13 November
2020
8 November
2020
Random shot of the fire
8 November
2020
Burst of Fall color in our property
7 November
2020
Weekend music session
This one is from Gulzar. We grew up listening a lot to this song. I think this was featured in a Hindi movie. (not an expert on Hindi movies – so not sure of it though)
Naam gum jaayegaa,
Chehra ye badal jaayegaa,
Meri aawaaz hi pehchaan hai,
‘Gar yaad rahe
Roughly translated…
My name will be lost to your memory
And I will look very different too
But my voice will still be recognizable
Only if you are able to remember it
4 November
2020
Jhorna!! (Bengali alert)
This morning mom reported that amidst the continuous pain my dad is going thru (he is having a real rough time), he had a bright spot when my sister came over and talked about his recitations. My dad used to enjoy reciting Bengali poems – mostly Rabindranath Tagore’s poems. (as in any self-respecting reciter born in the early to mid 1900s Bengal would do).
Looks like he gave it a shot at reciting when my sister brought up the topic.
I asked mom “Which poem did he recite?”
“Nirjhorer swapnobhongo”, she said referring to one of his old time favorites.
Just to engage mom, I asked “What does Nirjhor mean?” After a couple of minutes she gave up. And I let her know the meaning of that Bengali word is a “waterfall” (cataract, cascade).
She immediately asked me “Onno jhorna-r kabita ta mon-e aachhey?”. She enquired if I remembered another famous Bengali poem describing a waterfall. I did remember the one she was referring to. My dad used to recite that one too.
Written by Satyendranath Dutta – often referred to as the Wizard of Rhythm – it is an absolute masterpiece. Each and every word is golden. But the cadence/tempo of the words as you recite them is impossible to forget. There is no amount of translation that can do justice to the words. Certainly there is no way of carrying the rhythm in any translation.
I did remember the first paragraph. It has been impossible to forget ever since our Bengali teacher in eighth grade – Mrs. Gita Mitra – had taught this poem. Such lilting and catchy is the tempo.
Later looked up the whole poem. Turns out I had forgotten most of the rest of the poem. Which is a shame. It is an absolute gem of a poetic talent. Here is the whole poem for my Bengali friends…
—
ঝর্ণা ! ঝর্ণা ! সুন্দরী ঝর্ণা !
তরলিত চন্দ্রিকা ! চন্দন-বর্ণা !
অঞ্চল সিঞ্চিত গৈরিকে স্বর্ণে,
গিরি-মল্লিকা দোলে কুন্তলে কর্ণে,
তনু ভরি’ যৌবন, তাপসী অপর্ণা !
ঝর্ণা !
পাষাণের স্নেহধারা ! তুষারের বিন্দু !
ডাকে তোরে চিত-লোল উতরোল সিন্ধু |
মেঘ হানে জুঁইফুলী বৃষ্টি ও-অঙ্গে,
চুমা-চুম্ কীর হারে চাঁদ ঘেরে রঙ্গে,
ধূলা-ভরা দ্যায় ধরা তোর লাগি ধর্ণা !
ঝর্ণা !
এস তৃষার দেশে এস কলহাস্যে-
গিরি-দরী-বিহীরিনী হরিনীর লাস্যে,
ধূসরের ঊষরের কর তুমি অন্ত,
শ্যামলিয়া ও পরশে কর গো শ্রীমন্ত;
ভরা ঘট এস নিয়ে ভরসায় ভর্ণা;
ঝর্ণা !
শৈলের পৈঠৈয় এস তনুগত্রী !
পাহাড়ে বুক-চেরা এস প্রেমদাত্রী !
পান্নার অঞ্জলি দিতে দিতে আয় গো,
হরিচরণ-চ্যুতা গঙ্গার প্রায় গো,
স্বর্গের সুধা আনো মর্ত্যে সুপর্ণা !
ঝর্ণা !
মঞ্জুল ও-হাসির বেলোয়ারি আওয়াজে
ওলো চঞ্চলা ! তোর পথ হল ছাওয়া যে !
মোতিয়া মোতির কুঁড়ি মূরছে ও-অলকে;
মেখলায়, মরি মরি, রামধনু ঝলকে
তুমি স্বপ্নের সখী বিদ্যুত্পর্ণা
ঝর্ণা !
—-
1 November
2020
A rose that caught my attention
As I have said before, roses are notorious to capture in camera (the texture makes it very difficult – although not as difficult as thee moon). While walking away from Yonah Mountain Winery, this was caught my attention. It was barely two and a half centimeters in diameter. My dad used to grow these – I think he called them “button roses”. The structural strength of this rose (it is still blooming) was marvelous!
30 October
2020
The other aftermath of Zeta
The other day, the weather forecasters warned us that Storm Zeta will be going thru where we live. Which got me thinking how many storms have we had this year? US storm naming has an interesting pattern. Every year we start with the letter A (first storm is named starting with A – it was Arthur this year) and then go thru B, C … The names alternate between male names and female names. The starting name alternates between male and female every year. Did you know you can submit your own names to NOAA?
Back to the count. There are no names with Q, U, X, Y, Z any year. So, there are 21 names every year. What happens when we have more storms like we did this year? Turns out, we give up all pretensions to innovation and go straight for Greek Alphabets – Alpha, Beta etc etc.
Back to Storm Zeta. The Greek letter (upper case) for Zeta is “Z”. This is where my confusion started… Did we have 45 storms this year? (21 English names and then 24 letters in the Greek Alphabet).
It was Sunjay Talele who reminded me that “Z” is only the sixth letter in Greek Alphabet. Which, in turn reminded me that, once upon a time (my ninth grade to be precise), I had found all the Greek letters enumerated in a page in the back of the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary my dad had bought for me. I had even learnt them by rote.
I figured, 40 years later, might as well learn once more the letters and how to write them in lower case and upper case. After four days, I can now write all the letters backwards (omega to alpha) and can ace all the quizzes on Greek Alphabets – at least the ones I could find on the internet.
Will see how much recall I have a week from now…
The confusing letters for me included eta (“H”), zeta and xi (cannot write the letters in English script). And I always get confused with “o”. Tend to think of it as omega rather than omicron.
29 October
2020
Aftermath of Zeta
After clearing our private road off all fallen branches, debris etc, I went out of our property to check the damage. Immediately encountered this tree. If somebody tried to create a blockade, they could not have done a better job. Not sure you can see it but there is a second tree lying parallel to this one right behind (see behind the main portion of the trunk).
28 October
2020
Rain soaked early fall morning
25 October
2020
