Pictures and no pictures…

Life serves us several memorable moments. We grab them… with our cameras, smart phones and through other lenses and recording devices.

Curse or blessing of our generation? 

At times however, just as we are struck by the wonder of the moment, we are startled to discover that we cannot capture it through a lens for posterity. Dismaying? Liberating?

All we can do then is to inhale the moment and its magic. No distractions. No lens. No pressure to capture it right. No pressure to capture the many dimension and layers and textures in one flat, single-dimensioned picture.

Just take it in. Allow the senses to flood with its magic… and then let it go…

Exactly what I tell myself standing under a never-ending, domed desert sky, bursting with stars in Rajasthan. Yes. Every star has come out to join the party. The sky sparkles endlessly in the wide black semicircle. The desert sand beneath glistens a lazy golden glimmer under the starlit sky. It awakens wonder. Much wonder.

There is only one thing to do. To drag the large reclining canvas chair outside the tent, recline back and hungrily take in the starlit sky. No photograph can possibly capture this magic. Nor do I need a flat single-dimensioned photograph to remember this starry desert sky. It is mine. It will remain in my mind, heart and perhaps even soul... forever... in all its brilliance.

Much as I love pictures, I understand they are only feeble reminders of the experience. I may smile at a picture in which my 10-year-old attempts to bury me in the desert sand. But I know it cannot capture the golden dunes and soft sand that feel cold to the surface, but are a flood of warmth beneath the cold as our feet and ankles sink in.

No picture can capture the inexplicable sensation in the stomach, when the camel on the safari, sinks knee deep in the sand. So many feet above, yet we feel the crumble of the sand beneath (or perhaps it is fear… hmm..).

The marble temple at Ranakpur in Rajasthan, set against the Aravali mountains inspires awe. Much awe. 1440 pillars. No two pillars alike. Each seems more beautifully carved than the one before. I pull out the camera and click away. No picture seems good enough. No picture seems to do justice to the magic. I wish for a better camera and lens. I wish to be a better photographer. I wish for some method to capture the serenity and mysticism and beauty. I realize I am chasing an impossible. So I decide to let go, put away the camera and take in the moment.

We are greeted by “No Photography” signs outside some ancient temples. Dismayed, I realize that I cannot capture the intricate details of ancient carvings in marble and stone. The knowledge makes me appreciate them better, observe them better. I see everything through my own two eyes, not through a lens. There seems a finality to the experience that lends it a value of its own.

There are over a thousand pictures of our week-long trip to Rajasthan. Yet there are many pictures that don’t exist (tangibly), but will continue to exist. True of travel. True of life.

The many images that photographs cannot capture may be the ones to hold on to... if memory allows...  

Temple at Ranakpur - a few photography attempts...