tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-245354522024-02-28T10:19:18.438-08:00BROWN TREE , ORANGE LEAVESLeaves of my life,
Glowing in the golden light
Of the afternoon sun.LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-87462990658012590292011-06-03T23:46:00.000-07:002013-07-14T11:38:20.809-07:00CELEBRATION OF 'KAMA' - LOVE - FROZEN IN STONE Part II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><u>NOTE OF WARNING </u></b>- <i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Those who are below 18 years of age OR dislike discussions on 'erotic' work of art in Hindu temples are requested to stay away from this Blog.</span></b></i><br />
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"></span></b></i> This portion of my blog is in continuation with Part I of the above, posted in przmm.blogspot.com. Since here I want to post photographs of explicit sex scenes - '<i>maithuna</i>' - I thought of choosing this 'umbrella' where I publish my blogs which are not fit for readers below 18 years of age.<br />
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Why do Hindu temples have acts of sex - <i>'maithuna'</i>- on the walls of their temples ? Some would say - Watch the scenes and wash them with devotion when in front of the deity inside 'GarbhaGriha'. Yet others would see 'Tantrik Yantra' beyond the acts of coitus. I believe, religious leaders , upto a point, believed the energy content of 'Kama' is important for devotees' lives. When we enter a temple's gate, we often find goddesses of rivers 'Ganga' and 'Yamuna' as well as 'Mithuna murty' - couples in amorous postures sculpted on the walls. These 'Mithuna murty' abound in the 'parikrama' all around . These 'Mithuna murty' were placed to make an impact on the viewers </div>
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'Maithuna' - acts of sex - are more 'into-your-face' than these 'Mithuna murty' . Here , we see erect genitals, acts of penetration, acts for other sexual stimulous , oral sex, even orgies. In SriMukhalingam, I found man entering woman from rear, cunnilingus and fellatio ! The last two may be a part of 'Tantrik' act or may have been depicted by instruction of the person/s who had the temple built.</div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">A complex positioning of a couple engaged in cunnilingus/fellatio. This looks like a part of a group ritual or act. LH side of Androgynous Siva.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Someswara temple,SriMukhalingam.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Man, his matted hair knotted like that of a woman, sits on a cot stark naked, spreading out his legs. One woman sits in between the legs and kneels to perform fellatio. Two persons - perhaps one a man and the other a woman - stand nearby . Time has ravaged man's erect phallus and his fondling right hand. </span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">LH side of Androgynous Siva.Someswara temple,SriMukhalingam.</span></b></div>
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In Hampi, on the door of Virupaksha temple, there is a customary sex scene - man taking on a woman - from the rear, same as that at SriMukhalingam temple.Both are crudely sculpted. I do not believe these wall-reliefs deserve a place in this blog. Nor the ravaged fellatio/cunnilingus wall-reliefs of Bheemeshwara temple at SriMukhalingam. If anyone doing serious work on this aspect of Hindu temples need the same, s/he may contact me through the space for comments.I would rather post a photo of a man lying prostrate on the lap of a woman, one of the four wall-reliefs with no act of explicit sex shown.</div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Man embraces woman sitting on a cot - a female attendant uses a large fan to keep the couple cool. </span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">One of four panels with 'social scenes' in SriMukhalingam temple. </span></b></div>
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Since I began my writings on Siva-the-icon and erotic scenes from temples I visited, at least two of my readers made such comments which made me feel that sexual energy of Siva's imagery and emphasis on 'Kama' by ancient temples' builders need be 'whitewashed' by a section of Hindu devotees. I am against this .Siva is a great ascetic to a big section of his devotees and I have no conflict with that. But, there is a tension between his ascetic-erotic imageries which should and need be recognised.</div>
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Ditto about the 'Mithana murty' and acts of 'maithuna' we find in Hindu temples. Some preach - '<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;"><i>all the carvings are on the outer walls of the temple, none inside the Garbhgriha. Simple message behind such carvings on stone is not celebration of "Kama" but displaying the subtle fact that in order to enter into the Garbhgriha or near the lotus feet of Lord Shiva, all erotic desires must be meted and shunned outside ones mind and heart'</i>.</span>I do not quite agree with this doctrine.May be the builders wanted just the reverse - devotee will offer prayer to his/her deity, then absorb the 'messages of fertility' these sculptures convey as s/he goes through the final 'parikrama' and carry home enhanced 'energy of fertility' ! 'Kama' - primal urge is, after all, one of the four religious practices of Hindus, together with 'Dharma' - religion, 'Artha' - money and 'Moksha' - salvation . </div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Divine Union under tree of life. God carries a long stem with a bud in his right hand which is raised above the couple's head. At SriMukhalingam, stem with bud is held in the right hand of woman in the scene (view</span></b> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-4Q5zbWtS55WIal_kXxcvlwuRl_QcdmasGrxfFMTHMAZuBO16HTo-SjuBCiLTnP_8YhjVURolgtIDSDHsztVfASm-JoM86xbw184ZYFqmHtCO4cT5eyvZMM3CBRaxUNxJ3o-/s1600/IMG_0381_aw.jpg">https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-4Q5zbWtS55WIal_kXxcvlwuRl_QcdmasGrxfFMTHMAZuBO16HTo-SjuBCiLTnP_8YhjVURolgtIDSDHsztVfASm-JoM86xbw184ZYFqmHtCO4cT5eyvZMM3CBRaxUNxJ3o-/s1600/IMG_0381_aw.jpg</a> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">in Part - I)</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"> Badami Cave. </span></b></div>
