There's oil on your computer screen (writing prompt)

No, not that kind of oil. Not cooking oil, although the man in this photo is using plenty of it. I refer to the Rembrandt-like quality of this photograph. I've been looking at this image for ten years. It is one of the most stunning naturally lit, completely undoctored, photographs I have seen in that time, and it has never faded for me. Perhaps because I am intimately involved with how it came to be.

This photograph carries with it profound and poignant meaning beyond the simple act of making poori, beyond its composition, light, and saturated colors, beyond its timelessness. It carries the stories of a quarter million people who perished and hundreds of thousands more left destitute ten years ago in a violent natural cataclysm that devastated the shores of eleven countries.

No doubt you know which event I'm referring to. Its tenth anniversary is coming up this December.

Photo courtesy of Dan Root Photography

PRACTICE

Today I'm sharing this image with you because I'd like you to write a story about it. Or around it. Or with it.

Here below, in the comments, as always.

Once you've had a chance to write your stories, I'll share mine. But only after you, as I don't want to unduly color your perception and interpretation of the image.

If you end up making poori instead of writing a story, be sure to send us some!

Birgitte Rasine

Website

Birgitte Rasine is an author, publisher, and entrepreneur. Her published works include Tsunami: Images of Resilience, The Visionary, The Serpent and the Jaguar, Verse in Arabic, and various short stories including the inspiring The Seventh Crane. She has just finished her first novel for young readers. She also runs LUCITA, a design and communications firm with her own publishing imprint, LUCITA Publishing. You can follow Birgitte on Twitter (@birgitte_rasine), Facebook, Google Plus or Pinterest. Definitely sign up for her entertaining eLetter "The Muse"! Or you can just become blissfully lost in her online ocean, er, web site.