Snape kind-a love!

We have all enjoyed the Harry Potter fiction, be it the books or movies, and for those of us who are huge fans of this franchise, it is certain that we have all ended up having a soft corner for Prof. Snape, some of us have even ended up liking this character more than the leads or Dumbledore. Here is February, with the Valentine hearts making its stamp everywhere, we see some enjoying the fervour, and some trying to ignore it, while some unfortunate few craving for that little zing of romance to happen. Perhaps these lines too are written by someone who is a little swayed by the Valentine's Day fever. Though I can think of many blissful and everlasting romances and love tales, it is Severus Snape's yearning for Lily that snapped atop my mind.

 

[Snape] stood up. "You have used me."

"Meaning?"

"I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter's son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter-"

"But this is touching, Severus," said Dumbledore seriously. "Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?"

"For him?" shouted Snape. "Expecto Patronum!"

From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe: she landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

"After all this time?"

"Always," said Snape.

(Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince's Tale)

 

Just take a moment to analyse this character - throughout the series, Snape is portrayed as a toughened man, and he even received a lot of spite when he charged Dumbledore. But in the end, he takes away my breath by saying that single word, "Always". Narratives such as these truly make fiction a whole lot better than real. A man in tears, down to his knees, sworn to protect his beloved's child, and never lets go of his fondness for Lily even after all those years is a character worth loving! The weight that a simple "always" can carry is enormous, and the narrative compels you to think about the word and the commitment it entails.

Is the cat a minuscule salon tiger..

 

Is the cat a minuscule salon tiger..

Despite the many distasteful remarks made on "Memories of my Melancholy Whores", a novella written by the Noble Prize winning Colombian author Marquez, it has something to offer to the young and the old. In brief words, the story is about a nonagenarian accidentally finding love. The narrative reeks with the notion that virginity is a virtue and this precisely changes the course of events for the unnamed narrator post his ninetieth birthday.

Now, to a modern day reader, the story may come across as a befitting text that ought to be run through the chainsaws of multiple theories, but, it is best to leave the novella be and read it as a cluster of words telling a story.

What kept me amused was to see how a carnal desire metamorphoses into weirdly platonic and takes the face of something that one cannot live without. Marquez has not written any dialogues of conversation between the narrator and his liaison, but the almost accurate description of what the narrator experiences is spread across. It is a simple story that presents before the readers in its bare skeleton the reality, a reality that cannot be repudiated yet can be digested by the readers only through fiction!

Unapologetically Me!

Before I continue with the post, I may have to clarify a few things:

1. No, I did not have any complicated relationship with my hair. In fact, I loved my hair, and the short hair has always complimented my face.

2. No, I am not dealing with any chronic illness.

3. No, I am not depressed.

4. No, I am not fighting against any nonsensical establishments of controlling women.

5. No, I am not imitating anyone.

Having laid down the definite answers, I now resume to my actual post.

 

Okay, this not a post of me being a rebellious woman nor is there any coming out of the closet. It's just my new haircut.

I have been meaning to shave my head or get a buzz cut for quite some time now, and the lockdown provided a perfect opportunity for that! Trust me, there was a lot going in my head when it came to completely shaving my head, but then to own up such a step needs some rationalisation. I have often seen my brother reaching for the clippers whenever his hair grows and begins to irritate him. He just shaves his head and walks about just like that. With me, I had no intentions of shaving my head (at least not now) but those of you who have a hair-length that needs to be tended to very often will know my struggles. It's about eight years now since I cut my hair short, short as in a length that comes up to my neck and the remaining part of the hair is cut layer-wise. Now, if it grows half-an-inch longer, I need to head to the saloon or I may have to put up with it. But I have always loved the way my hair looks. Many of you also know the increase in the prices for haircut, yep, I pay a lot and so, I get a haircut like once in two/three months. I honestly think that me being broke and unable to spend on my regular haircut is one of the reasons for the big chop!

Well, that's the end of the beginning. I just randomly spoke to my mother about it and she too was a little apprehensive about this. One good thing about her is that over these years, she has grown so much that she doesn't take things at its face value, instead rationalises to herself. Keeping all her beliefs and opinions aside, she simply agreed to it. I really don't know what she was thinking. Nevertheless, I borrowed my brother's clippers and did the big chop!

