To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted – George Kneller
 
 
 

 
 
 
To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower… hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour…- William Blake
 
 
 

 
 
 
Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value-judgments. An artist recreates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man’s nature – Ayn Rand
 
 
 

 
 
 
Art is everywhere, except it has to pass through a creative mind – Louise Nevelson
 
 
 

 
 
 
God and other artists are always a little obscure – Oscar Wilde
 
 
 

 
 
 
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision – James McNeill Whistler
 
 
 

 
 
 
Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self – Jean-Luc Godard
 
 
 

 
 
 
Art is the objectification of feeling – Suzanne K. Langer
 
 
 

 
 
 
Art is an experience, not the formulation of a problem – Lindsay Anderson
 
 
 

 
 
 
We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies : in the minds of those closest to the work – Jack Welch
 
 
 

 
 
 
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. ~Scott Adams
 
 
 

 
 
 
Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. ~Pablo Picasso
 
 
 

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~Pablo Picasso

 
 
 
Poem on creativity and art

My Art is no art
Without my mind’s simplicity.

My Art does not want
To subscribe to the view
That unhappiness
Commands the world.

When I paint or draw,
I keep my mind’s thought-garden
Completely free of self-doubt-weeds.

My Art is the hide-and-seek
Between my soul’s illumining smiles
And my heart’s streaming tears.

The Artist in me has three
Faithful, sleepless
And self-giving friends:
A newness-eye, a oneness-heart
And a fulness-life.

The heart of my Art
And the heart of a child
Are extremely fond of each other.
They love each other deeply;
They need each other constantly;
They are interdependent, sleeplessly.

My mind says that anything I do
Is too insignificant
Because I am wanting
In qualification.
Needless to say,
This includes my Artwork.

My heart says that anything I do
Is too significant
Because the God-Touch
Is always there.
Needless to say,
This includes my Artwork.

The moment I start painting,
I clearly see my soul-meditation
Is blessingfully clasping
My heart-aspiration-flames.

First things first:
The Artist in me,
Before embarking on his Artwork,
Invariably catches
His heart’s aspiration-express.

True, in my Art I want to see
The face of earth’s beauty.
But I want to see
The heart of Heaven’s Divinity
More, infinitely more.

The poem by: Sri Chinmoy

Bonding : Mother & Son elephants – Kaziranga

In a country where 58% of population does not have access to toilets, this is height of consumerism.

 
 
 
It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game – Anonymous
 
 
 

 
 
 
If you aren’t playing well, the game isn’t as much fun. When that happens I tell myself just to go out and play as I did when I was a kid – Thomas J Watson, Sr.
 
 
 

 
 
 
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play – Heraclitus
 
 
 

 
 
 
Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father – Roger von Oech
 
 
 

 
 
 
There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness – Gelett Burgess
 
 
 

 
 
 
The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground – G K Chesterton
 
 
 

 
 
 
Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions – Mark Twain
 
 
 

 
 
 
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation – Plato
 
 
 

 
 
 
Take time off every day to do something silly – Anonymous
 
 
 

 
 
 
All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination – Anonymous
 
 
 

 
 
 
Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience – Johan Huizinga
 
 
 

 
 
 
Games lubricate the body and the mind – Benjamin Franklin
 
 
 

 
 
 
Sports is human life in microcosm. ~Howard Cosell
 
 
 

 
 
 
It may be that all games are silly. But then, so are humans. ~Robert Lynd
 
 
 

 
 
 
It is not how big you are, it’s how big you play. ~Author Unknown
 
 
 

 
 
 
Sport is a preserver of health. ~Hippocrates
 
 
 

 
 
 
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair – Kahlil Gibran
 
 
 

 
 
 
You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go. Don’t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body. ~Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
 
 
 

 
 
 
It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use,
from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.
- Thomas Aquinas

 
 
 
You must invent your own games and teach us, old ones, how to play – - Nikki Giovanni
 
 
 

 
 
 
No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called games – W. H. Auden
 
 
 

 
 
 
play just play
 
Oh do not rely on your intellect too much
reasons have failed me
not once but most of the time
destroying my heart
for not
considering my emotions
junking what i feel
like i am a stone
aloof in the river

what i do now is that i play
like a child
ruled by my instincts
dictated as i am
by my conscience
about my inner necessities

it is this creative mind
now
playing with the one
that i really love

this passion
for doing what i really love to do
to include
this poetry
and loving you

RIC S. BASTASA

Dance is the mother of all languages. — R.G. Collingwood

 
 
 
Dance is the hidden language of the soul. –Martha Graham
 
 
 

 
 
 
Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communication between humans, and is also performed by other animals (bee dance, patterns of behaviour such as a mating dance). Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet.
 
