It is just not the photography she is passionate about, it is nature that attracts her, and she feels one with it.
Born into a lower middle class family in 1979, Vasudha which means “the Earth” was an eternal dreamer growing up. Her interests lay in finding the meaning of her existence on this planet and the purpose she was here for, this in her own words would be “The Journey into simple existence”.
Her true calling came in the year 2007, at Calcutta while watching a documentary about the clouded leopards, not even knowing such a species ever existed, she started researching about them and found that the leopards were soon going to be extinct and only twenty of them existed. These findings deeply hurt Vasudha and triggered those unanswered questions about her existence and her purpose in life.
Her soul began to question the mind and her thoughts went berserk looking for answers. She travelled across the country, first to Kaziranga where according to her; found the new her who she fell in love with. Her journey to Manas, gave her a purpose and the very purpose has brought her to Nilgiris where she resides and pursues her passion, Wild Life photography.
Her work and achievements have been recognised by publications like Planet Earth, India and DNA. I was a journalist once and I am amazed by the coverage her work gets without any PR. To learn, She is the only woman wild life photographer living in the jungles and pursuing her passion gives me an immense sense of pride to have known her.
She is so cut off from the world we live in… yet she is sought out... For people want to know…her story…
Hi Yash, this is my response to the question you asked about'Balanced life' in your "Life aint easy" blog
ReplyDeleteEveryone seeks peace and harmony, because this is what we lack in our lives. From time to time we all experience agitation, irritation, disharmony. And when we suffer from these miseries, we don't keep them to ourselves, we often distribute them to others as well. Unhappiness occupies the atmosphere around someone who is miserable, and those who come in contact with such a person also become affected. Certainly this is not a skillful way to live.
We ought to live at peace with ourselves and at peace with others. After all, human beings are social beings, having to live in society and deal with each other. But how are we to live peacefully? How are we to remain harmonious within, and maintain peace and harmony around us, so that others can also live peacefully and harmoniously?
In order to be relieved of our misery, we have to know the basic reason for it, the cause of the suffering. If we investigate the problem, it becomes clear that whenever we start generating any negativity or impurity in the mind, we are bound to become unhappy. Negativity in the mind & a mental defilement or impurity, cannot coexist with peace and harmony.
How do we start generating negativity? Again, by investigation, it becomes clear. We become unhappy when we find someone behaving in a way that we don't like, or when we find something happening which we don't like. Unwanted things happen and we create tension within. Wanted things do not happen, some obstacle comes in the way, and again we create tension within; we start tying knots within. And throughout life, unwanted things keep on happening, wanted things may or may not happen, and this process of reaction of tying knots makes the entire mental and physical structure so tense, so full of negativity, that life becomes miserable.
To come out of this, one should learn the technique of seeing things as they really are.
This non-sectarian technique aims for the total eradication of mental impurities and the resultant highest happiness of full liberation. Healing, not merely the curing of diseases, but the essential healing of human suffering, is its purpose.
It is a way of self-transformation through self-observation. It focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention (Meditation) to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind. It is this observation-based, self-exploratory journey to the common root of mind and body that dissolves mental impurity, resulting in a Balanced mind full of love and compassion.
The scientific laws that operate one's thoughts, feelings, judgments and sensations become clear. Through direct experience, the nature of how one grows or regresses, how one produces suffering or frees oneself from suffering is understood. Life becomes characterized by increased awareness, non-delusion, self-control and peace.
- Madhu Naag.