I now have a 'lockdown buzzcut', apparently that's a trending hashtag! I like the way I look, completely raw and unedited. I have nothing to hide behind. Also, all those take on experiencing empowerment or feeling liberated did not really happen here. May be because I perceive these huge words through my action of teaching and drawing. A buzzcut is simply another haircut, that's how I see it.

I was a little saddened when a dear friend of mine said that I looked like a monkey and that the entire endeavour was a meaningless act, and that I could have done better things. Perhaps this was all told in jest, but I personally don't stand by it. If someone tells me that they are going to experiment with their hair, my most immediate and sincere response would be, "Great, would love to see the new hairdo!" I realised that progressive thinkers are not really that progressive... I mean, if you think you are a progressive thinker and spend a lot of time in thinking whether a woman should go bald or not, it's about time you change your mindset.

I like the way I look. I am getting used to my look. It's not all positives though, sometimes my head and ears feel cold, and I put up my hoodie. Also, I haven't posted my new picture anywhere on social media simply because I have nothing to prove to the world nor to myself. Just like different haircuts, buzzcut is one of them. Please don't insult me by saying that it was a bold/brave move and that you would have done if you had that courage... Again, it's just a haircut!

If you have this in your bucket list or even want to try, lockdown is the perfect time, go ahead! And if it turns out to be a big mistake, well, in much matured words of my mother, "It's just hair, it'll grow back.."

What does it mean to challenge rape culture?

Although this may be a repetition, it is still not a redundant conversation. It has become convenient for government and public to focus on individual risk factors for either sexual violence perpetration or victimisation. But the focus should be on the social structures that underpin the perpetration of sexual violence. 'Rape Culture' could be seen as one of the social, cultural and structural discourses and practices in which sexual violence is tolerated, accepted, eroticised, minimised and trivialised. No rape narrative can be dismissed or discounted. In a rape culture, violence against women is eroticised in literary, cinematic and media representations; victims are routinely disbelieved for their own victimisation; and perpetrators are rarely held accountable or their behaviours are seen as excusable or understandable. These manifestly sexist attitudes and beliefs about rape, rape victims and rapists do not exist in isolation but rather are part of a broader manifestation of gender inequality, prevalent in the language, laws and institutions that are supposed to criminalise, challenge and prevent sexual violence but instead perpetuate, support, condone or reflect these values. Resistance to changing or challenging this rape culture can also be found in the erroneous but deeply embedded belief that rape is an inevitable and natural fact of life. We need to bring in a 'bystander' as an approach to stopping sexual violence against women. In particular, the role of men in challenging the violent and abusive behaviours of their peers and consequently challenging cultures of 'male peer support' for rape. We have to mostly focus on educating individuals in providing support to a victim, challenging the behaviour of a perpetrator or calling the police. The bystander coming in should encourage individuals to not be passive witnesses and, by their silence, effectively condone and contribute to a culture of sexual violence against women. We must begin addressing this issue at its grass-roots level.

A sentence, at times, with a full-stop.

Ah... wait a minute Monsieur... or Madame if you're one...

Did you give me a second glance when you heard the tuk-tuk-click-click sound? Well, you see, I am being created. My creator is squeezing her mind out to adorn me with vocabulary. She's at it for hours together now!

Apparently, I create meanings, I give life to emotions... and not just that, I become the face for revolutions and wars... People sing me, crowds howl me, and I merge into the chorus very often.

I drop gently in fear out of a lover's lips when he is whispering to his beloved. I metamorphosize from emotions to love letters when it is her turn to reciprocate the love. I get formed in the language that the lovers think of, sometimes I carry ellipses within just to prolong the sensual talks...

I am a mother's care for her child, a father's reprimanding of his wanton, a sibling's harmless petty fights with the elder or younger... I become their vehicle and carry their voices in different tones...

Letters come together into words, and words become my bone house with punctuation becoming my different organs...

Well, I am what you are reading now... I am what you will use when you narrate this to someone...

I am an articulation of your thoughts on paper... I am a sentence. A sentence, at times, with a full-stop.

Is Literature Becoming Obsolete?

I am a teacher by profession and passion, and I 'teach' English Literature for the undergraduates, a subject which is popularly called 'Optional English'. It appears quite ironic because the less learned never associate the term literature with what they study in this paper! My love for literature did not come that easily, thanks to my teachers for they played a major role in instilling in me the worth of literature. When I began my literature voyage, I found madness everywhere, but what kept me going was the fact that there was a method to this madness.

