, very few people actually know about it and even fewer manage to find it. It was here that most of the songs from the White Album were written in 1968, after the band adopted Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as their guru. The ashram was later claimed by the government and declared part of the adjoining national park.

The entrance to the ashram

The vast campus has since been reclaimed by the forest and the buildings are in ruins. Never the less, the fact that the Beatles were motivated to compose some of their best songs here, keeps the spirit of this place alive.

The main campus

meditation caves

However, the most exiting part of this campus is the recently added community art project - The Beatles Cathedral Gallery at the decaying Satsang Hall. A bunch of artists collaborated to create a magnificent wall art and graffiti installation and have given a new charm and life to the walls of the ruined hall. Following are some of the pics through which I tried to capture the spirit of the hall but I strongly feel that you need to actually be there in order to feel that creative energy.