winter

Its simply great this year, the winter has come down to Kolkata in mid november, thats too hard to believe but its true and I truly am thankful to nature and God for this, for giving us this beautiful relief after the scorching summer.

Usually winter pays us a fleeting visit in end december and stays till mid january at the max but this year she is planning to bless us for a while it seems.

hope she wont change her mind :)

Winter was and is my forever favourite weather. I love winter days, they are so fantastic and comfortable. they come back to my mind with childhood memories of basking in sunshine, eating hot peanuts just bought from the vendor with black salt (yum), gardens full of flowers and butterflies..... chattering teeths even when we are standing in the sunshine... beautiful memories.

Farewell to a noble man

Its goodbye time for Mr. Gopal Krishna Gandhi from Kolkata. I believe every true bengali will wish him luck and prosperity through out his life.

People like him remind us that when we are in a strong position we should stretch out our hands to those who are not and help them rise above.

There are very rare politicians of post independent era I admire. Because very rare of them show strong attachment to the country and its people, the thing they are supposed to have in their hearts. Especially its grass root level people.

I should say our silver screen heros and heroines are far more socially aware than our representatives in parliament. Its really a beautiful thing to notice the way they reach out for others. There are so many examples of them Salman Khan, Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Vivek oberoi, Celina Jetley… these came to my mind instantly but I know there are others who are actively participating for the betterment of the country. So many of them. that must be the reason that they are more popular than the representative of people I guess.


That is the only reason I like Rahul Gandhi and Gopal Krishna Gandhi. I should humbly admit that there must be quite a lot more of them who work silently, but they have slipped the media attention, as a result I too am not aware of them. And I should again admit there are other gems too who are taking the country forward on other grounds, but my heroes are those who care for the hapless people of this country because unfortunately they are too many in numbers.

My views are the views of an average indian who is blissfully ignorant of the world of politics, and loves her country and most of its people (truthfully speaking I don’t love all of them). Whose heart goes out for those who have not received a bread crumb of all the luxury which we are habituated of. These two people showed through all their actions that there are still people in political arena who care for the destitutes.

Misdirected anger

We all do it at a certain point of time, when we read about misuse of religion by its representatives. We instead of targetting the representatives target the religion itself or worse God. I myself have done it while I was young, so when I see someone else targetting God or religion instead of corrupt priests or sadhus it hurts a little. Not much, because I know God is not hurt or effected by their outburst, like a mother doesnot feels heartbroken when her tiny toddler hits her with his tiny fists.

Priest or sadhus are more or less self appointed representative of God, religion. They are neither God, nor religion.They have not been chosen by God. In today’s world we can not blindly follow and worship them just because they are priests. We all have our reasonings and we should abide by them.

If the gardener of a garden is bad that doesnot makes the trees bad, the garden bad or nature bad. It just means that the particular gardener bad.

Control

This is an ugly obsession which often becomes a monster. We will see so many examples of this starting from bedroom through the temples to boardrooms..

At one place a spouse wants to control the other one, at the other place the religious minded people want to control the society. Then there are politicians who want to control the country and businessmen who want to control the market.

It becomes unhealthy when we forget that we don’t have any right to force our thoughts on others, especially at the cost of humanity.

Any thing which is based on hatred or greed crumbles to ashes sooner or later. To have a lasting change a thing has to have positive ingredients.

Why do people hate tyrants but love messiahs? Though.. if we study history we will see that they both begin their path with a surge of extreme popularity among others. They are apple of people’s eyes in the early years, then the tyrants start to lose that gradually and the messiahs rise higher and higher.

That’s most probably because saints don’t want to control others, they don’t even want respect or gratitude. They just share the light which God has given them and then leave the world. People pick up those gems and hold them close to their heart.

Whereas the tyrants act exactly the other way round, they start their journey with the help of public support and then they try to crush the same people in their iron fist.. as a result they lose every thing.