The long hours of reading Caedmon to Shakespeare to Wordsworth to Byron, took me on a vigorous ride. I bore the rood on my back as I compared my beloved to the summer's day and recollected my thoughts in tranquility only to realise that I loved not man less but nature more. Some other friends like Keats, Frost and Arnold amused me in a manner very different; they made the ordinary seem extraordinary. Just the sight of the beaded bubbles winking at the brim got me intoxicated, and I flung outward conquering every birch while still musing on the reality that there was before me a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new.

While I was getting drunk in poetry, I accidentally bumped into the novels, and then I went on to take many a strolls with Austen, Bronte, Hardy and Lawrence. They took me to faraway places, to lands I had never been. They made me feel the wind that touched their noses, made me feel the chill of their winters while Bangalore was hitting a 30 degree Celsius in its summer days. I loved Darcy as much as Lizzy did; I mourned for Helen Burns while Jane Eyre wept; I smelled the mud of Egdon Heath along with Eustacia; and I saw the rainbow of hope holding hands with Urusula.

The Muses who blessed Homer and Milton have now become weak. I search for a voice, a philosophy that would say "of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man". Or even a powerful tone which could utter that "the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven", and put some sense into mankind. Yeats and Eliot saw the horrific future in things falling apart through a heap of broken images, but now they have become mere words in history that silently pass under our critical eyes of postmodernism and postcolonialism.

The multifarious schools of thoughts have taken over the field. Barthes' understanding of the world of words and meanings, through signifier, signified and sign, made me dissect literature. While I made my pen a surgical knife, I had a Derrida enter the room and say that I now enacted before an informed audience, and that I should have to deconstruct all that I have learned. Grappling with many ideologies and contradictions, my struggle of learning and unlearning was justified when Descartes shouldered me with his philosophy, "I think therefore I am."

Literature became laborious, but interestingly laborious. It tickled my mind. I saw literature now becoming cultural studies, but the writers of the past disengaged themselves with the new readers. Aesthetic reading was slowly being replaced by critical reading. The search for truth became rampant until another friend came along and enlightened me. This friend was know for his name which most found difficult to spell or even pronounce. The many dates I had with Nietzsche made me realise that there is no truth but there are only interpretations.

Let me now tell you a secret. Literature is not just aesthetic pleasure or understanding the world in its pixelated frames. It is beyond that, where amidst all the noble pursuits that exists, literature comes forth as the mother of all. She sustains life and gives it a meaning. She allows us to understand and express our emotions. She is the only reason why a part of the human race is still sane. How can literature ever become obsolete, for she is a daily prayer and the breath of all mankind!

Why is the rum always gone?

I looked into his eyes on a brightly day, ruminated over the beauty of his features, the mustache and those dimples... Probably the last night's intoxication was still not down, and all I could tell him as I looked around was,"Why is the rum always gone?"

Friends Never Say Goodbye

Oh, so now you want me back?

Interesting...

We were friends right?

We don't expect friends to come back, for they don't leave us in the first place!

Well, you left... We never were friends in that case...

Purpose of a Well-Wrought Argument

A thought occurred to me while watching a debate show on a regional language channel. The function of the two groups, probably for the purposes of the TRP of the show, was that they had to go logger heads with each other with their points on 'for' or 'against' the topic of discussion. Throughout the show, I noticed that a few members from the two groups were arguing on baseless statements. They appeared highly opinionated and narrow minded. The remaining members were simply there to fill the audience seats, I should hope! Well, since this was a show put up on television, I don't have much qualms about it, for media of today is mostly scripted, and I cannot place my statements based on what is told on television.

However, over the years that I have evolved as a true learner, I have realized that arguments can be healthy. They can aid in paving a proper channel for thought reception and processing. The sole purpose of an argument must lie in the fact that one must voice out one's opinions, and be open to listen to others' opinions. An individual must get to the crux of what forms one's opinions. He/she must understand that what is right to him/her may not be the same to the other. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for one to be non-judgemental and to be a patient listener. Understanding or looking at a situation from another individual's point of view would definitely open up vistas of new possibilities of learning.

