Author: Ajmal

I have been migrating the website to a different host during the past few days. Took some time until the DNS cache issues got cleared. The website is up and running back again : ) 

I’m planning to write a small tutorial on moving from wordpress.com to a self hosted wordpress.org blog, some time soon. I took some time to figure out a procedural workaround to do so. I’ll link it here as I write it some day if that could help someone. The earlier theme we had is flushed off, and is back with this minimal theme that resonates with our storytelling. ; )

I got this beautiful message forwarded. Couldn’t identify the original author online.

A lovely little girl was holding two apples with both hands. Her mum came in and softly asked her little daughter with a smile: “My sweetie, could you give your mum one of your two apples?”

The girl looked up at her mum for some seconds, then she suddenly took a quick bite on one apple, and then quickly on the other. The mum felt the smile on her face freeze. She tried hard not to reveal her disappointment.

Then the little girl handed one of her bitten apples to her mum, and said: “Mummy, here you are. This is the sweeter one.”

No matter who you are, how experienced you are, and how knowledgeable you think you are, always delay judgement. Give others the privilege to explain themselves. What you see may not be the reality. Never conclude for others. Which is why we should never only focus on the surface and judge others without understanding them first.

– Anonymous writing found online
This ephemeral pause before we judge would possibly help. Hence, the title 🙂
God bless.

This is the old vintage film camera that my father used during my childhood days. During my previous visit to home, I took this to have it in my wondercrate. It’s a Yashica Electro 35 GSN.  Yashica is Japanese camera manufacturer who was originally active from 1949 until 2005. From the photos my father has taken with this nostalgic camera, I can upright tell that this thing is almost my age.  To dive deep into the geekery,  the body of this camera is made of solid metal with a clear viewfinder and rangefinder.  This was easily one of the most popular camera brands of the 1970s. It’s equipped with a silent electronic leaf shutter which is much quieter and has lesser vibration compared to the counterparts of Leica and Nikon. When this came out in 1966, it was very advanced at that time. Happened to stumble across this beautifully written write up by photographer Ken Rockwell on this camera.

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”
– Dorothea Lange

“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”
— Destin Sparks

“To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy…For me, the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity. ”
― Henri Cartier-Bresson, ‘The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers’

I’m really fond of violin. In one of the earlier posts titled “The Ladder to a Star“, I had shared one of my favourite violin renderings.  Here is another one.

“It takes generosity to discover the whole through others. If you realize you are only a violin, you can open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert. ”
– Jacques Yves Cousteau.

Artist: Roopa Revathi.

“You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing everything with logic; true power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you; breathe and allow things to pass.” -Anonymous

I’ve always felt this to be true, although we’ve our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities beset. In some measure, this could in its smallest degree vouchsafe some wisdom.  God bless you with a beautiful day where you’re happy with whatever you are into.

Footnote: Sonder or Gaze at the Stars
Illustration inspired by a wine farm in Tbilisi, Georgia.

“..And among His Signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquillity with them, and He has put love and mercy between your (hearts): verily in that are Signs for those who reflect..” (30:21)