The Same Job Yet DIfferent

By the by, why does the child who dances on the streets for coins gets classified under 'child labour' and 'beggary' yet a child who dances in television and cinema screens for currency notes is not classified thus yet only gets glamourized more? And why does the team that makes these children perform on the streets get booked under the "prevention of child labour act" yet the people who employ these children in the entertainment business on screen get away? So does big bucks change the whole scenario here too???

Aren't You Part Of This Crowd Too

Many of us condemn, criticize and comment about others easily without even looking at their side of the story even once. Neutrality is lost thus and we just succumb to the pressure of perceiving them in the image created about them, around them, by others, the majority. And we believe its all true; yet, it shifts to a very different angle when we see their side of the story, the less heard one, the actual.

There are 3 contradictory figures in History who have been hated by most yet the truth if told will make most of us look silly for perceiving them as villains. The world killed them just as much as we accuse them of killing others. These 3 are quite interesting characters and I am currently reading about them to ascertain the facts in this maze a little better soon.

The famous 3 are:

No.1 said, "Finally, I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism leveled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof someday in future."

No.2 said, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"

No.3 said, "“if you want to shine like sun first you have to burn like it.”

As I always say, "Parpath'ellam nijamum'al'la, nijathay'ellam naam paarpathum'alla." (All that one sees is not truth and truth is always something that is often left unseen)

So What

When the stars at night don’t shine and the moonlight does not seep through, there could be just one sign from up above that teardrops from the sky are soon going to fall on your face if only you keep looking that way. Aren’t we too so much like nature? Is that why we relate to nature and try to find solace in it in times of trouble and explore it to find those answers to those strange questions that leaves us so clueless in the crowded urban jungle we live in?

Earthquakes, tidal waves, whirlpools and every other time the rattling Earth tries to say “don’t you dare mess with me!” Tremors and quicksand, volcanoes and every other thing that seem to say that her emotions are deep and could swallow you whole. Isn’t it a wonder that we live today and we might even survive tomorrow yet it is the dreams that one has that shatters with time and dies before the body does that shatters the soul from deep within. Isn’t that the reason why we so adamantly try to hold on to our dreams like a koala bear cub hugs its mother and would never let go that cradled comfort?

The dreams that die before we do… oh my my! tell me why? At times we chase those dreams like a headless chicken and in that process, we often leave our near and dear ones unattended and only when we have what we chased and have greedily groped in our hands what we so much wanted do we stop to look back and see the corpses we have trampled upon to get to where we are now and have what we wanted except everything else that we left trampled… it is then and only then that we realize that if a Man does not feel filled and complete without what he wants that he would never ever, ever never feel full and complete when he has what he wants.

Those violent persecutions and the dense drops of blood that trickles down the veins every time an emotion surpasses one’s imagination to realize what is for real and what is to stay for ever and the illusions and the hyper ventilated drives of humans that makes one leap more than he can jump to reach for the crown that noone but the one who jumps for it bothers about!

Bottomline: "Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are." Osho

pic: Clicked 5 years ago, found lying in my archive

Touch Me Not

“I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape my head, too?” Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

“come back so i can say yes this time do it again now that i know what to call what you did

this time i'll be ready i like it rough now and i'm done with romance i never met another man who loved me so much at first sight he had to hurt me to do it” Daphne Gottlieb, Why Things Burn

“Touch has a memory.” John Keats

“Who taught you to write in blood on my back? Who taught you to use your hands as branding irons? You have scored your name into my shoulders, referenced me with your mark. The pads of your fingers have become printing blocks, you tap a message on to my skin, tap meaning into my body. Your morse code interferes with my heart beat. I had a steady heart before I met you, I relied upon it, it had seen active service and grown strong. Now you alter its pace with your own rhythm, you play upon me, drumming me taut.” Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body

“Touch. It is touch that is the deadliest enemy of chastity, loyalty, monogamy, gentility with its codes and conventions and restraints. By touch we are betrayed and betray others ... an accidental brushing of shoulders or touching of hands ... hands laid on shoulders in a gesture of comfort that lies like a thief, that takes, not gives, that wants, not offers, that awakes, not pacifies. When one flesh is waiting, there is electricity in the merest contact.” Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Off-road: “Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” Mark Twain

Pic: An year old, from my archive

How Intelligent Is Intelligence?

