Acting Out a Fight

Again, T - could stand for Traveler
and, F - could be for Friend

T and F were in the middle of a conversation when this idea occurred to T.

‘Let’s act out a fight between us, as it could happen in future’

‘Okay’, F agreed without protest.

What followed was ten minutes of intense acting and superb rehearsal. T has had an exposure to theatre and was not exactly the worst actor in Delhi. F seemed a natural. There was no breaking out into laughter or breaking off the act.


The act had a beginning, middle and an end. F won of course, but T shouted otherwise.

‘Hey, isn’t that great, we could actually act out the fight’ chuckled F.

'I am impressed to say the least!' T really was impressed.'Felt, kind of good, acting out this fight' F was amused.

‘Yeah, and I am wondering that how these things would change if the fight was for real. I mean the same words and expressions would end up hurting us.’ T was thinking.

‘Hmm, the words would be just the same but our tone, pitch and body manners would do the damage.’ F was thinking as well.

‘I guess there is a big learning in this. Whenever we get into such situations of anger, frustration, bitterness and fighting, which is not exactly our natural or normal state, we should remember that we are merely acting. This is just a rehearsal and we are actors, not the characters that we are playing. That the emotions of joy, anger, pain, angst and bitterness are of the characters, not ours. We should just be faithful to the roles that we play and not think that we are those characters themselves. That would make things so simple’ T was preaching now.

‘The tough part is most actors get too engrossed in their roles and think that those emotions are their own. Imagine, it would be so funny then for them to feel real pain, agonise and die as many times as their characters die.’ F was grinning.

‘Yeah, some people call it method acting and rake millions out of it’. T added.

F was silent for a long time, T knew that the old topic has ended and no further discussion would ensue.

‘What are you thinking?’ T asked finally.

‘Will you really fight with me like that? Mmm? ’ F asked and looked up to T, like a small pup would look up to it's master in the morning begging for a morning stroll.  

‘It’s hard to avoid fights and disagreements; they are a part of the game. They….’ T was interrupted before his long monologue.

‘Fight like that, in real?’ F interrupted and asked again.


‘Mmmm..we would use this lesson of acting out!’ T replied.

‘Yeah, let’s do one more’ F was grinning again.

Jajabara Trips - III (Royal Rajasthan on Royal Enfield)

1900 kms | 18 cities/towns/villages | 9 forts | 3 temples - 1 dargarh | 6 n half sunsets | 5 n a quarter sunrises | 1 moon rise | 2 camel rides | 1 bike | 2 travelers


View Larger Map

Yahi to Hum Karne Aye Hain
(this is what we have come to do)

Going on a bike trip for several days, exploring the roads, cities, towns and people was one very special dream of my college days, one which you choose to ignore and forget as do not see the possibility of it happening. This was such a dream which I now categorized in the ‘too childish for my kind of kick’ and ‘not necessary’ category at this stage of my life. I was wrong on both accounts.


I was always fascinated by the concept of biking along long, black and beautiful roads of India witnessing even more beautiful scenic beauty around the roads. I remember standing in the front of the old Bajaj Super scooter of my father and looking eagerly at the landscape and feel the wind whizz past my hair. In my graduation days I used to head out on short trips around Bhubaneswar on a bike, but they were day trips. The way you explore the landscape of a place on a bike is unmatched. In a car, bus or train you just see and observe things. On a bike, you see, observe, feel and breathe the landscape with your proverbial body, mind and soul.

The road running at the speed of your bike beneath your feet, the wind so noisy that it drowns everything, the sky changing colours ever so slowly for you to observe, the curious look on faces of people, the smiles exchanged, the hands waved, the potholes and humps killing your back, the smell of burnt petrol and the taste of dust on your tongue.

