tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-282597052024-03-13T08:24:18.432-07:00der aaye durust aayepar kyon aaye?seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-55343131176882616832023-09-07T23:54:00.000-07:002023-09-07T23:54:24.590-07:00Simone WeilThere is nothing I want as much as I want to live on my own. <div>Make my own plans, make my own decisions and live my own little unimportant piddly little life.</div><div>I want to be able to think about Simone Weil.</div><div>Just to think, </div><div><br /></div><div>I love life more than anything else in the world,</div><div>I mean obviously, is there anything else really to it?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-12391053216974878792022-09-22T08:45:00.002-07:002022-09-22T08:45:44.347-07:00Prophets<p>Praise be to prophets </p><p>who told us that this day was to come</p><p>When we are struck silent by what is going on,</p><p>the prophets speak</p><p>for us</p><p><br /></p><p>Were the prophets talking about the time gone by?</p><p>Or about what was to come?</p><p>Or about time eternal...</p><p>I do not know, but what they saw</p><p>Is unfolding in front of our eyes today</p><p>And we are struck silent,</p><p><br /></p><p>But they speak </p><p>for us</p><p>Praise be. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-81695148454258020322021-06-02T03:51:00.008-07:002021-06-02T03:54:04.961-07:00Eat<p>Some days are so empty, that you want to eat all the books around you,</p><p>chew each page slowly</p><p>bite into the cover and chew it slowly too</p><p><br /></p><p>just eat them all to fill this insatiable hollow </p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-87967259139274630932021-03-31T04:25:00.002-07:002021-04-04T02:47:48.337-07:00Morning ritual I woke up pretty early for my standards today. It was not a quiet morning at all. Too much noise everywhere, I'd say. Made by people who mean business. Busybodies. Everybodies.<div><br /></div><div>Cleaning this or that. Mending this and that. </div><div>Writing, studying, speaking. </div><div>And even making art. </div><div><br /></div><div>When you watch the world go by as you are supine, your thoughts tend to take this route. The only way out of this whirlpool that threatens to destroy everything that mankind ever was or will be, is to sit up and throw back the curtains. I say this from experience and this is probably one of the many unsolicited pieces of advice that you will get from me, if you care to stay on. </div><div><br /></div><div>As for me, I am fine with this thought process as long as I can lie around for a few more minutes. Just a few...</div><div><br /></div><div>This time when my eyes open it is noon. Quite a ripe and ready time of the day to jump out of bed, I'd say. Sheepish, but thirsting for life again. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-67558611134694480222021-03-15T03:28:00.002-07:002021-03-15T03:28:33.690-07:00A world without compassion is like a gas chamber. India, unfortunately, has become a huge gas chamber. There was no way it would not have come to this. We are a society based on such deep divisions. And all these years, we really did not care. <div>At this moment, we are all indulging in a shouting match and some of us have found a focus to pin the blame on. Our government. The government of the time is a symptom of the disease we have had. It is not the disease. <div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-6781776165922386052021-03-13T02:35:00.002-08:002021-03-13T02:35:58.740-08:00Art <p> All the greats felt that it is art that makes this insufferable life tolerable. But what happens if human loses the ability to create art?</p><p>I am beginning to believe that is already happening. We are so full of misery that we are unable to lift our head out of this bucket of tears to be even able to see and hear, so to create is simply out of the question. </p><p>Everything is a blur. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-26420546959219596012021-02-27T02:05:00.004-08:002021-02-27T02:14:11.384-08:00Let this be <p>We fling our opinions at each other as if they were stones,</p><p>meant to draw blood </p><p>Let us please place our opinions gently at each others' doors,</p><p>Like flowers </p><p>That anyone who opens the door is welcome to accept </p><p><br /></p><p>There are so many wild flowers growing all around that no one brings home,</p><p>But they grow, and flourish away in the sun. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p> </p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-8709287432817747712020-10-10T03:25:00.001-07:002020-10-10T03:25:17.493-07:00Gather the pieces<p><b> An excerpt from ‘Let us talk about privilege’</b></p><p><i>A country that was colonised for 100 years and more, yes we have the right to talk about privilege. But first we have to make sure that amongst us there is nobody who has more right than us to talk about privilege.