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." Plutarch

"A great oak is only a little nut that held its ground." Anonymous

"For you to insult me, I must first value your opinion." unknown

“He who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” Alexander Hamilton

“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.” Nelson Mandela

“Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs.” Zig Ziglar

Fly, Fly, FLy

Hannibal Lecter: You fly back to school, now, little Starling. Fly, fly, fly...

(A dialogue from the classic movie 'Silence of the lambs')

About the pic: An year old pic. clicked in Mangalore during a trial photo shoot.

You Can Reach Nirvana In 10 Days

There once was a wannabe-disciple who went to a Guru to feel what being in 'nirvana' felt like. He knew what he wanted and asked the Guru to show him the path to this state through meditation et all. The Guru admitted him and the following conversation emerges 10 days later, soon after the disciple is quite convinced that the meditation he has practiced has helped him reach the state of "nothingness" a.k.a the state of nirvana (yeah right! faster than those 'learn Hindi in 30 days' courses. Must be one of those "I want it now" corporate rats).

Man: (Comes running and panting) Guruji, Guruji, I have reached the state of nirvana.

Guru: Thats great! So what did you realize?

Man: (Puff! Pant! Gasps for breath and...) I feel that I am nothing. From nothing I came and to nothing I go and am nothing in between. I feel great and I feel nothing inside and nothing on the outside.

Guru: Are you sure?

Man: Yes Guruji, with no ego I feel great.

Guru: Are you sure?

Man: Yeee.... (fatak! came a slap from nowhere) szzzzzzzzzz...

(The man looked at the Guru's hand now recoiling after delivering that blow. The man's eyes turned red as the Guru gently smiled. The man spat the blood now drooling out of his mouth and asked...)

Man: What the hell was that for you lousy old man?

Guru: (Still smiling) Now where were we?! So you were telling me that you have reached nirvana and you feel nothing and hence no ego... right?

Man: YEAH, RIGHT! (Still mumbling and hiding his clenching fists)

Guru: Then where did this anger come from?!...

The man went back into the ashram to continue his spiritual journey.

p.c:http://www.clear-mind-meditation-techniques.com/binaural-beats-for-meditation.html

Wow! What A Woman!

Remarkable women who are worth remembering on this day, the women's day:

Indira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India led the country to war with Pakistan in 1971. She is remembered most for her campaign against Sikh separatists and for declaring a state of emergency when inhuman atrocities were done to any "suspected" citizen (which meant every one else who did not have a "Gandhi" as their surname.) She set up India's nuclear program, culminating in the explosion of a nuclear device in 1974. Old is gold indeed!

Shiela Dikshit: So now whats in a name?! "Shit" thats what she made the rest of the world call the country which hosted the Common Wealth Games of 2010. Ofcourse she had a Man to blame it all on... didn't we know that behind every ruined man is a smart woman and smart is she indeed! Currently holds the post of CM of a place declared the most dangerous for women... what a parody just like her name!

Mayawati: The recent kick in her behind following the Uttar Pradesh polls tells it all. From her own lavish spending on security and bungalows to erecting her own statues in useless parks, she has done it all just like any other woman would in self-praise and admiration... probably that is the only excuse she has... being a woman!

Sonia Gandhi: Corrupt to the core, she manifests her Italian mafia streak by using a dumb (mute) punjabi prime minister and an evil tamil home minister to silence the screaming pain of thousands of natives by slitting their throats under the pretext of 'curbing "grave" internal threats' and thereby selling our motherland to foreign-step fathers to use it for mining, bringing in FDI and establishing nuclear power stations. Can say more yet the unsettled bofors scammed guns may be aimed at me... after all must anyone teach her to silence dissent better?!

Mamata Banerjee: Came in as the promising hope of all Bengali's in a Hyundai Santro, saviour of the masses (esp. the people labelled naxals) whom she promised to protect and eventually started destroying... an eccentric piece for study and a sad replacement for Jyothi Basu, a legend, a man.