For me travel, more so on a bike with no specific plan or route or purpose was an idea of freedom. There lay the biggest appeal of that idea, freedom and at the risk of sounding too patriotic, independence ! Iconic brands such as Harley Davidson, Royal Enfield, the stories read on internet, Books such as ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’, above all the movie ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ were all seductions that were not tamed but subsided due to lack of opportunity (we all say that, but is the biggest lie!!), lack of a bike and so called rationality and reason.
Che was always an icon for a communist-at-heart like me, but 'The Motorcycle Diaries' added an altogether different dimension to the reverence. Che went for his famous bike trip around his continent of rich history but then troubled present as a bright youth, a student of medicine and came out as the Che Guevara and change the history of many countries including his own. The movie caption says it well 'Before he changed the world the world changed him'. I said it to someone 'never under estimate the power of travel'. Link on IMDB. Che earned my respect for letting the world that he saw on the bike trip, affect him, shake him to the core, change him and make him.


I called up TBK ( The Black Knight, name given by Ben see blog ), Sachin on Friday evening 5.30 pm on my way back home to meet for a coffee, as I had got free early. I was heading out over the weekend to attend a wedding and was exited about the thought of revisiting Lucknow. Visiting a city for the first time has its own charms, of the exploratory type, but revisiting one is more romantic, poignant and warm.
You tend to feel familiar, a kind of ‘feel at home’ at the sight of roads, turns, shopkeeper, restaurants and places you have been before. You love the things that are still the same, and you love the changes as well. TBK informed that he was on a solo bike trip across Rajasthan.

‘when are you leaving?’ I asked the customary question.

‘tomorrow morning to pushkar’ he replied.

‘where would you be on Monday?’ I checked

‘Jodhpur may be. Yeah, Jodhpur’

‘I will call you in a bit’ I hung up

I called him back after an hour and half after reaching home.

‘I would join you at Jodhpur on Monday. Will fly down from Delhi and reach around 1.30PM.’ I was still tentative and unsure though I had already booked my flight tickets and was packing up for the trip.

‘Okay. I would fix the carrier on the bike for our stuff. Pack light.’ TBK said as though he was expecting this or this is kind of normal for him.

I switched on my phone after getting out of the aircraft at Jodhpur. It rang, it was TBK.

‘I am standing outside the airport, to the right as you step out of the airport’ he instructed.

‘okay, cool, give me ten minutes’

I was sleepless for two nights and had a run and four hour dance sessions to strain my back and stamina. I had a message at the airport which helped to some extent but I was still walking with a hand on my crooked back. But, the moment we packed up our stuff and sped past the airport on TBK’s Royal Enfield Thunderbird, something took over me. I felt no pain, no strain on my back and was raring to go.

We found a hotel and met an Englishman, Ben, who followed TBK from Pushkar. This is where we would get our names. I was christened The Saffron Knight for my ‘sunflower coloured shirt’. Later, at the Mehrangarh fort, Ben remarked.

‘You don’t look like you haven’t slept for two nights and are tired’

‘I know. I am very happy that I could make to this trip. I am looking forward to it.’

‘Where are you guys headed from here?’ Ben asked.

‘I don’t know exactly. Do we have a plan TBK?’ I checked.

‘Not really. Maybe Jaisalmer’

‘No problem. We will figure out something tonight’ I said.

‘Mind if I tag along?’ Ben was almost apologetic.

‘Sure’ I said. Sachin was busy clicking one of his 7 and half sunsets that he would shoot on this trip. We all walked down the fort, Ben and me chatting, and Sachin clicking.

We had some street food and some unusual combinations. Some of them worked well (peanut and jaggery) and some did not (salt on sugarcane!!). Ben walked back to hotel while we headed out to get two essential requirements for a bike trip for two – a helmet for the pillion and sunglasses for the rider. After, enquiries to different shopkeepers, going to couple of recommended markets on extra-narrow auto-rickshaws and walking several miles up and down on busy markets we ended up buying two cricket hats and one bandana. It turned out that Sachin would not have sunglasses for the rest of the trip and I would not have a helmet till the very last day when an unsuspecting policeman forced us to buy one in Jaipur.

Sachin and I had a conversation regarding gumption during those hitherto futile walks, though the word was not mentioned.

‘Its important not to get irritated during such travels. Not to worry, if your plans do not work out quite the way you thought or a surprise comes up your way and changes your schedule’ I started the talk indirectly referring to the never ending walks and arguments with shopkeepers and rickshawallahs.

‘yeah. Its okay to take a wrong turn, miss a road, go ahead several kilometers only to realize one has reached a cul-de-sac and return from there.’ TBK was warming up as well.

