RANDOM SPLASHES

January 2021

They come hurtling at us each day, the intimations of mortality, the splatters of loss and despair. We try to find balance, create a new equilibrium, seek some calm in the chaos.

J and I have found this in a morning ritual of experimental photography. This is when I generate emotional energy – often out of emotional wreckage – so I can continue to conduct sessions on equanimity.

After breakfast, J gets busy setting up: black background, tumbler, water. Once he’s ready, onion in hand, in a corner of our balcony, he calls out. It’s his version of ‘lights, camera, action.’

At the count of three, he plops the onion into the tumbler and I press the shutter.

He’s begun experimenting with tomato, karela and ginger, releasing them from varying altitudes. It was his genius idea to infuse water with colour using turmeric, beetroot and coriander.

He plopped from a little too high this morning and drenched me in beetroot water. No signs of regret. I guess he considers this to be a small sacrifice in his devotion to art.

Later in the evening we look in awe at the dramatic images. J offers his own theories on projectiles and hydrodynamics – which vegetable from what height creates which kind of splash.

I offer my own theories on life: Water is protean. So are you and I. In that is anchored our fluidal emotional journey. 

Life is a series of random splashes.

“Accha?” 

After a pause, he announces, “I’ll try garlic tomorrow.”

~*~