18 January 2007

THANK YOU

What a relief ! Its over.
Its was a painful subject. Took time to write the last post on Environment series, Which was the most painful of all the 13 posts. Thought of aborting it many times, I took refuge in the holidays and festivals that came in between, but finally decided to go through it. Never thought that it would take so long to write it.
SPEED 1 to 13 took more than four months.

Don't know how useful this series is, soon it will be forgotten and buried under new issues. But what made it interesting and useful was your contribution, without which this series had no life, no direction. I found myself defending my views on a couple of issues, but you contribution made me change my views on many. They opened my windows and brought in some fresh air.
Today I feel lot richer a lot healthier. Your contribution helped my vision, I began to see things with clarity.

Thank you so much for giving me a unique experience. Thank you for making me think. Thank you for opening my windows. There is more light and fresh air now.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

This sweet girl asked me to take a picture of her 'kammal' her ear ring. She was not afraid to ask
I said fine, took pictures and showed her pretty face on the small camera screen, she wasn't very pleased, I think she has better ideas, She is the future of this planet. I went to a few villages to see the harvest festival celeberations called MATTU PONGAL. Perhaps this ear ring is a result of a good harvest. Good harvest all over south India


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

BLUNT KNIFE
WILDPIC

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Rauf

I am sure I will be back to visit this series from time to time, not only for the photographs, but also for the passion, pain, wisdom, information, dedication and love you have shared for the topics you addressed and made me (us) richer for it.
Thank you also for your gift of time and for those moments you chose to continuo - as I know well, sometimes it becomes a daunting proposition to attempt contributing in fairness toward healthy change.

You are much loved dearest Rauf
Big hug

I hope this is not postong over and over... again

Anonymous said...

Rauf, thank you for the sweet comments on my blog. I've really enjoyed looking at your photos here. The timing is beautiful, because if everything in life went as planned I would be in India now, near Chennai. Of course, life does not work out as planned and I find myself in Portland. I feel, though, that I get a glimpse of the world through your photos and views. Love and light! -Emily

rauf said...

Don't know what is happening Ageldust. Looks like I have to shift to google soon. Don't feel like it.
I have to terminate this one and start a new blog as google is refusing to shift me, says your blog is too large to shift.

I received your comment just as I was shifting pictures of the little girl from Blunt knife to Dalight Again.

You know I am allergic to wisdom, intelligence and I am very allergic to the word 'enlightenment' I am afraid of getting struck by a lightning.
KABOOZ !! But I feel something fresh in me. Thanks to your and my other reader's contribution Angeldust.

Yes deleted three of your comments
Its OK now
I have to shift if readers find it difficult to post comments, they are so valuable to me Angeldust.
Lots of love and Hugs

rauf said...

Emily, How nice to see you here, Welcome to Daylight again. Your blog is simple and straight, I loved it. the whole idea of blogging is to communicate and to express your ideas which you are doing it so beautifully.

I saw how cold it is in Portland in your pictures. If you can't make it to India by mid February, I would advise you to postpone your visit to December or January next year. Lots of activity from September onwards. Harvest festivals at different parts of india, concerts of classical music and dance (December -January) Onam festival September, diwali, festival of lights in November. And my favourite, the migratory birds start coming here by the end of December, they stay here till the end of March. It gets too hot after that. Been to two bird sanctuaries already this year, going to some more on the 27th.
I'll give you more details if you need them. Thank you so much Emily, hope you are comfortable here.

Anonymous said...

hiyaa!!!it is real good!!the pics are awesome!!!and you asked about "why chennai..sob..sob.."..coz..i love mumbai more..and i find chennai a bit boring at times though i simply love evam!!!

Anonymous said...

It was not a happy experience to post, just came back to see if I managed one...

Big blog...? geezzzzz
You live l in a biiiig country, have maaaaany things to show and say...

Big hug Rauf dear

Anonymous said...

PS.:
It was OK now - maybe we were both on at the same time...?
Could that be the problem?

WHATEVER YOU DO - DO NOT LOOSE THESE BLOGS!!!! Please...

rauf said...

Hi vinay ! Absolutely, I love Bumbai too. Some friends came from Malaysia, They went on a shopping spree, they asked apart from temples what else do you have here ? I said EEEEEEEEE and scratched my yeddu, left side. I said EEEEEEEE yaggain and scratched my yeddu right side, AWWWWW then I scratched my beard both sides and I said there is nothing here. But there is some charm living here, a bit less chaotic perhaps.

Thank you so much for your visit Vinay.

Anonymous said...

This series has been a wonderful one! One I have enjoyed very much. I personally would like to thank you for taking the time and effort to do it. You have opened my eyes that is for sure.

((((Rauf)))) Thank you.

Mysti

Anonymous said...

shifting??? you mean we'll lose your pics??? aw man that's bad. Make sure I know where you've gone if n when you do.

