Prasannachoudhary - Wandering Mind

Real life, life finally uncovered and clarified, the only life in consequence lived to the full, is literature. Life in this sense dwells within all ordinary people as much as in the artist. But they do not see it because they are not trying to shed light on it. And so their past is cluttered with countless photographic negatives, which continue to be useless because their intellect has never 'developed' them. Our lives; and the lives of other people, too; because style for a writer, like colour for a painter, is a question not of technique but of vision. It is the revelation, which would be impossible by direct or conscious means, of the qualitative difference in the ways we perceive the world, a difference which, if there were no art, would remain the eternal secret of each individual. It is only through art that we can escape from ourselves and know how another person sees a universe which is not the same as our own and whose landscapes would otherwise have remained as unknown as any there may be on the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing only a single world, our own, we see it multiplied, and have at our disposal as many worlds as there are original artists, all more different one from another than those which revolve in infinity and which, centuries after the fire from which their rays emanated has gone out, whether it was called Rembrandt or Vermeer, still send us their special light. This labour of the artist, this attempt to see something different beneath the material, beneath experience, beneath words, is the exact inverse of that which is accomplished within us from minute to minute, as we live our lives heedless of ourselves, by vanity, passion, intellect and habit, when they overlay our true impressions, so as to hide them from us completely, with the repertoire of words, and the practical aims, which we wrongly call life. To put it briefly, this art, complicated though it be, is actually the only art that is alive. .... The work carried out by our vanity, our passion, our imitative faculties, our abstract intelligence, our habits, is the work that art undoes, making us follow a contrary path, in a return to the depths where whatever has really existed lies unrecognized within us. And of course it was very tempting to recreate real life and rejuvenate one's impressions in this way. But it called for all kinds of courage, including emotional courage.

Marcel Proust, 'Finding Time Again'. Translated by Ian Patterson.

Ladies of the Zenana (Womens Quarters) on a Terrace at Night - 17th Century Rajput Painting

Artist : Ruknuddin

Ruknuddin was active at the court in Bikaner ca. 1650-97. especially under the patronage of Anup Singh. Ruknuddin was a master of color and patterns. In this work, the exquisitely rendered folds of Vishnu’s robe, the semitransparent fabrics of the women presenting gifts to the divine couple, and the subtle shading of the faces are obviously reminiscent of Mughal painting. Beautiful women, even in a secular context, were among Ruknuddin’s favorite subjects. If one compares such pictures from the 1660s and 1670s as a group, one is particularly struck by the porcelain-like treatment of the faces that recurs in works of this period. Ruknuddin accompanied the rulers of Bikaner on their military campaigns to the Deccan, which were conducted as part of their contractural service to the Mughal court. He is associated with a number of portraits painted there in a distinctly Mughal manner, reflecting his exposure to further currents of influence. (via)

"The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless. .... The only truths that are useful are instruments to be thrown away. ... Fear prophets, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them. ... Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth. ..."

Umberto Eco, 'The Name of the Rose', Vintage Books, London, 2004.

Check out Prasanna Choudhary's Twitter profile as an animated movie. https://www.vizify.com/prasanna-choudhary/twitter-video

IMG_7898 by Pooja Pant

The Digital is Political

The Digital is Political

The political ideas we have held for centuries are ill-equipped to respond to today’s challenges.

Source: The Digital is Political

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“With the anointment of Yogi Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Narendra Modi’s cunningly crafted ‘development’ mask has been ripped apart. .. There is much more to democracy than elections and legislative majorities. Even outside the realm of politics, battles need to be fought every day in every space to safeguard small freedoms, ensure peace, secure justice. Despair is an indulgence engaged citizens cannot afford - especially in light of the decision in UP.”

Dr B R Ambedkar (14.04.1891 - 06.12.1956)

Great social reformer, philosopher, jurist, political leader, historian and economist. Independent India's first Law Minister and Chairperson of the Constitution's Drafting Committee (29.08.1947 - 24.01.1950).

A few quotes from his writings:

"Every act of independent thinking puts some portion of apparently stable world in peril."

"For a successful revolution, it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights."

"What are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is full of inequality, discrimination and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights."

"Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies government."

"I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved."

"Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence."

Today is his 123rd birth anniversary.

Isis, the Mother of Apis

Associated with fertility, generation, and resurrection, the Apis bull was prominent throughout the long history of ancient Egyptian religion. Originally the bull, as all other animals, was revered as the manifestation of certain divine powers and was not itself a deity. Later, however, the Apis was in fact worshiped. Through its connotations of potency and renewal, it was associated with the gods Ptah and Osiris and with royal ritual. Isis, the wife of Osiris, is shown here in her role as mother of Apis. She is identified by her long cow’s horns, distinct from the Apis’s shorter set. This bronze item may have been a finial or fitting for the end of a carrying pole that bore a portable shrine of the Apis.

Medium: Bronze

Place Made: Egypt

Dates: ca. 670-332 B.C.E.

Dynasty: late XXV Dynasty to early XXVI Dynasty

Period: Third Intermediate Period to Late Period

Brooklyn Museum

Modasa - It is just a Beginning

Modasa – It is just a Beginning

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