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Let us remove the Dalits and the Adivasis from this gathering. What do they know of privilege? It is we, and only we, who have grabbed whatever privilege was available to us, from here and there, stuffed it in our mouths, chewed it slowly, gobbled it up and digested it. Only we have the strength now, to talk about anything, and if today’s topic is privilege, then so be it.</p><p>We have the words, and we have the art. To convince anyone about what requires no convincing at all. To talk about things that are obvious a bit more so that we can procrastinate on the acting part a bit more.</p><p>There comes a time in human life, when all talk seems to only be adding to the chaos and bitterness. The above excerpt is from what one would like to say about privilege. The topic was chosen as there is no human whose voice is being heard, who can claim that there has been privilege of some sort in his/her case that their voice is being heard. It is an example of a paradoxical argument where within the argument lies a fact that destroys the argument. In that case, one can invoke anger or sarcasm from within oneself, to keep talking about it as else the paradox in the argument would kill it the moment it begins.</p><p>We all keep thinking or talking of starting all over again. With Covid-19, such talk is heard often, let us start all over again. What we fail to understand is it is near impossible to do so – scientifically and even in terms of human abilities. On the other hand, if a society really wants to begin again, every member or group of the society has to begin again at exactly the same point in time.</p><p>If we see the divisions in the society right now, some say it is split the society right down the middle (as in the case of the US) – though it is a contestable thought. Even in the US, it seems like the society has been split right down the middle only for the right wing—as for the liberals or democrats it is more like every individual is speaking in a different voice. But if we assume it is split into two groups, then how can both the groups want to go back and start from a clean state at the same time? Indeed the spilt itself comes from the fact that one of the groups is satisfied with things as they are and the other group wants a change. And so the analogy of two persons trying to move a sofa out of a room with one trying to keep moving it back to the room and the other moving it out of the room due to a communication gap, comes alive here.</p><p>But, why in this case is the liberal getting more tired, frustrated, while the right wing seems to come across smug and united?</p><p>Well, it is because they are – smug and united. And we are scattered and blown into pieces.</p><p>I began this article with an excerpt from ‘Let’s talk about privilege’. The tone of the excerpt is of someone who understands that most people talking about privilege in today’s world are the privileged themselves. What comes across from the author is a sense of moral high ground. It is a dangerous ground to be on, fellow liberals, let us come off it immediately.</p><p>Though identity politics is an important part of our politics, we cannot be in silos anymore. Our struggles are the same, no matter which country we come from and having an understanding of what is going on in the world is imperative for us to speak in one voice.</p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-12084127052675581452020-10-10T03:22:00.006-07:002020-10-10T03:22:47.161-07:00Naked without the mask<p> </p><p>My understanding of history and the present tells me that if a nation-state perpetuates a crime against any section of the society, it is also bequeathing pain and suffering to the generations to come after it.</p><p>Guilt, shame, anger and grief linger on for years to come. Any nation state that wants a brighter future for its progeny must pause and atone for its past, if it has any vision for a better future.</p><p>So far, this has not happened anywhere in the world. Germany in the West and Japan in the East are probably the only nation states that have time and again confronted their past sins and expressed remorse for it.</p><p>There is a powerful philosophical concept in the East called ‘karma’ which time and again the pop-culture blurts out without understanding that it is a very real thing. Karma will follow you like the albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.</p><p>Why is it that each time the society moves on as if nothing really happened in the past, the ghosts come calling?</p><p>All the drugs have been illegalised and its use has been made criminal, but one drug has escaped the dragnet of the keepers of the universe and that is Power.</p><p>High on this drug, the worst crimes in the world have been committed and the garb of civilisation is not good enough to hide the raw dastardliness of this drug. You may have elections, you may have democracy, but till this narcotic is illegalised and its users are thrown into the deepest, darkest prisons, nothing will change.