Dancing With the Flow of Time

By Bhaskar Majumdar

This is a book of poetry and images of the natural beauty that surrounds us and on the flow and rhythms of life. You will find reflections on nature, the environment, sustainability and the effects of climate change that disturbs and threatens our way of life. Experience the splendor of the Rocky Mountains, the magnificence of the Himalayas and the breathtaking beauty of the Great Barrier Reef. Travel to the Sundarbans in Bengal and experience life in the world's largest river delta. Spend some time in Venice at the confluence of history.

Find the poetry in our ordinary daily lives, which can be elevated to incredible heights when we connect with the consciousness of the universe. All knowledge is structured in the Consciousness which is part of universal energy. Consciousness flows into us dancing in tune with our individual vibrations and the jazz and rhythms of the incredible variety of life. We are a part of the energy fields that surround us; the energy of the sun, gravitation, magnetic fields and climatic forces. If we learn to synchronize ourselves with the energy that surrounds us, vibrate in unison, we can achieve mental and physical union with the forces that created us, the ultimate yoga.

So, why do we destroy the very forces that sustain us? Do we not realize that we are also a part of the same energy and life force? It is the universal force that manifests itself in the perfection of a flower, the shape of a fern leaf, in the formation of mountains or the brush strokes of beautiful coastlines washed by the oceans. There is rhythm and poetry in all that we see and experience in the short time that we dance on our beautiful planet. However, we still retain our animal consciousness. This leads to conflicts and ultimately their resolution led by people who have reached higher levels of consciousness. In this book, you will find significant events that changed the course of the world such as the fall of the Berlin Wall. You will find poetry on evolved beings such as musician George Harrison. Shortsighted greed, power games and mindless destruction of our natural treasures lead to our own atrophy and extinction. You will find reflections on such issues as corporate, personal and societal conflicts that can only be addressed through evolution to a higher level of consciousness. So, let us glide on the thermals and float into an exciting inner journey, compare thoughts and dance with the flow of time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Mar 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9780228826248

Bhaskar Majumdar

Bhaskar Majumdar was born in Calcutta (Kolkata), India and raised in a liberal atmosphere surrounded by music, art and literature, strongly influenced by the family of Tagores to which his mother and paternal grandmother belong. He loves mathematics as well as poetry. He trained as an economist at Presidency College, Calcutta and the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He obtained professional qualifications in management, banking and financial risk management from the Global Association of Risk Professionals and Wharton, University of Pennsylvania. He has worked in international banks for many years and this has given him opportunities to experience different cultures in the East, Middle East and the West. He is widely travelled and belongs to the group of people whose interests lie in a globalized world, its history and its cultural cauldron while retaining roots with the old country and new horizons in Canada.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

1.   Colors of the Sky

Lake Moraine (Banff, Rockies, Alberta, Canada)

Kanchenjunga (Eastern Himalayas, Sikkim, India)

Down The River Of Time

Dusk at Simms Park (Coonoor, India)

Pilgrims Of The Sky

The Otters of Tekkadi (Lutra Perspicillata - India smooth coated otter)

O Venezia

Coral Kingdom of the Sea (Great Barrier Reef, Australia)

When it Flows

Vibgyor

Valley of Flowers

2.   Chance Encounters

The Spell

Mariner of the Uncertain Flow

Wild Girl

The Path of Silence

Let Me Know

Something

Transcendence

Red Roses

3.   Inner eyes

Diamond Frames and You, Oh Innocence

Child of wild flowers

Eyes

Moonscape on Lake Ontario

Sound of the night

Kleinburg

Mundane

Play of the Seasons

Fall

Autumn Dreams

4.   The Uncertain Madness of Being

Monsoon Madness (As the rains spread through India)

Ocean to Sky

Time Revisited

Passing Shadow

Motion

Uncertain Winds

5.   Beyond reason

Where have the seasons gone?

Tonight At Dawn

Just Another Day (in the corporate jungle)

The Cloneaid Kids

The Empire of the Blind

Division Bells

Caress

Desert Heat

Athabasca

Nomad

The Boss

Transient

6.   Touched

Reflections

Blown by the storm

Into The Mist

Online with David Who

Himalayan Majesty

Silver Dust

Desert Storm

Phosphorescence

Sharing

Just Like You

Mountain Dew

7.   Chaos and shifting sands

The Wall (On the fall of the Berlin wall)

Et Tu?

