Land of Memories

Land is changing always and sometimes the transformations are tremendous in scope. The speed and the power of these unprecedented changes can be radical. As all are in a flux, the changes in sensibility also are happening simultaneously. Whether we like it or not, today’s 'kitsch' is here to stay and it is slowly becoming tomorrow’s aesthetics.

The change in landscape can be very real to many folks that it has to be fraught with pain. However upon closer observation, what is real can also be felt as, unreal or surreal on a micro level. The imaptience of erasing history quickly by the vested power interests are also going on along with the destruction of ancient monuments and such. Meantime the 'unearthed gems' also get thrown away like the baby along with the bathwater. Such valuables dissolve in front of our eyes and being replaced by something one used to call 'kitsch'. Well, it is what it is while the wise stay silent and their lack courage to infulence the powerful, seems unfortunate.

We become the 'reactionary' at first, because the external changes may not be acceptable to us. That is our conditioning. We think that our reactions can only happen towards something real. But one starts to question, what essentially is 'real or unreal'? Sometimes the real and the invisible blur their boundaries. This area of ambiguity makes us uncomfortable. No matter what, we have to go on. If we don't move, we won't survive.

The reality of daily news is unbearable and emotionally overwhelming. Nobody has the right to tell us 'how to feel' about a personal experience. By internalizing the absurdity of it all, one can immerse in it and sometimes get transported into a 'surreal space'. During that process certain magical domains can open up inside us. Spacious visions can happen at a faster pace. By mixing the real with the fantastic and the imaginary, what we are ultimately trying to do is to protect our sanity. We have been doing this from our childhood days.

The scenes fade in and out of an enchanted fog of memories. Visuals evolve as quick scribbles first, and then new kinds of lakes, islands, bridges and other detailed elements appear like in an ensemble. We try to document and record them. Sometimes it works and other times they are just what they are. It may look absurd, abstract and elusive, but these are the reflections of a so called 'post-absurd' real world of the future we are living in right now.

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Photo: Annapoorna Valley, Pokhara, Nepal. Sebastian©2014.

I had travelled through Nepal for almost one month, in November of 2014. I fell in love with the land and the people. I made some friends and now a series of earth quakes have completely devastated their lives. The age-old belief in destiny and the Buddhist teaching of 'Anitcha' (transient nature of life) might have come to the rescue mentally, but everybody knows that there is another side to all that. The political system is corrupted and China is looking for any vulnerability to intervene and the local politicians are as crooked as in any country these days. All things considered, the psyche of the people in that country is realtively of a higher state in my opinion, when it comes to compassion, love and over all generosity. May be there lies the secret to their happiness which is based on an attitude of gratitude and a mutual understanding that we all are in this together, and nobody is better or worse than anybody. The mountains have been teaching them a thing or two, as well as the great valleys and the distant oceans. One who has ears to listen and eyes to see will feel all these...