The teleology of architecture is ruin. The fate of empires is to lay waste. Those cities turn to dust, By the marauding armies of horses, And elephants, and men in armour. Armour of greed and hierarchy, Of memories of loss. The granite boulders carved into monuments, Only to be ground
Silent runes and arabesque Tell a story Kafkaesque Of a riverman When the river dried A doorman When the doors closed A clergyman When lies arrived A swordsman When they won A spokesman And lied some more An everyman. Silent runes and arabesque Tell a story Kafkaesque Of found treasures
I had nothing to give to that old woman. Who begs at the lights, She gave me instead, Embers and cinders; Decay and suffering; A life unredeemed; Infinite infamy and inquity, I have it all She gave me more, and old poem too. Yanked out like a spasm. A poem
There was a time when I found pilgrimages to be an unnecessary exertion. One could find all that is to see within one's self. And perhaps that may be true. But I have found myself to be going on pilgrimages. Sometimes, I know I am going on one.
Like a child has tools and objects to play, I have words, images, and dreams to play. Words and images come to me from somewhere, and I am a mere vehicle. They flow, rarely and spontaneously, triggered by a phantom or a spectre. They come, at times like a neatly
It is perhaps wise to turn to Friedrich Schleiermacher (a German theologian and philosopher) occasionally. He is one of the founders of pedagogy as a discipline. Pedagogy, as it is used and understood in common parlance, is merely the “technic” of teaching. The content of these technics is prescribed by
By the will of magick, I found myself in the company of a great old book. Signed anonymously, I decided to keep the name of the book anonymous too, for you, my brother, my sister. One day you will find it too, I pray. In that book was the art
Part 1 A New Age of Mystery is upon us. At the helm of this great cosmogony There will be new vanguards. At the pulpit of this hermetic church There will be new abbots. And in the dungeons from whence the rule emanates There must also be an Autarch. And
From the Preface of Noema What was it you haunted so far that we must dream of it always, dying of our dreaming? And of what other state do you speak so low that we cannot remember it? - George Seferis This poem has haunted me for as long as
In this book, text and photographs are in harmony; a window to each other. The totality of the experience is carried by two different mediums: the poems, and the photographs. Both of these mediums, for me, are more than just representations of reality. Half of my life is behind me.
It was drizzling lightly that day. I have walked on this unpaved path many times before. But it was the dampness and the silence that made me stop at a particular bend in the pathway. It is completely covered with trees from above. This spot made me feel something that
Here is my first book. Noema - Spaces of Refuge. Some things cannot be put in to words. This is one of them. I have put together my poems and photographs, a harmony of my two passions. A window in to each other, and in to me. Some things cannot
borges
We are reading The Circular Ruins for the next class of my course “Labyrinthine Dreams: A walk into the dreamscapes of stories and poetry by Jorge Luis Borges” This story is a part of Labyrinths - Selected Stories & Other Writings. Edited by Donald A. Yates & James E. Irby.
borges
For my ongoing course titled 'Labyrinthine Dreams' on Jorge Luis Borges's stories and poetry, we're reading three poems for class discussion. Here are the poems: Rubaiyat, Someone and The Enigmas.
education
My understanding of education primarily rests in exploring phenomenological experiences. What does it mean to reveal the experiential reality of children and adults? Pedagogy, the way I understand and explore it in the phenomenological sense, reveals this inner topology that I can view, if I am patient and listening. Of
landscape
One of my goals at Raga and Northstar is to understand our ecology; our relationship to it and our perception of it. Landscape affects us: the trees, the plants, the rocks, the crevices, the contours, the undulations, the textures, the smells, and all the minutiae that fill every corner of
trees
Riffing on Hesse's master class in succinctness apropos my plight. "Managing an organisation does not require qualities of stupidity and coarseness, as conceited intellectuals sometimes think. But it does require wholehearted delight in extroverted activity, a bent for identifying oneself with outward goals, and of course also
education
At the beginning of the new school year two years ago, I wrote, "And we start again. Once more. A new school year. So many new walkers joining our caravan and some choosing another road. I have no destination in mind, because I cannot choose for anyone. I know
education
I borrow the phrase "Centres of Condensation" Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space. Our institutions, Northstar and Raga, are thought of as, firstly, 'centres'. Taken in isolation and in the prevalent context, the word 'centre' has no gravitas, no weight. It is as
education
What instrumentalism, economic ends and modernity have taken away from the original conception of school can never be fully comprehended or felt. I meet parents who are eager to know how much we do in the school: how many subjects, how many sports games, how many languages, how many activities,
literature
One of the greatest of writers, for me, is Stanislaw Lem. I think that sci-fi has the most natural affinity to philosophical realm. Lem (and PKD and LeGuin) seamlessly travel between sci-fi and philosophy. I read Lem's Solaris many years ago after watching Steven Soderbergh's movie.
Over the years I have developed a system of reading where I alternate between philosophy and science-fiction books. At almost any given time, I'd be reading either one. I find it extremely hard to find a science-fiction author who I enjoy, primarily in style of prose and sweep
To each child, school is a concept, a memory that is always felt, like a spectre of foggy remembrance, but seldom analysed. Schools and childhood collide and intersect; the two being our primal sources of future selves. A good, sustaining space, our school, must retain that character of gossamer, always
Part 1 Jorge Luis Borges said: Like the discovery of love, like the discovery of the sea, the discovery of Dostoevsky marks and important date in one's life. I discovered Fyodor Dostoevsky late in my life. It took me many attempts over some years to complete The Brothers