When an individual becomes a good listener, he/she will eventually become compassionate, and this sort of a feeling is the need of the hour. Spreading the baseless arguments onto a larger scale, it is the dearth of patience and compassion, and the rise of power and authority, that nations have indulged in wars. No nation legalizes and heads a whole unit of arms and ammunition for their defence, the nation only makes sure that if an attack is going to happen, their nation should be empowered to destroy the other nations.

The whole process is a simple psychology! I don't carry weapons to protect myself, but to harm the other who has harmed me, and the 'revenge' should be double to cater to my satisfaction. And when I say 'weapon', it doesn't necessarily mean guns or grenades. There are weapons deadlier such as the 'Seven Deadly Sins' (greed, lust, envy, pride, wrath, sloth and gluttony).

Coming back to the actual point of a 'well-wrought argument', it is necessary for an individual to learn and think before speaking his/her mind out. Every individual is entitled to his/her own opinion, but this statement cannot be imposed on every opinions given in a discussion. If wrong, or if a new line of thought emerges, a true learner must and should accept and modify his/her thinking. In the end, arguments are meant to make an individual stronger and more empathetic to others and pressing issues.

This is what I personally believe of healthy arguments. Please do let me know if I have missed mentioning any vital point, and correct me if I am wrong.

brief but an honest encounter

Sales rep.: Fake Accent Good evening Madam! Welcome to the "Bedazzling Inn of the Majestic Beauty Outlet" [BIMBO]! How may I help you today?

Me: Good evening! I really don't need any help now, I am fine shopping by myself. Thank you!

Sales rep.: Fake Accent But Madam, we have a new variety of lipstick shades which come in a combo with its matching eye-shadow shades. Please take a look...

Me: Blank... I am wearing an over-sized tee, with striped pyjamas, and have an almost deranged look with the geeky spectacles! No... I don't think I need them now. Will look at it some other time. I have come to buy something in particular... So, please, I can manage. Thanks again!

Nope, the sales rep. isn't giving up, and he follows!

Sales rep.: Fake Accent Well, Madam... Is there anything that I could assist you with?

Me: Losing my cool upon listening to the fake-accented-English... Saar, sanitary napkins begagitthu... Ashte!

Sales rep.: Ah, sorry, please carry on...

Me: Mind voice - Paradesi naaye!

Feeling low and dispirited? You should probably read this!

The following quotes are taken from the much celebrated writer, Paulo Coelho. I read these, and felt the urge to share them. Hope you too will enjoy reading these excerpts.

When you're afraid of change!

“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.”

When you're misunderstood or maligned!

“Don’t explain. Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you.”

When you feel disappointed about a failure!

“But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you’re fighting for.”

When you're unsure of who your true friends are!

“Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.”

After a break-up!

“When someone leaves, it’s because someone else is about to arrive.”

When you grow envious of other people!

“Some people appear to be happy, but they simply don’t give the matter much thought. Others make plans: I’m going to have a husband, a home, two children, a house in the country. As long as they’re busy doing that, they’re like bulls looking for the bullfighter: they react instinctively, they blunder on, with no idea where the target is. They get their car, sometimes they even get a Ferrari, and they think that’s the meaning of life, and they never question it. Yet their eyes betray the sadness that even they don’t know they carry in their soul. Are you happy?”

When you feel overwhelmed by everything in your life!

“Close some doors today. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere.”

When it’s time to let go!

“It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.”

When you're afraid to love!

“Love is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to reach out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if it means hours, days, weeks of disappointment and sadness. The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us.”

When you feel like you can’t hold on anymore!

“It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”

When your haters hate on you!

“The world is divided into those who understand me and those who don’t. In the case of the latter, I simply leave them to torment themselves trying to gain my sympathy.”

When you feel suppressed by others’ expectations!

“Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people’s ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams.”

When you lose something or somebody you love!

“Tragedy always brings about radical change in our lives, a change that is associated with the same principle: loss. When faced by any loss, there’s no point in trying to recover what has been; it’s best to take advantage of the large space that opens up before us and fill it with something new.”

When you find it so hard to forgive!