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The last photo of this post is from a small temple of Aihole. It is called Huchchimalli temple. The 'activity' shown in the panel may be an act of 'Tantra' or was made with a 'Yantra' hidden in the layout. It is no ordinary 'erotic' wall-relief. The pitchers have buds with different stems . Two hermits have extra-ordinarily long phallus. One lying on the ground has a normal erected phallus.Two naked women are ready to descend on him !!</div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">A complex depiction.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">From Huchchimalli temple,Aihole.</span></b></div>
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LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-54733815377704159222011-06-03T06:58:00.000-07:002011-06-03T06:58:32.489-07:00THIS AFTERNOON,EVERY AFTERNOON...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
OUR AFTERNOON SEX</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Look, I am hard and ready.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Your depth warm and wet,</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Smelling of unwashed semen,</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Open your thighs for me.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">You do not take me within you,</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">You do not rock with my rhythm.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">You do not grasp as I moan.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">You lie there why hating me?"</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This was a shop selling batteries,calling cards,small electrical items.The USP was the shop-keeper himself.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He is a shop-keeper.Sinewy.Intense eyes.Soft voice. His fingers deft... he was very good with repairs of watches and electrical gadgets.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">She his wife. Petite. Uneasy and averse to his touches.Assists her husband in the shop.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Their hours were peculiar......every afternoon, they would close the shop for 3 hours,: sex and siesta.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">One morning ,we did not find her in the shop. After tackling the regular busy hours in the morning, he left the shop with a sudden urgency while I, the only customer, was left waiting. He moved to the next-door lane with his cell-phone. I waited for 5-7 minutes ,but, his conversation did not seem to end. Irritated, I walked to next-door lane to find him flustered, his body tense and he was entreating his wife, over and over again, for afternoon sex. He was clearly having an erection .I could guess his wife was steadily refusing to have sex with him.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I penned my poem from the view point his wife .</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Postscript : He left home one early morning with another woman, leaving his wife behind.The community knew the reason.When he returned after months, he looked exhausted ,sad and very low. There was no reconciliation. The wife deserted the family.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">'His penis throbbing within me.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His hands squeezing my breasts.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">My juices pain me with shame.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His quiver overflowing too,</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His libido aches as it grow.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His chest heavy against mine.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His desire's rhythm fast and slow,</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Sucks me in, yet I am away.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His lips never meet mine.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His eyes unfocused and far.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His throbbing penis relentless ,</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His love caress me never.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He moans before falling quiet.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He leaves me unfulfilled yet.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His libido bruises my soul.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Fire around,prisoner in a hole.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It has been always like this like this ..</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Sweat,pushes,burn before release.</div>Our shameless afternoon sex.'</div>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-80536527285837529222010-01-14T10:43:00.000-08:002010-05-19T03:42:55.964-07:00THOSE NAKED ASCETICS - MELAS IN INDIA<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgju9mwLegPk2YwYFgtRo71VBeBH_2vHQ4koGCZll5DOthN28-JZKJImFAJVIsu1yF0IOtedPFDskUwotxbWigpcQ6g8GiIeC8Bi5WgwnZVzdRUNdrgScvvt2xCwyATbB5Rg7Zq/s1600-h/Km_10+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 302px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgju9mwLegPk2YwYFgtRo71VBeBH_2vHQ4koGCZll5DOthN28-JZKJImFAJVIsu1yF0IOtedPFDskUwotxbWigpcQ6g8GiIeC8Bi5WgwnZVzdRUNdrgScvvt2xCwyATbB5Rg7Zq/s320/Km_10+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428157216299725618" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is a very strong subject to write about. Naga sadhus are seen in a big group during melas where a dip and bathing are synonymous with cleansing of sins ! That brings into my mind a painting by my wife Ruby.... not of sadhus, but two ordinary souls. I asked her , have been clean of their sins.She replied : 'Decide yourself !'.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_0IoWapDEcnFPjfyrmm1kprZnurbwMyil03QtGjyhESYGxZZv7g5fExu6HLhszhKZaHq6vi5KNlOsQGfsiRgCOgS_BJKSHPEydiFKRuc9EIaAsf3TO5OFzc7hAAl-nkQKbcx/s1600-h/IMG_0968.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 215px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_0IoWapDEcnFPjfyrmm1kprZnurbwMyil03QtGjyhESYGxZZv7g5fExu6HLhszhKZaHq6vi5KNlOsQGfsiRgCOgS_BJKSHPEydiFKRuc9EIaAsf3TO5OFzc7hAAl-nkQKbcx/s320/IMG_0968.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428153546213814626" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Here is the picture I like most among the ones of 'Naga Sadhus ' in the Internet. The lean body of the sadhu wielding a stick to keep the 'herd' in a row has a body language and a glare that I just could not ignore.