Krishna Consorting Radha by Sunayini Devi and Sher by Ahmad Faraz

This week in Daak:

1. Krishna Consorting Radha in the Guise of a Gopi by Sunayini Devi

2. Sher by Ahmad Faraz

3. Ludo and the Joy of Play!

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1. Krishna Consorting Radha in the Guise of a Gopi by Sunayini Devi, Google Arts & Culture

This delicate painting by the untrained Sunayini Devi illustrates a story from the Gita Govinda composed by the 12th-century poet, Jayadeva. What Devi imagined the conversation to be, we will never know. But what she richly captured and left us is the drama, romance and intimacy of this complex love story. Incidentally, this is the painting we used to launch the ‘Secrets’ campaign on Instagram where we asked strangers to send us a secret and an image to go with it, which we then shared anonymously. To say we were surprised and overwhelmed by the response is an understatement. If you want a comforting and heartbreaking (at the same time!) look at the human experience, check out these achieved stories from this series on our Instagram page.

2. Sher by Ahmad Faraz

ek deewana yeh kehte hue hansta jaata
kaash manzil se bhi aage koi rasta jaata

A lunatic, laughing, would go along, saying
I wish this path went further than my destination

This is a particular trick of poets — composing simple, beautiful lines, which slowly give out their meaning over multiple re-reads. We’ve read this sher dozens of times and are struck by its musicality as well as its incredible depth. Faraz speaks of a ‘lunatic’, who perhaps has more wisdom than any sage: the lunatic wishes for an endless path, beyond a singular destination, and with it, an extension of the striving that makes life worthwhile and the journey, which almost always is sweeter than the destination.

3. Ludo and the Joy of Play!

Ludo will forever remind us of boisterous summer days spent indoors with siblings, cousins or friends from the colony, negotiating each other’s ruthless moves, drinking sharbat, eating snacks, and just the sheer joy of play. Relive those summer days of childhood with this gorgeous Madhubani-style Ludo + Snakes & Ladders set.