‘yeah, this all a part of the journey. Its important not to feel irritated or frustrated and keep up your enthusiasm levels. Everything is okay’

‘yeah. This is what we have come to do’ actually he said it in Hindi [yahi to hum karne aye hain!]

‘yeah!’ I was grinning.

That line hit a chord and we would use that line umpteen number of times during the trip when things did not quite go the way we thought or our patience levels were depleted. We had our dinner at a rooftop restaurant which took us an hour and few hundred yards to find, after reaching almost 50 meters of the restaurant. The stars were out and the blue city was looking almost purple. The fort was in full view, rather ‘killer view’ as the restaurant ‘Cozy’ claimed. Sachin was out with his camera to shoot pictures with long exposures and I was wondering what to eat. I ordered and sat looking at the sky.

Dinner was hot and tasty; Sachin was generous with the tip (more than half a bottle of beer) and the owner was generous with a sweet dish. We were staying at his heritage hotel ‘Juna Mehal’ which was 300 years old.

Our trip was on.



Juna Mehal



the blue city - jodhpur

sunset atop Mehrangarh Fort

One of the sunsets

Pictures Parthajeet Das (c) 2011

Notes from Jajabara Trips I

We travel for the sake of travel ! - Earnesto Che Guevara in Motorcycle Diaries

Man - is someone else. Could be anyone really.
Traveler 1, 2, 3 are fellow travelers.

Man: Where are you?

Traveler 1: Mmm…actually I don’t know. I can’t explain but, it is not very far off. Two other travelers are with me. We have been here for two hours now.

(…It is always somewhere off that road we all know and follow. We took a detour and followed one of the many roads we liked. None of us knew where we are headed, no one bothered to ask the other, there was no worry of being lost or being late, no irritation not knowing where we are headed or missing on something, no plans were made, so none could be changed.

We reached a small pond at the end of a village, where are dimly lit temple, half-crescent of moon, and millions of lamps called stars waited for us. One look at each other and the decision was made. We slowly let go of the gas and shifted gears to maneuver the sand and stopped at the edge of the pond near a peepal tree. We knew that our evening belonged to this place.

We waited on our bikes for half an hour, for the last of the surprised villagers to finish their evening bath and return. The evening lamps of the temple were further dimmed after the sound of the conch shells and cymbals died down after the presiding deity village was put to rest.

The beauty of the evening was now in full bloom.

The stars smiled at each other and exchanged a few glances

“who are these men?” chuckled one as it asked this question


“shhh…they are looking at us” said the other.


“they could even be listening to us!”


“one of them is looking at the pond, searching for something”


“no…he is also looking at us! He understands that the reflection in the pond and us are the same. There is no difference, the image and the object are the same. He can appreciate our beauty even by looking at the reflection in the pond.”


“that can’t be true! The image in the pond is not steady. It shifts and moves with the waves. The image needs the object, but the object doesn’t need the image. Are you out of your mind?”


“ What is absolutely steady in this universe? Are not all things in this universe moving – all our sister stars of milky way, our enemy the SUN, the small planets, the smaller bodies and even the men and the other living things. Someone called Hiesenberg on this planet earth called this the uncertainity principle – position can not be determined without changing it. I don’t think this is how he stated it, but this is what he meant.


“Is there anything such as ABSOLUTE?”


“even I don’t know, no other star knows, we with millions of years of age, we who have seen many many ages and many many things being created and destroyed, do not know if there is something such as THE ABSOLUTE.”


“ why?”


“because we are NOT ABSOLUTE and only the absolute CAN know THE ABSOLUTE!”


Traveler 2: I see something moving. It’s moving at quite some speed. It is not a jet, not a shooting star either. It is still moving.

Traveler 3: Must be a jet.
Traveler 2: No, it has to be a star.
Traveller 3: Not possible, stars don’t move.
Traveller 2: What!
Traveller 3: They do. But, not at this speed…I mean, not this fast.
Traveller 1: I see it too.
Traveller 3: What! No!
Traveller 2&1: Yes.
Traveller 3: Where?
Traveller 2&1: We can’t show now, you will have to wait for your turn.


