Photo by Savvy Raj
@ Louvre Museum Paris.
Oh beautiful piece of sky!
Lighting our heart with liberty!
Forage in us the spirit of freedom.
Let us breath in the beauty of openness.
Let us witness the ethereal light across the horizon.
Let us rejoice in your dance of abundance.
May you bless us every day
Painting our hearts with hope.
And let us live in love.
In gratitude and good energies.
Savvy
What does it take to live life well?
A whole lot of passion
To go after your dreams
A whole lot of perseverance
To achieve your intentions
A whole lot of patience
To wait out the storms.
A whole lot of common sense
To find your way around.
But most of all
A whole lot of thankfulness
And a whole lot of gratitude
To know your place in the sun.
Savvy
As the Seasons Change
Keep the Spring in your heart
Then no Winters are too harsh
Or Summers too hot to handle
As Seasons change around you
You sense it all from the hope of your heart.
And hope springs forth eternally…
Here is a beautiful video that came by , shared by my friend Ashok Subharao
Although it is in Tamil , the gist is relevant to keeping the Spring in our hearts.
Love
Be in love
Be alive to life
For life moves in time
The Circle of life is a given
Only you can make this now matter well
Feed the soul, with all your heart.
Be in this moment ,feel light.
Think well live happy
Feel the love,
Love life
Live
Another video clip that came by shared by my friend Christoph, while writing the above words in this format specifically, with an idea to use words symbolically to capture the essence of the circle of life, this also feels apt to share here.
It speaks of the circle of life and the essence of letting go.
This is so important for living life well.
The lesser the baggage you carry in your head and heart the lighter you feel and freer you are!
For what matters is what you make of the now…
Let the seasons change around you
As you engage with this moment.
Live life lovingly!
Savvy
The above clip is my dedication to my dear mother. They are a compilation from her own set of artworks dated around 55 years back in time or more.
The reason I share this is to encourage people to see possibilities in creativity and how it can soulfully connect us all, through creative enrichments.
To give you the background…my mother had and still has a fine sense of design and her drawings always had an artistic flow. But unfortunately the daily grind of life and living took its toll and art and creativity was pushed into the background perhaps not realizing the innate talents. But the truth is, a lot happens in appreciation than in indifference.
So her skills were lying untapped and unrecognized. In time as I grew up and while on a visit to my maternal grandparents home in the village, I chanced upon her collection of drawings and paintings stacked in the attic gathering dust in complete ignorance.
The moment I saw them I knew they have to be brought out to see the light of the day… although sadly it was personally disheartening, to see many of the beautiful pieces made on paper, crackling and crumbling in time.
I brought them back with me to the city and took pictures of what was left of it and tried to salvage it piecing them together.
By then I was encouraged by friends and relatives who saw and deeply appreciated them too.
I hit upon the idea of creating a video clip using technology to enhance her original design sense. Yes, they are not as good as her original artworks, for technology is way too perfect to bring out the joy of uniqueness in the human hand.
Yet it is my humble attempt to value the time spent in creating by her own hand with the limitations of the resources available to her in those times.
There are far too many paintings, so I pieced them like a kaleidoscope of sorts to get a sense of her artistic endeavours.
Many times we fail to see the hidden talents in our loved ones. We relate with them for years and hardly know the depth of who they truly are.
Art has a way of bringing out the brilliance of the light within us by bridging gaps in our understandings but also opening new perspectives of thinking.
Today is the day I was born, and one of the ways I choose to celebrate it, is by dedicating this post to my dear mother Anjana.
Thank you, mom, for the beauty you create, being who you are! God bless.
Savvy
Have share this beautiful song earlier in another context.
But here the song emotes to me…
In these curated clips of tangos shown to time with this beautiful song I share my reflections…on the dance form Tango.
Born in the dark alleys of Argentina
The stark truth emerges of murky beginnings in the 18th century
Frequented mostly by slaves,immigrants in the ports of Buneos Aires and even Uruguay.
There were even bans on many of these tango musical gatherings.
The dance form began with countless influences of European and native culture.
Argentine Tango is both energetic and enigmatic
It has the strength and soul to show.
Equally exotic and evocative
Intriguing and beguiling
The lead and follow is beyond genders
For connection is beyond the physicality
For beside the passion play plain to see,
There is something quite alluring & attractive in the movements.
Two people apparently moving as one
The footwork entices and enthralls
The feet move with a mind all their own
But articulating a drama through the feet.
Slow, steady or sharp and staccato movements
Each pair of feet, teasing the other
Challenging into a seemingly deadly duel of the feet.
