The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
Mumbai’s beaches . The first word that comes to mind when we think of them, sadly, is ‘filth’. Over the years, we have so got used to seeing our beaches in a mess, that we rarely give a thought to the marine life teeming there. Our eyes were opened to the incredible marine bio-diversity of Girgaum Chowpatty, (more popularly called Chowpatty Beach), when we recently went on a walk with Marine Life of Mumbai and INatureWatch Foundation . Over the last few weeks, I have racked my mind about what to write about our experience, but I have finally decided to cut out the words, and show you instead, through my photographs, the incredible life that manages to survive despite all odds…. Shells are everywhere , which is not surprising. But what is surprising is the fact that each of them, small and big, have creatures within them – the molluscs whose natural homes these are, as well as hermit crabs , which occupy them once they are abandoned. Hermit crab in spiral shell ...