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)

“Hark, now hear the sailors cry,
Smell the sea, and feel the sky,
Let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic.”

– “Into the Mystic” , Van Morrison, “Lit Up Inside: Selected Lyrics”

A photograph that I took during a visit few years back to Buyukada (in greek rendered as Prinkipos or Prinkipo) the largest of the “prince islands” in the Sea of Marmara, to the southeast of Istanbul. A frame that still fills and imbue my mind. Ever grateful to Almighty for such visual treats for the soul : )
Though it’s a tiny glimpse of a casual camera click, it’s much more than an adoring relish for the eyes.

“..As on the other islands, motorized vehicles – except service vehicles – are forbidden, so visitors explore the island by foot; by riding a bicycle or in horse-drawn phaeton carriages which function like taxi cabs..” (Ref)

“Every man goes down to his death bearing in his hands only that which he has given away,” says a Persian proverb. This video is something years old and in all probability chances are there that you might have come across it via forward messages, but this came to my mind out of nowhere while I was reading something. Let it stay on the archive : ) I’m easily taken by these thought provoking moving imagery! More on the way from the wonder crate soon. I’ve a collection of some of these which I found inspiring over several years and I shall try to share them here. God bless those beautiful souls who believe in giving either through service, craft or efforts and keep this world a bit more beautiful and nicer to be in. Giving is indeed the best communication.

Every child, at some point in his childhood would have some sort of a chest, where he/she would store his cherished memories and treasures. For some, it may be some crayon sticks, photographs or art which enthralled them, cut out from magazines (If you’re a 90s kid ; ) ), gifts from loved ones, toys and you name it. For some, this “wonder crate” would take the form a beautifully curated diary or hand made book where they put in all their special memories. I’m sure that each of us would have had some variant of this “wonder crate” at some point in our lives.

“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, ect. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.” – Hugh MacLeod

Being grown ups, if we don’t intentionally step out of the delirium of our routines and this chase of matters which won’t bring us any fulfillment,  exhausting ourselves in the process has become a novelty of the time we’re in. This would seriously axe the the childish curiosity within us. “After a while the middle-aged person who lives in her head begins to talk to her soul, the kid.”  [Anne Lamott, Joe Jones].  We often feel hesitant to release our inner child and let it roam free in the realm of the mind and that’d only foster creative pursuits.  May our inner world be beautified with inquisity and compassion. May Almighty bless you to have whatever you do being proliferated with lots of love and soul in it, be it your work, craft or anything that inspires you!

Wonder crate is usually always a secret for kids. They keep it to their own worlds safe in their cupboards or shelves .  The Border of a Mind is sort of my wonder crate which I’m inheriting you as my reader. It’s a small digital chest of my contemplations. God bless you : )