Hitting all the right notes
Never missing a beat
Never stepping unto another
Except for a flip a dip or a show stopping lift thrown in.
If you want to see the drama of life and living,
Watch the synergy of energy playing
In a soulful yet spirited tango of two dancers.
There is rivetting romance,
Yet strikingly serious and sombre in notion.
Depths of emotion & unbridled passion
Emanating in an artistry of motion.
Today there are so many versions of the Tango
Off shoots and diverse cultural interpretations.
That created new interpretations of the way the dance is danced.
In hold, in form, in stance and in steps. That it’s almost untraceable.
Tango today is alluring as ever with dark days remaining just a history.
Yet retaining the mystery and appeal, Captivating with its intensity.
The connects so rooted in the embrace and hold, that makes the fancy footwork so effortless.
Tango truly speaks eloquently more than ever before…
Savvy
I start my day with a smile
Feeling thankful from my heart
For another day of being alive
And be a better version of me.
I start and end my day with hope
For a brand new beginning
Of things I can do & people I can meet
Of things I can learn from and share
And see the good that I can do
In my own little ways.
Life manifests itself
From our deepest intentions
Every moment can be made better.
Have a great start to every day!
How do you start your day?
Savvy
When you are in love…
Love makes you hear music, you have never heard before,
Love makes your steps look like a dance.
Love makes your heart flutter in abandon.
Love makes you see the truth of beauty in the ordinary.
Love is the gift of grace from your soul.
Be in love. Be in love
With yourself and the world around.
And make both a better place to be in.
Be in love with life…
Live life lovingly!
Savvy
Life throws curveballs at you when you least expect. Sometimes it may be your own expectations that are set high. Simply adjust your attitude to life and let go of unnecessary expectations.
Choose instead, to keep the faith, trust in yourself and hope for the better.
Life begins to shape up differently.
When you are feeling downhill
When you are feeling demoralized
When you feeling disappointed
When you feeling demotivated
Just remember everything is meant to change.
What is today lasts not forever.
What is hurting today will become a faint memory in time.
What seems to be important will lose its significance.
What is stressful will begin to ease in time.
When the odds are too high
They must even out soon enough.
Trust time to keep moving
Have faith, for one makes way for the other.
The circle of life goes on.
Hope is here to stay!
Savvy
To combat the cruelties of this world we must start thinking globally not just locally and realise how much our world is hurting all over from all that’s truly unfair.
If only we could realize how valuable it is to be appreciated and supported .
If we could only know how important it is to feel inclusive in our diverse ways.
We must understand that love and kindness is the only way besides adopting a non-judgmental approach.
We must realise how vulnerable life is, but beyond feeling victimized and create further suffering due to negative thoughts…
We need to respond with empathy, show unity through kindness and compassionate deeds.
The power of kindness is truly infinite.
KINDNESS IS THE PRAYER IN ACTION.
Savvy
Every weapon made, adds to the fear
And false satisfaction of keeping you safe.
You can never be safe, when at war
Every armor is simply a pointer
Of the state of things.
Of the need of peace than war.
Every need to create ammunition
Shows the truth of retaliations.
Revenge in fear or dare is never the answer.
Resolution is where peace makes its way.
If we must be led, let us be lead
In strength of patience.
To explore possibilities
Let us choose to disarm.
Let us disengage and make amends.
Let us choose peace than war.
Let us find the middle path
In reconciliation.
Let us recognize the wrongs done.
Let us learn to undo the mistakes.
And move in harmony and oneness.
That is when we can together
Heal the world in peace
And make it worth living.
Savvy
Our thoughts and our intentions create the possibilities and our will manifests it . Truly then awareness of actions its approach and the consequences start to matter. Every bit of creation has a purpose and the trick is to steer it towards the purpose of being . But the path is the journey of our life and is rife with challenges along the way.
Common sense, balance & equanimity of our thoughts & intentions, all begins to matter then. Yes, moderation is the key but be mindful of moderation as well.. You never know how things slowly get out of hand .
There is not much time that passes
When the glass in hand reaches the lip
The sip becomes a gulp
What’s one becomes two
And two becomes four
And so it goes…
Or when the thoughts in our heart gets spoken
When old habits surface & shape out of no where
Without your intentions, inspite of you
When what’s in you gets truly out of hand!
Be aware to be mindful
Be mindful to be heartful
Be mindful to be moderate
But be conscious to be mindful.