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5k1t6h-8d38u4fcNRcYBsfgYwQhsRQdBNAUr8klAKAqEKM9F0M4uOuCJAfjeeRnh5K4UukxqNEJ8UEfduaCSedC0pr3w89HohODPZkoRdf7RkK13JcAfOFkaViy9Ysackr49_/s1600-h/Ns_1_cw.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 652px; height: 272px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5k1t6h-8d38u4fcNRcYBsfgYwQhsRQdBNAUr8klAKAqEKM9F0M4uOuCJAfjeeRnh5K4UukxqNEJ8UEfduaCSedC0pr3w89HohODPZkoRdf7RkK13JcAfOFkaViy9Ysackr49_/s320/Ns_1_cw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426668341466947826" border="0" /></a><br />These naked ascetics are a great attraction of our 'Melas' to the professional photographers. They behave in a wildly manner in such 'melas'...... I have heard stories their being rude and cruel to those who would come in their route to the bathing 'ghat' when such congregations were less controlled during 1960s and 1970s.<br /><br />Even to-day, the going can be rough.I admire the photographers who catch such actions as seen here :<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIj6Le95LSH3CqoZgixsfGNJdA82qdeLrlc0bIm_AIRioJ72BGQ8umIAWMnPDndDvQItPtVoLuNRf_Abh6nohcjJlP2OS-y1g1nKomWDL7fQ0hwDoPHVVV1o4RhMjnjZgVOdK/s1600-h/Km_5_b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 278px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIj6Le95LSH3CqoZgixsfGNJdA82qdeLrlc0bIm_AIRioJ72BGQ8umIAWMnPDndDvQItPtVoLuNRf_Abh6nohcjJlP2OS-y1g1nKomWDL7fQ0hwDoPHVVV1o4RhMjnjZgVOdK/s320/Km_5_b.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427037882303945778" border="0" /></a><br />These photos in the internet give one hardly any chance to view the details of the faces and bodies of the naked ascetics. Some are young and lithe , others old and obese. These people have renounced clothes and their genitals are noticeably small.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieS5WxraCdlC9Kv5ibVKlbqakw0qTtKKGKkpWousbcXqdgEqukjgbx1Z_8MWm-yUbEWEWyQjkczO4UoEvLB6ldWijFJsFWiI7vx3JfPwoV1A3slooBF1bW4CQBlGspPxpwP100/s1600-h/Ns_4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 421px; height: 386px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieS5WxraCdlC9Kv5ibVKlbqakw0qTtKKGKkpWousbcXqdgEqukjgbx1Z_8MWm-yUbEWEWyQjkczO4UoEvLB6ldWijFJsFWiI7vx3JfPwoV1A3slooBF1bW4CQBlGspPxpwP100/s320/Ns_4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427047535397818082" border="0" /></a><br />I have three photos of these ascetics , when they are not among a crowd,.which deserve a place in this blog ! 1st one is that of a smoker... see the relief on his face. I do not know if the photographer was aware or not.... the nude ascetic's face does not have the aura of a renouncer!<br />It , in fact, has a harshness that attracted my notice before I selected and down-loaded the same for a mention in my blog. ( I thankfully acknowledge the photographer's posting this photo in the internet ) .<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcpaGsRtfXYWXlxEY_UyXZYD6Ja0_3ASZp1Hc8pMO_lCc8jq964pPoju5JVV4Y0CfxbVz1GDtFwiwHXJZuBFckugnF0jRzgNfm1wbfCwNCtWTCD1ruYe7m9WUBb0m4A3ZqNA9G/s1600-h/Ns_2_a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcpaGsRtfXYWXlxEY_UyXZYD6Ja0_3ASZp1Hc8pMO_lCc8jq964pPoju5JVV4Y0CfxbVz1GDtFwiwHXJZuBFckugnF0jRzgNfm1wbfCwNCtWTCD1ruYe7m9WUBb0m4A3ZqNA9G/s320/Ns_2_a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428163558308732786" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The next photo that caught my eyes may or may not belong to a sadhu as the upper part was framed... his eyes are glittering, intense and if one is facing this sadhu, it will not be easy to stare at his eyes for long !<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivhdraL5_Mob5jkS-V-9iKGKWIxLGlCsYg12vpiL02Zj7DamhSGuJWf4yxxnoED0Ec4X4ht2illDEuhXswjkY8s8BsZK4It-7jmyl-egV9e8qR6Exex_KcQSAPMkHu2DL_YKd1/s1600-h/Km_8aw.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivhdraL5_Mob5jkS-V-9iKGKWIxLGlCsYg12vpiL02Zj7DamhSGuJWf4yxxnoED0Ec4X4ht2illDEuhXswjkY8s8BsZK4It-7jmyl-egV9e8qR6Exex_KcQSAPMkHu2DL_YKd1/s320/Km_8aw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428147636092662594" border="0" /></a><br />The last photo is that of a boy, a young recruit .... the fear of unknown in his eyes ...... one day, perhaps, he will the stick-wielding sadhu like the one at the top of this blog.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheRwB06PZyVEbgl8b9SSiFcCE9AwnkvARoRU7GOKSR_itU4H-GPlZh0qughywT59WrdYhyphenhyphenZ31576MWThG6QejmgpWvlsGgGmamZcVeg_6JBKwgOKQuTWhFvjx1gMuphTi33vJ8/s1600-h/Km_10_5aw.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheRwB06PZyVEbgl8b9SSiFcCE9AwnkvARoRU7GOKSR_itU4H-GPlZh0qughywT59WrdYhyphenhyphenZ31576MWThG6QejmgpWvlsGgGmamZcVeg_6JBKwgOKQuTWhFvjx1gMuphTi33vJ8/s320/Km_10_5aw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428147644814173346" border="0" /></a><br />Note - I do NOT take any credit for these photos.That of the painting, as stated earlier, is by my wife Ruby Chatterji.The rest are down-loaded from the Internet and pasted here .<br /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Computer/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.png" alt="" />LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-90657573040574810112009-05-07T22:30:00.000-07:002010-01-14T04:45:52.662-08:00THIS AFTERNOON,EVERY AFTERNOONThis was a shop selling batteries, calling cards, small electrical items. The USP was the shop-keeper himself.<br />He is a shop-keeper. Sinewy. Intense eyes. Soft voice. His fingers deft and this shop's USP... he was very good with repairs of watches and electrical gadgets.<br />She his wife. Petite. Uneasy and averse to his touches. Assists her husband in the shop.Their business hours were peculiar......every afternoon, they would close the shop for 3 hours: lunch, sex and siesta.<br /><br />One morning , we did not find her in the shop. After tackling the regular busy hours in the morning, he left the shop with a sudden urgency while I, the only customer, was left waiting. He moved to the next-door lane with his cell-phone. I waited for 5-7 minutes , but, his conversation did not seem to end. Irritated, I walked to next-door lane to find him flustered, his body tense and he was entreating his wife ,over and over again, for afternoon sex. He was clearly having an erection .I could guess his wife was steadily refusing to have sex with him.