The mango season is underway across India, including Goa.

The mango is native to India and adjoining regions. It is also the national fruit of India, a civilisational motif extending back millennia, appearing in religion, ritual, art, aesthetics, literature, cuisine, and daily life. There are hundreds of cultivars of the fruit across the country, and the overwhelming bulk of the harvest is consumed domestically.

But the mango is not just any fruit. Not merely eaten, it is experienced. Most fruits are one- or two-dimensional. A mango is multidimensional. It unfolds. Juice running down the arm is an integral part of the affair.

Every Indian child carries the memory of mothers feeding mango pulp by hand, and the delightful mess around the lips that follows. And of using stones to bring down mangoes from laden branches, followed by the usual mayhem and scolding at home.

The fruit available in grocery stores in Europe and the USA mostly comes from Brazil and Mexico. The mango was introduced to South America by the Portuguese in the 16th century, carried from Goa through their maritime network linking India, East Africa, and Brazil.

The post The Mango Season appeared first on Photo Blog by Rajan Parrikar.

Two views of Búðakirkja in Snæfellsnes on a winter’s morning.

The  blood-red slit at the horizon before sunrise in the first photo is not Photoshop saturation slider abuse, but an uncommon convergence of conditions available at these high latitudes. With the sun grazing the horizon, the light travels an unusually long path through the atmosphere. Shorter wavelengths are stripped out by scattering, leaving the deep reds. A low cloud deck blocks direct illumination and forces the light into a narrow horizontal slit, preserving that saturated band.

The second image, taken later the same morning, with the sun slightly higher, shows the spectrum rebalancing as the colour relaxes from red to orange.

Added to the Light in Iceland collection.

The post Búðakirkja – Winter Spectrum appeared first on Photo Blog by Rajan Parrikar.

Dýrafjörður, Westfjords of Iceland. The first two frames are from Galtardalur; the third Þursaskál, by the Þingeyri airstrip.

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Pravin Gaonkar, from Canacona in Goa, took a step few would contemplate. He walked away from a secure academic career as Professor at Dhempe College of Commerce in Panjim, and with it the certainties that accompany such a life, to commit himself wholly to music.

Trained in Commerce to the level of a doctorate, he chose instead the far less predictable path of riyaz and transmission. He founded the Sanjeevan Music Academy in Panjim with the aim of training young Goans in the disciplines of Indian Classical Music. As guru and mentor, he works closely with his students, shaping both voice and sensibility.

At the same time, Gaonkar remains an active performing vocalist, appearing in concerts across the country.

Today, the academy thrives. A growing body of students is being trained in vocal, sitar, sarangi, and tabla. Through this work, Gaonkar has established himself as a formidable cultural force in Goa.

The post Pravin Gaonkar: A Life in Raga appeared first on Photo Blog by Rajan Parrikar.

Winter in Kollafjörður, Strandir. Kollafjarðarneskirkja (1909) stands by the sea, spare, unadorned. 

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