In throes of life and living
Emerges many facets of being
From meagre to excess
Both, two ends of the spectrum
To live life well
Is to understand
The necessity of discernment
Between what is need & what is want
Anything in time can become excess
Everything in time can become redundant.
Something always changes
Nothing stays the same
A life of excess
Will never find contentment
For you will tire
Sooner than you know
A life of lack
Will keep you in dearth
In angst for a silver lining
In the misery of poverty
But again what is little to one
Is much to another
What is complex to one
Is too simple to another
What is beautiful to one
Is ugly to another
What is extravagance to one
Seems a norm to another
What is a subject to one
Becomes an object to another
What is absurd to one
Becomes perfection to another
To each his own really
In this life that is given
Sometimes it’s easy
At times it is truly challenging.
So if in life you are ever flummoxed
Just remember
Nobody is perfect
But you are almost there!
Savvy
Curvy Road of Ideation to Solutions
When creativity is put to test…
The process of creation to finding targeted solutions in the world of products to services is a long and winding road in creativity. The general assumption is that of a direct and linear way to creativity. While one thing leads to another it is not always a straight linear road.
It is the very nature of creativity to retrace, rewind, edit and reframe until it makes sense.
Non judgmental understanding and
empathy is crucial to creating solutions.
It is important to set aside ones own assumptions to gain understanding of another’s perspectives and needs.
To brainstorm you need a direction so it is important to give a clear sense of flow and the perspectives gained in understanding and emphasizing with the needs, helps to streamline the flow of thoughts towards ideation.
Ideation is a result of many thoughts, many questions, in analysis, synthesis and deductions.There are so many paths in the process of creative ideation like for instance…
Brainstorming : This is a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members.
BrainWriting : Another collaborative creativity concept at work. Here the ideas are all recorded by the creator and then passed on to the next person who can use it as a trigger for their own set of ideas..
The Worst Possible Idea : This is a creative design thinking technique where team members seek the worst solutions in ideation sessions. This eases the pressure and boosts the confidence of the team to challenge assumptions and find better and better ideas
SCAMPER : This is an acronym and each letter stands for a thinking technique: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse.
It is important to know what to focus and what to let go as there will be many plenty of ideas that may come up in the process of ideation. Hence keeping focus on what the actual problem is, helps in finding solutions to address and resolving it.
Then comes the part of checking out whether the ideas are actually a perfect solution by examining the quality checks, fault testing and cross questioning so that the idea can be then accepted or rejected as a solution.
New issues can come up that can challenge the process flow. There would also be new opinions and opportunities to explore and refine more.
So however curvy or zig zag the truth is, the road is full of potential and myriad possibilities in the making. Such is the truth of the creative flow.
Sounds like a good idea?
Savvy
LETTER FROM A MOTHER TO A DAUGHTER …
” My dear girl, the day you realize that I’m older, I ask you to be patient , but above all , try to understand what you ‘ll be passing by . When we talk , I repeat the same thing dozens of times , do not interrupt me saying : ” You said the same thing a minute ago .” Just listen , please. Try to remember the times when you were a child and I read the same story night after night until you sleep . When I do not want to bathe , do not be angry and not encabule me . Remember when you were a kid I had to run behind you making excuses and trying to put you in the bath ? When you realize you have difficulties with new technologies , give me time to learn and not look at me that way … remember, dear , how I patiently taught you many things such as eating right , getting dressed , fix your hair and give you with the problems of everyday life … the day you see that I’m older, I ask you to be patient , but above all , try to understand what you ‘ll be passing by . If I occasionally get lost in a conversation , give me time to remember and I do not, do not be nervous , impatient or arrogant . Just remember , in your heart , that the most important thing for me is to be with you . And when I grow old and my legs do not allow me to go as fast as before , give me your hand the same way that I offered him my much in its infancy . When that day comes , do not feel sad. Just stay with me and get me while I finish my life with love . I will love and thank you for the time and joy we share. With a smile and always had immense love for you, I just want to say I love you my dear daughter. “
A story plays on in every face.
Every face fascinates me.
I love to understand what the face expresses
A face is like an interesting book to me
Linger a little longer and you are hooked.
There is a reason for every line & dot.
Every thing connects to their story of life.
A face speaks volumes about the person
Beyond the many masks it may have on.
A face emotes the truth of the being
Eyes may shine a light of their own
The nose may crinkle
The brow may arch up
The forehead may crease
And the mouth may shape itself in myriad ways
There is much there to fathom
And unravel the depths of the being
Every contour has a reason to be
Every flinch & every twitch tells more.
So much more to learn
Every face tells a story.
Savvy
Savvy Raj 
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