<br /><br /><font style="font-weight: bold;">Postscript :</font><br />He left home one early morning with another woman, leaving his wife behind.The community knew the reason.The wife told my wife her story one evening , over a cup of tea, after closure of the shop.<br />He returned to his wife after 1 year.He looked exhausted , sad and very low. There was no reconciliation. The wife deserted the family.<br /><br /><br />This is what the wife would have felt, as her husband relieved his urge :<br /><br />His penis throbbing within me.<br /><br />His arousal rips me open .<br />His hands squeezing my breasts.<br />My juices pain me with shame.<br />His quiver overflowing too.<br /><br /><br />His erection aches as it grow.<br />His chest heavy against mine.<br />His desire's rhythm fast and slow.<br />Draws me close, yet distance away.<br /><br />His lips never meet mine.<br />His eyes unfocused and far.<br />His throbbing penis relentless .<br />His love caress me never.<br /><br />He moans before falling quiet.<br />He leaves me unfulfilled yet.<br />His libido bruises my soul.<br />Fire around, prisoner in a hole.<br /><br />It has been always like this like this ...<br />Sweat and push, burn before release.<br />Our loveless afternoon sex.<br /><br /><font style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></font>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-41414971907987950282007-08-13T11:24:00.000-07:002007-08-13T11:32:22.991-07:00ALL THAT I WANTED<div align="right"><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;"><em><strong>I wanted someone to take me to the roof,<br />Of a tall building,<br />A clear navy blue sky, stars shining,<br />Show me the constellations one-by-one...<br />Down below,cars whizzing past,<br />Tail lamps glowing in the distance..</strong></em></span></div><div align="right"><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;"><em><strong>.<br />I wanted someone to accompany me to a lake,<br />A winter morning,crisp , clear sky,<br />Birds chirping,swirls on the water,<br />We glued to our binoculars,<br />Tell me about the birds I have never seen earlier,<br />Romance of the distance the birds carry in their relentless wings.....</strong></em></span></div><div align="right"><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;"><em><strong><br />I wanted someone to play her violin,<br />A quiet afternoon,<br />Play a cheerful raga ,and then another,<br />Tell me how to tune my ears.</strong></em></span></div><div align="right"><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;"><em><strong><br />In turn,<br />I shall tell her to read the unknown poems<br />Of Jibananda,Shankha Ghosh,<br />Explain the imagery,<br />Flavour of words,<br />Spreading throu' ether..............</strong></em></span></div>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1164654967199942642006-11-27T11:11:00.000-08:002007-01-04T11:02:08.300-08:00IN OUR MIND<strong><em><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" >Sin in my mind,</span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" >I want to rip open the silence,</span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" >The veneer of smile.</span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" ></span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" >The intestine , bruised and ugly,</span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" >Symbolic of the suffering</span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" >Our soul undergoes.</span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" ></span></em></strong>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1153388781483795292006-07-20T02:31:00.000-07:002010-01-16T21:10:07.976-08:00AN EXPRESSION _ HIS FAR AWAY LOOK<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><strong><em>Often I find photos and paintings of male models </em></strong></span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/saior_nude.jpg"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><strong><em><img style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; float: right;" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/saior_nude.jpg" border="0" /></em></strong></span></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><strong><em>which carries an expression. Sadness, strength,<br />flaunting his manhood, shyness and .....most importantly,<br />his sextuality.<br /><br />When one sees more minutely, one will find that<br />these expressions are expressed through postures,<br />body languages.<br /><br />Where is body language is not eloquent enough ,<br />the model appears stiff. Western photographers<br />uses a kind of 'dead pan' expression... male models'<br />eyes rarely speak.<br /><br />See how this photo ( this is not a painting , but a photo ,<br />treated through PHOTOSHOP). The posture gives the<br />'sailor' a far-away look<br /><br />He will be centre of my collage " CHAND SAUDAGAR".<br /><br /></em></strong></span>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1153298201005699172006-07-19T01:29:00.000-07:002008-09-10T00:35:19.342-07:00WHAT DOES THIS COLLAGE TELL US ?<span style=";font-family:courier new;font-size:130%;" ><strong>WELL, I am writing this page 2nd time!!</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>What this COLLAGE tell us ?</strong></span><br /><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Man walks into shadow.</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >He would not know what awaits him. </span></strong><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Shelter, respite or a tunnel downhill.</span></strong><br /><p><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/Spirit%20and%20the%20weed.0.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Darkness envelopes him... his manhood.</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Weeds tie him down.</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Can he emerge into light again ?</span></strong> </p><p><span style=";font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;" ><strong>Well...I have drawn this collage with optimism. He emerges </strong></span><span style=";font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;" ><strong>out of the tunnel !</strong></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;" ><strong></strong></span> </p><p><span style=";font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;" ><strong>PS dt 17/9/06: Yes , he emerged in the sunlit valley.