Illustrations of life...

Carry on Tuesday 37

This week our prompt is a quote from the 18th century artist Sir Joshua Reynolds


A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.


Use all or part of it within your poem or prose, and then leave the url of your post with Mister Linky and a comment



I strongly believe that a picture speaks more than words do.There are a few pictures I instantly fall in love with... There are some which take sometime to make an impression on me. There are pictures which inspire me, some which lighten my mood, a few that have a radiating peace embedded. Some pictures I hang on my wall, mostly my wedding photos, close family. Some of these pictures are my wall papers...Some pictures are so deeply seated in my mind that I don't need one for external display!

Divine love!


Courtesy: ISKCON


Very long ago, the National Geographic Channel had published on it's magazine cover the photo of an Afghan girl. No one knew her name then, but the picture moved the hearts of millions who came forward to help the people of Afghanisthan. And when you look at that picture, her eyes reflect the grief of her people!


Courtesy : National Geographic channel



My all time favorite wall paper... I couldn't stop myself from mentioning this one. Baby photos!


Courtesy: 3.bp.blogspot.com/

Sharbat Gula

The world woke up to Afghanistan’s cries of misery after the Buddha statues at Bamiyan were destroyed by the Taliban regime. Supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar issued an edict against un-Islamic graven images, which means all idolatrous images of humans and animals. As a result, the Taliban were destroying all ancient sculptures. The media showed pictures where the explosives and tanks blew apart the two colossal statues of Buddha at Bamiyan. World leaders denounced the actions of Taliban and this event opened the gates to Afghanistan to journalists and media persons.

The next in line were pictures of women in burqa. They told the women journalists their story of sorrow. Taliban regime was so severe that women were mere machines. They had lost the joy which they found in everyday lives. No music, no TV and no lipsticks. They roamed around under the hot sun in long burqas with stories to tell and no one to listen to their misery.

And then there was the picture of ‘the afghan girl’. Photographer Steve McCurry was in a refugee camp in Pakisthan where he first looked at those haunting green eyes of Sharbat Gula. After obtaining permission he was allowed to take her photograph which appeared on the cover National Geographic magazine. That photograph told the untold stories of so many women in Afghanistan. One look at those eyes was sufficient. At the time of meeting, Steve McCurry says "Her look kind of summed up the horror, because her village had been bombed and her relatives had been killed, and she'd had to make this two-week trek through the mountains to the refugee camp." McCurry said he tried to find the girl years later, but the refugee camp had been disbanded. He didnt even know her name then.

That captivated stare of the afghan girl kindled the hearts of hundreds who volunteered and collected funds for the afghan women. The indignation in those eyes was markedly seen. Yet there was a sense of fearlessness. Her photograph was everywhere around the world but she had never seen it. They were on the fronts of magazines, books, label pins and even rugs but she remained ignorant of her popularity. Steve McCurry wanted to find the ‘afghan girl with the haunting green eyes’. After seventeen years, in his final search Sharbat Gula was found in a remote place in Afghanistan. It was an emotional moment for Steve McCurry. Obtaining the permission of her husband she gave an interview. The search was telecasted on the national geographic channel on March 9th 2002.

She had remembered the photographer. She was photographed again on this occasion in which she held in her hand the picture of ‘the afghan girl’.