</p><p>Why is it that we love to pick out a tyrant and vilify all that he/she has done long after eliminating the tyrant? Because while the tyrant is in power, the people are in the grasp of its strong narcotic effects and cannot see what is going on. Unless the people get out of this haze, and understand that we do not need to be drugged all the time to perform our acts, we are not going to be able to destroy the tyrant as he/she lives.</p><p>We are all addicts.</p><p>Drunk on this power reflected from our narcissistic leaders and nationalist emotions, we were sure hurtling into a kind of order that is achieved by annihilating all anarchists. As far as I see, this would have continued, had the world not been forced into putting the brakes on it, by a microscopic being, which we do not even yet know the origins of.</p><p>So here we are now, with so many people in power, a pressing concern for today’s world is a lack of leadership. During this time of ‘war’ and that too with an ‘invisible’ enemy, how naked do these narcissistic personas appear! All those who supported these men in power have no option but to wear masks and stay at home. Because all they want is for this invisible enemy to go away so that they can go back to the drama that they were enacting.</p><p>It’s been five months now and the virus is showing no signs of having left the scene. How do we claim the new world order that was on the horizon — an order that would have allowed us to break free of the shackles of history or even come out of our addictions?</p><p>Consider this: There is no way that physical distancing; washing hands or wearing masks is going to rid us or our malady. What if the only way out is to change?</p><p>Destruction of the existing order has always been a painful process for humans. But, the pandemic has shown us that something's are beyond our control. If the pre-pandemic era was what you would call normal, then please let us not get a new normal.</p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-55503714446650539292020-10-10T03:20:00.001-07:002020-10-10T03:20:21.998-07:00Not the last word<p> Finding a balance is the most important thing in continuing a conversation. No open letter can be the last word on anything. You are leaving behind a world that is diverse and real, and for that we thank you. However, as a rebuttal or to carry forward this conversation, I have an open letter to write to you. I want to ask you who is your letter addressed to? I am presuming it is to the intolerant, who you find these days in the left side of the political spectrum. My theory is any intolerant being cannot make claim to even an iota of the space on the left.</p><p>And then if you look around you, yes it might be tough to find even a handful who are the space you claim to represent. But that is just the lonely truth of our times. The left or even the seeming of left was categorically discouraged, maligned, crushed, shot at sight, removed, so that this fascinating juggernaut of neoliberalism can have a smooth path to roll along.</p><p>In that scenario, how do you expect to find allies? Instead of trying to come down from your ivory towers to understand what happened to the people on the left, you accuse us of being intolerant — you the vanguards of all that is liberal. You truly are the vanguards, and I understand that you are feeling frustrated right now. But, aren’t we all? And as more learned and wiser members of our tribe, why did your open letter shut all doors of understanding at our faces, I wonder.</p><p>We had a similar moment, not too long ago, in this country too. It started with the MeToo movement, and the old-school, most venerable gender activists of our time came to a conflict with the new feminists. It did not end well, let me assure you, but as it happens with all families, conflicts are not talked/thrashed out and things go on, as families are just tied to each other.</p><p>That is the worst part about families. Nobody ever burns the bridges, unless he/she is ready to be all alone in this wide, wide world. As if being alone were the worst thing that could happen to a person. We attach much importance to being self-made, to individualistic pursuits, and yet, being alone scares us the most. So that there is the inherent paradox that the generation of today was born and raised in. And hence, it would be necessary to unlearn some of the things that you have learnt in your time to understand what is happening with the people right now. For the younger people it should be easier to unlearn things, but sadly it is not, because they do not want to. Well, why would you want to? When you are having the best of both worlds? You can sit pretty, while you call out privilege, without maybe even moving more than one finger, all the while completely oblivious to the position of privilege you are talking from. And you have a ready audience that you believe is a loyal one too.</p><p>Having said that, the BLM protests all across the US, had absolutely nothing to do with the matters you raise in your letter. So why choose a time, when links are drawn to the movement, which has given the whole world some hope at a time, when it was all but fading away?