</strong></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;" ><strong></strong></span></p><p><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ></span></p>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1152608321736422782006-07-11T01:33:00.000-07:002010-01-16T21:12:44.591-08:00RISEMan gets up as the sun sends his first ray of light to the earth<br />Man gets up among chirping birds<br />Man gets up among blossoms<br />Man gets up among stream of consciousness<br /><br />Man hides behind smoke<br />Man hides behind dark clouds<br />Man hides under his mentor's shadow<br />Man hides within his ego's cover<br /><br />Hey Man ,rise, face life , ........ why , oh why would you hide!!LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1151122719110158402006-06-23T21:03:00.000-07:002006-06-23T21:18:39.120-07:00OH! MY 59th BIRTHDAY<div align="right"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;">It is great to be 59 !</span></strong></div><div align="right"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"></span></strong> </div><div align="right"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;">I am older, memory reduced, stomach is not so strong anymore, sexual appetite all but gone .... but , still I feel it is good to be 59.</span></strong></div><div align="right"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"></span></strong> </div><div align="right"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;">I am secure financially. Health is ok. And , very importantly, mind is clearer.Pryanam is paying off.I do not have to work for than two years. Finally, I shall get time to enjoy the luxury of spending time and money for myself.</span></strong></div><div align="right"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"></span></strong> </div><div align="right"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;">I have to now prepare myself for a planned after-retirement pastime so that the experience enriches me.</span></strong></div><div align="right"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"></span></strong> </div><div align="right"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;">And..</span></strong> <em><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;color:#ff6600;"><strong>gagane anantalok jage dheere dheere...</strong></span></em></div>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1149971772307887692006-06-10T13:11:00.000-07:002006-07-19T05:28:28.956-07:00The Photographs I collected for 'ROUGECLASSICISM'<strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#663300;"><em>I have downloaded the photographs from internet sites to complete the presentation of 'Rogueclassicm'.It took considerable efforts including 'internet-hunting'. I enjoyed the excercise . These materials, together with some more articles/extracts ,can be a good reference/read.</em></span></strong><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><strong><span style="color:#330099;">1. Antonious.</span></strong><br /><br /></span><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#663300;"></span></em></strong><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/antinous.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/antinous.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/antinous_2.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/antinous_2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;color:#330099;"><strong>2.Polykletios :</strong></span><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/Doryphoros3.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/Doryphoros3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/polykletios.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/polykletios.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#000066;">3. Burt Lancaster :</span></strong> <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/burt%20lancaster.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/burt%20lancaster.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#000066;"></span></strong><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/Burt-Lancaster-Deborah_Kerr.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/Burt-Lancaster-Deborah_Kerr.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#000066;">4. THONGS :</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#000066;"></span></strong><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/kelvinklein_2.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/kelvinklein_2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><strong><em>................. AND , THE NEXT ONE IS ...........WELL NOT SHOWING THE PRODUCT , BUT ITS ABSENCE!!<br /></em></strong></span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/kelvinklein_1.jpg"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><strong><em><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/kelvinklein_1.jpg" border="0" /></em></strong></span></a>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1147855335765417232006-05-17T01:35:00.000-07:002012-10-05T11:21:47.007-07:00Rogueclassicism ** Interesting essay from The Guardian<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.atrium-media.com/rogueclassicism//index.html">rogueclassicism</a><br />
quidquid bene dictum est ab ullo, meum est ~ Seneca<br />
<a href="http://www.atrium-media.com/rogueclassicism//Posts/00003182.html">The Greek Nude</a><br />
Interesting essay from the <a href="http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1727355,00.html" target="_blank">Guardian</a>:<br />
<br />
<img alt="" border="0" height="395" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/canovanapoleon.1.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 268px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 180px;" width="180" /><br /><br />The Duke of Wellington saw Napoleon naked every day. The perfect muscular chest of his former enemy must have become, over time, as familiar to him as his own ageing flesh. Antonio Canova's nude colossus of Napoleon Bonaparte stands to this day in the spiralling stairwell of No 1 London, the house at Hyde Park Corner that belonged to the general who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. In Apsley House you can still see the Duke's art collection - the equestrian portrait by Goya and early paintings by Velázquez. And you can see the godlike Napoleon, presented to Wellington by a grateful nation as a joke on the defeated French emperor.<br />
