Thursday, August 10, 2006

Sanctuary...
















Photo by - Endevourme

When i was a kid, we used to stay near main market in pune, the place is called mandai.It is a vegetable market but not a crowded one. Less stalls, less people.The old mandai has a marvellous architecture. It is built in stone and from the top it looks like a giant star fish.It opens from all the arms of the starfish, so you can enter inside from one arm and come out from another.This place has a particular smell. The atmosphere of being old.The pavements too are in stone, polished and smoothened due to people walking over them for years.The place has a cool feeling. Below the stalls there are small storages, if you peek into them, you cant see anything but you can feel the raw, damp smell of wood, vegetables and fruits. This I used to feel like a very secure place to hide.Dark place, where nobody can come and catch you.Often you can see pigions flying here, around glass windows and wooden pillars.Center of the building there are snacks shops, you can see loads of stallkeepers standing there and eating.I too used to go there and buy samosas, especially on sundays. Right at the centre there is a huge empty place,where all arms of starfish come together. The ceiling is quite high and you can see the blackening and dust saturated there over years, and big dense spider webs everywhere. But you can feel a quiteness and moreover, a huge stability,firmness of this rigid stone structure. I often used to come here for playing, with friends. It is here i used to dream of becoming a bowler, a doctor and much more which i could never become. Over the years the place has seen a lot. Ordinary people, a common man. His dreams, his hopes, his ambitions and his continuous struggle for living.I too grew up. I too joined this marathon of people. I may call this persuing my dreams,or maybe just another struggle for living.Now a days i dont find mandais, rather i go to fancy shopping malls. Now i get mixed in the crowds there but i cant relate to them. And i feel those people cant relate even to themselves. A crowd of empty people. But once in a while i do want to stop running and again sometime go the the place.Touch the stone and feel its smoothness. Again i want to see the dark stone ceiling. When i was a kid i had too look up, and even now too i have to look up.For this stone structure which has stood the test of time, I was small and will always remain small.It is a sanctuary of my memories keeping the warm afternoons of my childhood alive.

27 comments:

Junius said...

Hmmm....the pic i too while coming back from tirupathi,
the sunset and colours of sky were sooo beautiful...

Junius said...

#saroj
thank yu...thank yu... :-)

Monami Roy said...

wow u take all these photos??

\m/

Junius said...

#Manic Street Preacher
hey, welcome here :-)
yaa i took these photos...
keep visiting...

Aditi said...

I think it is when we stop connecting to our surroundings that we start loosing out on the important things in life. Sure we are one of the faceless ones in a mall but that isnt as much fun is it?
Nice story... thank u for sharing it.. also beautiful pic as always

Mellowdrama said...

Nice! It's always the little things that crop up as you get older/wiser..you knw you are getting old when you get nostalgic. Me, I live in the 80s:) Nice post!

Junius said...

#aditi
hey thank yu!
erlier i always wanted to do things what others do,
but after i started truely listening to myself things changed...
i am normal, i am not average.
i am inside the crowd, still not a part of it, for they are empty, i am not.
and the deep undercurrent of peace, it never fades...

connection...ya its very essential,
for me while taking photos i need to connect to nature, i see...'right here right now'
and that completeness of the moment makes photos.
seeing is a very deeply satisfying thing...learn it if u can...

#MelloDrama
thank yu,
hey me too feels the same...
...all the mental noise we make, we call it wiseness, hi...hi...:-)

Has to be me said...

Hey that was a good one....both the pic & the post! :)

Junius said...

#Has to be me
Hey thank yu so much :-)

Seema said...

Waw..that pic is an awesome capture of the sky..beautiful..

Rupali_Srivastava said...

Beautiful narrative of Mandai. I always loved the place. Also i loved the lovely tulsi baug.

ur right malls may be fancy, but I dont think one will build any memories around them

Scoot said...

nice to go through your memories :)

Rose said...

That seems like an amazing place to be.. And gr8 description.. Gave me an awesome setting for a story.. :)

So you have Dark places, where nobody can come and catch you, huh??? ;)

I wish that the warm feelings of childhood is preserved at the heart of the star-fish forever..

:)

..Me

Junius said...

#seema
hey thank yu so much!
infact the pic is notthhing as compared to the actual view of the sky,
we were having tea, cool breeze was flowing around, scarce vehicles...

#Rupali_Srivastava
hey yu have been there!
yup i too luv tulsibaug, its sooo good ha?
what a serene, sane and pure atmosphere naa.
it was just 5 minutes from our house...
u know when i was a child, my parents took me here for piercing my ears...
ummmm...i still have small holes, though i dont wear anything in them...

#maya cassis
thank yu maya :-)
maybe we reflect our own memories while reading those of others...

#rose
thank yu for the wishes :-)
ha ha almost everyone has dark places...
we all need space...safe...alone....quiet....
hope yu have that one place too :-)

Rose said...

Hey.. Wnated to tell you that this picture is awesome!!!!

I luv the sunet (or sunrise for that matter) and coconut.. This is the best pic so far.. Wher is it?

Junius said...

#rose
hey thank yu so much :-)
this is midway somewhere between b'lore and tirupathi,
i really dont know exactly where...
we had stopped at some reliance pump for refuelling our car,,,
u think it is the best pic so far? mmmm.....i dont know....hi..hi..;-)

Rose said...

I think you shud really start a blog only for ur pics.. They deserve full attention..

Junius said...

#rose
....but maintaining 2 blogs is not easy,
and i am not a gud writer (like u ;-)) and i hardly get any comments...
and i am afraid if i seperate writing and photos,
the audience will be divided...

i do posts to express myself,
i write my thoughts and there is a vasssttt and much more part of myself
which i cant say in words,
i express that part of me through the photos,
but you have to 'see' and you have to understand :-)

i really have no contribution to my photos,
rather nature makes photos...
things are already much more beautiful than photos that i take...
i post photos 'cause i feel readers too will someday know how to 'see'...

for the same reason u can see there are only two links on my blog, to nirmla's,
and there too nature comes first.
.....thats a rather looong explaination haa....
;-)

Shankari said...

btw, now the hi and haa replace all da-s?

haa, hi, da :)

Junius said...

#shankari
thats a keen observation da,
even i am wondering now how it happened ;-)

Junius said...

#shama & diya
soooooo..... sweet :-)
but i am confused wheather this is shama or diya....

Rita said...

You just made me feel very notalgic. I also used to visit a familiar, childhood market in the small town that used to be my home. I am now far away from that town, the market and the failiar feeling of confort!

Junius said...

#rita,
hey thank yu so much for coming here :-)
yaa these are some of the places which bond with us,
though they are not alive...

Unknown said...

hmmmm...nice pic...and its true
'seeing is a very deeply satisfying thing'..ur so gud at it...nice post..things are changing day by day...

Junius said...

#nirmala
yaa, nice to see that there are people which see and understand :-)

Rasika Mahabal said...

nice post, missing mandai

Junius said...

#Rasika
yeaa...i miss it too...