“I forgive the tears I was made to shed, I forgive the pain and the disappointments, I forgive the betrayals and the lies, I forgive the slanders and intrigues, I forgive the hatred and the persecution, I forgive the blows that hurt me, I forgive the wrecked dreams, I forgive the stillborn hopes, I forgive the hostility and jealousy, I forgive the indifference and ill will, I forgive the injustice carried out in the name of justice, I forgive the anger and the cruelty, I forgive the neglect and the contempt, I forgive the world and all its evils… I also forgive myself. May the misfortunes of the past no longer weigh on my heart. Instead of pain and resentment, I choose understanding and compassion. Instead of rebellion, I choose the music from my violin. Instead of grief, I choose forgetting. Instead of vengeance, I choose victory. I will be capable of loving, regardless of whether I am loved in return, of giving, even when I have nothing, of working happily, even in the midst of difficulties, of holding out my hand, even when utterly alone and abandoned, of drying my tears, even while I weep, of believing, even when no one believes in me… So it is. So it will be.”

 
When you hit rockbottom!

“When I had nothing more to lose, I was given everything. When I ceased to be who I am, I found myself. When I experienced humiliation and yet kept on walking, I understood that I was free to choose my destiny.”

why i write?

To all writers and writers-to-be, there is something that compels you to start creating your own baggage of words in order as poems or stories or essays or even meager status updates. If you were to invest a minute or two in pondering over the "why" question, the answers would be pretty much disturbing!

I started writing when I was about 14 years old (I am referring to the time when I actually started blogging). Initially, it was the immediate fascination to the technology that lured me into the space of techno-virtuality; and this continued more as a thing to boast about that I was into internet and that I knew about computers and web-designings and all that crap.

As years passed, I fell in love (well, something to my perception that makes me believe that I am normal enough), and there came the puerile poetry of love and romance. Very soon, I started appreciating the aesthetically amusing words, and literature helped me a great deal to savour the mellifluous tasteful melodies of just plain words. I started reading books, and the gallimaufry of words danced before my eyes which further initiated my urge to write on multifarious themes. Let me be very honest, I was truly hopeless at writing (and I still think that I am no better now), but it was just the urge 'to be heard' that made me want to write more.

When I was doing my post-graduate course, this urge 'to be heard' become overwhelmingly intense, and I started writing on real random and abstract concepts. At that time, I think I was writing merely because it was satisfying my ego. An ego that went on growing big in me only to defy me in the end, an ego that told me that I was becoming important but soon brought me down to my knees and shot me through the already shattered self. I guess, this reality check was absolutely necessary. I realized how wrong I was when my writings were measured using tools of criticism.

I failed and fell, but I got up not to just walk but to rise.

I began writing when there was really a muse before me, a deepest desire that flowed in the manner of words - poems, stories, philosophy, essays, etc. - I simply wrote. Academic writing is different, but writing to fuel your own soul is entirely different. This epiphany has done great good to me. It keeps me in check, prevents me from overdoing the labours of writing, and helps me appreciate the subliminal beauty of just words.

#dum dum dum #gettimelam gettimelam

"The more educationally qualified you are, it's difficult to find you a groom. Don't you want to settle down in life? Get married? Have children? Raise your own family? You're no longer young! See... we're not forcing you, we know what's good for you and that's why we're insisting that you start thinking about marriage."

I am not being gender biased here, but let's be honest, almost all women get this family-talk right from their early twenties, especially in our Indian context. I am no feminist who would want to argue that I want to be an independent woman and that I will choose my prospective husband-to-be and all that. I am simply a human being with a penchant for imbibing solitude.

Is it too much to borrow a few extra years of solitude from my own life?

Is it too much to ask for some time till I finish my studies and figure out what I want to exactly pursue in life?

"You're well-educated, it doesn't really matter if you get a job or not, because your prospective husband-to-be will be okay with you not working. You could still enjoy after getting married. Whatever this solitude is, have it with your husband! Look at your cousins and friends... aren't they happy after getting married?"

Really??? Solitude with spouse? I am no philosopher, but I somehow find it difficult to digest the fact that my prospective husband and I will become soulmates in just an hour or two, and together experience the power of solitude by giving each other our own space. And what exactly should I ask my cousins and friends? Whether they are happy with their marriage? Creating a chaotic self-introspection into their lives would be the last thing that I would ever want to do! If they are happy, so be it, I too am happy for them.

"Arre... when will you get married? I want to wear that 20,000 Kanchivaram sari, your wedding will be the perfect occasion to flaunt my bright red-silk sari!"