Napoleon himself commissioned Canova's statue. He was proud to secure the services of the Venetian sculptor who was renowned across Europe as an exponent of neoclassicism, the style that aspired to recreate not just the appearance of ancient Greek art but its ethos - "the Greek ideal". In Rome in the 18th century, the German scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann had shown that most of the statuary to be seen in the great collections - of the Farnese family, the Duke of Tuscany or even in the Vatican - was mere Roman hackwork, a copy of Greek art whose originals were purer and nobler. He identified what he claimed was the true character of the best, or "classical", ancient Greek art. At its moral heart stood the nude male body: the body of Apollo, of the athlete, the soldier, the citizen.<br />
Napoleon might have done well to read what Joshua Reynolds, theorist as well as painter, had to say on the subject in his Discourses: Greek statesmen were idealistic enough to have themselves portrayed naked, he wrote, but moderns lacked that innocence. Even in France, where the paintings of David had given a classical authority to revolution, a naked statue of Napoleon was going too far.<br />
Today, probably nothing so alienates us from the high art of the European past as its most prestigious subject - the male nude. Visit any old European museum, from Naples to Bloomsbury, and they have more marble statues of disrobed gods and heroes than they can reasonably display. Once these nudes were considered the apex of European culture. Today we don't really know what to do with them, and the reason for this was anticipated when parliament presented Canova's Napoleon to the Duke of Wellington as a ludicrous example of imperial art. Let's face it: the male nude is embarrassing.<br />
Centuries of European artists and art lovers depicted and looked at naked men in what was supposedly a disinterested and entirely cerebral way, as the embodiment of an athletic, spiritual and even political ideal. This purportedly had nothing to do with sex. But it is impossible for us to accept that nude images can be asexual, so it is impossible for us to take seriously this lost aesthetic.<br />
And yet we're more neoclassical than we think we are. To see this, you have only to open a fashion magazine. In fashion in the past few years, the male nude has been re-exposed. Think Calvin Klein underwear or Gucci and, most of all, consider a current advertising campaign for Dolce & Gabbana, in which young men stand around in a straw-spattered photographer's studio while an older man - the artist figure - directs the scene: in each image, nudity is at the tense heart of a visual drama involving a body splayed naked on the ground, or posed with legs cocked as if astride someone.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/dolce-gabbana_uomo_ss2006_005.0.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/dolce-gabbana_uomo_ss2006_005.jpg" style="cursor: hand;" /></a> <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/caravaggio_st_paul.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/caravaggio_st_paul.jpg" style="cursor: hand; height: 320px; width: 272px;" width="183" /></a><br /><br />These photographs quote Caravaggio, of course. Caravaggio is the one master of the male body with whom our culture feels happy, because we know he's in on the joke. He is clearly not an artist of the "ideal", not a noble and disinterested celebrant of the muscular stomach. In his painting of Bacchus, in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the god of wine is a Roman street urchin with black eyes and black - apparently made-up - eyebrows, looking back at you as you contemplate a chest pale as marble: a statue come to dangerous life. Bacchus proffers a glass of blood-red wine and, as its surface ripples, Caravaggio acknowledges the sensuality disavowed by the collections of nudes in Roman cardinals' palaces.<br />
The Dolce & Gabbana ads cite Caravaggio, a painter whose memory was almost entirely suppressed in the 18th and 19th centuries when the "Greek ideal" of the male nude was at its loftiest. Yet look closer and these images offer a key - or rather Caravaggio offers a key - to the classical tradition of the nude. Take the curious pose of the model with his legs apart, as if straddling someone. It echoes Caravaggio's Victorious Cupid, his most unambiguous image of the god of love as a street kid wearing black wings, crushing learning, art and culture beneath his foot. Yet his painting is itself a quotation: the boy stretches and strains to achieve the pose of the young man bestriding an older man in Michelangelo's sculpture Victory. With Victorious Cupid, Caravaggio slyly mocks the biography written by Michelangelo's pupil Condivi in the 16th century, which claims that the great man's lifelong love of the male body was purely Platonic.But,it is homage too.<br />
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/CaravaggioVictoriousCupid.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/CaravaggioVictoriousCupid.jpg" style="cursor: hand;" /></a><br />
<br />
We like to think of the past as an icy monolith - as cold as Canova - from which we romantically escape.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/canova.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/canova.jpg" style="cursor: hand;" /></a><br />
<br />
In reality, it is as full of tensions as a torso sculpted by Michelangelo. And the fact is, sex never was very far from the art of the male nude.<br />
In the entrance hall of the British Museum, a vast, monumental staircase ascends to a landing whose empty expanse sets off a single masterpiece of classical sculpture: the Discus Thrower. Chest at an angle, sides creased in the moment before hurling his flat disc, this Olympic athlete is the poised epitome of the Greek ideal. And yet, like the vast majority of the works by which we know classical Greek art, this is a Roman copy. It belonged to the emperor Hadrian and comes from his villa at Tivoli, near Rome.<br />
Only in the rare originals that survive of Greek art - paintings on vases, a handful of bronze statues, the Elgin marbles - can we know Greek images of nudity directly. Mostly, we encounter this art through Roman collectors for whom it was already experienced at one remove. Romans displayed Greek nudes, but thought of them as exotic; they themselves would usually pose in armour.<br />
