I began these mindful drawings in a fragile, unsettled state of mind. My thoughts felt scattered, restless, overlapping, too many at once. So I picked up colours and let them move without planning, without forcing sense or structure. I didn’t try to control the flow; I let the flow carry me. As the colours settled, so did parts of me.
While doing this, a thought stayed with me: Is this even anything? Later, that thought came back through others. Some asked, “What kind of painting is this?” Some said, “It has no meaning.” Some looked longer, trying to extract logic, trying to name it, trying to make sense of it. Others simply found it beautiful.
I noticed how familiar this felt. How people always want to define, label, approve, or dismiss. How art becomes a mirror for their own need to understand or control. And I realised, this is not new. This is human nature.
But this wasn’t made for explanation. It was made for survival. For breathing. For letting my scattered thoughts land somewhere gentle
I don’t need everyone to understand it. I don’t need to defend it. People may say so many different things. They always will. And what we need to do is to continue to do what we do, quietly, honestly, and with care! That’s enough!
And somehow, in the midst of all this, these paintings reside in a foreign land, resting there with a grace that still surprises me!
Toruna walks almost every day with her son. These walks are special for her, a time to breathe, notice, and listen to the stories unfolding around. Every face, every moment on the street seems to whisper something to her heart. Walking makes her more thoughtful, more aware of life’s small wonders and struggles …
One evening, on their way to the park, Toruna noticed a tiny woollen cap lying on the road. She stopped and told her son, ‘Maybe a mother was carrying her sleeping baby on her shoulder, and while walking home, the little cap slipped off without her noticing. And then when she reached home and saw it missing, she must have felt sad, that cute little cap of her dear child is lost!’ Her son smiled and said, ‘You’re such a storyteller, Mom.’
They both laughed and kept walking.
But Toruna’s eyes continued to wander, always finding small stories hidden in everyday life …
Near the park gate, she saw twin toddlers quarreling over lollipops, their mother watching with an amused smile. One of the twins looked a bit grumpier, & Toruna observed the mother gently scolding and laughing at the same time ….
A few steps ahead, a woman in niqab (a veil on her face) walked alone on the footpath. She seemed quiet, almost wrapped in her own thoughts. Perhaps she was returning from a long day at work, thinking about bills, groceries, and what to cook for dinner. Her steps were slow, her shoulders slightly bent, as if she was carrying more than just the weight of her bag. There was a sadness about her, the kind that comes when life feels heavy but must still move on. Watching her, Toruna remembered that she would be going for Umrah soon, and wondered if she might wear a niqab then too. The thought lingered as she walked on …
Near the park bench, Toruna saw a dead butterfly, its wings still beautiful, though still. She picked it up gently and showed it to her son who looked at it with curiosity, helped her to put it on the height of the side wall!
As they were walking, Toruna observed that two elderly men walked slowly side by side, leaning on their canes and talking as if the world belonged to only them. Their laughter carried softly in the air. Toruna thought about how friendship, even in old age, keeps the heart alive, how sharing stories can make time feel lighter … she wondered what might be the topics of their laughter!
Then, not far from them, a young girl crouched near the edge of the grass, feeding milk and biscuits to a few stray cats. The cats purred and brushed against her legs. Her sweet smile warmed Toruna’s heart, a small act of kindness in a noisy world …
A little further ahead, a young mother struggled with her two small children, one crying, the other running away. Toruna smiled at this sight of this young mother, remembering her own early days of motherhood. How young she had been, and ever since then, how her children had become her entire universe …
She and her son walked side by side, sometimes talking, sometimes silent. These walks had become their little ritual, good for both their minds and hearts …
That evening, they noticed a young boy walking slowly around the park. He looked a bit overweight and tired. Toruna said, ‘I’ve been watching that boy for a while.’ Her son nodded, ‘Yes, he comes here often. I’ve seen him too.’ Toruna felt a sadness for him. ‘I hope he feels better soon,” she said, ‘Life gives everyone some struggle that other people can never understand’ ….
As the sun began to fade, they left the park, stopping by the nearby general store to buy a few things before heading home. Toruna smiled to herself, ‘Tomorrow we’ll come again,” she thought, and surely, the path would have more stories waiting to be found …
#roksanatales
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Have you ever wondered, how many stories pass by us each day, unnoticed?
