Firefly Images

19/11/2020

The Stok range towering over Leh (or is it Indus?) Valley...

18/11/2020

It's completely by accident that our little planet has clear night skies. Our solar system could very well have been inside a bright nebula, or closer to the galactic center. Our night skies then would have been a bright haze, rather than filled with stars, planets and galaxies.

If that would have been the case, we would have never overcome our primitive beliefs. It was looking up at the stars that we wondered, aspired to reach them and made up stories about how the heavens control our lives (astrology is not a science). It was looking up at planets that we figured out that we're not at the center of the universe and our collective narcissism was challenged. It was when we discovered that there are other worlds out there, we gave up religion as the only source of truth, and allowed science to improve our lives. Come to think of it, it's a complete accident that we are where we are, as a planet and as a species...

Kinda sad that most of us spend our lives believing in the fantasies painted by old stories as the truth. It's sad that we don't accept science as the truth at times and also, that science too has been corrupted by greed. Maybe all of us should look up more...

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Garden of Silence, Chandigarh

17/11/2020

There are a lot of critics of Le Corbusier and his design for Chandigarh. But those critics ignore the fact that he was a revolutionary in urban planning and architecture, and revolutionaries are rarely perfect.

While modern urban planners are pushing for '15-minute cities', each of Chandigarh's sectors, designed 70 years ago, are almost self-sufficient mini-cities. The architecture was designed at a time when the British were building their colonial style buildings. Corbusier used reinforced concrete, which he used to make buildings human-centric and in never-before-seen shapes.

The designs aren't perfect, but they were well ahead of their time.

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Sukhna Gallery, Chandigarh

16/11/2020

“However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?” - Buddha

13/11/2020

My first attempt at cinematic timelapse videos from my recent trip to Himachal. View it on Youtube for best quality (upto 4K). Also using this opportunity to launch my personal photography website:
www.fireflyimages.co.in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVrTGv9IEcw

Do visit the website and let me know your comments!

A timelapse summary of a solo biking and camping trip to Parashar Lake and Dharamshala/McLeodganj. If you like the content, please hit Like and Subscribe! Mo...

11/11/2020

Mt Kangchenjunga (8,586m ASL), the third highest mountain peak in the world and its sister peaks, as seen from Darjeeling.

Locals believe the peak to be an abode of Gods and climbers stop 2 meters short of the true summit as a sign of respect to the local beliefs. The area around the mountain is also said to be the home of a human like creature called Dzonga, or more popularly, The Yeti.

The peak is a prominent sight all around North Bengal and West Sikkim, towering above surrounding mountains. Can't wait to see it again and hopefully will capture the sight in more detail.

11/11/2020

Don't climb a mountain so the world can see you... Climb a mountain so you can see the world...

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Taken after doing the Grouse Mountain Trail, Vancouver...

11/11/2020

The more a man lays stress on false possessions, and the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life. ~Carl Jung

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The Toronto skyline. CN Tower never fails to impress.

11/11/2020

If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to rny prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman...

Because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.

- Montesquieu

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Nationalism/Patriotism does not mean that you have to a bad human.

11/11/2020

The world is a weird place today. People are fighting over their depictions of God, not knowing all their depictions are false, yet all their depictions contain the truth...

The Vedas, Guru Granth Sahib, Quran and Bible weren't written as absolute truths, but as poetic self-help guides to the real TRUTH, i.e. an accurate understanding of REALITY.

For example (and this isn't meant to hurt anybody's feelings), if you climb up Mt Kailash, you won't actually find Shiva sitting there. Shiva, the God of destruction, isn't a humanoid, but a symbolic representation of the destructive aspect of nature/reality. If you climb up Kailash (or any tall mountain) without adequate preparation, you will perish, and hence will have been punished by nature for your arrogance, symbolically Shiva's dance. If you understand Shiva's character in the right frame of mind, you understand the destructive aspect of nature and learn to respect it.

My religion isn't Sikhism, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism. All religions are false, as they are abstractions of an incredibly complex universe. Yet all religions contain a path to the truth, as they were initiated by wise folks. My religion is the study of reality, as it is, as it should be. We should be united by our differences, not divided.

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Picture taken at Sheagoru, with Hampta Pass on the far right.

11/11/2020

Leh...

11/11/2020

Reality is incomprehensibly complicated. It has many dimensions and the view of it varies from person to person. Eg: Family, money, friends, existential angst, one's understanding of oneself are all personal dimensions of reality for a person. And the view of that varies from person to person.

The only way to tackle life and this incomprehensible reality (which I'll call God) is to keep learning. About everything (including yourself). Be a student. All your life.

The moment you think you know everything about something, is the moment reality catches up to you.

So suffering is a part of life. All the unintended consequences, unexplainable mishaps and misunderstandings are due to the fact that we don't understand reality in all its complexity. But if we accept that the complexity is beyond our comprehension, it ceases to be suffering.