 
 

 
 
 
Dancers are the athletes of God. — Albert Einstein
 
 
 

 
 
 
Dancing is like dreaming with your feet! –Constanze
 
 
 

 
 
 
Dance can be participatory, social or performed for an audience. It can also be ceremonial, competitive or erotic. Dance movements may be without significance in themselves, such as in ballet or European folk dance, or have a gestural vocabulary/symbolic system as in many Asian dances. Dance can embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a story.
 
 
 

 
 
 
You don’t have to know about ballet to enjoy it, all you have to do is look at it. –Edwin Denby
 
 
 

 
 
 
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
–William Butler Yeats
 
 
 

 
 
 
In life as in dance: Grace glides on blistered feet. –Alice Abrams
 
 
 

 
 
 
Gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are sports that incorporate dance, while martial arts are often compared to dances. Motion in ordinarily inanimate objects may also be described as dances (the leaves danced in the wind).
 
 
 

 
 
 
EYES ravished with rapture, celestially panting, what passionate bosoms aflaming with fire
Drink deep of the hush of the hyacinth heavens that glimmer around them in fountains of light;
O wild and entrancing the strain of keen music that cleaveth the stars like a wail of desire,
And beautiful dancers with houri-like faces bewitch the voluptuous watches of night.
The scents of red roses and sandalwood flutter and die in the maze of their gem-tangled hair,
 

And smiles are entwining like magical serpents the poppies of lips that are opiate-sweet;
Their glittering garments of purple are burning like tremulous dawns in the quivering air,
And exquisite, subtle and slow are the tinkle and tread of their rhythmical, slumber-soft feet.

Now silent, now singing and swaying and swinging, like blossoms that bend to the breezes or showers,
Now wantonly winding, they flash, now they falter, and, lingering, languish in radiant choir;
Their jewel-girt arms and warm, wavering, lily-long fingers enchant through melodious hours,
Eyes ravished with rapture, celestially panting, what passionate bosoms aflaming with fire!
 

- Sarojini Naidu, Nightingale of India

• The child is made of one hundred.
  The child has
  a hundred languages
  a hundred hands
  a hundred thoughts
  a hundred ways of thinking
  of playing, of speaking.A hundred.

• Always a hundred
  ways of listening
  of marveling, of loving
  a hundred joys
  for singing and understanding
  a hundred worlds
  to discover
  a hundred worlds
  to invent
  a hundred worlds
  to dream.

• The child has
  a hundred languages
  (and a hundred hundred hundred more)
  but they steal ninety-nine.
  The school and the culture
  separate the head from the body.
  They tell the child:
  to think without hands
  to do without head
  to listen and not to speak
  to understand without joy
  to love and to marvel
  only at Easter and at Christmas.

• They tell the child:
  to discover the world already there
  and of the hundred
  they steal ninety-nine.

• They tell the child:
  that work and play
  reality and fantasy
  science and imagination
  sky and earth
  reason and dream
  are things
  that do not belong together.

• And thus they tell the child
  that the hundred is not there.
  The child says:
  No way. The hundred is there.-Loris Malaguzzi
  Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach

 
 
 
Getting Initiated

Parents desire to get the child early into school not realizing what they are doing to the young mind. They want ‘good schools’, never satisfied with where they are. What can be more enabling than involved parents and joyful childhood.
 
 
 

 
 
 
Bridging the Divide?

The world has started calling India, ‘a knowledge super-power’, naturally for the impact she has had. A few of the often shared statistics include : There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population). YET,

• 38% of doctors in USA are Indians.
• 12% scientists in USA are Indians.
• 36% of NASA scientists are Indians.
• 34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.
• 28% of IBM employees are Indians.
• 17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.
• 13% of XEROX employees are! Indians.

 
 
 
The list can go on and on, but irony is that less than 50% of Indian children have either access or can afford to go to school and only about 13% of Indian children go beyond grad 10. What would India do to the world if these numbers just double? Challenges are plenty… long way to go..
 
 
 

 
 
 
UNSCHOOLING ….Beyond books and exams!

Howard Gardner shared about the early childhood and the multiple intelligences that every human being naturally demonstrates – Linguistic, kinesthetic (body), natural, spatial, logical, musical, intra-personal and interpersonal. We as parents and facilitators will do a great deal of service to every child if we are able to help children explore and experience these in the first fourteen years of their life.
 
 
 

 
 
 
Widening chasm or awakening…. unfulfilled basic needs, but creating wants?

Of late the often heard refrain is digital divide – children who have access to technology and internet and those who do not. Governments are making it a priority to get tablets to school children. When we are not able to create the basic learning environment that can stoke the joy of learning, where are we heading with these tablets?!
 
