Okay so this week for the black and white challenge, Cee wants bikes or anything related to two wheels. Initially I thought I had only two photos but rifling through my archives I was surprised to find how many bikes had crept in without my knowledge! Good for me and them 😀
A surreptitiously taken photo of the fascinating insides of a bike in a busy marketplace.
The good old bicycle, the lifeline for many. I used to love cycling as a child and often wish I could cycle now as well, but I feel shy and embarrassed.
This one I have shared before, perhaps some of you remember. Quite an eye-catcher right?
A front view with minimal color. Which one do you prefer?
On the streets of Udaipur, while admiring a camel with its nose in the air.
The car and bike halt deferentially as the camel made its way sedately across the highway 😉
A bike parked near a distillation flask used to prepare rose essence.
Two bikes near a massive gulmohar tree (at least the leaves look like that). The creepy roots are fascinating aren’t they? Oops I forgot the bikes were supposed to be the focus!
Hmm not sure if those are the same bikes as in the previous pic. But the tree is definitely different – such character don’t you think? I’m fascinated by how trees don’t seem to have any requirement to follow rules. Anything goes and each to her own is their mantra. Yet each is particular and conscientious about fulfilling their CSR (corporate social responsibility) for the less fortunate. By just being, they replenish the oxygen in the air – isnt that amazing?
Tree Cheers to them.
Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful week.
I was fascinated by this find and carried it inside for some special treatment
A collection of dried Ashoka tree leaves.
Banana leaves against a cloudy evening sky
Eucalyptus tree standing tall against the litchi trees. Don’t miss the fair elbows!
The greens attempts to tone down the exuberance of the reds
Next I have a really batty tree for you. Yes! those black things are bats waiting for darkness to fall.
A golden tree by the road
A mystery tree with strange tendrils hanging down like some exotic jewelry. Anyone know which tree? Ferdi?
The last one standing at the Chittorgarh fort. Oh the stories it could tell
This one’s having a really bad hair day 😀 Or perhaps it has seen some really hair-raising stuff in its heydays. After all this is the place for committing jauhar and sati.
I clicked this patch of clover leaves hoping to find a lucky four-leafed one at leisure. No such luck yet – what about you?
All neat and tidy, ready to toe the line and follow rules and regulations with not a hair out of place.
And then we have this place where there’s no sense or order, each to her own to be as she likes no questions asked. Which do you prefer?
And finally the Sun kisses this one good night 🙂
An impressive tree, I think, a mango tree perhaps. If so she would have been stoned, prodded and climbed all over the entire long summer. But undaunted, unconcerned she has continued her journey to reach for the sky.
I come closer. She allows a money plant to drape her like a scarf, even allow a lamp to rest on her curves.
Hey wait! That’s no drapery – it’s growing out of her. Just another surrogate mother for one who is not even her kind. My kind? she asks. What’s that? All life is my kind.
Just look at those wounds and scars. Don’t they hurt? I ask. No she shakes her branches.
Liar. I choke on tears as I walk over to the other side. Her silent howl of despair unheard in this vast preoccupied universe.
By the roadside, a triple bonanza – sandy brown earth, school bus yellow cacti and safety orange flowers 😀
A saffron frame to an ancient lift
A nanny trying to feed a toddler playing on salmon tiles
A sandy brown sculpture from ancient times
A slate grey sculpture of Devi Durga as she destroys Mahishasura
A peacock with an intricately designed silver tail
A silver scarlet monster contraption at the airport
A safety orange light fixer on the roads of Delhi
A shamrock green monster parrot
Windows come in all shapes and sizes, with or without balconies and serve all kind of purposes.
As a showcase for art
Or marvel at the thick clouds rolling in from the mountains and wonder if your flight will be on time or perhaps even take off…
And then when the flight does take off, fret – why are all the rivers dry? 
Yet, nowadays I find it more fun to look at windows rather than through windows.
The distorted images remind me of the masks and facades we wear all the time, sometimes even to our own selves.
Because of which we often miss the imminent meltdown until it is too late
Wallowing in our own selves, our vision blurred by our own tears we can no longer appreciate the beauty of the world that has been gifted to us.
It is up to us if we wish to focus on the crack, the skew, the distortion or the serenity of the mighty Ganga as she flows steady and sedate ready to meet her destiny and lose her self in the Bay of Bengal.
Sometimes it is imperative to draw the curtains on our own self and look beyond the self.
We must appreciate and count our blessings as we look out into the world secure and safe while others hang by a thread just so that their bellies are a little bit fuller.
Put on your most comfortable pair of shoes and go for a bit of window shopping! 😀 But wait, why just window shop? While out, loosen your purse strings, spend some dough and spread some cheer this festive season 🙂
Stories and more 