</p><p>This too, I must say India had a tryst with, before the coronavirus hit. There was nothing to counter the force of the protests that were growing all across the country against one more discriminatory acts in the series of such by the present ruling dispensation of the country. Finally, it was not about if not them, who. It was only a question of are YOU going to listen to us or not? The answer was loud and clear – not only are they not going to listen to us, but any attempt at opening our mouths, so much as to breathe, might be curtailed in a if-need-be bloody manner.</p><p>So the battle-lines are clearly drawn in India. We know we are up against criminal bullies. And from India, I want to give you a heads-up: Organise against the real bullies, if you did indeed mean all that you have been saying all this while.</p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-47384104854220298442020-10-10T03:17:00.006-07:002020-10-10T03:17:36.932-07:00Tell us, how many died<p> Talk about the dead</p><p>Come on, talk about them</p><p>Scared of death, are you?</p><p><br /></p><p>Liars.</p><p>You don’t seem scared at all</p><p><br /></p><p>In fact, your leery eyes as they peer into the edges of death say quite a different tale</p><p>Lusting after death, are you?</p><p>And sure the ravaged bodies of the poor </p><p><br /></p><p>Are not glamorous enough to satisfy your lust. </p><p>Well, have I got news for you?</p><p><br /></p><p>I do.</p><p>We do not want to go into the world of necrophilia with you,</p><p>We are mourning our dead.</p><p>Thank you. </p><p><br /></p><p>****</p><p><br /></p><p>Talk about the dead</p><p>Come on, talk about them</p><p>Scared of death, are you?</p><p><br /></p><p>Ha! </p><p><br /></p><p>You didn’t seem scared at all</p><p>In fact, your face glowed in the funeral pyre and your hands trembled with uncontrollable joy after the act of murder. </p><p>I know you remember that death comes to all</p><p>Your shifty eyes reveal the truth.</p><p><br /></p><p>Shifty.</p><p><br /></p><p>***</p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-12952807666960761442020-10-10T03:13:00.003-07:002020-10-10T03:14:41.312-07:00Pride, where is thy victory?<p><span style="color: white;"> <span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Boredom and discontent are unique to human lives. In a community-based
society, these two aspects are barely felt or experienced as one is always
involved in one task or the other or one conversation or the other. This
society is a manner in which humans had good lives, living as close to what is
natural. Pastoral, littoral lifestyles are what come to our minds when we take
a nostalgic view of ideal community-based societies. These ideal communities
seem to have been decimated by forces larger than them. More than half of the
world’s population lives in urban areas currently and more and more are going
to move in the foreseeable future, which means the ideal community-based
societies, even if they exist are going to be the privilege of the few.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">For the rest of the world, urban individual-based lifestyles are going
to be the truth of the day. In these societies, as they evolve, the means to
express boredom and discontent in manners that are aesthetic and purposeful
emerge.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">India is a community-based society at heart. And though our cities
relentless greed is driving the people out of the villages, all we have sought
to create in our cities is perpetuate the community-based life. The father of
the nation said, the soul of India is in its villages. And I say, the cities of
India are just soulless villages.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Every community-based lifestyle trait was dragged into the cities, by
those who stood to gain from it. An example: Every time you hear someone say,
“In our villages, everybody greets each other and look at city life, where even
neighbours don’t know each other!” beware! Understand that this is an aspiring
resident welfare association committee member speaking. It is not the wonderful
camaraderie of the village that this gentleman/woman wants to drag into the
urban set-up. It is the desire to know the goings-on in their locality, so that
they can take ‘important’ decisions pertaining to the society, pass a judgement
or two, and issue a few decrees.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Get over it guys, you have never been in a village, why pretend?</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">One of the main reasons we as a country pretend to be what we are not is
because of deep-seated insecurity. It is a feeling all colonised nations have
we tell ourselves. But that is not the case. India, you had so many problems
that you needed to figure out, that long after the colonists left, you are once
again left all alone with your problems and you have no idea who to blame.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The response to a 1927 book ‘Mother India’ written by American author
