Cedars of Shimla

Deodar (Cedar)
"The Deodar wants to stay alone,
Searching always in the sky,
For the star that once shone!
Go away, please go away,
Leave me alone with my cones,
Let the bristles of my luck sting me,
Till there is power in my bones!"

sunset from Kanya Kumari-South India

In Kanyakumari -the extreme southern point of India-three seas
meet-Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and Arab Sea. So it's a vast opening!
There is temple seen inside the sea. It is built on a rock. Swami
Vivekananda -an Indian Hindu monk (and a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna-a
great saint) meditated on this rock after swimming across the sea.
Later a temple was built there -called Vivekananda Rock Temple.

River Yamuna-the tears of love!

I took this shot of the river Yamuna from the side of the Taj. It's a
remarkable river that has been the witness of human and divine love
through history and legend. The river contributed much to the ethos
of Indian people and their history.

Legend:
Whenever Srimati Radhika sees the rich blue hue of the Yamuna, She
immediately remembers Her beloved Syamasundara. The Yamuna River
eternally flows in the spiritual world serving Sri Krsna's blissful
pastimes.
When Krsna appears in Bhauma Vrindavana, He enacts many exciting
pastimes in the Yamuna including dancing on the hoods of the demon
Kaliya, splashing water on His cowherd boyfriends, and swimming and
boat riding with His beloved gopis. For thousands of years devotees of
Lord Krsna have bathed in the sacred waters of the Yamuna River while
remembering Radha-Krsna's eternal pastimes and praying for mercy. It
is a tradition amongst Krsna bhaktas to first take a Yamunä bath at
Visrama Ghat in Mathura before entering Sri Krsna's sacred land of
Vrindavana.

History
Tragically those monument surroundings ultimately became Sha Jahan's
prison. His son, Aurangzeb, seized the throne and imprisoned his
father for the last eight years of his life. Legend maintains that
Shah Jahan spent his final years locked in the Agra Fort, gazing from
the Jasmine Tower of his marble palace, down the Yamuna River to the
Taj Mahal, the tomb of his beloved wife. Tended by Jahanara, his
eldest daughter, Shah Jahan was confined to the fort for eight years.
According to legend, when Shah Jahan was on his deathbed, he kept his
eyes fixed on the Taj Mahal where his beloved lies. After his death,
Shah Jahan was buried there beside his dead queen, Mumtaz Mahal. Their
love never separated them in life, miseries and finally in death. Taj
Mahal synonymous with Mumtaz Mahal remains the eternal monument for
their everlasting love.

my forest

" Let us go now into the forest.
Trees will pass by your face,
and I will stop and offer you to them,
but they cannot bend down.
The night watches over its creatures,
except for the pine trees that never change:
the old wounded springs that spring
blessed gum, eternal afternoons.
If they could, the trees would lift you
and carry you from valley to valley,
and you would pass from arm to arm,
a child running
from father to father."

profile of a fort

This is Agra Fort.
But this is a cropped portion of the original photograph. I have
cropped it to see how it looks in this view as a profile of a woman
sometime seems to be more beautiful than her face.

outcast

For some days the Internet was missing for fibre-optic cable fault. So
I sought for a presence of someone who could be a friend of mine.
And I found it---an outcast who has been living alone abandoned by
all. So I went to him and offer my hand of friendship.
"Friendship? What is this?"
"It's a relation-warm relation!" -I told him.
"Oh ! relation? But I have been absolutely related to someone and
think of nothing and none now"-he replied.
"Who is that one-you are deeply related to?" I asked.
"My alone self."-he replied.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep...

...But I have promises to keep...