Celestial Evening

Sometimes, Mother Nature plays out her best compositions in front of us. If we are lucky enough to grab that moment, the satisfaction derived is priceless. These photographs are some of those where I was there at the right moment.

 It was a rather mundane long drive home from work, in the hustle and bustle of Bangalore. The summer has brought its fair sweltering heat, and all that I wanted was to reach home and head for a cold refreshing shower. While commuting in Bangalore, one needs to have a tremendous amount of patience, owing to delays of all kinds. So there I was sitting in the cab, for my nearly ninety-minute ride home, going through moments of humming and frowning from time to time. Then somewhere in-between, I had drooped off to slumber. The heat had gotten to me. I must have slept for some time before I got up with a jerk, thanks to an invisible pothole. Getting my bearings after a moment, I looked out of the window and there high above was this master painting against the blue canvas

It was a moment of sheer joy, looking up at the sky. I remember saying “wow” in my mind at that moment. Though it was a blazing summer evening, the sunlight, the clouds and the blue sky were so perfectly intertwined. As the car drove on, I seemed to enjoy the hues above. My slumber was all gone. Further down the road, Mother Nature seemed to offer me another painting. This time it was a  blend of the Celestial and the Terrestrial. In one frame, the upper half had the magic of the heavens and the lower, man’s incredible feat of engineering. The building in the foreground houses the offices of the Government of  Karnataka. Known as the “Vikas Soudha” or Development Edifice (translated to English) is a replica of the “Vidhan Soudha”-the seat of the Karnataka Government. The original building was built in the year 1952.

On that warm summer evening, Mother Nature had brought a smile to my lips. I am glad she had woken me up from my slumber.