“I think, they saw us”

“Yes. You should not have made a dash towards me like that. You know, some things are not to be revealed to all men.”

“I became conscious, shy. Sorry!”

“Its okay. They are no ordinary men either. They are travelers - students of nature. Sooner or later they would have known that things have no fixed speed or movement. It all depends on what and how that wants to move. It is the will that matters. They know it in fact. Haven’t they progressed from walking on four feet to these ugly, noisy and mannerless Jets which are sometimes mistaken for us stars”

“Yeah. They should know, of all things and creatures that we have seen till now. I think they are the best”

“ They can be the best. I will tell you something I have suspect”

“what?”

“I think these men know what is the ABSOLUTE. I mean some of them do.”

“really? Why did you think so? Most of them just claim that they know some higher being, some supernatural power, some GOD. But, we all know most of them lie.”

“No. There have been men, salts of this earth, who have in their lifetimes experienced and realized what they can not explain through a thousand words or portray in a thousand pixels. They can not explain what they felt during those moments – not to eager ears of other men, blank pages or nature or us.”

“That explains few of things, that even we do not understand.”

“That is why I suspect that during those moments, Man realises the ABSOLUTE.”

“But, did you not just say that only the absolute can know the ABSOLUTE”

“yes, and that is my greatest apprehension and anxiety.”

T 3: You know my parents have done the Kailash mansarovar yatra thrice.
T 2: I know.
T1: Reallly?
T 3: And why I told you this now if that my mother and now even my father have seen a steady beam of light come down from Kailash mountain, decend over the Mansarovar lake and then go up again.
T 2: Seen?
T 1 (imitating T3): “Not possible, stars don’t move”
T 3: Guys! I would be the last man. But, I have seen the photo taken by one of tourists who accompanied my parents in one of the trips during Kailash Mansarovar yatra.
T 2 : Seen?
T 1(imitating T3): “Not possible, stars don’t move”
T 3: You guys can come home and see that picture. It actually looks like a human fugure with six hands and six heads.
T 2: Looks like?
T1 :Errr…Shouldn’t there be 12 hands?
T 2: Have you heard of term called ‘morphing’ and a product called Adobe Photoshop?
T 3 (resigned look on his face): Not once, or twice. Parents have SEEN it thrice. You need to get out of your base camp at 2am in the night and be on your guard till 3 am. It is vey cold out there and most people are exhausted by the height and climb at 13,000 ft. So, most of them miss it. They sleep. My parents and a few others who don’t have seen it for consecutive days on all three trips.
T 1: How old are your parents again?
T 3: Bou (mother) is 60 and Baba (father) is 70.
T 1: Kailash Mansarovar Yatra – thrice!

They all looked at different directions after that. T3 was thinking about the myth of the light and what lens and camera to use to capture the same, T 2 was trying to figure out something on his smartphone, T1 was thinking of the amazing trek at 13,000 ft and the amazing gifts of nature that would be on display at Kailash-Mansarovar.

No words were exchanged, no schedules were checked. No plans would be made. Travellers know by now, that you don’t plan to travel. You travel.

T 2: Lets head back. It getting really dark, mosquitoes have had a good meal and frogs have had company for long. Man is waiting for us to pick him up at the bus-stop.

We all got on our bikes and some noises were heard before the sound of the 2 stroke engine of T3 took over.

T 1: why do they call is bus-stop? Why not bus-go? I mean some buses go from that place as well. Actually the same number of buses go as they come. Why use a negative term such as stop?

T3: Maybe because buses are on the GO everywhere but stops are where they stop!

T2: cut it off guys!

T1&3: Okay.

T1, T2 & T3 - in no particular order - parth, narsingh and jitu

Notes from Jajabara Trips - II

jajabara: in odiya (or oriya if you please) loosely means a traveler...an extreme one...often used in slightly condescending/negative sense. he/she is not expected to have a particular plan or place in mind but in on the go pretty much all the time...this also could refer to a state of mind...




jajabara trips - II



T - could stand for Traveler

F - could stand for Friend



T (over phone) : Good morning!
F (still sleepy) : Good morning!
T: Get ready, I will pick you up at 5.45AM, same place.
F: Okay, but it’s cold out there. Can you come outside my gate?
T: Sure.
F: Mmmm…let it be. Make that ‘same place’
T: Fine. Do carry a jumper.


