Nature Trail vs Society

 So this was supposed to be part of a school assignment, but it turned out to be really an opportunity to unwind - which was not especially useful.

 Besides all things wondrous around, it seems as though visions are constantly hurrying by, but it is in fact the self that is the panicking one & eager to leave, at the thought of not having done anything "constructive". As it is I'm really not attached to school, neither am I to anything that I'm studying. So I guess going through the motion for the sake of getting things done is the way to go. Perhaps Gregor Samsa lives in everyone of us these days.

 These are places I know I'd normally enjoy if there wasn't an innate discomfort at spending luxurious time being engulfed in 'useless' nature. Besides, nature isn't where the money lies, is it?

 The picture below is a reminder of something I read in Picture of Dorian Gray. 

"Beauty is a form of genius--is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it."

No explanation for the connection.

 I'm not sure if these tagged plants aren't just reminder of ourselves. It seems as though if we didn't look different, had different names, or wore different clothes etc., all of us would merely be clones of each other revolving around a gigantic money-generating mechanism.

 How the droplets rest on the leaves looks really enchanting. It seems so precarious that they might roll away anytime. I didn't have a tripod with me & the best I could go was this. Of late I've been rather jittery. Nerves!

 More of those droplets & how fascinatingly these creatures actually form a little microcosm among themselves.

 Misty lens & its natural effect, which really looks like it can be achieved in Photoshop. There was this Cool House in which all these plants were cultivated. Despite that whole artificial setup, I guess I'm glad that they're living rather flat-out 'blissful' lives with all their necessities duly fulfilled. What could one ask of, as a plant?

Then there was this highly disturbing scene which I witnessed last night, where police officers on bikes were made to escort huge trailers ferrying monstrous concrete blocks, to keep the public at bay. The concrete blocks weren't bound, & these police bikes were constantly kept in dangerously close proximity to those trailers due to the narrowness of the one-lane road & the trailers' size. At the road junction, a police officer on his bike used himself as a barricade to hinder oncoming traffic from nearing these concrete-wielding creatures. The trailers' paths intertwined with the bikes', & these bikes weave amongst moving trailers, back, front & sides. They looked so puny & vulnerable in their little luminous vests, as opposed to the huge lifeless solid blocks which were probably tens or hundreds of times bigger & heavier than them plus their bikes. Suddenly the whole scene looked so sinister, & the combination of the white trailers & the whites blocks formed an image so hideous. The officers' only physical protection were their helmets.

It's heart-wrenching & frankly, a surge of some unknown emotion made me want to cry. It just didn't seem right that any human should be put in that sort of peril. Perhaps the lack of sleep had been getting to me & emotions had been running high, but as I woke up from a nap this morning, I conjured up that image & it seemed all-the-more frightening. I really didn't want to face the fact that well-heeled, self-important individuals comfortably vegetating in office cubicles are more lauded than these officers on the ground. [& I clarify, this is not just a money issue]. If this is one of society's many ugly facades, I despise it. 

It didn't help that it was near midnight. Silently, the officers carried out their duties with utmost commitment, when the public might or might not have realized that quietly, there's a human defense barrier constantly there to protect them.