Seriously? My wedding is more like a fashion parade to you? There are these annoying auntie-jis everywhere. They are just waiting to parade on the marriage aisles draped tightly in their brightly coloured kanchivaram silk saris, with their blouses trying to suck in almost every bulging part, yet failing miserably and leaving evidently more fleshy masses hanging! No! I don't want my wedding to be a disastrous fashion show platform!

"If you're a married woman, then you're eligible to have upto 500 grams of gold without showing the source of income for its purchase."

Right! Now the government gets to decide my fate in marriage! So, in order to have extra gold, I should get married! Wow!

The illusion most of the settled people have is that they believe they're settled. They have the same settled friends' circle who have almost the same job and have been married at the right age. It is very difficult to break this illusion that they have, and the worst they do is impose their beliefs on us.

Let me tell you, giving up on your dreams and living somebody else's dream was not the biggest regret of your life. The actual regret was when you were too afraid to say, "No!"

Why animals? Why now?

This write-up got published in "Thinklet" online journal, issued by Jain University, in the May 2017 Issue.

Animals have had the greatest share of space on this planet. They were here even before our species came into being. It is unfortunate to see man becoming the center of all and the ecology highly imbalanced. 

When studying about the different representations of animals in different texts written by different writers, the one question that always crops up is: "Why look at animals now?" It appears to be a straightforward question until one makes a sincere attempt to learn the latent meaning. 

"Everywhere animals disappear. In zoos they constitute the living monument to their own disappearance." - John Berger

Anthropomorphism has been integral in the building of the relationship between humans and animals. The need for man to be in the center has created a barren space where animals are gradually disappearing form their spheres, and in this new solitude, anthropomorphism makes man doubly uneasy. Animals now are made commercially available in the form of toys and artifacts, and this commercialization carries different symbolic representations (often stereotyped) which are affecting the human-animal relationship.

Most of the literary works have used and still use animals as tropes; they are primarily used as part of the setting, and Ecocriticism, one of the emerging literary theories, is concerned with this. The real animals are marginalized, and bringing them to the critical center is indeed the need of the hour.

parley resumed

Tiresias: What good shine on mine blind eyes, and what good warmth on mine wrinkled face! T'is a time to rejoice the nature's awful beauty.

Cadmus: Good morrow Ti! Had a good sleep?

Tiresias: As gentle as the curled furry guardian of the dead, Master.

 

Cadmus: Your words amuse me, my friend.

Tiresias: Lest, mine words are of some use...

Cadmus: Ti, my friend, my dear friend... you and I should retire. It is about time we had new faces in the palace, new kings and king makers, and new order.

Tiresias: Certainly Master, but one should not and cannot stop being who he is. A king is a king, and forever be the king despite the change in place of dwelling. We are men of soil, and looking after our people is not our prerogative but a duty, my Master. Abdicating from our destined responsibilities can do us no serious harm, yet it can also do us no good.

Cadmus: Ti... You make my mind dizzy... Fetch me some good wine, and spread the sweet fragrances of the Arab perfume in the great hall.

Tiresias: As you order, Sire.

life happened while sipping the piping hot 'pilter kaapi'

What is it like to see a sun rise and a sun set?

What is so mystically beautiful about the moon?

Why do we say brighter days and gloomy nights?

What is it that we are actually trying to communicate to others?

Wait! Are we really that generous to talk about such stuff with others?

Or are we just talking to ourselves by having a dialogue with others?

Think...

Sun sets and sun rises; there is full moon and there is no moon; and there are gloomier days and brighter nights - but why is there an exaggeration on this romanticism, aren't these occurrences natural?

We are living in an age where we are steadfast with time, we have no patience what so ever, and no matter for whom so ever. We have rid the naturalness from our lives and have quaffed the materialistic values with ease, we have naturalized the unnatural. The need of the hour, as most of us feel, is to return to nature, and the reason is not that we have forgotten these phenomenal elements, it's simply because we have begun to neglect and eventually ignore these happenings.

We rush through everything, starting with waking up in the morning to taking a shower to traveling to work to eating food to drinking coffee to getting to bed in the night. We are led astray, and we do not realize that life is in the present too. Failing to see what is actually happening in and around us, our minds take on a different way of thinking. Rains were our best companions in those gay old childhood days, but now, the thought of the damped roads and traffic jams due to rains puts us off. We have built contradictions like such with many other aspects. The amount of insensitivity that is slowly growing in us has to be stopped.