The most passionate Roman collector of Greek art was Hadrian, who enjoyed not just Greek art but Greek love. His fascination with Greek culture was inseparable from his cult of his male lover, Antinous.<br />
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/antinous_large.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="266" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/antinous_large.jpg" style="cursor: hand; height: 357px; width: 256px;" width="256" /></a><br />
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/discusthrower.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="374" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/discusthrower.jpg" style="cursor: hand;" width="184" /></a><br />
It would be so easy to "deconstruct" the tradition of the male nude by telling stories like this: in the British Museum, the Discus Thrower arcs in smooth motion, the quintessence of an athletic ideal worshipped by Victorian men who aspired to be physical specimens worthy to rule an empire - yet this pristine example of the classical body was, in reality, used by the emperor Hadrian as part of a personal homosexual cult.<br />
The deconstruction, however, is redundant. Such ironies never were lost on the artists and intellectuals who revived the Greek nude, again and again, across millennia - not on the Romans, nor on Renaissance artists, nor on Winckelmann, who died, it was said, in a homosexual encounter. How could anyone miss the reality of what Greek art was? Sex between men was endorsed by naked sports, all-male dinner parties and the comradeship of citizen armies. The Greek appetite for portraying the naked male body was a direct expression of a culture we would call homoerotic. The complexity comes when later Europeans emulate the Greek nude.<br />
The question is - why did they want to? Why did European artists, again and again, turn to the classical depiction of the male body that had reached its apogee in Athens and other Greek city states in the 5th century BC, not merely as one interesting artistic theme, but as the single most serious subject in art? It was because the Greeks turned the body into philosophy.Look at Greek depictions of the masculine figure and you soon see how regular, systematic and abstract they are: look at a nude torso painted on an Athenian vase, the black lines that define pectoral muscles with a crisp idealism. The same bold summary of the way a man's body should look - rather than any attempt to convey how a specific one looks - gives Greek statues a noble unreality. <br />
If you had to find a modern analogy for the oval definition of the groin in a statue by the 5th-century BC sculptor Polykleitos, it would not be any real body, but Action Man. <br />
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/polykletios.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/200/polykletios.jpg" style="cursor: hand;" /></a><br />
This insistence on the true and permanent "ideal" body parallels the Greek philosophers and scientists, from Pythagoras to Plato, who sought the truth beyond visible appearances.The Canon of Polykleitos - a book in which he analyses the correct proportions of the body - is lost, but the belief in a set of ideal proportions for the head, torso and limbs of a man survived into the Renaissance in the writings of the Roman architectural theorist Vitruvius. In the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci drew his famous diagram of "Vitruvian man", arms and legs spread in a star shape, revealing that he fits inside a geometrical figure: there is a secret geometry in the human design.<br />
Suddenly we can see, after all, what artists and art lovers in the past so revered about Greek statues and what they were talking about when they spoke of a classical ideal. They weren't just covering up unacknowledged desires. Leonardo's Vitruvian man does not strike us as erotic at all, but cosmological. The star shape the man assumes makes us see humanity on a mind-expanding, astral scale.<br />
The strain - and it has been highly productive - in depicting the nude comes when it is revived by cultures nothing like as relaxed about the male body as Greece had been. The Greeks were well aware of the potential dangers of nude art - but this worried them only when it came to portraying women nude. When Praxiteles sculpted a fully naked Aphrodite, it was a sensational event. Pliny the Elder reports that visitors to her shrine couldn't contain themselves, and the stains of one man's encounter with the statue could still be seen in his day.<br />
In Renaissance Italy, Plato's writings, in which male desire for men is a noble part of philosophical culture, were translated and revered, yet this was, nevertheless, a Christian society in which you could be burned for sodomy. Instead of making Renaissance artists timid before the male nude, the added frisson of sinfulness and punishment seemed to incite them.<br />
Excitement still hangs in the air, like a fierce perfume, around Donatello's David in the Bargello Museum, Florence. This was a revolutionary work when it was cast in bronze in the middle of the 15th century, and it lives to this day as a confounding image. David wears leg armour that sets off his nudity. His buttocks are emphasised. The bronze of an adolescent, hand on hip, huge sword in his hand, is mounted on marble and you walk right around him, painfully aware of the sensuality of the polished metal.<br />
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/donatellodavid.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/donatellodavid.jpg" style="cursor: hand;" /></a><br />
The reason this is a far more troubling object - challenging you to account for your own response, whatever you think your sexuality is - has to do with style. Greek athletes are abstract. Donatello's David is vividly and unmistakably studied from a living model: instead of being regularised in Action Man contours, his body is supple and animated, a real body, from bellybutton to kneecaps.<br />
Donatello's nude stood in the courtyard of the Medici Palace, announcing the spectacular return of the nude to art after a millennium of Christian guilt. Its naturalism inaugurates a completely new cult of the nude that takes inspiration from the classical ideal yet is aggressively realistic. This earthiness gives the Renaissance nude a passionate charge. Italian Renaissance art, as was once said of Burt Lancaster, is neither homosexual nor heterosexual but sexual, period. And this hypersexuality is intensified by Christian fear.<br />