(....travel for most people needs to have a few basic things is place:


1. a point/place of starting,
2. a point/place of destination, and
3. a reason


Jajabaras usually DO NOT have them.


Why?
1. Can one really say when a particular journey started? One may have started from a particular place but, we are not talking about physical places here. The physical or the gross is just a manifestation of the thought. The actual travel takes place in mind, in the space of thoughts.

If a traveler on a particular journey, sitting in a valley, looking at the edge of the mountain range surrounding the valley, thinks of the green waves of the sea – how in a moment, the seemingly calm surface of the sea slowly gathers more water, rises as more and more water gets accumulated and then a thin ever-changing white line appears at the top of the small water mass which looks like a continuous mountain range and then breaks down as what we call a wave. How the sea wave and the mountain range are the same. We do not need geography and science to tell us that there was sea once where the Himalayas are and there are mountains in the chest of the sea and the why stalagmites resemble mountains. Some things are better understood in the realm of thought and poetry. Returning to the example; the starting point (in time) and place of the journey to the sea is the actually the moment when the traveler thought about the sea looking at the mountain range!


2. The second basic is easy to defy – destination. It has been said in different words by different people but simply put “the journey is more beautiful than the destination”. The traveler accepts no destination as the final stop.


“ these milestones and goals ever keep fooling us,


as soon as we reach one, another one is calling us” – from ‘Silent Horizons’ by the same author The traveler sees the destinations rather his/her life as mere points in a long unbroken continuum. Even death is not accepted as the end of the journey of life.


“ There was no such time when you were not there, or the kings and warriors were not there or I was not there Arjuna,, nor will there be ever such a time”


“Death is but a mere change of wardrobe”


Bhagvatgita Gita Chapter II


3. From ‘The Motorcycle Diaries-


Spanish Couple: Are you looking for a job?


Che : No, we are not.


Spanish Couple: No? And then why are you traveling?


Che : Just because


Spanish Couple: Bless you, blessed be your travels


I have taken this from a website that has the script but I am not sure if Che’s second reply was that. I remember “We travel to travel!”


That for me sums up the reason.


F: Where are we going?
T: Somewhere, I am not sure. Let’s see.
T : A true traveler never ask that.
F: I am learning.

(...is the place defined by the place itself or by our experience and memories? Is the strength of the mountain measured by the height of it or by the hand that helped you to climb up? Is the depth of the ocean measured only by the greatness/noise of the waves or the trust in the person lying down next to you for hours? Is the journey measured by the length of the road or by the number of conversations made?)


F: Have you come here before?
T: Yes.
T: Has it changed much?
T: Yes.

(..The road was familiar, but the horizon was punctuated by new constructions all around. This road used to give an impression of getting lost. There were no milestones, no sign boards, no markers and T could close his eyes for a minute (60 seconds!) and drive his motor cycle at 60kmph and not encounter a man or machine. There could be an occasional beast – wild dogs, jackle and elephants. There was markers and pointers now and this area was ‘developed’. T was looking for some place where he can feel lost! F was looking at T.


After a drive of one and half-hour T stepped off the gas near a very familiar bridge. Bridge would be an aberration as it was only a foot or two higher than the paddy fields over which it stood. T remembers he and his friends could count at least 6 shades of green of paddy fields from that bridge. He could count 3-4 now.


F did not look surprised, there was nothing in her eyes which suggested ‘why have we pulled over here?’ or ‘what are we going to do?’


T liked that. She was learning. She came out of the car and started to stretch. )

F : Look there!
T : What?
F : Isn’t that wonderful. That hut on the other side of the road.
T: Come.

They climbed up the small cardboard-n-bamboo hut very carefully and sat close to each other, hand in hand and legs hanging out. They sat for quite some time until the sun rays peeped through the cardboard rugs that made the roof of the hut. They were looking at opposite sides of the road but no one felt that one missed the view on the other side nor did anyone point out anything to the other.

