Mayank Chhaya's Profile

Prairie morning

Posted 11 hours ago at South Asia Daily

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Vase by window

This should be all for today. Continue reading

Posted yesterday at South Asia Daily

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Modi's firm grip will impact external ties

I did this quick piece for South Asia Monitor, a specialized policy journal, yesterday. By Mayank Chhaya In contrast to the old adage that “Success has a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan”, in India’s just concluded parliamentary elections... Continue reading

Posted 2 days ago at South Asia Daily

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Some thoughts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's triumphant return

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a victory rally on May 23 Defying my professional impulses, I successfully stayed away from the often ludicrous and embarrassingly ignorant social media back and forth over the just concluded parliamentary elections in India. The... Continue reading

Posted 3 days ago at South Asia Daily

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Karma, Donald Trump, Amit Mehta and Merrick Garland

Yoga, karma, pundit and guru must be among the four most used Sanskrit words in America and not necessarily in that order. This week it is the turn of karma. The concept of karma is being invoked yet again in... Continue reading

Posted 4 days ago at South Asia Daily

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It's a path, it must go somewhere

Raah-MC राह है, कहीं तो जाती होगी ग़लत या सही, कोई मंज़िल तो पाती होगी (It's a path, it ought to go somewhere Right or wrong, it must find a destination) --मयंक छाया/MC That should be all for the day. Continue reading

Posted 5 days ago at South Asia Daily

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Some post-electoral depression

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meditating near the Kedarnath shrine in the Himalayas. (Photo courtesy: His Twitter handle) It seems exit polls in India have acquired the sanctity of an officially certified national election outcome. Reading the average numbers from the... Continue reading

Posted 6 days ago at South Asia Daily

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No headline required

This took me about seven minutes from a blank canvas to finish this morning. It has become my current favorite. I painted it from memory of a stunning melange of clouds last evening over Naperville. Continue reading

Posted 7 days ago at South Asia Daily

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'The moment you recognize something as you it fades as soon as you have recognized it'

Tathagata--MC As India celebrates Buddha Purnima, the 2562nd anniversary of the Buddha, I republish a somewhat reimagined encounter between the Buddha and Pukkusati whom he found to be earnest and intelligent that I wrote a couple of years ago. My... Continue reading

Posted May 18, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Francis Bacon's captivating 'Study of a Head'

'Study of a Head', 1952, Francis Bacon, (Image: Sotheby's) My pastel study of 'Study of a Head' I do not necessarily like the celebrated British figurative artist Francis Bacon’s (1909-1992) famously raw and macabre paintings but admire his brilliant craft.... Continue reading

Posted May 17, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Saptarshi, Thank you for reading. Much appreciated.

Commented May 17, 2019 on Revisiting what I wrote ten years ago about India, China and Tibet at South Asia Daily

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Walking a prairie trail in Naperville

Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve, Naperville (Photo: MC) Naperville has some lovely trails as part of its forest preserves. I took to one of them, Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve yesterday for about 20 minutes and was rewarded instantly. It is a... Continue reading

Posted May 16, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Claude Money sets a record for himself

'Meules', 1891 masterpiece by Claude Monet, sold for a record $110 million at Sotheby's yesterday. (Image: www.sothebys.com) They also call him Claude Money. The great Impressionist master Monet remains perhaps the most irresistible name in the world of art auction... Continue reading

Posted May 15, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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To erase Jahan or not, that's the question

It is not very often that I want to erase a painting of mine although, strictly on merit, many of them deserve that fate. Yesterday, I began painting a face with swirls of an old paint-hardened napkin. I thought the... Continue reading

Posted May 14, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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My default expression of incomprehension of existence

I have been thinking about my default reaction to everything that is existence these days. Going through my portfolio of paintings I found one that I had painted in April, last year. In a sense, the person depicted here is... Continue reading

Posted May 13, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Discovering Margaret Fisher Prout

'Home Grown', 1952, Oil on board by Margaret Fisher Prout (Courtesy of Tate) This morning I have been captivated by this 1952 oil paint on board by the British artist Margaret Fisher Prout (1875-1963). I chanced upon it on the... Continue reading

Posted May 12, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Mindfulness and pain

I am not the meditating type. That is because I live under the illusion that I am in a permanent state of meditation. Speaking of meditation, mindfulness comes to mind; particularly in the context of two distinct kinds of pain... Continue reading

Posted May 11, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Some observations about coalition politics

I have steadfastly stayed away from jumping into the frenetic and frenzied debate, often fueled by self-assured ignorance, over India’s marathon general elections lasting five and a half weeks. Some 900 million Indians are eligible to vote of which there... Continue reading

Posted May 10, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Facebook co-founder's very public laceration of his more famous founder friend

I have no illusions about how valuable my personal data is. In other words, it is not that valuable. Even with that approach to my rather judicious use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp ( the last... Continue reading

Posted May 9, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Every time I jumped over the wall of my conscience...

Over the decades, I have written a lot of random things for my own consumption. I have occasionally shared some here. Today is one such day. The best I can describe them is as poetic constructs. One of them is... Continue reading

Posted May 8, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Gabriel García Márquez as a passionate lifelong journalist

Reading excerpts from Gabriel García Márquez’s collection of his journalistic pieces in “The Scandal of the Century,” it struck me how obsessed he was with being a journalist. He called journalism “the best job in the world”. He also once... Continue reading

Posted May 7, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Nature is declining globally at unprecedented rates, says a United Nations biodiversity panel

A Hawksbill turtle near Indian coral reef, the Maldives (Photo: Andrey Armyagov/Shutterstock.com) The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is the United Nations’ panel of experts of nature and biodiversity. It has just issued a report that... Continue reading

Posted May 6, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Couple in storm

Posted May 5, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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A debilitating urge to paint all the time

Dawn--MC These days I feel a near debilitating urge to paint. Do not confuse that with the quality of what I paint. That may still suck or not, but the point is painting, like poetry and physics, is always just... Continue reading

Posted May 4, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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Snehlata aka Zini, my mother

I have no intentions of making it a recurring annual republication of my tribute to Zini aka Snehlata, my mother, who died exactly a year ago today in Jodhpur. I am doing it just this once since some of my... Continue reading

Posted May 3, 2019 at South Asia Daily

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