A letter Ansel Adams, an icon of landscape photography, sent to his friend Cedric Wright on June 10, 1937
Dear Cedric,
A strange thing happened to me today. I saw a big thundercloud move down over Half Dome, and it was so big and clear and brilliant that it made me see many things that were drifting around inside of me; things that relate to those who are loved and those who are real friends.
For the first time I know what love is; what friends are; and what art should be.
Love is a seeking for a way of life; the way that cannot be followed alone; the resonance of all spiritual and physical things….
Friendship is another form of love — more passive perhaps, but full of the transmitting and acceptances of things like thunderclouds and grass and the clean granite of reality.
Art is both love and friendship and understanding: the desire to give. It is not charity, which is the giving of things. It is more than kindness, which is the giving of self. It is both the taking and giving of beauty, the turning out to the light of the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. It is a recreation on another plane of the realities of the world; the tragic and wonderful realities of earth and men, and of all the interrelations of these.
Trees and their stories have always fascinated me, and I admire great story tellers who tell the stories of some of the most magnificent trees on our planet. One such story is that of the Queen of Trees, the Sycomore Fig tree. I recently got to watch the evolutionary paradox and ecologically astound footprint of the Sycomore Fig tree through some excellent story telling in the documentary by filmmakers Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble.
It may be one of nature’s oddest couples: a tiny wasp that can barely be seen, and a giant fig tree, the sycomore, which shelters a remarkable menagerie of wildlife among its limbs. The wasp and the fig depend on each other for survival. Without the wasp, the tree could not pollinate its flowers and produce seeds. Without the fig, the wasp would have nowhere to lay its eggs.
You might be able to still catch this show on PBS or watch it on their website. This show definitely provides a great insight into the workings of the interrelationship between species, and in the end makes you wonder about what intelligence and workings at the cellular level makes all this possible at the evolutionary domain. Maybe recent studies at Rice University, about transfer of DNA between species by bacteria and viruses, might provide some answers to these questions.
Silent Valley, one of the treasures of Kerala, is a fascinating forest, deep in the Nilgiri’s. There is a perceived lack of noisy cicadas in this forest, and hence the name Silent Valley. Locally known as Sairandhrivanam, this small tract of forest is a wondrous creation of nature. Learn more about this enchanting forest through the following articles:
The core of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, the Silent Valley National Park is probably one of the most magnificent gifts of nature to mankind, a unique preserve of tropical rain forests in all its pristine glory with an almost unbroken ecological history.
- Department of Public Relations
Sequoia Semperviren (always green), a scientific name that sounds as grandiose as the great giants among trees, the Redwood Trees of California. I have always heard about them, only seen them in pictures, and some day I hope to see their immense presence, and contemplate on my insignificance and how little we still know. (more…)
I came across gabbly while on 24-7media forum , and had to try it out on this blog. So there is a new chat feature on the site using gabbly. I have also added a chat link to the main navigation. The feature will be evaluated for a month, and if it get’s used regularly I will make it a permanent feature.
Ignorant as I still am, I did not know anything about the Commonwealth until today. I was, at first, surprised when I read, “India picks three more gold”, but that surprise went poof after I read, India won 69 medals, including 30 gold, in the last Commonwealth Games in Manchester, in the same news article. (more…)
I am no Sudoku expert, but I thought it would be fun to have a little Sudoku Challenge. Play the Easy Level for Sunday March 12th, 2006, and post your time.
Rules:
1. You can start over as many times as you want.
2. Make sure hints are off.
3. Use pause only if you are not looking at the screen.
4. Post your time only for the easy level.
Play Now [Click on Play More Games, to get to the Sunday Game]
After seeing the response to the Aryan Invasion Theory post, I thought it would be a good idea to get some expert opinion on the issue. So I emailed Indian Historian, Dr. Nayanjot Lahiri, asking her if she would be interested in doing a blog interview on AIT, here is her response:
My schedule simply doesn’t permit this currently. Have to finish teaching and essay corrections!
All the best,
Nayanjot Lahiri
If we were to see things at the atomic level, what would the world look like? I began to think about this, after reading “Flaws of Perception” by Deepak Chopra, where he sheds light on how we function at the atomic level. It’s an interesting perceptive, to think in terms of the atoms, it’s the karma of those gazillion little pieces that we live and breathe, but what I am curious about is what the world and universe looks like at that level. (more…)
Trees and their stories have always fascinated me, and I admire great story tellers who tell the stories of some of the most magnificent trees on our planet. One such story is that of the 
Silent Valley, one of the treasures of Kerala, is a fascinating forest, deep in the 
Ignorant as I still am, I did not know anything about the 
