Hierarchy – placed sideways? Crosslinking than a flow downwards. If only it implied a way of decision making without subservience?

As one grows, does one increasingly live in one’s own world; not seeing?

A still mind has left me. Earlier, it was a visitor giving joy. Now always teeming thoughts.

It was a wintry afternoon. A white light lay dispersed between the still trees. The stillness broken by a sudden scurrying – jarring because of the silence. A day to sit quietly and look out.

Nanu, Joey – Her two-tooth smile lights up my being.

Who were the composers of Haikus? The painters of Ajanta? And the builders of Konark? Of Machu Picchu? They were not one but many. Ancient beings.

The Goddess was resplendent in red and gold. The noise from the road outside mingled with the smell of incense and broken coconuts. A regular stream of devotees ambled in, some hurried, bowed in obeisance and went out onto the dusty road. Outside, a frail, young woman with a little girl in her arms begged for alms. The Goddess was all-seeing. I remembered another Goddess, faraway, on the banks of a small river that seemed to have lost its way; Kali – kind and ferocious. And, Babul babu whose starched kurta always smelled of cigarettes.