 
 

 
 
 
Gone High Tech

You may have noticed, teacher,
I am not in school today.
But the wireless mic on my desk,
Will record each word you say.
Switch on my laptop’s Webcam,
When you have something to show,
And if you pass out homework,
Find my fax number below.
I’ve a pager and cell phone,
So I won’t be hard to reach.
Since I don’t need to be in class,
I’ll do lessons at the beach.
(from school poems, Douglas Evans)

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

- Indus Art Gallery, Campus – Indus World School of Business, Greater Noida

Display / Collections

- At my Alma mater : Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

- Various schools of Indus World School chain

- Private collections

Recent Publications featuring my work and in Media [know more]

- The India Idea, Wisdom Tree publications for Ministry of External Affairs, Public diplomacy division, Aug 2011

- Penguin India, Top 5 “India through my Lens” 2011

- Femina Magazine, Anniversary issue, October 14, 2011

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Longing – a grand mother waiting! Bhimtal, Uttarakhand, India

 
 
 
I am always fascinated by people – The emotional beings – the way they dress, the way they carry themselves and talk which reflects the socio-cultural milieu. I love to capture the the face that reflects the true inner self of the captivating ones and, in the process portray the person and personality. I try to compose the image of the person in the natural context, without asking them to pose, most of the time without their knowledge. Hence, at times the subject may not engage the viewer directly, as is usually expected.

If the person has directly locked the gaze with the camera, then ‘am I capturing the true personality?’, I wonder. Do I really portray the person’s true essence. Is it the real person?
 
 
 

 
 
 
A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he’s being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he’s wearing or how he looks. He’s implicated in what’s happening, and he has a certain real power over the result – Richard Avedon
 
 
 

 
 
 
Most of my portraits are serendipitous – persons and situations are accidental. I happen to land where they were and try to capture without their knowledge. It does add a certain amount of drama to the portrait.
 
 
 

 
 
 
The portrait most of the times reflect the sense of style that is innate in the socio-cultural context – Head-gears, jewelry, hair-styles, the costume say it all.
 
 
 

 
 
 
It is also fascinating to capture the performers while they are in full flow on the stage, completely lost in the divinity of their art-form.
 
 
 

“A good portrait is one that says something about the person. We usually see parts of ourselves in others, so the good portrait should also say something about the human condition” – Steve McCurry
 
 
 

 
 
 
Art is something that opens up and enhances your emotions and that’s what I like to think I’m doing – Nile Rodgers
 
 
 
Emotions are the fuel to really move you along – that’s the only way you can create music. If you don’t feel any emotions, it’s not going to happen. – Jan Hammer

Genius is the ability to renew one’s emotions in daily experience. – Paul Cezanne

It evokes emotions, surprise, shock, consternation and much more. I keep wondering…
 
 
 
SCHOOLS of CONTRAST – of that of haves and have-nots.

A spartan school in a remote village of champaran, Bihar while the school in Noida has abundance!

A spartan school in Champaran, Bihar, India

 
 
 
• “Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions.”
  – William Allin

School of Abundance, Noida, India

Traditional night Madarasa for girl child - one source - Majhoulia, Bihar

• “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
  – Mark Twain

Wonderment! Stoking imagination... government school, Motihari, Bihar

• “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
  – Albert Einstein

 
 
 
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LIVELIHOOD

While a few make big millions on the sly, in the name of carrying their responsibility spending billions of people’s money, there are billions who work really hard to have a fair square meal!
 
 
 

The games of common man with no wealth!, New Delhi, India

 
 
 
“There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive. To return the sense of dignity and honor to manhood, we have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls.” – Sam Keen

——————————————————————————————————

TRADITION and Modernity

Tradition and Modernity are not contradictory or exclusive. They are merely two different classes of things that can however interact beneficially. Tradition is still very often considered as a “thing of the past” without any contemporary legitimacy, and modernity is often mistakenly considered as modernism.  In fact, they are in confluence and make new connections and meanings all the time.

 
 
 

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Sartorial dualities

The traditional clothing in India varies with region, religion and community. The geographical, social, cultural environment influences the attires. Formal attires have been influenced over time due to Western occupation. But this shift has been dramatic over the last two decades due to media explosion that exposes the urban and rural alike. The youth in the urban India more or less imitate the west to a great extent.
 
 
 
“The body is the shell of the soul, and dress the husk of that shell; but the husk often tells what the kernel is.”
Anonymous Quotes
 
 
 

 
 
 
“If honor be your clothing, the suit will last a lifetime; but if clothing be your honor, it will soon be worn threadbare.”
William Arnot Quotes
 
 
 

—————————————————————————————–
 
 
 
Beauty and Beast : Beast in beauty and the beauty in beast!! Humans are usually wild inside while the wild are mostly humane! How inhuman can human be when dealing with the humanly beasts?

The inhuman, Turkman Gate, Old Delhi, India