The Potion Master's remedy for broken souls.

Something for Richa.

I haven't been writing for a while, but my dear friend and die-hard blog fan Richa's Facebook comments made me feel like picking up my pen again (actually it was a pencil). I'd had a difficult couple of days, stressed out and unable to sleep. The thought of having to wake up at six to take Dad to hospital for his cataract operation was not a jolly one. The resentment of always being the one who gets roped in for these things, didn't help. I was tired and grumpy, doing my best to smile my way through and be pleasant, but I wasn't a very happy person today. Finally, this evening, I got away and took some time for myself, and that's when this bit of writing happened. It's not exactly a poem, but I think it's poetic. Thanks Richa, for pushing me to write!

Crescent

The day dawned ugly.
Anger, fear, grief, rage
dragged me through.
Bruised by irritation and guilt,
I crept away to be alone,
not hoping for comfort or understanding,
just silence, stillness and some semblance
of what it is not to exist.
But then I happened to glance up,
and found the moon was smiling down at me.

A visit to the world's tallest monolith

Sravanabelagola is quite a mouthful. In more ways than one, as my pictures will reveal. This quiet little town is home to the famous statue of Lord Gomateshwara, of the Jain religion. This statue is 18 metres high, and has been standing right here in Karnataka all this while - but I only discovered it on Monday. It is carved all out of one piece of rock and is the world's tallest monolith.


Needless to say, I could not resist using the zoom lens.

It took several hours to drive out here from Bangalore, but that's just the start of the journey. After arriving at the temple, there's still the small matter of climbing 1000 steps - great big granite steps in the side of a mountain. It is not as easy as it sounds, and I recommend warm-up exercises - my legs were in agony for the next three days. But it was well worth the climb, to finally find the statue towering over everything. (The railings you see in the picture below is a modern addition to help us unfit 21st centurians to stagger up those steps - and that picture was taken only about a third of the way up!) It really was a wonderful experience to add to my life.