F: Why did you make me cry last night?
T: Did you cry?
F: For almost an hour after you hung up.
T: I dozed off immediately.
F: You were very tied during the day. Walking and talking the whole day.
T: It seems I spoke much more than what I should have.
F: I don’t know, but I think I am turning more sensitive these days. It works both ways, isn’t it?
T: What?
F: Your capacity to feel and express emotions grows both ways. You can be happier than happy and sadder than sad. It sounds schoolgirlish..no?
T: Go on..
F: I mean you have to be ready for both sides. You can not have only the crests and not the troughs. If you are able to be happy for a thousand reasons in a thousand ways, the same will be true for sadness.
T: That sounds graduate-ish at least.
F: Haha.


T: Look at all the dew drops over the paddy plants. So many of them, and sparkling with the sun rays trying to touch them.
F: It’s as if the stars come down from the sky on to these plants because they are afraid of the sun coming out and chansing them in the blue courtyard of sky. School girlish again?
T: No, beautiful. Or it could be that they are all your tears shed last night.
F : They are so many of them and they look so pretty.
T: That’s why I made you cry last night.
F: Hmm...
T: I was sleepy and agitated by hunger and lack of sleep. I did not know that you will end up in tears after the call. I really didn’t.
F: There are some things even travelers don’t know!
T: Absolutely. The traveler acknowledges that and thanks every person, thing, experience which teaches him something about the journey of this and other lives. But, you have asked me not to thank you for anything.
F: Hmm…but today you can.
T: Thank you.


- Have written after a long time. Have written prose after really long time. I am aware that this post could be a case study of punctuation and grammatical errors but I could not resist sharing. Jajabara 1 will be posted soon. I mean soon.

prayer

Let this be the punishment of my eyes

that they be witness to all ugliness of the world

but not your benign, beautiful face.

Let this be the plight of the fleet of my soul

that it wanders without direction, battered by storms,

unhinged from the anchor of your guidance.

My forgetful memory lets me burn my hands

again and again in the fire of trails

and renders me vulnerable all the times.

Look at the pitiful state of my ego,

that is trampled under the feet of men

of the world, only to raise its hood to be crushed again.

Let me break my back by working day and night,

to pay off the interest of my actions

which with the capital, remains unpaid.

Let me be born a thousand times

and die ten thousand times or more;

till the seeds of desires are roasted to infertility.

But promise me O Lord ! that at the end:

even after millions of years
of carrying this wretched self in this world.
You will let me return to you,

And at the end,
only You be my End,
only You be my End !

p.s.][ as usual, the title is still un-carved in stone. please do suggest title. 'prayer' is WIP

all i have is words, hope and you

there is no tomorrow;
what we have is the present and each other.
lets live each day as it is,
lets meet each other as we do eager.
lets trust each other as us,
lets be robbed of all that is to be.
lets transform into something we yet know not,
lets cross the limits of all limits we think and
lets rejoice that we found in each other
what we never searched.

lets love each other as we love
lets be each other as we are. (i have not missed 'with')

green love

phans of the bard-of-avon
pleze hold on
it iz nat about the green eyed manstar
rather it iz about the ebhent @ Copenhagan.

climate-change they say or something like that
tired of listening on India TV, Aaj Tak or something like that
what i waz thinking is what will happan
if the concept of go-Green is applied to 'LOVE' ?

well to begin with - 'boy meets garl or vice-versa'
how? that iz the moot queschan - car, bus, metro or cycle-rickshaw??
wizer ppl pleze consider the uze of public transport only
ebhen if u are in gurgaon, lucknow or delhi

be bhery-bhery careful about letter-wetter
only when there iz no alternative, please use paper
dry leaves,old hankie, used papers or ur body shade(tattoo),
but when u use paper,it better be recyclable or hand made.

also be cautious about gifts and tokens
no plastic to begin with, never gift cigarettes
wrapping - with old papers and use tissue papers as cards finally
and for gifts that suck! - pleaze throw them in dusst-bin only

and only u can appreciate the rare greenery in a buzy city
how valuable is the privacy, silence, shade and axygen in vicinity
u know it bhery well, so plant as many trees together as u can
so that your baton-holders can also walk and sit in parks.

