Kashmir, Dharma Songs

Kashmir is a music video from an album"Dharma Songs" sung by "Guruji Gyomyo Nakamura" Direction & Camera by "Rigzin Kalon" and edited by "Kapil Rana"

Kashmir Music Video

The song, Kashmir is part of Guruji Nakamura's music album, Dharma Songs. Guruji spends his time between Ladakh in India and Japan. We respect him very much for building Shanti Stupa in Leh.

A while ago Guruji requested my husband Rigzin Kalon to make a video . It was shot entirely in Srinagar this autumn. Kapil Rana has edited this video, whom Rigzin has previously worked with and shares a great rapport .

My favourite part is where all the boys are flying kites together in the end, it felt like a picture postcard moment of sweet innocence. Personally being Rigzin's other half I got to know of so many things behind the scenes, for example, the boys are non-actors, they are local kids he hired. He said they enjoyed themselves throroughly doing their part. And so many similar stories. I'll spare you the one where he had to change his script and his crew left filming due to a death threat from a religious group. Sigh! Three words, Compassion, Wisdom, Tolerance. Such is the condition although times have greatly improved.

Love + light
May Guruji's Dharma Songs spread real peace, real harmony!

That Christmas-y feeling

I was at Chimanlal recently to pick up some handmade papers. While I waited for them to get the roll of papers I'd ordered, I happily looked around at the charming items on display when this delightful little angel caught my eye, (how close we are to Christmas!) Immediately I bought a few :)

Flat at first, the angel opens up like this to reveal an adorable silhouette :)

so minimal yet so delightful.......I plan to get some more to give my friends, to send positive angel energy :)

**************
Christmas lights on Hill Road.

This Sunday I was in Bandra to assist my teacher at a free Dance Yoga Workshop she gave as part of Celebrate Bandra Festival. The venue for the workshop was a quiet tucked away garden called Malla Park, off Pali Malla Road. For me, more than the workshop was the joy at discovering this little garden (even though it is called park!). To get there you have to take the lane just besides The Bagel Shop, on Pali Malla road which is near Rizvi College and enroute St.Anne's church. After the workshop ended I wound my way down from Pali market to Hill road and there I came across these colourful Christmas decorations :)

Honestly, my pictures don't do full justice. I remember it was much brighter.

Christmas is never as Christmas-y in any another part of the city, the little cribs on display, the winding narrow lanes, the old homes, the bakeries, the goan accent (what men!) I miss that... but what is there to miss, really! I'll just swing by and breathe in the ambience, take a stroll down Chimbai/memory lane :)

may everyone have a very warm Christmas...

love + light!

A jewel in this ocean of samsara

After having watered my plants I was busy getting on with my day, when while walking across the room, I saw the run-of water caught like a jewel in the leaf. This sudden gift of beauty reminded me of a conversation I had yesterday with a friend who is in the midst of intiating a public arts project ( my best wishes with her). We were discussing about the city, it's extremes, the contrasts, how we all battle with it on a daily basis. I spoke of Thich Nhat Hanh's gatha (verse), "In the garbage I see a rose, in the rose I see garbage...", meaning when you take out the trash you do it with the understanding that a rose can/will come out from it and when you see a rose you know that it too will wilt and turn to garbage.....I was hinting at seeing the contrasts around us, as being impermanent....changing, beauty turning to ugliness, that which is repulsive to beauty...but on reflection while I was alone I realized all this also questions the very meaning of what we consider as beautiful.

It will be interesting for me to see how I view this in future, my own relationship with the city is always changing, I try not to react, but it is there, all the chinks in the system....I try to be the change rather than expecting the city to change around me. I try.

All I know is a seeking mind can find beauty even in the mundane and be uplifted till the next mundane joy comes along.

Love & light!