Take52 Challenge: Week 9 – Roots

I should have posted this last week but better late than never! The theme of the Challenge was Roots, once again a word with many meanings and as many interpretations, several of which I’ve enjoyed viewing on our site. I love that about this Challenge, it’s making me look at things from different perspectives 🙂 Again, I knew I didn’t want to take a traditional ‘root’ picture. For one, there weren’t any interesting roots or even root-like objects in the near vicinity. Lots of trees but with their roots tucked safely underground! So I decided to grow my own…and since I have a non-existent green thumb, they would have to be grown from something that I could not destroy 😛

I came across ‘water candles’ on Youtube while surfing for ideas and decided to try them out. I’m not a ‘crafty’ person (pun unintended!), but these seemed simple enough and I wouldn’t have to go shopping for material. I have plenty of used candles and a million wax crayons thanks to Junior! So into my little fondue pot went the chopped up candle wax and a brown crayon and in 5 minutes, I had some nice bubbling, melted wax. I must say I felt very accomplished 😉 Then I poured small amounts of the melted wax onto a plastic base with a votive previously fixed, and dunked & swirled immediately in a bucket of water. The instructions said ice-cold but I didn’t bother with the ice. It was fun to see the strands of wax stretch out and rise the instant it hit the water 🙂 They looked more like icicles than roots but I didn’t care. I used my macro lens to get up close and personal with my waxy roots!

Roots of Wax!

Last week, I also managed to download Photoshop and Lightroom – Finally! Now that I have them I’m looking forward to learning more about editing. I think it’s a great way to add some more fun into the photographic process. I’ve been using Youtube to study Photoshop tutorials and learnt recently how to blend two pictures into one, inspired by my friend Wendy who used the technique to create a wonderful image for the Roots Challenge. I used it to create another picture which if I had got done in time, I might have submitted for my Challenge. Then I found a rather nice ‘root’ picture that I had taken a year ago in Bombay and I used Photoshop to change it into a painting (an effect I really love). I thought it turned out rather nice.

The Root of all Evil?

Cling-on!

As for Roots – I’ve just posted about how ‘Rootless’ I feel in my soul and how this ‘rootlessness’ feels authentic for the moment. So for now – it is what it is, and if ever I do sprout some myself – I promise, you guys will be the first to know. Meanwhile for those of you with Roots – Bask in their Glory 🙂 And for my fellow ‘Rolling Stones’ – Enjoy the Ride!

Thursday Thoughts…

Lately I’ve had Roots on my mind – the botanical kind, the metaphorical kind and the ties that bind. Unsurprisingly, all this interest in ‘delving deep’ arises from the fact that they’ve are also the theme of this week’s Take52 Photography Challenge!

I’ve said this before and I’m saying it again – I consider myself the proverbial ‘Rolling Stone’, one that gathers a few bits of moss while otherwise going about merrily on its way. It’s an existence that suits my restless soul, and so the question of being rooted in a place, while occasionally seductive, is never a long-term goal. But as with all things, times change; and with Junior’s schooling to think of, I cannot quite give in to the ‘traveling’ urge whenever it strikes, which is fairly often! Consider the facts – I have lived in one city but changed 4 houses in 10 years! The longest I’ve lived in any house as an adult is 4 years! I’ve grown up in Goa and that’s where I’ve lived the largest chunk of my life so far, and yet, I cannot and do not consider it ‘home’. Not in the way I would like to. It’s my parents’ home, the house I grew up in, became a doctor in, got engaged in, got married from, lost my brother in…but it is still most definitely my parents’ home – NOT mine. So although it’s most certainly the closest thing to home, it isn’t quite the same.

And so it got me thinking about what ‘Roots’ really means? I feel happily rootless for the most part and enjoy the feeling of belonging ‘everywhere in general but nowhere in particular’ 😛 Am I kidding myself? Living in denial? Probably. Should I be concerned at these divagations and get myself a settled life, whatever that means? (Ooh! The very thought sends shivers down my spine!) Or is being ‘Rooted’ just a feeling in our hearts, like Christmas?! I like to think it is – after all haven’t we all been taught, “Home is where the Heart is.” But the heart is unpredictable, a wayward mistress who pulls this way and that, going wherever fancy dictates 😉 She is redolent with good intentions but we all know where those may lead 😛 At the moment she has brought me to Bangalore and so I try to grow roots yet again, in another new city! Do you feel ‘rooted’ where you are? And I don’t just mean geographically.

I often feel I’ve been born in the wrong time, the wrong place, the wrong everything – and yet I have no idea at all of what the ‘right’ time and place would look like. At times the restlessness is so acute, it’s hard to find focus. I feel like a caged bird, staring at the open door, my gift of flight forgotten. Maybe it’s the Sagittarian in me – the horse stamping his hooves, chomping at the bit to begin roving. So no…I’m not sure ‘Rooted’ is for me, or that I’ll ever be rooted in place, although Time shows more promise 😉 Somewhere deep inside I want to live in Narnia, in Middle Earth – walk among talking beasts and Fauns, commune with Elves and Hobbits and bask in the grace of Aslan 🙂 When I look around me and see the World – ridden with strife and traumatised by the collective abuse of us arrogant humans – I want so desperately for the fantastical to be real. A sanctuary from all the chaos. If wishes were horses eh?

And so I try as best I can to bestill my aching heart, when that wanderlust strikes. And I think about where I might put down roots if I had to. Then I close my eyes and dream – of Narnia 🙂