A Health Warning?

Photograph taken in Tsomoriri, Ladakh.
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Smoke Enlightened

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Picture taken in Ooty, Tamil Nadu

The Leaf Sweeper

A leaf sweeper fixes his broom.
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Picture of the leaf-sweeper beside a pile of burning leaves, taken in Fort Cochin .

Smokescreened

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The road-side burning of leaves and rubbish at times creates swirling, white curtains of damasked smoke.

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Through which cyclists and walkers pass

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Beneath the Rain Trees’ ancient boughs.

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Ombra mai fu

 

Tender and beautiful fronds

of my beloved plane tree,

let Fate smile upon you.

May thunder, lightning, and storms

never bother your dear peace,

nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.

 

A shade there never was,

of any plant,

dearer and more lovely,

or more sweet.

From Handel’s “Serse“

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Smoke

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Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird,

Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight,

Lark without song, and messenger of dawn,

Circling above the hamlets as thy nest;

Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form

Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts;

By night star-veiling, and by day

Darkening the light and blotting out the sun;

Go thou my incense upward from this hearth,

And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.

Henry David Thoreau

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“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.”     Tom Stoppard

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“One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever come to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.”   Vincent van Gogh

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