Why this blog is called "Gallimaufry".

gal-uh-MAW-free\, noun.

Originally meaning "a hash of various kinds of meats," "gallimaufry" comes from French galimafrée; in Old French, from the word galer, "to rejoice, to make merry"; in old English: gala + mafrer: "to eat much," and from Medieval Dutch maffelen: "to open one's mouth wide."

It's also a dish made by hashing up odds and ends of food; a heterogeneous mixture; a hodge-podge; a ragout; a confused jumble; a ridiculous medley; a promiscuous (!) assemblage of persons.

Those of you who know me, will, I’m sure, understand how well some of these phrases (barring the "promiscuous" bit!) fit me.

More importantly, this blog is an ode to my love for Shimla. I hope to show you this little town through my eyes. If you don't see too many people in it, forgive me, because I'm a little chary of turning this into a human zoo.

Stop by for a spell, look at my pictures, ask me questions about Shimla, if you wish. I shall try and answer them as best as I can. Let's be friends for a while....

18 September 2009

Full of sound and fury

but, like the Bard, I won't say it signifies nothing!



When the rains burst upon Kinnaur where I was travelling last week, I realised for the first time in my life that in the vast dome of nature, there reigns a sort of controlled violence! There's a domineering fury entirely capable of hurtling all living beings into a common doom. It is as though the decree of violent death is inscribed on the frontiers of life, far away from the cocooned life of a householder.


Interestingly, the fury of the thunder exhausts itself in time and leaves the air calm and utterly serence in its wake. If only human anger could be like that!

2 comments:

Dick Richards said...

The I Ching, as a model of the universe, suggests that it contains 12.5% negativity or destructive natural energy. That, then, is the proper balance. It seems you saw some of it first hand.

Geetali said...

Lift up our eyes to you?
no, God, we stare and stare,
upon a nearer thing
that greets us here,
Death, violent and near.
Hilda Doolittle (1886-1961)

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