Anonymous said...

discussion sure opens up a lot of paths...glad you have initiated so many discussions! fun to go thru your blogs...its daylight again!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Rauf, like your other visiters I have been very pleased to discuss your items which have great interest to me. Thank you so much.
And what lovely pictures of the little girl. I will use one of them for a Haiku on my page.
I'll be back another time. Edith.

Sonia said...

I believe you stumbled across my blog yesterday. And I came to see yours. Your pictures are marvelous, and more importantly you discuss issues that need to be addressed. The last time I went to India was when I was 11. Seven years ago. It is a place of great beauty...and also much pain.

Anonymous said...

that was a wonderful series and the very last post was gratifying.

a good harvest all over south india..thats great news to hear. after quite some years, right?

and that little girl IS sweet and mischievous, i guess :)

rauf said...

Mysti, hope the message gets across, thank you so much for your contribution right through the series. Its so valuable to me

rauf said...

Hi Angeldust, yes too many pictures perhaps. I have to give up this blog to shift, thats too painful for me. Let me carry on for some more time untill i am the only one left behind, then I'll have no other options but abandon this blog and start a fresh one.

love and Hugs Angeldust

rauf said...

Neil, don't thing I'll lose the pictures, This blog may be lying dormant perhaps until the blogger scraps it. Still not decided.
please give my love to Jax and Caz
hope everything is fine.

rauf said...

Yes MagicEye, its long time since I have posted any pleasant subject. Have to do it now. I tried not to make kick up any controversy. I have tried not to talk like a saint, I hate saints.We have too many of them. Debates made me rich and they oepened many paths as you have said. thank you so much MagicEye, I'll add your link today. Thank you so much for adding my link to your page.

rauf said...

Sure Edith, I am segregating my pictures under different subject, soon I'll have an album on flickr or photobucket so that my blog friends could use without seeking my permission. I'll do that in a week, before I travel on 27th.

Edith, Thank you so much for making this blog rich with your views right through the environmental series.

rauf said...

Edith, Your blog is very simple and very elegant.

All the best

rauf said...

Sonia, welcome to Daylight again.
I had the pleasure of visiting your blog just now, it is indeed a very pleasant experience.
I love my country Sonia, I know it is not a paradise, it has extremes.
please check my christmas post.
Next I'll be writing about indian Farmers which has long been pending. Thank you so much Sonia.

rauf said...

Thank you Mystic Rose, Oh How I love to thank every one individually. I am a man after all, a human, I could be wrong in many ways. Its always nice to hear a woman's view on the subject of environment. The response has been overwhelming. Your contribution added another dimention to the blog

Oh yes, good raains, good harvest all over south India. I would be posting pictures on South Indian farmers next.

L.L. Barkat said...

She is absolutely beautiful. How odd that she did not think so. What is it that makes us look at our beautiful selves and think, "not good enough"?

rauf said...

Mr. Barkath, I clicked her picture while she tappped her ear ring asking me to take a picture of it. Her mom was happy though

Anonymous said...

As always, your photo essays astound and delight.

Anonymous said...

Whenever I am sad or in a bad mood (frequently lately as the weather has been grim for weeks) I click onto your blogs. And as always, I am uplifted. As much as you rail against the injustices of the world, your love of it all shines through in your humour and what you capture through the lens.

THanks so much for your sharing your joy and your amazed astonishment at the foibles of your fellow creatures, whether human people or bird people or alligator people!

Anonymous said...

I've discovered your blog quite recently and am humbled by your amazing photos and admire your passion.
Sometimes it only takes one person to elevate many people's consciousness...

rauf said...

Always welcome Shamantra. Seasons that we enjoy pass very quickly and the seasons that we don't enjoy seem to last for ever.

SPEED the series on environment lasted one whole season. I never thought it would take 13 posts. New issues kept popping up. Reader's contributions made me think and gave me ideas on different subjects connected to environment. I am very thankful to them.

In a nutshell I have said that global warming is not a real threat and the environmentalists are barking at a wrong tree. Real threat comes from Genetic Engineering (genetically modified food) and the pile of weapons of mass destruction on which the human race is sitting now. I went in to the root causes of our present misery, dangers of creating artificial forests and how do we go about it.
There are no immediate solutions.
this planet is run and managed by the female species, only we the humans are male dominated which is against nature. No philosophies helped us to join the forces of nature, they only caused bloodshed and led us away from nature. To rectify the present mess, women should be given their rightful place in deciding our future.

Hope Joey is fine please give my love to her.

rauf said...

Welcome to 'daylight again' Isabella, that is a sweet profile picture you have there. I have read your comment's on Ruth's East Lancing page. You have excellent pictures on your Naples Florida page too. Please believe me I never knew about Naples in Florida.