"Selvi" J.J a.k.a Amma: This thing rose to power not because people liked it but because people did not like the night time-goggles-wearing man and his family of corruption. After all can we blame the people? if not him then this thing, what else to vote for?! Then her regime... Power cuts, shortage of fuel, rising crime rates, even tried to screw up school education and managed to do to some extent for the children, often visits the neighbouring state when ever summoned by the court to face trials pending against her, decides what t.v programs people must watch by bringing the cable t.v under government control just like alcohol which too seems to be a booming business as she generously lets the private leaches take shares in the "business" of education and health. Such is her greatness!

These are creatures that will be remembered as those that roamed the Indian soil. Did I have to add more, after all I haven't gone international yet! Then I thought why waste time? Let me give these hapless ones a break; after all today is women's day and wish to end today's scribble with a quote I read... "When a woman behaves like a man, why doesn’t she behave like a nice man ?"

By the by, happy women's day and may you take many more years still to come as you aspire to be a man. Remember, wearing a pant does not make you a Man anymore than standing in a garage would make you a car. So for heaven's sake, forget all the feminist ideas, grow up, be a good girl, cook food, raise children and be a woman.

p.c: http://who-here.blogspot.in/2011/05/low-income-women-die-more-of-alcohol.html

This Is Sexy

People who write regularly sometimes say that they reach a point in writing when they cannot get anything out, cannot write any more, atleast temporarily; this is what they call 'the writer's block'. To overcome this they say you have to have a muse; a muse is someone who springs lust within, lust that makes you chase, the chase that inspires creativity, an inspiration that lasts only till it ends in sex; once the muse is attained like in the case of sex, it ceases to be a muse too.
Recently I could not write. This had nothing to do with a writer's block nor did I need a muse, atleast at this moment. I often ensure not to invest time in anything that does not affect me... "if something does not affect you it is not worth going through" I always say. Yet, this that I saw was a little too much to digest. I saw the war crimes caught on tape from the island nation submitted to the UN and other agencies that promise justice for the victims. Victims, people with skin, bones, heart, mind and soul, just like everyone else; it easily could have been you and me, had we born there and spoke the language for which they underwent this torture. Women being killed, stripped and their naked bodies teased... in the same order; children screaming from bunkers unable to reach the bombed bodies of their parents lying right in front of them fearing the awaiting bomber above them; girls raped along with their mother; people paraded naked, blindfolded and then shot point blank; lifeless bodies of children and mothers swamped in blood carrying them crying helplessly, asking, "what did these children do?"; unanswered, some old people already suffering the mercilessness of time being ripped to pieces, torn and bleeding, hardly whimpering nevertheless cry; truckloads of bodies heaped and to get more space stamped to crush them to make way for more space to crush in further more bodies; all this happening as the military who commit these acts against unarmed people cover these acts in their mobile phone cameras with laughter and a sense of pride.
The international community is quiet. Quiet just like me because it did not happen at my door step and thanks to the remote control and choice of channels, switching to a song and dance sequence is easy and healthier. These people, the victims of war and crime, in the mean time will be quiet, too weak to cry any more; hurt beyond repair, lifeless and voiceless. After water reaches your nose, why bother if it reaches your eye or covers you whole?!
Now, would anyone bother to read this post if it had been titled any different? Its hard to write when some things affect you beyond repair and it feels like being killed under water, with mouth closed shut, unable to scream, with no one to hear even if I did. Now the buck stops there even with me! Such unworthy, self-obsessed, selfish bastards we all are.

p.c: http://www.ashleyb.org/archives/001437.html

The Shortest Telegraph In History

The shortest telegraph sent so far sounded quite smart and assertive... the Spartans were sons of war; born tough and rough. Once while a rival conqueror was in his mad pursuit, a messenger was sent to the Spartan King to scare them to their bones and weaken their spirit in a telegraphic language that read, "If we march into the boundaries of Sparta, your wives will become widows, your children will be orphaned and your land brought to dust." Now, the Spartans were not just brawn alone they had the brain to go with it. Soon the rival conqueror saw his messenger bring back a reply from the Spartan King and to his surprize found the same telegraph he had sent earlier brought back to him with the word "If" duly underlined.

Thus the shortest reply in history which read more than what was said. If only we learn to speak less!

p.c: http://doitlikeadude.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/are-you-more-tough-guy-or-spartan-warrior/