This is a blog post from
The past week has been an acrimonious one. From protests in an educational institution over "anti-national" dissent, to attacks on journalists by lawyers no less, the death of a legendary jurist, the icy death of an Indian soldier, violent agitation by the Jats, we have been inundated with news that is much too grave. So, how about chilling this Sunday with some aesthetic visuals and tapping into the levity and profundity that is available all around us?
Performance after circus performance, Merrylu Casselly and Jozsef Richter would pine as their hands and eyes met on the trapeze. The circus is a place for comedy. Not romance. But in a fairytale fit for a rom-com, Casselly and Richter, both circus performers, tied the knot on Valentine's Day, February 16, this year. Here, once they gave in to the elephant in the circus, they pose with an actual circus elephant during their wedding in front of Budapest's basilica on Valentine's Day in Budapest, Hungary. Acrobats don't lead a safe, stable life by any stretch of the imagination. But some guys go to any lengths, risking their life, just to get into the Guiness Book...
... like Norik Yajian here, who willfully allows a four-wheel car drive over his thoracic cage in Tbilisi, Georgia, on February 16. Some people don't care that their body is made of crushable bones. But it definitely is empowering to feel like you can withstand the pressure of a one-tonne vehicle. Especially when we, with our puny fragile bodies, the towering structures we build around us, and our propensity for bringing them crashing down, are forever at risk of being crushed fatally...
... like the girl found buried in the rubble of what was possibly her own home, after airstrikes carried out by pro-Syrian government forces destroyed several buildings and killed many in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria, on February 14.
But if you could be like water...
... you wouldn't feel a thing if a mountain fell on you. You're water. You flow around the objects placed in your way. You're placid.
Here, a crab-catcher boy seems like he has become the water, as his reflection forms a virtually pristine clone of him on the placid zen-like lake surface. But if you think lakes are all full of life-affirming peace, get a load of...
... all the dead fish found floating in Lake Maninjau, Indonesia, killed by high winds on Saturday, February 20. Being the fish in this particular pond can't have been that much fun. But when the water is your best friend...
... like this surfer-dude, it's a different story. Water can be turbulent, much like life. Life too calls for the kind of inner peace this surfer is experiencing. The water may roil, the waves may plummet and crash dangerously, the after-spray may cloud the air like thick blinding smoke, but if you know how to ride the turbulence, you know you'll survive. And have a heck of a lot of fun doing it. Because fun you should have, with life. You never know when it'll get all taken away...
... and leave you parched, high and dry. This existential dread is often what drives us to action. When faced with emptiness, parched for meaning and significance, we need something to draw solace from. For much of our materalistically-driven world, solace lies in chasing money and power. But others, who may not be privileged enough to successfully extract material wealth from the world, the world is literally an empty place, a void where the clock ticks unceasingly, a void which must be filled somehow...
... by the supernatural, perhaps. And religion ably fills that void. It gives us something to worship, in the hope that the worship will yield good fortune. Here, Hindu priests twirl incense lamps as they perform an "Aarti" ritual on the banks of Sangam — the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers — during the annual religious festival of Magh Mela in Allahabad, on Sunday, February 14.
What makes religion click?
Well, it sure offers the masses a panacea for all their ills and ailments. Like for the thousands pictured here, attending Pope Francis' Mass in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday, February 17. Religion, when practised effectively, serves to bring us together in a cohesive community. A community welded by the idea of god. A loving god, who is omnipresent albeit forever absent, who sends down a messenger, a representative, a saviour. This fortifying symbol of hope is often all we need to carry on in a world where...
... you can be driven from your home and then barred from entering a place of refuge. Here, a Palestinian woman cries as she asks for a travel permit to cross into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip, placed under blockade by neighbouring Israel, on Monday, February 15. It sounds outlandish and sentimental, given the socioeconomic reality that we live in, to want to wish war and conflict away. But you know, we can battle war with...
... powerfully pacifist gestures of peace and love. Like this Palestinian protester, who on Friday, February 19, is seen holding up a flower as he gestures to Israeli soldiers during clashes at a protest marking the 11th anniversary of their campaign against the controversial Israeli barrier, in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah.
War is often done in the name of a nation state. A conglomeration of people represented by a government. Now, if the government forgets that it represents, after all, people, then it may be left guarding and protecting a fortress in which it sits isolated...
... as pictured eloquently by this image of a lone Israeli border policeman, dwarfed by the walls of the very city he stands guard over. The dreary Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, seen on Wednesday, February 17, has witnessed violence over the past few days. Nothing much. Just a brutal attempted stabbing or two.
Now do you see how much more peaceable religion is than politics? How it bypasses and transcends conflict?
Or does it?
Well, to a degree, religion in its current form can be quite political. An institution as large and commanding as religion often runs into a rival called the authoritarian state. Each of the two adversaries, who both thrive on bringing as many people or resources under their domain of control, are often at loggerheads about the other's intereference in their operations. This sort of conflict is happening in India with the legal fight for administrative control over temple operations. In Thailand too, Buddhist monks are taking objection to state interference in religious affairs.
The above image shows a protest under way at a temple in Nakhon Pathom province on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday, February 15. The cause: to defeat the bid to overthrow the governing body of their religion. See? Sounds just as political as anything a politician might say, right? Sometimes, the only kind of conglomeration that is harmless is the gathering of civilians...
... in an atmosphere of gaiety and frivolity, where the only agenda is fun. The Nice Carnival, a traditional event that takes place annually in the French Riviera, dates back to the 13th Century, when Charles Anjou, the Count of Provenance, reportedly enjoyed "the joyous days of carnival". The 132nd Carnival of Nice is being held from February 13 to 28 and is themed on "King of Media".
There's something to be said for the power of the spectacle. How it mushes our face in the enchanting and distracts us from the negativity that swirls around us. Ah, the spectacle...
... the ogle-worthy, the drop-everything-and-gape mesmeric quality of something amazing. Here, a bespactacled and goggle-eyed pilot drinks in the sight of the South Korean Black Eagles aerobatics team performing a manoeuvre during an aerial display at the Singapore Airshow, on Thursday, February 18.
In the end, what is really worth ogling, worth cherishing and treasuring, is...
... the innocence of a newborn, before it is infected by the destructive contagion of decay and violence.
Here gurgles a Tujia baby, a descendant of China's 8th largest ethnic minority, a people that live in the hills. The 3-month-old girl is pictured next to her father as they wait for a traditional ethnic Tujia wedding feast during celebrations marking the Lunar New Year in Ziqiu town, in China's Hubei province.
Ogle away. Store the memory and hope it cleanses.
(Images courtesy Reuters)