Some times I have to raise unpleasant subjects Isabella, I do not enjoy writing about them, but these issues have to be addressed. We may think that we are a part of nature. Plant a few trees, grow flowers in our gardens, we think we are doing a big favour to the planet. All we have done from past four million years is to move away from nature. We don't realise that we are way too small to damage or save the planet. Nature heals itself of all the injuries we humans have caused. We do not know that nature has adapted itself to human folly and repairing itself. We have to leave it alone to heal itself and allow it to grow and not interfere in its growth. With the help of my readers these are the subjects i discussed in the 13 posts on environment titled SPEED

Thank you so much for your visit Isabella. I was encouraged by Ruth to start a daily picture blog of my City of Chennai, I have pictures to fill 2 years of blogging but I knew well that I will not be able to handle 3 blogs at a time, my other picture blog is 'Blunt Knife'

Thank you once again Isabella, hope you are doing fine and enjoying life, i see that on your page.

Leila said...

Now i regret not having been able to visit lately..
But I will look back.

Such a sweet girl, 'tis almost as though you can see the future reflected in her eyes

rauf said...

Yes when ever you get time Laila.
What I have discussed in 13 posts is, Human intelligence is taking us towards exctinction, We are no longer patient, it is the demand for speed which is leading us. There is no conclusive evidence that humans are the cause of global warming. Natural disasters like tsunami earthquakes storms cyclones tornados hurricanes have caused greater damage to the environment. With all our intelligence and knowledge we cannot stop such disasters from happening. We humans are too small to cause any damage, I explain how small we are. Nature heals itself if we don't interfere. I go on to say that the environmentalists are barking at a wrong tree(global warming) and it is a conspiracy to shift our attention from the real issue of genetic engineering and weapons of mass destruction which is a real threat to our survival. I accuse religions and philosophies which have taken us away from nature completely alienating us. I accuse philosophies and life styles like vegetarianism which don't help the nature one bit. i go into the root cause of the mess we are in. Male domination is against nature. Women should decide on our future.

my readers helped me a great deal with their contribution on different issues Laila. i am very thankful to them.

Anonymous said...

Dear Rauf, you're the only blogger I know who has taken any issue seriously enough to study it, develop a stance, concentrate and write several essays, and allow your passion to fill it all. Most of us bloggers speak off the top of our heads (because we are all so brilliant, right?), but you went a much more arduous path. You scoured your own mind for the truth and laid it out for us with well crafted words and photographs to help the "medicine go down." Each and every point you made, whether I agreed with it or not, made me do something slightly similar in my own mind, which is a true gift. But I never went to the extent you did, to look so closly and discover the truth. I wish I could say otherwise. As always, your blog opens me up to other ways of seeing the world's beauty and problems, but I have to do my own work if I am to do what you have done. Thank you for the gift of this model. I hope I will find the will and strength to study, think and discover the truth in such a thorough way.

Thank you for your last comment on ELDP. You've been a faithful visitor and friend there. Yes, there was a lot of pressure to keep up that daily practice. 100 days was enough! I'm glad to see Isabella stopped by. She is a sweetheart.

All my love.

Anonymous said...

hey excellent template and pics in the blog!

rauf said...

Dear Ruth, I am overwhelmed. Sometimes I regret angry outbursts. Sometimes I presented only one side of the coin. Writing 13 posts on environment was not a pleasant experience. Thanks to you and my readers for giving different dimensions to the blog. Without your contribution and views this blog is not complete. It was not a planned effort. Your contribution helped me change my views many times. This blog is a plain white wall Ruth, you splashed colours on it and made it interesting.

rauf said...

Ratna, hi, Welcome to Daylight again
Bunglooru ?
I designed the template to suit the series on environment I planned to write. Never knew it would take 13 posts and four months to complete. Thank you for stopping by.

Anonymous said...

Oh she is really gorgeous with her wee earing isn't she? I think you took lovely photos of her.

Hello Rauf, long time no see, I was terribly busy with a road trip and family obigations and lots of errands. I am now back at my desk and catching up with blog friends. I hope this greeting finds you well and happy!

Cheers,
Candy

rauf said...

Hi Candy, How you've been ?, yes its been a long time. Been thanking all my readers for their contribution. The series on environment took longer than expected. Many new issues popped up as I went along, never thought of them before.

Hope everything is fine Candy, Thanks so much for the greeting

Anonymous said...

Dear Rauf,

These photos are so professional. I didn't visit your blog since long time, and now found lots of new masterpieces from you :)
Keep posting!

I wish you a prosperious year!
Lyuba

chameli_ru

rauf said...

Thank you Lyuba, I am very passioante about it. I saw some lovely pictures in your blog too and the pictures you took in India are simply beautiful.

Wish you all the best for 2007 Lyuba.