guyz - don't forget to tun off lights in hurry to be punctual for date
garls - you need not see yourself in the mirror while talking on phone
and can't love make up for the extremes of heat and cold?
can't the three magic words create comforts that an A.C. or room heater does?

if willy-nilly things go ahead and u decide to tie the knat and marry
and if ur parents are hung up on stars calling the shots
send and exchange only soft-copies of the horoscope and
please consider environment:print if absolutely necessary !!

emotions-reason

well, i have thought about it so many times,
emotions (your heart, gut feel, sixth or seventh sense etc. etc. you get the point right?)
and
reason (judgement, rational, maturity, understanding, analysis etc. etc. again you get the point rt?)
I have experienced the simultaneous existance of both of them,
how one drags the other's hand and how one hold backs the other,
how both are present in the same person but at different locations,
how both think (and with what conviction) that one is right and the other is wrong,
how sometimes both think both are absolutely right only to be proven wrong,
how both thought at times, everything has gone wrong, lost hope, only to regain it miracle-like,
how sometimes emotion goes ahead like an unstoppable tornado or flood and decides something for me, reasons follows up with its slow judicious, careful, spreading fog-like approach and decides on its own and tells it plainly,
how sometimes reason decides something for once and all and then emotions slowly wets the ground with tears, dreams and wishes; impregnates it with seeds of doubt and asks reason to judge again; think again; please.
how both in face of tremendous opposition from the whole of this world give enough courage to man and say - "don't worry, we two are there with you, that should be enough, go ahead"
how both come together, how both nurture each other, how they give absolute conviction to a man and raise him to a level so high..as GOD

for GOD is absolute reason and absolute emotion at the same time...

golb

What is blogging? You write and post and then everyone else reads.
What would be the opposite of it? Everyone else writes and you read it?
Maybe.
Well something different happened tonight. I was cleaning up my room ( I can assure you it is an event which could contest with a celestial event such as an eclipse or comet's arrival for rarity) when I came across an old notebook. I stumble upon a set of words which looked like a poem.
Even more strange was the fact that the words were in my handwriting and presumably written by me.
I do not normally take physical notes of poetry/prose I read.
I read it once, twice and another time as well, but could not recall when had I written this poem. I don't get that drunk with alcohol and more so as far I remember have never written something under its influence.

I tried to get some meaning out of the poem, this seemed even more difficult. This was an educative experience for me as well - 'poetry is meaningless!'
Golden words; would save many trees and oil.

I am still not very sure. You read and let me know if it is your work that I might have plagiarised. I would apologise. Suggest a title.


More aware of yourself than ever,
More alert than the normal care,
Helpless though you find yourself melting
A strange fear and faith disturbing.

What you see within and without
is the same; minus the duality,
Devoid of shape and form
All things turn to One, loosing identity.

What is their real nature then?
What you saw and thought them to be
Or what you see or rather do not see now
Think as you never have, see now.

Reality that is evident on your face
Caught you low on guard, defenseless
Senses amputated, mind sucked and soaked
In deeper realms of numbing realisation.

Silent Horizons

It gives me immense pleasure to inform you about the publication of my first collection of poems titled 'Silent Horizons'.

The book was released on 17th July 2009 at India International Centre, New Delhi. The book was released by Mr. Dinesh Mishra, ex-president Gyanapeetha Award Committee and Chairman, Indian Society of Authors, Dr. Madhu Pant, writer and ex-chairperson, National Bal Bhawan and eminent author Ms. Surekha Panandikar.

Ms. Panandikar made a critical review of the poems. The poetry, she said is marked by maturity of thoughts and boldness of expression.

And YES you can order a copy of the book !

Click on the link below

http://silenthorizons.books.officelive.com/

This is the website for the book. You can take a preview of the book, read/view pics of the release and order a copy by paying through your credit card or paypal account.

OR ELSE

Order a copy of Silent Horizons by clicking on the 'Buy Now' button below. This will direct you to pay through your Credit Card or PayPal account and specify an address for delivery.
The book will be sent to you by post within 15 days.

The book is for Rs. 100/- + shipping & taxes

All buyers/hecklers/fans would be sent an autographed copy of the book.
Thanks!!

present-future

“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present." Looking For Alaska, John Green

Really ?
Got me thinking and thinking real hard.