Renaissance nudes meet that fear with violence, as if punishing the male body to chastise the sin of looking at it: Saint Sebastian is a favourite - speared by arrows. And Christ crucified. In Caravaggio's Deposition in the Vatican, the naked flesh of Jesus is lowered into the tomb. The nude has become unheroic, pitiful, and human.<br />
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/caravaggio"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/200/caravaggio%27s%20deposition.jpg" style="cursor: hand;" /></a><br />
In one of Steven Meisel's photographs for Dolce & Gabbana, a naked man lies on the floor as if hurled down. In fact, this nude is taken from Caravaggio's painting of the conversion of Saint Paul, in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, the saint thrown on to his back by the force of divine truth. In the Dolce & Gabbana ad, this image of anguish and revelation becomes more provocative than harrowing. The tensions that were so creative in Renaissance art fade.<br />
The modern urge to define and map sexuality, to make knowledge of sex specific and categorical in a way it simply was not for Donatello, may have made us happier. It has not made us more imaginative. The unresolved way in which previous centuries contemplated the male body produced (to quote Orson Welles in a different context) "Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance". What have we produced? The thong<br />
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/dolce-gabbana_uomo_ss2006_012.0.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/dolce-gabbana_uomo_ss2006_012.0.jpg" style="cursor: hand;" /></a><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/gabbana07.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/gabbana07.jpg" style="cursor: hand;" /></a><br />
<b><i><span style="color: #333399;">NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT : I thank the persons who noted this article and took the trouble to post the same in their blog/s.</span></i></b></div>
LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1147019988778431042006-05-07T08:59:00.000-07:002006-05-07T09:41:52.896-07:00CROATIA !!<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 0, 0); font-style: italic;">Anurag More works in Croatia. First time I came accross someone who lives in Croatia. I have invited him to send a few photographs and details of C.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 0, 0); font-style: italic;">Internet tells me : Croatia is on Adriatic sea,shares boundary with Bosnia! and Hungary, has 4.5m people and per capita GDP is $ 11,500 .Predominantly Roman catholic. 1.6 child/woman. Presidentia/paliamentary democracy. earthquake is the natural hazard. transit point for drug traffic to Western Europe.</span></div>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1146938450680210692006-05-06T10:59:00.000-07:002006-05-06T11:02:13.216-07:00A QUOTE I FOUND ON SOEB FATHEHI's RYZE PAGE & LIKED VERY MUCH<big style="color: rgb(250, 1, 1);"><big style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial unicode ms;"><big style="color: rgb(10, 100, 10);"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"> "The best thing for being sad", replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That is the only thing which never fails. You may grow old and lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then - to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you." </span><br /></big></big></big>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1146461856404694402006-04-30T22:33:00.000-07:002006-05-01T05:45:54.100-07:00MEDITATING<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/meditation_1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/meditation_1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:180%;">MAN meditates<br />Enveloped in dark shadows,<br />Tranquill....<br />Far away from him<br />Lies the turmoil of his soul.</span><br /></span></span></span></span>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1146284803910471532006-04-28T21:24:00.000-07:002006-05-29T01:26:49.823-07:00The test aheadThe soul is under threat.<br /><br />the world beacons him.<br />a positive force.<br /><br />the cavemen have not forgotten him either.<br />they will not let him go.<br />at least, not so easily.<br /><br />beautiful sin beacons him too<br />as the hidden rottings get healed.<br /><br />the test ahead!LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1145686690407316942006-04-21T23:08:00.000-07:002006-06-10T13:41:42.593-07:00Behula's Dance<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/behula_2_c.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/behula_2_c.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />I want to make a series of collages on <em><strong>Chand Sadagar</strong></em> . Behula's Dance is my first collage.LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1145045061257362122006-04-14T12:55:00.000-07:002006-04-30T13:19:51.530-07:00aj poila baishak - 1413/ innocence lost<span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><strong>yes. the sun will rise in a few hours - the day-break will usher in a new year (1413)</strong></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><strong>for us , the bengalis.</strong></span><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">will it bring in new hopes for the family ? new directions ? shall we get back the lost values ?</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">whatever happens , our 'innocence ----> trust' is lost. wound may heal - scar will be there. </span></strong>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24535452.post-1143030274882233072006-03-22T04:22:00.000-08:002006-07-20T02:22:23.826-07:00ORANGE LEAVES<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/1600/orange%20leaves.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7258/2544/320/orange%20leaves.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;color:#ff6600;"><em><strong>To-day is the first day for sandesh06.<br />Shall come back</strong></em></span>LET US STAY CONNECTEDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03889631483193335091noreply@blogger.com0