There is beauty and magic in savouring the tastes of the food that you eat. The twirling of the wine glasses, and the aroma it gives must be enjoyed as if you were already intoxicated. The yellow and the white spheres ought to be appreciated for they are the symbols of early love birds singing, and the secret lovers meeting late. Life does not happen when you shove your nose into many things, it simply is and happens while you enjoy sipping the piping hot pilter kaapi.

a parley of just plain thoughts

Cadmus: Do you know why the dark sky looks magical only with stars?

Tiresias: Forgive me Master, I know not of the wisdom of nature of sight, it is, as I believe, both a curse and a gift.

Cadmus: Oh my dear friend, I wish you could see the beauty of white dots sparkling on the black velvet. How very unfortunate it is to not experience nature's beauty!

Tiresias: Certainly Master, but do not let beauty fool thine vision. Beauty is like the sirens leading wanderers further and farther astray, Beauty is also the Goddess to mortals who worship its worthiness.

Cadmus: Beauty is also beautiful!

Tiresias: Beauty is also ugly, my dear Master!

Cadmus: What relevance is this to me, Ti?

Tiresias: Thou art the ruler dear Master. Thou should know that Beauty is but found in unity, a chaotic yet serene alloy in form. The eyes that praise the dark expanse over must also foresee the ugly end of time clasping the night and the day rising.

Cadmus: Ti, now confused I remain...

Tiresias: Yet, Master, it is one state of mind, and the Beauty of being confused is that thou now know that thou art confused.

Cadmus: Leave me to my rustling thoughts, Ti. Go into that gentle sleep for a while...

Tiresias: I bid thee farewell for tonight. I pray thee to have a peaceful and beautiful sleep.

Intellectual Fascism

This write-up got published in "Thinklet" online journal, issued by Jain University, in the March 2017 Issue.

Research culture in India has come a long way, but it has developed along, in the timeline of growth, the culture of ‘intellectual fascism’. Intellectual fascism is considered an arbitrary belief that people with ‘good’ traits (such as intelligence and creativity) are superior to those who possess the ‘bad’ traits (such as stupidity or lack of artistry). The post-colonial India has adopted several of the methods and governance from its colonial masters, and currently our nation is not just being westernized, but it is being ‘westoxicated’. It was colonizers then, and now the neo-colonizers who have and are imposing the aspect of supremacy. This trait of showing supremacy is deeply embedded in many aspects, and the field of academia too has become a victim of this mentality.

Isn’t ‘improving the human condition’ one of the motives of education?

Research should be the guiding force for a student to pursue the truth. But, research culture is deviating from its main purpose into the ugly shadows of hegemony. Intellectual autonomy which is the ideal of thinking for oneself has become a mask for intellectual fascism. Students are made the knowledge commons, and are made to modify and streamline their thought processes to the way the commercialized education systems require. As students, we are prone to let our mental lives become invaded by legions of half-truths, prejudices and propaganda. And sadly this has surfaced in our research cultures as well.

In order to curb this problem, one must engage in a thorough intellectual inquiry, and seek to be educated and further educate others. Research is but a cultural practice which enables humans to seek knowledge and truth, and this can happen if one pays heed to cultivating good character in the process. Faux-experts must surrender to the intellectual power of the truly wise; charlatanism must find an end and actual purpose of education must spread wide.

i lived

It was too late, the doctors gave up on her life. She wanted to whisper her last words, but there was no ear to hear her out. Letting out a sigh, in her weak voice, she spoke, "At least I lived!"

the power to be a 'word'

​I have traveled far, wide and across the globe. I have sought shelter in many minds, the strongest and the weakest. The strongest group me up with others and speak poetical philosophy, while the weak succumb to suppressing me within themselves. I am born with no boundaries, I take any form easily, and I can express emotions too. I am powerful!

It is difficult for anyone to avoid me, and even if they choose to do so, they still need me, for I am a tool. Love, kindness, happiness, hatred, and jealousy are a few of my avatars. I help the great minds to pull their thoughts before the world, and I help those timid hearts to express love magically. I am powerful!

The universe is my master, and I describe my master, for I have the power, the power to be a 'word'.