Katherine Mayo is illustrative. We were still under British rule and the book
was an argument against granting the country freedom. The book was panned from
all quarters, pamphlets were written decrying the contents of the book. I am
assuming, we were too weak at the time to take such harsh criticism at its face
value. But it has been 93 years since then.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Are we today able to read the book without flinching? Can we look in Ms
Mayo’s eyes today and proudly proclaim, “You were wrong”? I am sure we will do
just that. Because that is all we have ever been interested in doing,
proclaiming you were wrong to all critics, even if we have to lie for it.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">All the years that preceded the independence struggle have been to
instil a sense of pride in being Indian. If some flaws of the society cannot be
removed, they got swept under the carpet. This kept on happening for 30-40
years. We wanted to speak out about the evils in our society but it was always
easier to ignore them and feel pride in an imaginary “culture”.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Today, we are at the peak of that pride. From here, the only option for
us is to fall.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Yes, it hurts to come to this realisation that we are at the end of run
of pride. We are also afraid it will hamper our efforts at succeeding in our
little pursuits. Some of us want to opt out from our contributions towards the
false pride and take a step back now to assess our evils, etc, but boy, are we
feeble! Our understanding of the rot is barely grazing the surface because for
miles and miles within there is only pride and more pride.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 11.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Our forefathers have taught us well.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="color: white;"> </span></o:p></p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-47816698133763594962020-10-10T02:58:00.007-07:002020-10-10T03:03:09.838-07:00Cacophony<p>There is a madness in the air,</p><p>You can catch it if you step out</p><p>or stay in</p><p>It will make your head pound</p><p>And your heart numb</p><p>This madness in the air…</p><p>Some of our fellow travellers</p><p>Are shrieking and wailing</p><p>Their voices sore and eyes tired of darting but unable to stop</p><p>Others are doing self-harm</p><p>Bashing their heads against walls that are bloody, slippery</p><p>Still others have murder in their eyes</p><p>Tearing the innards out of a neighbour, or a friend</p><p>You shut the doors and the windows</p><p>And went into a corner</p><p>You ran to the great outdoors and stared at the sky</p><p>You did it all, didn’t you?</p><p>Oh, there is no escape,</p><p>There’s a madness in the air.</p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-21912971328781540862020-07-30T02:02:00.002-07:002020-07-30T02:02:59.761-07:00Spit on you<p class="MsoNormal">Disclaimer: I have not gone through the how-many-ever-paged NEP 2020.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">However, here’s what I have to say about it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">When a policy comes out, one must goes through it and understand it to present a well-balanced critique of it. However, for that, the first condition is that one must trust the intent of the policy makers. Then hours can be spent on discussing how the policy can be implemented, or how it will pan out in the future, etc, etc.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Don’t get me wrong, I do not mistrust the present dispensation’s intent at all. It is just that I am all too painfully well aware of what its intent is.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">And it is the intent I have a problem with.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I, a citizen of India, disagree and reject this government’s intent. You may impose a hundred policies, and a hundred other new administrative bodies on me. I refuse to doubt for one second that your intent is something other than what I <b>know</b> it to be. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I may not step out of my home and I may not even write, but I protest, with every fibre of my being -- your intent. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-58796102902887913852020-07-21T02:02:00.000-07:002020-07-21T02:02:20.399-07:00Coronavirus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The virus' life-cycle shows us one thing -- anything in life has to reach the peak before it can start going down.<br />
Often, we forsake the climb mid-way and begin our journey downward as we are tired of the climb.<br />
This leaves in a person a feeling of wretchedness for not having been able to manage the climb, which ruins the person's downward walk for good.<br />
