In life as we know it today, the word ‘yearning’ seems to be caught in two worlds. I think that the latter would do well to be paired with the word ‘purpose’ for any real meaning though. Furthermore our need to simplify our lives directly contradicts our want for things that complicate it.
Lost in a world of contradictions, we should have always known what we truly yearn for and in that, certainly what kind of a living place we want surrounding us.

As such it is the physical landscape of the world around us that usually bears the signs of change. But in all that, there are little settlements that get hidden in all the clutter and seek to be found. And in finding that nature of human habitation one can often find something more meaningful about life and the real meaning of wishing for a better life. Thinking if somehow we could do it all over again.

Magadi to me is such a place, one of retrospection, of things very real and of recluse. And if solace of a fading world does find you along the way, then I suppose it is somehow apposite.

My constant journeys over the last few years to this little town has re instilled in me a clarity and faith in life, simply put. Although not as small, I was still born in a town of such simplicity, in the way of life but more essentially in what we wanted out of it. A town then called Bangalore. Born from that and to be responsible for raising children of tomorrow in a world that seems to have spun around, I suppose everyone must find their bearings. That and what we must really yearn for.

Shibu Arakkal

Monsoon, 2012

Shibu ArakkalFinding Nowhere – Artist’s Note