Saturday, August 22, 2009

unbearable heaviness of joint palms

have drawn dozens of characters for Parva like the one above, arms folded at elbow, palms joint in 'namaste' (नमः ते i honour you) - many of them with their head bowed, body language supposedly soft with submission and humility. after a recent visit to a gurukul, though, one thing becomes clear - my drawings are patently unsincere. am such an unbendy hamster - it's incredibly hard, impossible even, to pull off a single such display with any degree of sincerity. needless to say, 'namaste auntyji, hello uncleji' brand of flyaway gestures merit no headcount. unless i fix something closer home - what feeling, what रस could i possibly bring into the work?

3 comments:

sunlit sapling said...

Insincere we are. We don't see the greeting as anything other than a sign of respect, a humble(?) bow. But to a person who is spiritualy initiated 'namaste' means 'I bow to that which is inherently divine in you'. There is much difference between the two greetings.

Ava said...

Namastes are usually spoken out. Even feet touching is usually cursory, a kind of a half bend. I am usually touched when I see people doing a proper namaste.

Anonymous said...

I wish the pic put up here was larger. One can't make out the story board nor the lines. Would've been great to be able to.