</div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-50900174135393968492020-07-07T02:55:00.000-07:002020-07-07T02:55:26.446-07:00Not even a moment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The rain is gentle,<br />
It's touch slight<br />
<br />
I am looking at it,<br />
Wanting to write a poem<br />
<br />
No, the rain won't be a<br />
muse today,<br />
<br />
Stop these efforts<br />
Even the rain has stopped now.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-11092090902663716402020-07-07T02:02:00.001-07:002020-07-07T02:02:47.090-07:00lockdown<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I sometimes feel they have put all of us in lockdown so that they can do whatever they want with the world. It is not because they want to stop the spread of this disease. About the disease they really dont care at all. It is the resources that they have their eyes on.<br />
Like terror was also used as such a code word that will instill fear in the minds of the public, but it could not instill fear in every one, with this virus they have got a sure shot thing that will instill fear in every single one.<br />
Why should the idea be to instill fear? Because a fearful human is good for nothing, except to do as he/she is told.<br />
However, there are many things that have come out during the course of this exercise.<br />
No 1, from what the migrant workers showed us, no amount of fear of catching one's death or disease, can stop you from wanting to go home. If you have money and property tied up at the place you are in, you might not want to go home, but if none of that is there then the truth is naked and your desire to go back to where you came from shines through.<br />
This the ones in power had not anticipated at all. They were like the poor labourer will be so scared to die that he/she will not venture out from where he/she is. Those in power have no idea that the labourers are wearing their lives on their sleeves, even when they work as there is no net anywhere that can break their fall.<br />
They are being punished now for wanting to leave before they were permitted to. One by dilution of the laws and two by trying to push for employment of locals. The former one is of course a terrible punishment indeed, but it cannot hurt the ones who anyway did not know about the laws or could not demand their rights. The latter one is just a hollow threat.<br />
<br />
</div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-28164976330077890892020-07-07T02:02:00.000-07:002020-07-07T02:02:32.105-07:00About our time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I do not know if "May you live in interesting times" is actually a Chinese curse, or if it is something slick you can say, but we are living in interesting times now.<br />
We have always lived in interesting times I believe, because interest is something human beings need to carry on with the whole thing.<br />
If one finds something interesting, one puts in the effort to carry it out and that holds for life too.<br />
I do believe social media makes people lose interest in everything. Even the most hardened social media warrior finds it necessary to take a break at times, because it is just not a natural way of conversing, creating or being.<br />
You may argue that nothing about modern life is natural, but if we assume modernity has been with us for say well over two hundred years, then slowly we are getting comfortable with it and it becomes natural to our being. Modern life also affords you some time for introspection, thinking and understanding. So even if many things seem like they are unnatural, you (as a species) are given the time to deal with that.<br />
Social media and its disruptive, loud, noisy, annoying discourse snatches that away from humans. And what is more insulting is the fact that it allows even the most non-modern human to wear the garb of modernity without having to go through the initiation process.<br />
I do wish the virus had got social media instead of humans.<br />
<br /></div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-51350319385846485362020-05-10T02:08:00.001-07:002020-05-10T02:08:27.023-07:00illness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There is an illness everywhere<br />
and all we see are the symptoms<br />
which we want to cure<br />
<br />
i feel like i am in a pit,<br />
and trying to crawl out of it<br />
when a barrage of cures come tumbling over<br />
me,<br />
pushing me farther down into the pit.<br />
<br />
i have to play dead now,<br />
for how long?<br />
till this pit is forgotten<br />
<br />
and then you can slowly crawl out.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-17740753851212274652019-08-21T11:35:00.001-07:002020-05-02T01:08:37.823-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Meditate<br />
<br />
When thoughts assail you,<br />
you need to know how to meditate<br />
<br />
I thought today,<br />
what if you want to sit down and meditate<br />
will you be able to do it?<br />
it is a simple enough task, isn't it?<br />
<br />
Not for me,<br />
sadly,<br />
