Of least concern

As a species we would be under the label 'of least concern'.
Like all labels, this one too is useless,
as it does not tell us for sure that least concern is what we are showing to our existence.

Try saying this out loud every morning when you go for the yoga or the laughter classes:
Our existence is not under threat.

If you are not the first or the last of your tribe,
it is a liberating feeling to say it out loud.
Somewhat similar to the feeling you get when you shave your head for the first time.

A short story

1) The Note
I will put you in a new place. Do not open your eyes yet. I have to adjust the light and the colour so that you can see where you are properly.
I can use words to tell you how this place is. So that you know before you open your eyes. So make sure your ears are open. Actually... Say something if you can hear me.

2) The Place
I wonder sometimes if I heard you right. However, seems like this is the place you were talking about. And coming of age is not impossible but indeed an ardous task here.
Were we given minds so they could be manipulated by or manipulate other minds?

I am short and I have long hair. You will not call me unkempt, but cluttered maybe.  

Advice

My brother once told me, whatever it is that you are doing wrong, don't do it.
Very sound advice, that,
because it brought my attention to the fact that I could be doing something wrong.
We spend most of our lives thinking that we do no wrong.

The advice worked for me because it also told me,
there is a certain thing that you are doing wrong, and not
every thing.
It is a relief to know you have to just fix one thing,
and the rest will fall in place.

Identifying that thing is not an easy task though,
one can spend one's whole life doing that,

and never be able to engage with the society,
or build something to leave behind --
as a token of appreciation,
for the wonderful times had.

so you do not really have to follow it through,
stop when you know enough,
a general understanding is enough.

Is there anything I can do?

I have never wasted time,

debating if time is linear or circular,

whatever it is, there is something called in time,

and there is a pleasure that is true,

when things arrive on time,

And I believe in good time is a good phrase too,

About magic

I am in awe,
every moment.

I am in magic,
every moment.

Master of magic.

You exist.
Oh beauty (my fragile heart is stronger now, so allow me to address you so.)

August Osage County

The film, based on a play by the same name, shows a family of broken women. Meryl Streep is glorious as the matriarch. There are men in the film too, but their role is rather limited-- they commit suicide, leave or turn out be half-brothers. The film is realistic and believable and hence, it induces a worrisome point -- are we at some level saying that this is what really happens to the men and women of our time?
It probably is so, as that is how much we have nurtured our frailties.
In a time when god was not yet discovered, we were scared of nature, did the best we could to appease nature and not invoke its fury. After god was discovered, we became less scared and assertive in our actions. As what had scared us in the past is what we must capture, and kill and put away behind us, we enthusiastically started doing that.
At some point, we outgrew god too as we were wont to -- what with our fascinating brains-- and are now caught in a spot of bother. Where our past fears have come back to haunt us (read: climate change is real) and we have absolutely no one to turn to.
If we started dedicating more resources, time and energy towards the self, it was for this time. If each man to his own, it is actually a good thing as groups of men (or women as in the case of August Osage County), we are known to be more prone to invoking disasters.

when bored

We are most alone when we are unsure of ourselves.
If we got surer, we would not have to be alone.

We are alone only because we are scared
of humans -- very much.

What is the maximum we can do to each other?
Quite a bit actually.
And then not that much at all/

Negative Energy

A favourite grouse with the media now is that it is full of negative stories. A story should leave one with hope. Stories should inspire. If the media were powerful, it would have told you not just what is wrong, but also what is right, in the awfully large presence of the wrong. Alas, it is not so. It is weak, crippled by the very issues that had in the past helped prop it up, enabled it to survive.
We are in a world without mirrors, and hence the media, which by its very nature cannot be not a mirror, too cannot be one.
Whatever it shows to you is probably a mirage or a myth or a tall story cut not-short-enough.
So you may rest assured that all that you see/read/hear on the media is only true, if accidentally so.
Is the negativity bothering you?
Do not worry, it is just that too many people are talking at the same time or only one person is.
Nothing is wrong with the world,
And you are truly welcome to enjoy the show.

Summer

It is a warm day when I write this. Summer, this time is being particularly felt I am told and I see. It is the crickets that talk the most incessantly. But then sometimes they all go quiet together and the hair on your skin stand up when you register the space in between.
Everybody comes out in Summer.