The cosmos is within us The dance is absolutely amazing Abundantly fabulous …
Imagination is great For the knowledge we possess The inner child returns to find A new era of time … Becoming a wild free soul, fabulous …
The soul has the rhyme From the time it’s born … Listen to the Talisman of your own, Daydreaming in this cosmic energy, Travelling to the worlds, fabulous …
Let the universe find The questions you have, The answers you need – All are dwelling inside Waiting for a spark to Find its magic, fabulously powerful … A new pathway to excellence…
You belong to the mysterious space Your dreams are coming back to you There’s a song called cosmic abyss From the beginning to eternity The eternal flame, that’s fabulous …
#roksanatales
Jijivisha/ hindi (n.) jijivisha is the intense desire to live (or continue living) in the highest sense of being …
A humble video of JBC Paintings Prints on white ambush A4 paper (300gsm).
It’s happening She hasn’t met someone She hasn’t seen someone But she’s falling for that someone … It’s happening
Unreal yet real but not as real as it is … Quite inexplicable and yet very true it is ….
#roksanatales
Raabta/ urdu (n.) inexplicable connection with another soul …
I have been suffering from the viral fever of the season for the last two days and this fever is quite different from what I had experienced before. So yesterday even in my feverish head and body, my mind felt to write something, that went like, ‘The cosmos is within us, the dance is absolutely amazing, let the universe find the questions you have, the answers you need” …. Then may be for a second or two, I felt hallucinations … may be or may be not … sometimes high temperatures do cause such things, right? However, I’m all fine with the fever still going on … So today, when I was going through those yesterday’s musings, I dropped the idea of writing further about the cosmos verses one, and really felt passionate about writing this one …
Raabta
So simple, yet I hope you like it ✨♥️
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Enchanting Kashmir’ has a hypnotic bell that keep ringing in my heart and soul … so you may find a lot of videos and images that I so dearly keep sharing … 😊
Sometimes all you need is going to somewhere quiet and you are my ‘Somewhere Quiet’ place always ….
#roksanatales
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Querencia / Spanish /kɛˈrɛnθɪə, Spanish keˈrenθja, keˈrensja/ (adj.) a place where one feels safe, a place where one feels at home …
Just thought to add an audio of these verses. Excuse my terrible voice and poor sound effects🙏 I took quite a few attempts for this and lastly I thought, ‘Okay, let it be.’ 🤷🏿♀️
I know you all are kind, compassionate and thoughtful.
She wish she could know his voice long ago.. She thought it With a trace of melancholy …
#roksanatales
In-Yun / korean / (n.) The ties between people over the course of their lives, and the belief that we meet certain people because we had interactions with them in thousands of past lives …
It’s a word in Korean, In-Yun, it means fate. But it’s specifically about relationships between people. It’s an In-Yun, if two strangers even walk by each other in the street, and their clothes accidentally brush. Because it means there must have been something between them in their past lives. If two people get married, they say it’s because there have been 8,000 layers of In-Yun over 8,000 lifetimes ….
I hope you would love this song which I have added in my this painting work in progress video. It’s one of my favourite.
I love this song, ‘Live More & Love More’ by Cat Burns. I love it’s melody and energy.
It tells about starting whatever it is you want to start and doing whatever it is you want to do in life. Because we only have one life, and we deserve to live it to the fullest. Such a positive powerful song.
It beautifully expresses to find a balance between growing ourselves as individuals and sharing our love.
“If there’s something you wanna do, just do it Don’t let your head stop your heart from moving If there’s someone you wanna talk to, talk to ’em Who knows who we’d be if we just Live more and love more We all just need to live more and love more So hug your kids, tell them you love them Have some heart but make sure it’s open Play by risk ’cause time gets stolen Maybe speak less and listen more ‘Cause life’s too short You only have one It might sound cliche But your life can start when you choose it to When you choose it to” ….
Another song that I love so much is ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay…. Love these lines so much,
Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you’ ….
Isn’t it beautiful?
What is/ are your favourite powerful positive song/s?