Eagerness of controlling others is what differentiates a saint from a tyrant or a guru from a fanatic.

Man shows first sign of true wisdom when he realizes that every human being has his/her own mind and perspective. One should learn to respect that fact to be respected in return.

Musing

I sometimes get shocked by this beast within me too. Sadly its very much existent in me too, I don’t let it express itself by earthly means.. by words or actions but it sometimes corrupts my thoughts or behaviour.

This beast which gloats when it sees some kind of vulnerability in others. Some flaw, vice or weakness and instantly starts to think that it aka I is/am flawless or superior being.

Painful part is when this beast overtakes the human being within us and we end up taunting a person because we know that he wont hit back and we hate that he is different from us.

It reminds me of animals which sometimes cruelly attack a sick or injured animal and ultimately kill it.

I once had a cage full of budgerigars, there was a bird with a paralysed legs. And I used to observe with great fury the way other birds completely rejected her and used to peck her or pull that crippled leg of hers.

It is acceptable in animals and birds, but is it acceptable in us?

Still here

I am still residing in earth, have not left for my home in Andromeda galaxy. My great enthuciasm to cut down my computer hours is shooting sky high.

I will try to post one blog every day like i always do :) because i am addicted to keep my brain active.

if i fail, dont worry about me, and when you get a comment from islandofpeace@gmail.com that will be from me.

i may sometimes check your blog from outside and leave comments.

happy blogging. i hope i will be back to normal from tomorrow.

Criticism

Recently i was reading an article in Reader's Digest's website about real criticism, it was sort of eye opener to me. It told me what true criticism is made of.

The last part was done by a friend of mine who mentioned to me that Thomas Hardy (one of my favourite novelists) stopped writing novels because of harsh criticism and started to write poetry. In his case it must have been pure jealousy of mediocres or "big nothings".

Why sometimes we use criticism as a weapon of correction only? Its real motto should be pointing out someone's big defects and show him the way of conquering them.

Whats the use of telling a person that "your nose is too big" unless we are paying him for his cosmetic surgery, or he is in modelling and that is the reason he is not getting consignments.

I have worked as a proof reader for almost two years, i loved that job. Fortunately even after that when i read a piece of literature i ignore silly mistakes, because its not my job to point out silly mistakes. If I was a proof reader and that same piece was one of my assignments of the day I certainly would have pointed them out but as it is not ....

I sometimes really observe how different people look at the same thing, give the same piece of poetry to ten people and you will know.. one will say its too mushy, too dreamy; the second will be busy finding out spelling mistakes, third one will be scanning for rhythm, fourth will scan for punctuation faults.. in the process hardly one will absorb the true beauty of the poem. And that one person is luckiest among them.

When we see a flower do we scan for its perfection? Well being born and brought up in homes full of gardens I know, that most of the flowers are defected, by one mean or other, but we love them all. I personally believe that will be the way we should think about the rest of the world. We should try to concentrate on the beauty and ignore petty faults.

Sometimes we should ask the critic inside us to " just shut up and enjoy the world and let us do the same".

scary movies

have been watching a lots and lots of scary movies lately, two results.. i am sleeping with my nightlamp on, and second i am bored of mindless gory movies...

i am addicted to horror movies, serials and stories... i just loved them since childhood, tell me about a movie that its horror and i sure will watch it.

i have noticed that horror movies become disgusting the moment they concentrate more on murders.. not on the environment.

for example, i watched both the new exorcist and to kill a mocking bird. To kill a mocking bird is a serious movie, but its suspense scenes were far more hair raising than all that blood and gore poured down in exorcist.

i have seen half a dozen japanese horrors, most of them did not had a single murder, yet they scare me a lot more than movies like scream or halloween.

i really felt a little sad because the new exorcist had a very good storyline, which was ruined by (sometimes stomach churning) violence.

i guess, our new directors can take some tips from japanese horror film makers if they want to scare us, or from the director of the omen part 1 if they want to make a classic.