i always want to do something else instead,<br />
like sleep,<br />
Sleeping like a log I am,<br />
<br />
I loathe<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-37318628727023467172019-07-05T12:16:00.000-07:002020-05-02T01:11:18.682-07:00election results and thereafter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We are not a banana republic,<br />
We are quite the contrary actually. <br />
In our desire for political stability, we vote. <br />
This time around, the ones who have not had a political bone in their body, were playing vigilantes against those who did not vote.<br />
You guys have come out, I see,<br />
Wonderful timing, for your festering would have given this country a deeper wound if it had gone on for long,<br />
Now you are coming out of our pores in the form of pus,<br />
and I, for one, am relieved,<br />
That the wound is not festering anymore.<br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
There is one thing about bodily fluids,<br />
They have to come out.<br />
I view the election results in that manner.<br />
<br />
----------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
Will we heal?<br />
Only if we fight, with all our might, can we ever begin healing<br />
<br />
or at least die fighting,<br />
do.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-31027954031680602022019-06-01T05:31:00.000-07:002019-06-01T05:31:28.707-07:00Don't feel guilt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have had enough of the self-help gurus who ask the human race to stop feeling guilty.<br />
You make us feel like what we are doing is wrong,<br />
when what is actually wrong is the fact that there are some out there, who do anything without feeling any guilt!<br />
I assert that feeling guilty about a wrong one has done is totally human,<br />
and not feeling guilt is what is inhuman,<br />
people like that should be called out,<br />
the self-help gurus will seriously be helping the ones who feel guilty if they can declare that it is only normal to feel guilt,<br />
everyone should bloody well feel it.<br />
<br /></div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-3078033369518168912019-05-03T09:28:00.000-07:002019-06-01T05:27:42.609-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's a dilemma many of us face in today's world. We are nothing without what is human in us. The farther we have gone from our humanity, the closer we find ourselves to nothingness.<br />
(For instance, I have a desire to write, not for fame, not for money, not for people to know what I think about something, not even for me to know what I think about something. It is just something I want to do.<br />
What a strange thing to want to do, I have often thought.<br />
Why would anyone want to sit and write?)<br />
<br />
I wonder what languages have done to the world.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-35274871705709564232018-11-24T03:06:00.000-08:002018-11-24T03:06:33.571-08:00In a hurry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I need to get out of this feeling that there is not much time left,<br />
in the day,<br />
in the hour,<br />
or in my life,<br />
or in the race's lifetime etc,<br />
<br />
I want to be able to let time engulf me<br />
and expand itself<br />
Let me give you an example at this point,<br />
<br />
say you have got a new shoe,<br />
it is too tight for you<br />
and you get shoe bites,<br />
day 1 is bad,<br />
day 2 is bad<br />
day 3 is bad<br />
day 4 is bad<br />
then slowly slowly your feet start telling the shoe how to be.<br />
or the shoe tells your feet how to be.<br />
and you make peace with each other and live with each other.<br />
<br />
in that manner is the equation between you and time,<br />
slowly slowly you make your peace with time.<br />
understood?<br />
<br />
Do not say to me that you are unable to do so,<br />
Because that is something you must do<br />
and so, there is no getting away.</div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28259705.post-12898313354694031822018-10-15T02:28:00.002-07:002018-10-15T02:28:42.670-07:00Doubt and faith<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
While many among us find it difficult to live without faith, there are many among us who are riddled by doubt. People with faith tend to be stronger because they are always in a group. Belief gets fortified if many believe.<br />
Doubters can be strong but they are seldom happy or at peace.<br />
I read about the last days of a o Hume about how he had a perfectly peaceful and happy end despite being a disbeliever all his life. I feel that was possible because though he didn’t believe in a god Hume believed in humanity he believed in his thoughts and these beliefs gave him peace. We are a in a difficult situation these days as belief in even these things are on shaky ground. Now the believers are having a laugh at the misery of the doubters, who are willing to believe in anything.</div>
seenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07144565415586940957noreply@blogger.com0