Saputara , Gujarat Feb 2 , 2012 Thu 11 : 15 PM
Frustrated with inferior network connection, struggling with the pictures I so diligently took to paste on to your visions, I resort now to writing, than wait for the speed to pick up.
So, early morning on to a private jet, and within 25 minutes in Nasik – religious importance, military importance, vegetational importance and the location for most of the shoot for ‘Khaki’ – and drive a couple of hours to Saputara on some elevation, to a land that looks dry now but shall become lush green during and soon after the monsoon. Tribal culture prevails here as can be seen by the masks in various hues and the exquisite wall paintings in white on the gateways and blank house walls of villages -
What creativity can do to one’s mind is astonishing. How judiciously they use the triangle in every form without losing the reality of the image and how simply they interpret their everyday life !! And … how absolutely one can fall in love with the beauty that abounds in the shape and size of the two most here -
Ah !! Just had to get a picture with them. The thorn between two roses. And no there is no need to refer to the much made popular adage to this, by none other than the Mahatma – ‘ a rose between two thorns !!’. The whole action being borrowed from that famous photograph at the then Viceregal House, or now the Rashtrapati Bhavan, of the last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Jinnah and Gandhi ..
But seriously though aren’t they, the two roses above, just the cutest little ladies you ever saw ? How quickly the female gender matures and acquires lady like demeanor. They progress faster in the brain too than the male, and I am told start to speak as they grow from birth to greater age, much before the male. Now … there can be many little asides which I am sure many among you would be desperately trying to manufacture at this juncture. But I would seriously consider you refrain.
Sitting with the tribals, listening to their talk on how they lead their life, the food that they cook, the artwork that they adorn their homes with, has always been a most educative and interesting topic. Their simplicity of thought and word and their undisturbed life style despite modern inventions abounding around them, is by itself a great learning. Change their environment and they shall perish. They live by and for the soil they inhabit, and nothing shall effect change in their lives that they lead …
Steadfast as they are … they shall never distort or change even the way they dress or ornament themselves -
I wanted to put forth a glimpse of their jewelry that they decorate themselves with, but this internet is untrustworthy today, and I loathe its inconsistency .. so I shall end while the going is good ..
Good night … another early day tomorrow …
Amitabh Bachchan
PS : Nandkeshore Pattil .. birthday greetings for tomorrow … and Divya your Marriage anniversary today .. blessings and togetherness always