Violence

Winter

Fake Smile

Fleeting Bliss

Community

Dark Web

Values

Fake News

Wild Fire

8.   The world is a Classroom

Touched by you (To my teachers)

Pioneers

The Infinity of Truth

The Web and I

Collective Journey (Out of Africa)

Stargazer

Flight

Beginnings

Queen Of The Dance Floor

9.   In death there is life

Ode to George Harrison

Crossings

In an Alien Land

Orion

The Red Sunset

10.   Life in different colors

Memories of Home

In Chains of Gold

Under The Spotlight

Melody of Changing Winds

Scars

Cosmic Man - A portrait of Einstein

Germination

Veil

Strength

Sahara

Mindful Hiker

Princess

Epilogue

Image Credits

About the Author

Illustrations

Nature Blooms

Melting Snows. Lake Moraine, Banff, Canada

Turquoise Blue Waters of Lake Moraine. Banff, Canada

Elks by the Lake. Rockies, Canada

Mt. Kanchenjunga. Himalayas. Sikkim, India

Morning in Darjeeling. Yoshida Hiroshi (1876 – 1950)

Himalayas. India

Seagulls. Cape Town, South Africa

Piazza San Marco. Venice, Italy

Gondolas. Venice, Italy

Great Barrier Reef. Australia

Maid of the Mist. Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

Valley of Flowers. Uttarakhand, India

Fall. Fort York, Canada

Flowers and leaves. Calcutta, India

First Appearance of Fall. Seaforth, Ontario, Canada

Bare on a bed of flowers. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

Rocky Mountains. Canada

Vancouver. British Columbia. Canada

Cabot Trail. Nova Scotia, Canada

Inner Eyes

Cape Breton. Nova Scotia, Atlantic Canada

Fall Colors. Ontario

Himalayan Flowers. Sikkim, India

Victoria Memorial during Monsoon. Calcutta, India

Ghats at Varanasi. River Ganga, India

Over the Clouds. Himalayas, Uttarakhand, India

Sundarbans – The Beautiful Forests, West Bengal India

Royal Bengal Tiger. Ranthambore, India

Royal Bengal Tiger. Sundarbans, India

Dolphins on River Ganga. India

Sunrise on River Ganga. India

Himalayan Orchids, Sikkim, India

Jackson Glacier. Montana, USA

Lake Huron. Bayfield, Ontario, Canada

Lake Huron at Grand Bend. Ontario, Canada

Desert Rain. Kuwait

Lake Minnewanka. Rockies, Canada

Flora. Calcutta, India

A walk on Puri Beach. Odisha, Bay of Bengal, India

Luminous Sea. Seychelles, Indian Ocean

Blossom. Calcutta, India

Fall of the Berlin Wall. Germany

Mont Tremblant. Quebec, Canada

Himalayan Flowers. Sikkim, India

Lake Ontario. Toronto, Canada

Oia, Santorini. Greece

Penguin and the Atlantic Ocean. Cape town, South Africa

Boatman on Chilka Lake. Odisha, India

Flowers and Butterfly

George Harrison in India, 1968

Boat on Puri Beach. Odisha, India

The Calm Waters of Cairns. Australia

Green Expanse

Africa meets the Indian Ocean. South Africa

White Orchids, Sikkim, India

Blue Waters. Santorini. Greece

Tree Climber. Bengal, India

Palms and Sky. Cape Town, South Africa

Fire in Her Soul. Painting. Oil on canvas (quadriptych). Artist - Aleena Majumdar

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Carolyn Gandouin of Sydney, Australia; a wonderful poet without whose inspiration, encouragement, comments and poetry slams, none of this would have been written.

To David Lee Simmons of Berkeley, California, for his poetry reviews, friendship, erudition and insights into universal spirituality beyond the boundaries of culture and religion.

To Dale Brabb of Oregon who positively redefines the art of literary criticism, injecting an element of fun and contributing to the community of poets; and to Mayne Vintinner of Maine, the mentor of poets, for spotting An Ode to George Harrison.

To Deepak Mukherjee of Calcutta, India, for his insightful comments and reviews, for his wisdom, his knowledge of philosophy, economics and literature that never ceases to amaze me.

To Pradip (Dipu) Roychowdhury of Calcutta, India for allowing me to include the piece In Alien Land written on his mother, the late Nora Roychowdhury and for passing on the reviews of Kanchenjunga from his friends in Darjeeling who permanently live under the glow of her Himalayan peaks.

To Aroon Sen for allowing me to dive into his portfolio of travel photographs.

To the late Professor P Lal of Writer’s Workshop, Calcutta for encouraging me to put my word creations into a book of poetry.

To my wife and friend Sreerupa for infecting me with some of her love for jazz and for putting up with me for spoiling weekends in pursuit of poetry; and for the realization that jazz and poetry mix rather well.

And to my daughters Aleena and Ishani for their encouragement when it seemed that the night would never end.

Foreword

Life never moves in a straight line. There are no straight lines in the universe unless manmade. Life flows like a river, rushing with the white water, slowing down, going round the bend, free falling like a waterfall and then widening its horizons on its journey to the sea.

In this shared journey we gasp at the beauty that we see in the patterns in nature. We fall in love. Did we meet by design or was it by chance? To me, life is all about probabilities and the decisions that we make when confronted with uncertainty which we have to deal with every step of our way.

Then, we sit quietly and contemplate. Our inner eyes discover ideas, thoughts and actions that we might not ever have dreamed about. There are currents