:-}

the fight will never end unless we all want the same thing. 

Now, more than ever, the world is one,

It may not seem so. 

But it is so, 

and if you do not see it so,

it is only because --

your eyesight is weak,

or you are asleep,

or you are too lazy to get up and look outside. 

You can say your eyesight was made weak by pseudo-doctors,

or that you fell asleep because you were bored,

or that you are not lazy, just wondering why you should get up.

Say all that,

There will be people listening to you, while you do. 

but the fact remains,

that you do not see it. 

;)

Sorry about that

To be a god in any religion, the god must do the worst thing imaginable. The god must take birth in human form. Speak the language and behave as we do. If god (in human form) refuses to do so, he will have to excuse himself from this party. Nobody said it was easy to be god.
In India it has become quite chaotic now, because the masses do not have anything they can hold on to, place their faith in. Deprivation is at one extreme and decadence is laughing in its face at the other. In the middle of this great churning are the demigods -- making hay while the sun shines. Demigods in a country craving for blind faith are the political establishment, the judiciary, the media, and as of now just about any Tom, Dick or Harry.

Chitrakonda

Of course there is

We all know what ails the other. All of us tell stories of people using the gadgets too much. I have one, a colleague of mine cannot get off his phone even when the pages are being made or when he is being talked to. And another, in a few meetings there have been extended discussions on the more-than-necessary attachment to smart phones.
But we all think we do not suffer from it. Of course a phenomenon that has taken the world as we know it by storm, has taken us too, with it. Of course we are caught in it. One way of dealing with this ailment is to understand that we are in it.
Anger is not the best way to deal it, I learned the hard way after an evening with alcohol, I threw my phone on the floor and when it refused to give up, I threw it again. So it does not work these days, and I am quite amazed at how much not having it affects one. Anger anyway is never the best way as it leads to destruction and though I am a fan of Shiva and believe that destruction is a must for a new beginning, I also feel that the scale of destruction required for that is complete annihilation, which you as an individual are never going to be able to execute as even murder and suicide is not annihilation, forget about complete. You must pardon my digression. It can be attributed to my understanding that it is my anger that took destroyed the phone and never to an aversion to alcohol.
The point, however, was that when we see the other, we know exactly what is wrong with him/her. We know that getting addicted to something is not a healthy way of life, and last of all to technology as there are theories doing the rounds about technology taking us over, if it has already showed up in popular culture it can be validated at least as a fear/doubt/worry/etc. And to one who may still be in the mood to think, "Let the humans go to the dogs as the dogs went to humans," I say, "No!No!"
I strongly believe people in the media must not use the media to express their points of views. And yes, Hunter S Thompson may have said there is no such thing as objectivity, but as trained professionals, it cannot be that difficult to observe and relate. There are only a handful of reasons for not doing your job well: a) you are not applying yourself to the task at hand b) you do not want to work too much c) you are confused about whether you should be there in the first place. These are observations with respect to the lower-rung of a small-scale , when you move up the ladder there is pretty much only one reason you are not doing your job well -- money=popularity (or the lack of it). There is no such thing as healthy competition. It looks healthy in the beginning, but if you have stayed till the end, you know the beginning was misleading.

How it took compassion away from us

Domestication,
The moment we started settling down, making families and homes. Belonging and being belonged.
We left compassion behind,
bit by bit.
Now we are stranded in our alone worlds
searching
for the last bit of compassion.
That is tucked away somewhere,
Indeed it has to be,
For we came this far, didn't we?

Compassion,
There is no healing without you.

dead people

I consider the collapse of belief systems as death.
Most of us are already dead,
we just do not know that this death was brought on because our belief systems collapsed, so we do not know how to revive it. Sometimes we do know how to revive it but there is no energy in the self to pursue that course. Life itself after the collapse is a ruin that you dress up with apparent symbols of life.
Disillusionment: The first moment you are disillusioned, if you give up, you are giving up a part of yourself. If you do not have the resources to overcome the disillusionment, there is no need to pretend that you are still alive or are going to live long.
In today's scenario disillusionment is rampant.
Imagine having to do work in the middle of this. Not only are you a dead body, all your work mates are dead bodies too.
One dead body to the other: Can you help me reach my key board? I really want to write.
the other dead body: you still have wants?